Chapter 83: High Speed Chase

The shuttle rattled under Lus's guidance, and he could hear Vlqtrn's muttered prayers and curses as the craft jolted upwards. The problem was that the back area where they kept the shuttle had a very narrow door leading outside and was otherwise a solid metal warehouse.

Lus, unfortunately, did not have the skills to get this large of a ship through that small of a hole.

"Hang on," he said as he pulled the stick up and increased the upwards thrust.

The shuttle shot upwards and thanks to the shields, easily broke through the metal roof. Debris rained down as Lusac continued their journey upwards, wincing as the scraping noises of a few small pieces that made it through their shields.

"Well, we just burned the bridge with that contact," Vlqtrn commented. His hands were wrapped tightly around the armrests, his knuckles losing some of their color from his grip. "D-do you think you could pilot just a little better, Lus?"

Lusac grunted in reply, all of his focus on getting the shuttle out of the atmosphere in one piece. Oaty always made it look easy.

They were just reaching the inky void of outer space when two other space-faring vehicles pulled up behind them. The senses on the shuttle went wild, issuing warnings about powered up weapons, and their comm crackled to life.

"Attention criminals. We have you surrounded. Surrender yourselves and your vehicle," the determined voice said.

"Vlqtrn, you ready?" Lus braved a glance at his companion who gave a small nod and scooted forward to better access weapon controls. They'd known there was a chance they'd have to fight their way out of here. Or at least cause enough a fuss that they could safely escape to the Breach in the Astral Highway and reconvene with the Argo in Aura sector.

"Ready."

Lusac blew out a long breath and then punched the accelerator. The inertial dampeners failed under the stress, and they were all thrown back against their seats–or in Avil's case, against Vlqtrn's stomach.

The sensors screamed louder as blaster fire thudded into their shields, but Lus ignored it to as he focused on getting to the Highway which was only a few minutes away at maximum acceleration.

"Returning fire," Vlqtrn announced as his hands danced across the console in front of him. Their own guns sounded, and the sensors calmed down ever so slightly. "We hit one. But two more are joining up."

"Keep them distracted, Vlqtrn. We're almost there." Lus took his focus off the navigation screen to check the other sensors. Three ships remained close on their tail, and another two were incoming from up ahead. "Blast it. They're coming from all sides. Engaging evasive maneuvers."

In his sparse lessons with Oaty, the head pilot had only ever taught him one evasive maneuver, and he was pretty sure this was the wrong time to use it, but his only other choice was to run straight into the other ships.

Lus guided the shuttle through a set of tight turns and spins before resetting their trajectory to the upcoming Breach.

"That did almost nothing," Vlqtrn informed him.

"Well we're no longer on a collision course with the COPS so I'd say it did something." Lusac grit his teeth as he pushed the accelerator harder in hopes of drumming up a little more power from it. The engines groaned in protest, and he knew that the shuttle mechanic was going to have his head for putting them through this kind of stress, but he figured he'd rather face her than prison.

Blaster fire continued to hit their shields, slowly draining away the power in their defenses, and Vlqtrn actively fired back, occasionally exclaiming when he got a good hit.

Lusac allowed himself to smile as they came up on the Highway. For most people it wouldn't do much good to approach from here, but since they were Runners, they had access to the Breaches which were secret, illegal entrances and exits to the wormhole network.

It was unlucky that they had so many COPS after them which would mean this Breach would be unusable for the foreseeable future without risk of immediately getting captured by the officials, but the Runners had a system for telling other ships in the collective about those instances. Besides, after a few years it might become viable again or they might find a new one nearby to make up for it.

All that mattered was that Lus and Vlqtrn made it inside without getting blown apart.

Just as they reached the Breach, Lus slammed on the brakes, throwing all the shuttle occupants forward against their seatbelts. They slowed enough to safely enter the Highway, and Lus activated the mechanism which opened the Breach for them.

In an instant the void of space was replaced with the dancing colors of the Highway. As soon as they were safely in, he turned off the key, and the Breach sealed behind them. They'd done it. They safely escaped.

"We did it. I can't believe it," Vlqtrn said, sinking in his seat. Avil gave a screechy meow and jumped from his lap.

"Normally I'd be offended that you had so little faith in my piloting skills, but… I didn't have much confidence myself," Lus admitted. He kept his hands on the steering stick, though autopilot was engaged so there was no need. He was still reeling from their epic escape and the fact that they were alive and had the artifact.

"Can I see it?" Vlqtrn asked, his thoughts obviously turning to the same thing.

Lus nodded and pulled the bag off his shoulder, tossing it to the Kremel.

Vlqtrn opened it and removed the wrapped up artifact piece. After undoing the cloth, he held the inconspicuous piece out. "I can't believe that this thing is so valuable. It's nothing more than a piece of clay."

"Actually," Lus began. He then told Vlqtrn of his conversation with the Senator and the revelation that the piece emitted some near impossible to detect energy that no one quite understood.

"Interesting. I wonder if Captain would let us run some of our tests before we turn it over to the collector."

