His Human Prisoner (Zandian Masters 2)

“I’ve got it.” She snatched the buckle from his hands and fastened it for herself.

“Activate protective shields,” he barked at Mierna.

“Already on it,” she sang out.

He slid into his seat, buckling with one hand as his other reached to flick on manual control. Taking the directional knobs, he dodged the debris flying at the ship from all sides, jumping to the right, then left, swooping around, flipping to fly sideways between two large pieces. Smaller pieces hit off the outside of the ship, sounding far worse than they probably actually were. In his experience, the space junk had to be big and heavy enough to throw them off course when it hit to cause any external damage. So far, he’d avoided those largest pieces.

But the debris field became thicker.

“Fastest way out is 120 degrees,” Mierna reported. “But the debris is thickest in that direction.”

He angled north, but almost immediately dropped back down to avoid smashing the ship. “Negative. Too hostile. What are my other options?” He slowed their speed to navigate the heavy influx of space trash.

“Incoming,” Mierna s

houted. “Spacecraft, appears unfriendly.”

“Gaurdo and Depri, prepare to fire on my command.” He kept his clipped tones calm, although it appeared they were under attack. Space pirates sometimes used the cover of debris to lie in wait.

“Three more—shots fired.”

He dodged the laser fire from the first ship, swung around and lined his ship up to fire back. “Fire at will,” he commanded.

His world narrowed to the razor sharp reflexes necessary to maneuver the ship in and out of debris and enemy fire. “Take the veckers down,” he growled when he provided a straight shot for his crew to fire.

Their laser fire hit the enemy ship, and it exploded in a burst of flames. Immediately, the three other ships charged his, obviously intent on revenge.

He dropped straight down, swerving around a piece of debris. Unfortunately, a huge piece caught the top of the craft, sending them into a spin. With a curse, he wrestled the controls to ease the ship out of the spin.

Laser fire struck their shields on the starboard side.

He flipped the ship one hundred and eighty degrees, making them hover upside down directly in front of one of the enemy ships.

Jano and Jaso fired on the ship and it exploded into flames, blinding him.

He eased off the speed and righted the craft. The other two enemy ships retreated. An alarm bell sounded, signaling damage to the craft.

Gaurdo unbuckled from his seat. “I’ll look at it,” he rumbled.

Rok dipped the craft to the right, finally escaping the field of debris.

“Clear,” Mierna reported.

He shoved the thrust to full throttle, and the ship sped forward out of the treacherous territory. “Status, Gaurdo?” He sent his voice through to Gaurdo’s flight collar.

“Not yet,” came his gruff reply.

“Are we talking life-threatening damage?”

“No.”

The rest of the crew unbuckled and left the cockpit, presumably to help Gaurdo.

He glanced over his shoulder. An unfamiliar urge to protect the female behind him made him itchy over the damage to the ship. Lily’s lovely face had gone pale, but it was the look in her eyes that made his heart stall.

She appeared to be in awe...of him.

“Where’d you learn to fly like that?” She moistened her lips with that pretty little tongue of hers.