Upon Celestial Tiger: Chapter One

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A small, fast space yacht. The last owner named it Celestial Tiger.

Three small bedrooms (with bunks), one bathroom. Very small storage hold. combined dining/living area. Everyone's going to hate each other by the end of this road trip.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f11/19/46/08/46/small_10.jpg

Shane would continue to do what he could to slow down the ships and missles until he got tired, then Helen would take over for him as he rested in a seat.

Rigel looked at the asteroids, as they entered the belt and smiled a little. Now things would get interesting. He continued to shoot at the missiles and the trailing ships even when most slowed at the entrance to the belt.

The Tiger was smaller and more maneuverable than most of the ships chasing her, a lot of them weren't able to follow her into the asteroid belt for fear of crashing into a boulder. Now the smaller ships had the advantage, well, sort of, and they chased the Tiger in, slowed down repeatedly by Shane, and then Helen, as the star dragons created obstacles.

The good news was, the missiles were hard to shoot in here and so the small ships largely stopped firing in order to conserve ammunition. The bad news was that the Tiger was still being followed fairly closely.

Luka had her eyes narrowed, pushing the ship to its absolute limits as she ducked and dove around obstacles. They probably couldn't outrun these guys, but she'd gone through this field once before, they hadn't.
She was trying to lose them in the debris.

Between the debris from the dragons, and the asteroids, and Luka's fearless flying in an area they didn't know, the ships gradually fell behind, losing the Tiger's trail. Maybe they'd be able to track her more slowly, but they weren't going to catch up with her any time soon, just not entirely lose her either. As long as she kept moving at her usual speed, she should be okay for a while.

Getting through an asteroid field was hard enough on your own, pursued it was so much harder. Luka's heart was pounding but when she noticed they could no longer see the other ships she slowed a litlte, just to avoid hitting anything.

"Wonderful flying back there." Rigel said carefully. He didn't want to jinx them now that they had a bit of a lead on the others.

Tala kept a tight grip on the handrail, not wanting any sudden maneuvers to send her flying. "My feelings for you are of great satisfaction!" She told Luka proudly.

Ethan stayed where he was, still fighting the pain in his leg and chest, still not having remembered he could shut it off. He glanced to Starr, wondering if the drunk dragon had thrown up in the chaos.

The scanner readings of the other ships became lost in the asteroid belt, far behind.

Luka mumbled something in response, flushing a little. They weren't out of the woods yet.
She dodged another asteroid.
"Where do we go? Back to the guild? ONce we're out of this field we won't have such a speed advantage." She pointed out worriedly.

Tala considered that. "They know where we came from, the other keeper still lives and will tell them which way the Guild is, which will help them track us. We need to take a different route, preferably into busy space where one ship can disappear amongst the thousands."

Luka nodded, guiding the ship around a few more asteroids. "Find me a route and once we're out of this field i'll change course."

"It shall be so," Tala said. "Rigel, stay where you are. You are still needed as copilot. Shane, Swarm, assist me in the reading of star charts!"

Shane nodded and came over after glancing to Starr.She didn't look so good right then, but they still had to focus on getting out of here right now. He looked at the star charts, frowning as he tried to figure out where they could go.

Rigel stayed where he was, keeping watch for anything to shoot at, be it an asteroid in the way or one of their pursuers.

Helen went over to Sawna and Starr checking on them while it was safe enough to. Starr was still out of it, but now she looked sick as well from all the quick maneuvering.

"Is she going to puke?" Ethan asked Helen warily. "What the hell did they do to her?"

"Sugar" Helen said, looking to Ethan then back to Starr "This is what happens when we eat sugar, she must have been fed nothing but sugar for at least a couple of days."

Ethan wrinkled his nose. "Gross. You didn't answer the other question though." Yeah, he was worried about whether Starr was about to make a mess in here.

~~
Tala and the others would consult the maps. "I think we must flee to the Terran empire," Tala said. "The large population shall hide us well."

"Why would they want her on sugar? Would sedation not have been easier?" Swarm asked. "She seems... difficult." "unconcious she'd be far easier to move around." "maybe too conspicuous?" "someone acting drunk isn't conspicuous?" "true... but less so than unconcious."

the rest of them were busy with the map. "Terrans don't like slavers, we can seek sanctuary there if we say we are fleeing from slavers no?"

"It's basically like being drunk, you can get people to do things when they are drunk that they won't do sober. They wanted her to do something she would normally resist." Helen said then looked to Ethan again "She may."

~~~
"Yeah, Terran empire would probably be the best to hide in." Shane agreed

Ethan looked grossed out. Whether he was grossed out by the idea of Starr puking, or by the idea of intoxicating people to make them compliant, was hard to tell. "Great. I'm gonna go repair myself now in case she does." He unbuckled himself.

~~
"Yes, we should be able to gain their protection. The Terran Empire is most charitable to those seeking refuge," Tala said, looking pleased. "They also have more space stations than can be found in unclaimed space, so we can restock our ship more easily. Our pursuers may predict that path though, so we must try to not take too obvious a route."

Luka frowned, unsure how much time she really wanted to spend in teh terran empire. But she'd do as she was told.
First she had to get them out this asteroid field alive.

Swarm scattered again. "How do you sober her up?" "no good in this state." "more a burden than anything."

"That's the thing, you can't" Helen said then sighed "You just have to let it run it's course." She said sadly.

"Would it help if I tried to heal her?" Sawna asked curiously.

Helen looked over to Sawna then shrugged "It would probably help the nausea, but I'm not sure if it would stop the inebriation."

"I will try then" Sawna said, coming over to touch Starr and try to heal her.

Ethan went off to a room, limping painfully, to change out of his keeper-blood-stained clothes and fix his leg.

~~
Tala gave Luka the coordinates for the path she and Shane and Swarm chose, and orders to proceed in that direction, when Luka felt it was safe to do so.

Luka nodded, saluted briefly and concentrated on piloting them away from here and into the terran empire. Hmm, terrans...

Tala left Luka and Rigel to pilot. Tala was a soldier, not a ship captain by training. She knew Luka and Rigel could do a better job keeping this crew safe out here than she could, her job was to delegate effectively and make decisions as needed, not to micromanage.

She went to see if Sawna could patch up her bullet wounds, which definitely could use some fixing.

Sawna looked to Tala as she came in "She should be well soon." She said then tilted her head and came over to her "You are bleeding, come sit."

"You think Starr will recover acceptably?" Tala asked. "Excellent, we desire the return of her mental faculties!" She went to sit so Sawna could tend to her injuries. She had several bullet wounds, none that were likely to be lethal, but they were going to cause a fair bit of pain and blood until they were treated.

"Helen says she will recover once the sugar is out of her system, it will take time." Sawna said as she moved to heal Tala though she had to start with getting the bullets out then healing the wounds.

"She will not be brain damaged by the sugar?" Tala asked. She held still for Sawna to work, forcing herself to not flinch too much at having the bullets extracted. Even for a giant minotaur warrior, this part of being treated was no fun. She grunted in pain and clenched her fists.