Twin cannons emerged from pockets in the Dialorian transport's front area. Beams shot forward. Bria watched the rear shield.
"Somebody do something!" She cried.
Relda eyed the rear view cam. Ozla focused on the viewing screen before her. She tapped a configuration.
"Energy shield activated," a cheerful, feminine, but mechanical voice announced.
"Got it," she said.
Endless space stretched on before them. No matter how much they covered, still more lay ahead.
"Fire our cannons," Relda said, and tapped Ozla's armrest.
"Mama," she protested. "We'll implode in our shield."
"Deactivate it, stupid!" Bria screamed from the cabin.
Ozla smashed the configuration, and their transport was vulnerable. She held her finger on the screen, and beams burst from their front and rear cannons. Translucent green enveloped Dialorian transport until Relda's cannon beams had subsided. Lenn's energy shield vanished and his cannon fired. On went Relda's transport energy shield. He looked down at his touch devices.
"He's distracted," Bria said.
Relda released the transport from its energy shield. Lenn's jaw was clenched and his neck constricted. He spoke into his collar. His mouth movements were indeterminate, but exaggerated. After a pause that was longer than expected, Ozla punched the screen. All four beams went off in a simultaneous shot. The last Relda glimpsed of Lenn was a wide-eyed, paled face. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He pressed his head against the headrest, and the lasers overwhelmed his ship. Relda's throat stung as pieces of wreckage tumbled into space.
"He was a child," she muttered.
"A child on the wrong side," Tayla retorted.
"Might not have had a choice," Asia suggested.
Bria made a nose print against the square glass windowpane.
"That's the least of our problems," she pointed out.
Relda looked through the shield that covered the cockpit long enough to see the shape lurking in the distance.
"The mother ship," she muttered.