Royal Recruit - Susan Grant Page 0,38

quick glimpse of Karl’s relaxed face before the pod shot out the bottom of the ship. The breach to open space sealed almost instantly, awash in a white mist, but not fast enough to keep the pressure equalized. It explained Jared’s popping ears. The pods were being ejected, one at a time. It must be an emergency evacuation feature.

Whoomph.

Outside, the pods floated away from the ship like tiny, glowing dust motes.

Whoomph. Another pod shot out of the ship.

The shaking was getting worse. How long before the ship came apart?

Jared figured he’d better be getting his ass into one of those pods. It was his life raft out.

Whoomph.

He climbed into an empty pod. A burst of light dragged his attention outside the ship. Glowing debris faded like sparklers. He stared, confused. Then there was another burst of light. One of the little pods exploded. Christ. Someone was shooting at the sleepers.

Whoomph. He jerked his gaze to the last remaining occupied pod. It was Han’s. He had to stop it from ejecting. A light blinked red. Maybe that was it. He reached for it—

Whoomph. The pod disappeared.

“No!” Jared shouted, wrenching his body around to look outside. Han’s pod floated away from the ship. A heartbeat later, a stream of light hit it and it blew up.

Jared’s was the last remaining pod. He felt a buzzing run up his arms from his hands, which were propped on the rim of the sleeping pod. His legs were buried inside, and he was about to go for a ride. “Oh, shit.”

He ripped out his legs and vaulted over the top of the pod. Whoomph. Tremendous suction almost dragged him back inside the pod. Crashing to the floor, he rolled away, pulling up to look outside as he got free. His empty pod tracked smoothly across the bow of the ship, heading for assumed safety. But it too vanished in a brief, intense explosion.

Jared stayed low on the floor. He didn’t want anyone seeing him walking around if he wasn’t supposed to be alive. He waited for the explosion that would blow up the ship, him along with it. There’d be no escaping this time. No lucky breaks.

But nothing happened. The transport continued to shake. A powerful vibration ran from bow to stern. It didn’t sound good.

If the attackers had wanted to blow up the ship, why would they have destroyed the pods so methodically?

He didn’t understand what kind of game was being played here, but he was going to find this puppy a place to land if it killed him—which was, he decided, a definite possibility.

He jumped in the pilot seat and took hold of the controls. Shaking and rocking, the damaged transport hurtled onward. Cavin had told him so much was automated on these ships, there was little the pilot needed to do. But this one seemed to be so damaged that whenever Jared let go of the stick, it wanted to pitch over. A huge, misted planet loomed ahead. How was he going to land there? He was an F-16 pilot, damn it, not Han Solo. He knew nothing about reentry procedures, other than stuff burned up if it came in too fast and bounced off the atmosphere if it came in too slow. Neither of those sounded too good.

In the midst of the shaking, a trail of lights appeared. The ship’s nose jerked, aligning with the lights that floated down toward the planet like a trail of fireflies.

Lead-in lights for an approach.

“Oh, crap,” Jared muttered, reaching for the seat harness and strapping in. No matter how good the approach lights were, the landing was not going to be pretty. Hell, he didn’t know if he was supposed to lower landing gear or land on the belly. And if he did have to put down wheels manually, it wasn’t going to happen at all because he had no freaking idea what button to press or lever to pull.

His bones rattled as the ship lunged toward the swirling clouds. It was beautiful, he thought, this alien world, all covered in white. The planet Sakka.

And here comes Earth’s prince in what was going to be a spectacularly memorable, if not-so-grand, entrance.

Ground details were visible now. He was accelerating, not slowing, it seemed. He looked for something resembling a brake and found nothing likely to stop him. The shaking grew stronger, but he fought to keep the stubby wings level. Just as he thought the ship was about to break apart, it jerked and decelerated. It