Space Chase

"Yes, that would be great," said Stacy. "Who are you?"

"I'm Maya, a level 12 artificial intelligence."

The ship's hatch shut and Stacy and Astra strapped in to the their seats.

"Would you like me to prep the ship for flight?" asked Maya.

"Yes please," said Astra. "Can you fly us out of here?"

"A level 15 artificial intelligence is required to pilot a ship. I am only rated as a level 12 and so am not permitted to take over flight control. Locking fins in flight configuration."

A pair of joysticks emerged from the control panel in front of Astra and the sides of the ship folded down to form two rounded wings decorated with gold and blue paint.

"Okay," said Astra grasping the two control sticks, "how hard can it be?"

Through trial and error, Astra managed work out how to control the ship's thrust and they shot forward at a phenomenal rate. Stacy felt herself crushed into her seat by the incredible acceleration. The craft darted through the exit while the docking bay doors were still opening and Astra let out a whoop of excitement.

"Maya, can you engage the hyperspace systems?" asked Astra.

"Craft is not equipped for faster-than-light travel," said Maya.

"Dammit," said Stacy. "We really need to get some space between us and those Solidarity goons."

"It'll be fine," said Astra pulling the craft up into an arc towards the blue and white planet. "We do want to get back to that Gateway at some point. I just need some time to put a plan together."

Stacy craned her neck and looked over through the transparent canopy above them and saw the white wheel of the space station and the grey shadow of the Dark Blade. A tiny dot of light shot out from the belly of the cruiser, closely followed by two more.

"I think I saw something," said Stacy. "Maya, what are those dots?"

There was a pause and then the computer spoke. "Vessels identified as Venom class pursuit ships."

"Can we outrun them?"

"Negative. Vessels will intercept this craft in 52 seconds."

"Maya, activate, weapons!" said Astra.

"Craft is not equipped with weapons."

"You must have something!" said Astra.

"This is a Audi Space Industries mark 3 Condor class Sky-Skimmer. It is equipped with twin turbo ion engines, short range scanners, surround sound stereo system and leather seats."

"We need weapons!" said Astra.

"Weapons are an optional extra. I found 24 certified Audi Space Dealers, 3 of them quite close to you."

A holographic map of the nearby star systems appeared, three of them marked with little red logos with four interlocking circles.

"Maya, shut up."

"Engaging mute mode," said Maya and then fell silent.

"Fine," said Astra, directing the craft towards the planet. "We'll just have to get to that planet and try to out maneuver them. We don't stand a chance in open space."

"A minute ago you didn't know how to fly this thing," said Stacy. "Now you're going to out maneuver them."

"I'm a fast learner," said Astra. "You can trust me." She cooly pressed a button on the dashboard and winced when it turned on loud thumping music. She pressed the button again. It stopped the music and Astra looked at Stacy, sheepishly.

1. Planet fall

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