The ship was impressive, to be sure. It was classed as an escort vessel, once a defender of the convoys of the huge vessels that transported soldiers and equipment. The clean, sleek lines gave it a predatory, hawkish look. Fast, highly manoeuvrable and well armed.

Of course, the Trebuchet had lost its guns, ripped out by the Chia Majan. The hawk had surrendered its talons as an alternative to destruction. But since then, it had found new ones. Somehow, they had done the same thing back to a Chia ship, and now the alien weapons disrupted the clean lines of the ship, giving it a jury rigged look.

"How the hell do they get them to work?" Wixa said. "The Chia control systems are totally incompatible with ours. She must have damn good engineers working for her."

Maiga didn't answer, just shrugged. That was hardly the point. How had the unarmed ship managed to get hold of the Chia guns in the first place? Battle wreckage maybe? Hawks might be hunters, but they'd scavenge too. Not that this particular hawk would admit that, Maiga guessed.

"What did you think of her?" Wixa asked.

"Bara?" Maiga frowned. Why did Wixa care what Maiga thought of her? Don't say she was caught up in the mystique of the legendary Captain Bara, fighting to gain revenge on humanity's enemies? Maiga engaged the star drive and turned back to Wixa to answer. "Seemed quite polite and friendly."

"Oh yes. And seemed, well, ever so slightly mad."

"Mad?"

"Well that whole 'lizard skin' thing."

Maiga shrugged. "She was probably kidding. Playing up to the legend."

"If you say so."

"Wixa... She can't be mad. People would notice if she was mad."

"Well I'm people, and I noticed."

"Her crew I mean, they'd... object."

"Maybe they're all mad too." Wixa grinned when Maiga rolled her eyes.

"Just go and make us some coffee."

~o~

A few hours later, Maiga sat in the cockpit, monitoring the sensors. The door to the living area stood open and she could hear Wixa listening to music and singing along, as she prepared food for the two of them.

The sensor alarm began to beep, showing something near the edge of sensor range, but coming closer. Maiga leaned forward. The music and singing in the other room fell silent and she heard Wixa's footsteps in the doorway.

"Oh don't tell me," Wixa groaned. "Don't tell me he's been waiting for us."

"Yes," Maiga said, as she increased speed. "The lizards are back. Strap in. This time he's not going to be nearly as polite."

When the Qacian ship got close enough, it quickly confirmed that assumption.

"He's powering weapons," Wixa reported.

"Engaging evasive manoeuvres."

"They're hailing. Think they want to say goodbye?"

"Tell them to sling their hooks," Maiga said, with a grim smile, making Wixa grin.

"Aye-aye, Captain."

The Qacian ship fired, but the Friss's erratic evasion course easily let it dodge the energy bolt. Maiga smiled again, grim satisfaction starting to give way to excitement.

Cool down, she told herself, this isn't a game, keep that adrenaline under control. Keep your head.

All her experience in combat had taught her to channel the excitement and skate over the panic-thrill to stay in control. She might be out of practice now, but so much training had turned it into instincts she'd be able to call on for the rest of her life.

At this point, the rest of her life might be a rather short time.

Wixa had opened a channel and the Muaan Qacian's hissing voice came through.

"Hello again, humansss."

No sense in making any official protest this time. Maiga heard the cockpit door close behind her as she started to isolate the rest of the ship, to divert all power to the engines. They just might manage to outrun the Qacian ship, but not while carrying out evasive manoeuvres. She needed an extra burst of speed to take them out of weapons range and then make a straight run, to try to get them out of sensor range.

"Hello again, scaly," Wixa said. "You got nothing better to do? Why don't you go back to polishing your tail?"

"Wixa!" Maiga said, rather shocked at the insults, the kind of thing you'd hear some grunt saying.

"That was my captain," Wixa said, still talking to the Qacian. "She says you should come and have a go if you think you're hard enough."

His growl cut off when Maiga cut the channel. "On the other hand, maybe I should do the talking to the people shooting at us from now on."

The ship jerked and shuddered. The panel displays cut out entirely for a moment, before coming back, most of them now red or flashing. Or red and flashing. Alarms told them what they already knew.

"We're hit!" Wixa called. "Engine damage. I'm rerouting systems now." Her hands flew over the controls.

Damn. Maiga tried the same, rerouting power, but the engine was failing.

"Dropping to sub light," Wixa said. "Lizards still with us."

The ship juddered and shook as they fell back into normal space, the star drive field collapsing. Both women gasped and instinctively ducked as the Qacian ship followed, and seemed to appear from nowhere, only a few hundred meters away. It swept past and vanished from visual range. But the sensors were still working.

"Turning," Maiga reported. "Coming back towards us."

"Can we manoeuvre? Have we got anything left?" Wixa's eyes looked huge in the dim light, the ghostly white and blood red light from the panels flickering over her skin.

"The engine's dead," Maiga said. "There's power in the reserves, but too much damage to propulsion to use it."

"Oh. Shit."

"Yeah."

"Well, it was nice while it -- what the hell?"

It came literally from nowhere, popping out into normal space. There was no mistaking the Trebuchet, with the alien guns distorting its lines. It made a tight turn, manoeuvring between the Friss and the oncoming Muaan Qacia ship.

Their sensors showed that ship begin to slow and turn into a better position. But too late, much too late. The Trebuchet's guns fired, spitting energy bolts. They sliced into the Qacian's shields, weakening them. The second volley slammed into the hull.

The Qacian ship smashed apart, dazzling light pouring from its dying engines, making Maiga and Wixa shield their eyes. Pieces of wreckage spun away into space. Maiga felt glad they weren't close enough to make out the bodies that must be part of that debris. After a moment, Wixa spoke quietly.

"Hell of a lot of radiation coming off those guns. Dissipating now, I hope they've got good internal shielding." She paused, and then reported what Maiga could see anyway. "She's coming around."

The Trebuchet turned from the wreckage, and moved towards the Friss. A moment later the comms system chimed. Maiga answered and a panel in front of her lit up, showing Bara's smiling face.

"Well, hello. It's good to see you again."

"I think that's my line," Maiga said. She smiled and knew the adrenaline was still at work, as much from relief now. "Though I'd add a 'very' before the 'good'."

"We were in the area."

"That was lucky," Wixa muttered.

"Are you hurt at all?" Bara asked.

"No," Maiga said. "We're both fine. The ship though..."

"Yes, our sensors are showing severe damage to your engine." Bara looked around as she spoke, then back into the camera. "With your permission, we'll pull you into our shuttle bay with the tractor beam and my engineers can make repairs."

Maiga and Wixa exchanged a look. Possibly they could do the repairs themselves, but it would likely take days, while they sat here unprotected and paralysed. They didn't have much choice. Wixa shrugged.

"I still have power and manoeuvring thrusters," Maiga said to Bara. "I'll bring her into the shuttle bay myself, if that's okay with you."

"Of course." She understood. No captain likes to give up control of her ship. "Stand by."

The panel went dark and Maiga looked at Wixa again. Well, at least she hadn't got this one killed. Yet. Wixa looked excited and grinned at Maiga.

"Now we're really going to have something to tell your newspaper man."