A still desert stretched out to the horizon in every direction, garnished only by rocky hills and scrub brush in broken patches. In the beige-tinged blue sky the red dwarf-sun Heinlein crept toward the horizon as the main sun, Motherlode, peeked above the other side.

The empty silence was shattered as three ships, a medium-sized transport and two different fighter craft, streaked through the empty sky, disappearing almost as fast as they had appeared.

In the cockpit of the fleeing transport, Gerrin stabbed at a button on the console. “Loomie, where you at?” he demanded.

“Streaking toward you right now, cap’n, we’ll be there in thirty seconds”, Loomie answered.

“Move it, we got bogies”.

“You got what?”

“Just get here”. Gerrin snapped as he stabbed at the button for the comlink. He turned his eyes toward the rear-view display: one Arrowhead and one Foxbat were still behind them, firing sporadically. Gerrin twisted the wheel and threw the Komodo into a roll. The pursuing ships matched the maneuver. This is getting more interesting than I like, Gerrin thought to himself, yanking the control stick to the side to avoid a rapidly approaching rock formation.

As the Troll streaked through the sky toward their retreating comrades Loomie grabbed at the handset for the intercom. “Everybody! We’re twenty seconds from trouble! I need someone who can shoot on the guns!”

“I’ll handle it”, Anna’s voice responded.

“Can you?”

Loomie heard Anna pause. “Sure”, she finally answered, partly for herself. “It’s just a different kind of gun”.

Switching off the comm, Loomie murmured “Yeah. Just a different kind of gun”. She could picture Anna nervously trying to learn the gun controls. "