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“The name’s Ross Duncan, sir,” he said, shifting uneasily. “I just need to know what happened to my Betsy. She hasn’t gotten in touch with me in ages, and that isn’t like her. I don’t have anywhere else to go.” Ross sounded heartbroken.

“Oh, man,” Dylan sighed. He wondered why Samantha remained suspiciously silent, and then their communication was cut off. Desperation surged through him as he heard Johanna’s frightened scream.

“Johanna!” he cried. Ice pierced straight through his heart.

“Samantha, call up those weapons,” Johanna yelled.

Veronica was finally awakened by her deep slumber. She woke up and immediately pulled her phase pistol from its holster. “Doesn’t this bucket of bolts, have any defensive systems?” she demanded, leaning out the window and shooting at the pursuing vehicle. She RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 48

winged the side of it, and smiled with satisfaction. “Woo-hoo got you. You dirty little bugger,”

she hollered.

“Yes, of course
Aggie
has defensive weapons, but at the moment they’re down,”

Samantha shouted over the din of gunfire. “I told you that Dylan’s little ‘patch’ jobs wouldn’t be good enough, Johanna. Now when our butts are on the line we don’t have anything to defend ourselves with.” Samantha looked at Johanna. Then, she too, took Veronica’s lead, and leaned out the window to shoot at the vehicles in pursuit.

Samantha grunted as Johanna hauled her back inside.

“What the hell are you trying to do?” Johanna and Tyler shouted at the same time.

“I’m trying to save our skinny little butts,” Samantha retorted angrily, jerking away from Johanna. “Well, if you guys want to be left vulnerable, then see if I care!” Samantha stubbornly crossed her arms. “Alright, I care!” she admitted, leaning out the window, and throwing one of her homemade grenades at the hover mobile.

It imploded upon impact and the force of the explosion, sent the hover car careening to its doom. “Bail. You idiots, bail,” Samantha yelled, breathing with relief, when two forms ejected from the car.

As Samantha watched, five other
New Monaco
National Sherriff’s hover cars surrounded them. So, the Sheriff wasn’t as dumb as she’d originally thought. She wasn’t infallible.

“Oh, boy,” she breathed, feeling her stomach muscles tighten. “Please, surprise me by saying that we have weapons control!” Samantha pleaded, staring over at Johanna.

“I’m afraid not, Samantha,” Johanna replied.

Veronica slapped her hands on her legs. “You two run quite the operation. What are you two, Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum?”

“Well, it’s been a good life,” Johanna decided, taking a deep breath and flying straight toward the nearest car. “Hang on tight, gang,” Johanna shouted. She charged the nearest car.

Then from out of nowhere,
The Excalibur
appeared, and its sophisticated weaponry disabled all five-hover mobiles in one swift blow.

“Dylan, you’re a bloody lifesaver,” Samantha breathed, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at the surrounding hover mobiles that were trying desperately to land.

“
You know it!
” Dylan’s triumphant voice blared out over the intercom.

Dylan opened the docking bay doors, and Johanna quickly guided Aggie into
The
Excalibur
. They landed gently, and Samantha sighed with relief.

“Home sweet home,” she breathed.

Aggie
opened her doors, and everyone eagerly jumped out.

Tyler stared around at his surroundings. He hesitantly moved closer to Samantha. She felt him brush against her. Electricity rippled through her. It was so good to have Tyler back where he belonged. Although she wanted to pay Tyler some attention, she couldn’t stop gawking at the sight in front of her.

Dylan hadn’t been kidding when he said the man resembled
King Kong
, for standing in front of her was the biggest man she’d ever laid her eyes upon. His face brightened when he saw them, and Samantha winced in reaction to his bellow of joy.

“
Betsy!
” he cried, bounding across the distance. He engulfed the stupefied Veronica in one very suffocating embrace. Samantha watched with indrawn breath. He scooped Veronica up and swung her around. “You brought my wife back to me!”

“Sweetie, please put me down!” Love flooded Veronica’s voice. She patted his cheek.

“Oh, now I’ve seen
everything!
” Samantha remarked, staring in amazement at the RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 49

unlikely couple. “Hey Veronica, watching this is more entertaining than watching a space soap opera. I never thought I would live to see the day to hear you call anyone, sweetie. I am in heaven right now,” she chuckled, watching with delight as Veronica’s face mottled red.