"Ha. I doubt that. What if you ruin it?" Lus shook his head.

"Now who's lacking confidence?"

Lusac rolled his eyes and checked all the screens before him for any anomalies. Nothing amiss. They'd ride the Highway for about a day before exiting another Breach where the Argo was supposed to be waiting, and they'd sustained only minimal damage during the fight. Their mission was a total success.

***

"Careful," Vlqtrn growled as their shuttle approached the Argo.

"I know what I'm doing," Lus lied. That "minimal" damage ended up including the auto-landing feature on the shuttle meaning Lusac would have to do it himself. This was easily one of the hardest parts of piloting, and he was not looking forward to testing his skills on it when he'd never actually done it before.

He slowed their velocity even further so the shuttle was barely creeping along as it reached the gray hull of their home ship. The landing bay doors were wide open. It was a straight shot inside.

Easy peasy.

Lus forced himself to remain calm as he guided the shuttle through the opening, his body tense as it waited for sounds of scraping. Luckily nothing came. He brought the shuttle to a stop and slowly descended to the floor of the bay, grounding the shuttle more or less on the landing pad. He then opened the rear door and turned off the engines.

"Phew. Good job, Lusac. No holes in either ship." Vlqtrn smiled at him as they both undid their seat belts

Lus chuckled and wiped his sweaty hands on his pants. "Let's get the artifact to the Captain and debrief. I'm ready to take a long shower and wear something comfortable for once."

They both laughed as they stood up. Vlqtrn carried the bag with the artifact, and Lus carried Avil in his arms. He thought about setting the cat free to go find Becky or return to his room, but he decided it was best if he kept the mutant cyclops cat with him to ensure no unfortunate rage monster incidents occurred with the other crew members. Avil did have a bit of a temper.

It was strange to be back on the Argo after being away for so long, but it was nice to be home. Crew members waved at them as they passed, and some tried to stop and chat, but Vlqtrn was fast to cut them off by mentioning they needed to see the Captain first. Lus hadn't realized how dutiful his friend was until now.

They reached the upper deck–they took the elevator for Avil's sake–and went to the meeting room where Captain Tave and Nippy both waited. Cewi-Bano was likely running the ship while they handled the debriefing.

"The artifact, Captain." Vlqtrn presented the bag to Captain Tave with a flourish.

Tave accepted it, but he didn't immediately open it. Instead, he stared at Lusac and Avil. "Arten, why is your cat here?"

"Oh, well, we used him in our escape, and I didn't have time to drop him off at my room first. Sorry, sir," Lus said quickly.

Nippy raised a single eyebrow. "How did your cat get to you?"

"A [Skill] from my system." Lusac shuffled on his feet, keeping both arms wrapped around the lump of fur.

"Strange. I'll never understand the housekeeping systems," the second-in-command muttered.

"Sounds like you have quite the tale. Shall we?" Tave motioned to the table and chairs at the center of the room.

They all sat down, and Lus and Vlqtrn spent the next half an hour sharing the details of the mission. Lusac even included meeting Shelbs and the [Quest] about finding secrets. It was Vlqtrn, however, who spoke of the information about the relic that Senator Grwtln had given Lus during the private meeting.

"I was thinking, Captain. Before we turn over all the artifact pieces, perhaps I could run some of my own tests? See if I can gain the same results. It might be useful to our employer," the Kremel said eagerly.

Captain Tave used one hand to stroke his well-trimmed blond beard. "Perhaps. You'll have to run any tests and the associated risks by me first however. Our top priority is turning over the relics in prime condition."

"Of course, sir."

"And so how did you get the artifact once you found out it was in the office?" Nippy redirected their attention to finishing the story.

Vlqtrn and Lusac took turns sharing their intense escape, including summoning Avil and outrunning the COPS first in a hovercar and then in the shuttle.

Nippy sighed. "Another unusable Breach. That's two from us this year alone. That's not good."

"It'll be fine. The others will understand. We're hardly the first ship to run into trouble." Captain Tave waved a dismissive hand. "I am, however, concerned about the Senator's attachment to this piece. We still have one more to get, and I'm worried we're going to see bounties popping up. It'll be even worse if they figure out what we're collecting. We need to get the final piece and be rid of this as soon as possible."

"Sorry about making another mess, Captain, but I don't think there was any way around it. Senator Grwtln kept a close eye on his most valuable pieces," Lusac said.

"I understand. I'm impressed with both of you for making it out at all. Good job." Tave's face remained neutral, and his tone emotionless, but Lus was happy for the compliment anyway.

"You too deserve a break. Take a couple of days off before returning to regular duty." Nippy nodded at them.

"Thank you, sirs," Vlqtrn said.

Lusac echoed his friend as they both stood up and left the briefing room behind. They walked to the crew quarters together and then parted ways.

Lus pushed Avil to sit on shoulder with only one hand supporting the cat while he used the other to access his room.

"Home sweet home."

He entered his quarters, his mind ready to think about anything but relics or missions.