Captive of Pleasure; the Space Pirate's Woman (The LodeStar Series) by Cathryn Cade Page B

forehead.
    “We’re hit,” Mako roared. “We’re hit!”
    The Hawk swept over the ridge, to a horrific sight. The transport lumbered along below them, smoke and flames billowing from the rear of the long body. Another explosion rocked the ship and for an instant it seemed to pause. Then it began to sink toward the dark earth, listing heavily to starboard.  
    “Enemy sighted,” Haro yelled. “We’re coming, Mako.”
    The attacking cruiser burst from the cloud of smoke, rolling directly in the path of the Hawk . Haro pulled up sharply on the controls, and Joran was shoved into his safety harness. Haro took them up and around in a steep arc.
    “Destroy the bastards,” Joran ordered. His hands fisted on the controls. “If anyone gets a shot, take it.”
    “With pleasure,” Ilya shrieked behind him. “Those quarking bastards—they’ve probably injured everyone in the transport.”
    Haro dove at the other ship, and as the Hawk veered past, Joran fired. Red laser fire streaked through the dusk. The other cruiser wobbled, and a large chunk flew off one side, smoke flaring through the ragged aperture.
    “Got him!” Ilya yelled. “My turn.”
    “Hang on!” The Hawk dipped around, yanking them all back in their seats, and screamed past the other ship again. Ilya fired.  
    “Think you missed—” Haro began. His words were muffled by a boom. The other ship exploded in a shower of flame and sparks, the concussion rocking the Hawk like a top. “No, guess not.”
    Ilya growled like a catamount after a kill.  
    “Got him,” Var exulted. “That’s my baby.”
    “The transport,” Joran snapped. “There it is, just below the ridge.”  
    “We’re there.” Haro slowed and turned, heading for the downed transport ship, which lay crookedly on the slope of the ridge, the front still intact, but the back nearly obscured. Thick, black smoke roiled upward like some foul excrescence against the light on the horizon.  
    As they set down below the smoke, Joran saw that the entire back half of the transport was on fire.

Chapter 5
     
    “Great God beyond,” Haro whispered as he landed gently a few yards away. “Please ...”
    A fighter screamed overhead, another on its tail. They circled and came back in hard, brilliant blue and gold lights flickering.
    “Epaulets finally showed.”
    Joran was already out of his seat and running back through the cabin. The others waited, faces grim, as the hatch opened.  
    As the ramp neared the ground, Joran leapt out, his crew close behind him.  
    Ironically, the night was warm and still, the air perfumed with the sweetness of dew rising from the cured grasses. Their thick mat was a springy pad under Joran’s boots.
    “I’ll get the hazard suit,” Haro shouted. “Don’t go in there.”  
    “Get the retardant tubes!” Qala added.
    The cry echoed in Joran’s ears, along with the thin scream of decelerators as the IGSF ships hovered, and one descended vertically to land near the Hawk . Ahead, the hiss and crackle of the fire burned in time to the pounding of his heart as he dashed up the hillside.  
    As he neared the bulk of the crippled transport, her back end lit eerily with yellow and red flames, heat slapped him like a hot blanket, burning his face, heating his torso and arms through his clothing. The stench of hot cerametal and burning materials filled his nostrils.
    “Mako!” he roared as he reached the cockpit. He grabbed the hatch and yanked, peering through the windshield. But when he wrestled the hatch open, the cockpit was empty.  
    “Stay back!” someone shouted behind him. Joran ignored them, vaulting into the cockpit and back toward the cargo bay.
    The huge pilot loomed in the passageway, head bowed against the intense heat of the fire burning in the cargo bay behind him. Limned in yellow flames and smoke, he was wrestling his way into a hazard suit. His dark face was streaked with blood.
    “Get back!” Joran yanked at his arm. “This heat will