“I didn’t know that you were married, Veronica,” Johanna ventured, rooted to the spot, though Samantha knew that Johanna desperately wanted to go to the bridge and see her husband.

They still weren’t out of harm’s way, and Johanna just might be called upon to do some fancy flying. Even though Dylan was a fairly skilled pilot, Johanna’s skills far surpassed his. Hell, they surpassed hers. The only one that could rival Johanna was Tyler. He did fairly well in a tight spot.

“I’d love to stick around and chat about the benefits of wedded bliss, but I believe my husband may need me,” Johanna mumbled, hurrying out of the docking bay.

Samantha turned her head at the dreadful sound of Tyler gasping in pain.

“Lean on me, Tyler. I’ll have you to the med bay in no time at all,” she said, letting her anger and resentment toward him go for the moment. “Why look at us, we are just one big happy family!” she grunted with the extra burden of Tyler. She’d forgotten how much bigger he was than her.

“Yeah, one really
BIG
happy family,” Tyler said, wincing with pain. “I don’t want to go to the med bay. I want to go where the action is.” Yep, Tyler seemed to be his old self. In fact, she’d bet that he hadn’t changed one bit. Which meant, that he might still be open to reconciling.

“I know that you have been hurt, Tyler,” Samantha pointed out. They moved past Lucy’s hologram, and walked into the lift that would take them to the bridge. “So please, give up the macho routine. That thing could be oozing with infection. Did you happen to put some fast acting healing gauze on it?”

“I’ve been on the run, and then I spent some time in a stinky jail. I really didn’t have access to any quality medical supplies.”

“My point exactly,” Samantha huffed.

“I put up with it this long. I can put up with it for a few more minutes. Please, Samantha I need to know that everyone is safe, before you give me any medication that might knock me out.” The doors to the lift opened, and they strode out onto the bridge.

“Don’t worry about the medication, I might be tempted to knock you out the old fashioned way,” Samantha threatened, all trace of humor leaving her voice. She really wanted to know who had given him that injury. “Who gave you that gash on your leg anyway?”

She looked up at him, and met his gaze. He blinked. “You’re beautiful.”

“Don’t try that old game with me.”

“What game?” His gorgeous green eyes widened innocently.

“The old charmer routine. Your sweet talk might have softened me in the past, and probably still could in the future, but not while I am fixated on getting your injury fixed up. I can see that you’re trying to distract me, you know.”

“Can you?” He reached up to caress her face. She leaned into his hand. Something glittering caught her eye. She looked down to his left hand, and wondered where his gloves had gotten too. Her heart jumped. He still wore his wedding band. Suddenly, dry mouthed, she sighed. With a jerk, the lift stopped and they stepped out onto the bridge.

“Oh, Samantha, I think that our problems just got much worse. If that could be possible,”

Johanna announced, staring at the view screen.

Their moment was lost.

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Samantha dragged her gaze away from Tyler, and looked over at her sister. She really didn’t want to hear about any more trouble. Tyler and she had some things to discuss, and this interruption was
very
untimely.

“What do you mean?” Samantha demanded, dreading the answer.

“Well,

New Monaco
, is sort of under siege at the moment, and they’re sending all combat ships out to deal with the problem,” Dylan explained. He had his eyes focused on the incoming reports.

“
Clarify
,” Samantha said.

Exhaustion was settling into her bones. She was so tired that she could feel her eyelids drooping. She needed coffee. She so wanted hot, strong coffee.

“
New Monaco
is at the moment being raided by space pirates,” Johanna supplied, as they raced through the upper atmosphere.

“Alright.

Someone

please
put me out of my misery,” Samantha remarked, flopping down into the nearest chair. She could feel Tyler standing beside her. She smiled when he rested his hand gently on her shoulder. “Tyler, there’s a med kit over in the weapons locker. Sit down, and apply a healing gauze pad to your leg. That should take care of it, until Johanna can take a proper look see at it.”

“What do you think that we should do?” Johanna asked, swiveling her chair to look at Samantha.

Samantha stared at the crowded sky, and knew that once they reached space their problems would intensify two-fold.

“What can we do? We can’t go back, because Lord Devlin still wants to hang Tyler.

