Chasing the Stars Read Online Free PDF Page B

stomach, only to spring up again almost immediately. The ramp was now almost horizontal and still rising. Back on the ground I saw others frantically waving their hands and begging us to come back.
    The ship kept ascending.
    ‘Let’s get out of here,’ I shouted.
    We raced along the ramp to the cargo hold, the renewed sound of exploding bombs pounding in our ears.



7
    ‘Aidan, there are still people on the ground. We can’t leave yet,’ I protested.
    ‘If we don’t leave now, we won’t leave at all,’ my brother argued as his hands moved over the controls. ‘One Mazon ship is still out of commission but the other one is on our tail. You only caused minor damage to their targeting and navigation systems. That’s why it took them a few minutes to pinpoint our position, and why they hit the mountain instead of us, but I guarantee they’re already correcting for that. The anti-energy cell you dropped into their reactor has bought us a few more minutes at most.’
    ‘But what about all those people . . .?’
    ‘Vee.’ Aidan swung round in his chair to face me. ‘We can try and get the twenty-two we’ve rescued to safety or we can go back for the others and all die together. That’s the choice.’
    Oh my God. Only twenty-two . . .
    ‘No other option?’
    ‘No other option,’ Aidan confirmed.
    Silence.
    ‘Get us out of here,’ I said quietly.
    The force of our acceleration upwards through the planet’s atmosphere pushed me down hard into my seat.
    Oh God! All those people . . .
    Left behind.
    Eighty-five people on the planet and only twenty-two rescued.
    I should’ve tried something else.
    Something more.
    Tried harder.
    ‘Seven seconds until we leave the planet’s atmosphere,’ said Aidan, his voice subdued.
    ‘Once we’ve shaken off the Mazon ships, I want to swing back and pick up any survivors,’ I told him.
    ‘There are no survivors.’ Aidan locked eyes with me. ‘The Mazon have just detonated a proton bomb where we landed. There are no more life forms of any kind registering in that area on the planet surface.’
    I stared at Aidan. ‘They’re all dead?’
    My brother nodded. ‘And they won’t be the only ones if we don’t get out of here. We’re not out of the woods yet, Vee.’
    ‘Put the Mazon comms on audio,’ I ordered.
    Aidan tapped into their encrypted communications which he’d long ago managed to decipher. I could hear the Mazon chatter between their two ships. It was a series of clicks, whirrs and chirps, but I’d been studying them for long enough to have a reasonable understanding of their language. Aidan activated the UT, or universal translator, as a backup that I didn’t need, but I guess he wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
    And my brother was right. We were in big trouble.
    ‘The detonation of the bomb on the planet surface will not be enough to deter the Terrans. We cannot allow them to escape our star system – or our justice. If we do, more Terrans will surely follow, and in far greater numbers. They are a threat which must be eradicated, as we have learned to our cost,’ said the captain of the larger Mazon battle cruiser.
    ‘But look how our assault has sent them scurrying like the vermin they are. Our proton bomb has annihilated all of the cockroaches left behind. Their contamination has been eliminated. Those who have run away would be fools to return,’ argued the other captain.
    ‘Sister Sikess, we should press home our advantage. We should at least pursue their escape vessel and obliterate it. They started this war, not us.’
    ‘I agree, Sister Sorres. Let us seek them out and destroy them. We have been wronged. Shall we not revenge? I thirst for vengeance against the humans. All humans.’
    I couldn’t bear to hear any more. ‘Switch it off.’
    ‘But Vee, we need to—’
    ‘SWITCH IT OFF!’
    Aidan killed the audio feed.
    I clenched my fists, screaming inside.
Bastards!
‘Why didn’t they just use their proton bomb to