Survivors - Jean Lorrah [94]
She took out the left one, and the flyer spun wildly.
“Got ‘em!” she exclaimed as Data took them up and away from the crash.
They whipped over the top of a slow troop carrier, and pulled up beside a sleek fighter, Data somehow holding the clumsy civilian craft in tandem while Yar took out both the startled pilot and gunner.
As they sailed away, g-force pressing her into her seat, Yar laughed with glee. “Data-you were born for this! The only man I ever want piloting me in a dogfight.”
“Inquiry: ‘dogfight’?”
“One-on-one air battle-I never thought I’d see it outside simulator training! Look! There’s Rikan-get around to starboard-take out the flyers homing in on him!”
“Tasha-are you all right?” Data asked.
“Of course I’m all right. We’re doing great! Let’s get that big one over there-I don’t like those torpedo ports.”
“Aim at the thrusters or rudders, please,” said the android. “There is no need to take lives if-“
“Dammit, Data, they were shooting at us!” Yar told him, annoyed at his lack of enthusiasm. It was too long since she had been in action, and the fact that Nalavia’s forces had attacked first made theirs a defensive action. So Starfleet taught that it was a defeat to have to fight at all-well, they had tried to let the Trevans decide for themselves. It wasn’t her fault that Nalavia had launched her attack before the drug worked its way out of her people’s systems.
The large flyer was aiming a rocket bomb at Rikan’s craft-if it hit, it would be the end of the warlord.
Two of Dare’s sleek fighters were moving to intercept-Yar could not see if one of them held the Silver Paladin himself.
She and Data swung around to starboard, and a yell of triumph rose in Yar’s throat as under Data’s inhuman skill they maneuvered as neatly as any craft built for fighting.
The flyer had no inertial control; Yar was thrown against her harness as they rose and whirled, increasing her exhilaration. It was a long time since she had felt such an adrenalin high. She blasted at the craft attempting to reach Rikan’s flagship.
Rikan was firing too, as were Dare’s flyers, darting about and keeping the gunners too busy to dog Rikan’s movements. The warlord’s pilot was good, Yar noted peripherally, changing course often to avoid presenting a target.
The radio was open, but it was such a jumble that Yar paid it little attention until slowly a wave of excited exclamations began piercing the tight-voiced orders. “They’re retreating!”
Who was retreating?
The thought was lost in a blast of rocket fire that came close to taking out their windscreen.
Data banked sharply in a groan of protesting metal, and they ducked a rocket sizzling from a different craft.
The radio squawked, “Ground troops pulling out!”
“We’ve got ‘em running!”
But Yar’s attention was on the second heavily-armed flyer trying to beat the small fighter craft off its sister ship so the two could go after Rikan.
“Rikan-pull back!” Dare’s voice.
Data whipped around and straight back into the confrontation, but-
“We are losing rudder control,” he said.
At the same moment one of the heavy flyers got a rocket off toward Rikan-homing right on target!
Yar and Data were close enough to see the thrusters blast as the pilot tried to maneuver out of its path, but the flagship did not have the speed of one of the little craft.
The rocket caught the flagship portside, ripping a hole in the fuselage and setting it spinning in a downward spiral.
“Rikan’s hit!” came Poet’s voice on the radio.
Instantly, aircraft converged and a free-for-all erupted, Nalavia’s flyers seeking to deal the death blow, Rikan’s trying to protect the falling craft.
“Tasha,” Data said, his voice loud enough to carry over the noise of battle but unaffected by tension, “I have overstressed this craft-two minutes to systems failure.”
“Follow Rikan down!” she instructed, then punched the radio. “This is Yar. Data and I will follow Rikan and protect him on the ground. Our craft is damaged.”
“Tasha?!” Dare’s voice.
“Yes. We’re not hurt.”
Data fought the controls