And we’d be crazy to try breaking through an armada of pirate ships. But hell, no one ever said that I was smart or sane. So we fight, just like we’ve always done,” Samantha whispered.

Everyone stared at her with deadpan expressions.

Fear coiled in Samantha’s belly. She briefly doubted her decision. She looked to Johanna for confirmation, and something that resembled pride flickered in Johanna’s eyes.

“Let’s give them one hell of a good fight!” Johanna decided, smiling at Samantha.

“I agree, let’s make sure that they all remember the
Cassidy’s
,” Dylan endorsed, turning back to optimizing the weapons.

“What can I do?” Tyler asked.

Samantha turned to scowl at him. “You may sit your sorry ass down in that chair and keep your mouth shut, and get that healing gauze on your leg. You’re injured, and you’ve already gotten us into more than enough trouble,” Samantha remarked sternly.

They all nodded their agreement. “Let the battle begin!” she declared.

They streaked out into the blackness of space. She leaned forward.

This was it.

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“Oh, bloody hell!” Samantha cursed.

Johanna swerved to miss another
New Monaco
Star Cruiser.

Weapon fire exploded around them, and
The Excalibur’s
shields strained against the many impacts.

“I can’t take much more of this!” Lucy complained, crackling into existence. The AI looked frazzled.

“Lucy, shut the hell up!” Samantha barked.

Johanna swerved magnificently and managed to guide
The Excalibur
through the debris.

“Fine, but don’t blame me when we get blown out of space. I’m only an AI. You’re the ones that should be concerned. You
are
after all made out of flesh and bone.”

“Thanks so much for reminding me,” Samantha muttered. “However, if we get blown to kingdom come you won’t exist anymore. Without the Excalibur you will simply fizzle out of existence.”

Dylan made an inaudible noise that made Samantha dart a glance at him. His eyes widened, “Holy shit. I have to get down to engineering or what you just said, Samantha might come true.” With that, he bolted for engineering.

His voice carried to them through the communication system. “We’ve got problems. Big problems. I’m going to give everything that we can spare to the shields!”

Samantha hastily worked the firing patterns, and stared over anxiously at her sister.

“So who the hell’s side are we on anyway?” Johanna asked, staring over at Samantha with bloodshot eyes.

“We are on our own side. We fight our way through them, and then we jump to hyper space,” Samantha explained, grunting as another missile hit their port bow.

“You know, Lucy’s probably right. I seriously doubt
The Excalibur
can take much more,” Tyler commented from his seat behind them.

“Do you have any other bright suggestions,
Mister Cassidy?
” Samantha asked, turning her head to glare at him. “I’m so glad that we’ve got you to cheer us on. Brings a glow to my cheeks. I had thought I’d married a man that believed in the power of positive thinking!”

“You did. But I’m only pointing out our odds, and since you’ve asked, no, I don’t have any suggestions.”

“Well, then let us do our job.”

“I could still help,” he offered.

“Well, when I need to hear our odds again, I’ll ask for your input. Damn it! I’ve lost control of the weapons.
Dylan!
” Samantha called out through the intercom, pushing her sweaty wisps of hair out of her eyes.

“
Yeah,
” he yelled back, swearing as something big clattered onto the ground.

“I’ve lost bridge control of the weapons,” Samantha screamed, and widened her eyes. A massive pirate ship gunned straight for them. This so wasn’t good.

“You don’t say....” Dylan called back. “Son of a bitch!” he cursed. Samantha nearly jumped when Johanna cried out in frustration.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 52

“Dylan, what just happened? We’re dead in the water!” Johanna demanded, her face reddened. She turned to her sister.

“We’re sitting ducks,” Samantha shook her head. “Dylan, kindly get your ass in gear and get Johanna some power to the engines. Pretty please? I can work around our problem with the weapons. I’ll simply have to go down and operate the phase cannon manually. But we’ll be blown into smithereens if you don’t get Johanna what she needs,” Samantha shouted, above the whine of the red alert klaxons that Lucy had enabled. “Oh, goody. Look who decided to join the party,” Samantha quipped, panting, she ran over to the weapons cabinet and threw hand pistols at Tyler and Johanna. “Just in case the shields go down, and we risk being boarded!” Samantha watched to make sure that Johanna put the second gun in the holster beneath her arm. Samantha reached for a phase rifle comfortably placing it beneath her arm.