Violent death hadn't arrived for Sneak after all.
The laser flashes had, by some miracle, failed to connect with the little Eagle. He just sat in space, motionless, clueless as to how he might save himself. He watched the cabin pressure timer count down. Two minutes it said now. His only possible saviour was the fleet carrier he had come to attack, he couldn't reach any star port in the time he had available.
He considered heading towards the carrier, but that would be suicide.
'Sitting here is also suicide,' he reminded himself. He was dead either way, but was asphyxiation better than a fireball?
'What can I do? What is there to do?' with zero options left, he sat staring at the stars and contemplated death.
A flash of light caught his eye. What was it? Something metallic moved ahead of him, star light glinting off it as it moved in front of the tiny stars he'd been admiring in his morbid trance. The Eagle's scanner was a malfunctioning flash of lights, sparks, and smoke; a nonsense jumble. The scanner told him nothing.
'Wait a minute,' Sneak thought, recognising the familiar shape. 'That's a Viper.' Could it be the patrol Viper that had barely escaped the early infraction. Its pilot clearly hadn't seen his Eagle, it just crossed straight ahead of him. It moved slowly, oh so slowly, as though ...
'You're dead too,' he realised. Two crippled ships, one with an escape strategy, the other awaiting oblivion.
'No, no, no," a smile appeared on his face, 'you don't live if I don't.'
He pulled on the stick to follow the Viper's silhouette. Dead ahead, he hoped his gimbled pulse lasers would be centred. Without the scanner he couldn't target the ship and so the gimbals would just ...
'Oh just shoot the damn thing,' he told himself.
He squeezed the trigger but nothing happened. "You freaking bucket of scrap!" he screamed into the empty void through the canopy that was no longer there. "I found this bloody fleet, give me a break."
Sadness gave way to anger and frustration. He wasn't a failure, was he? He'd found the fleet carrier, he'd done a good job, dammit!
He punched the boost button once more in rage and pointed the Eagle at the passing Viper, aiming amidships. It surged forwards. "At least something still works," he screamed again. "If I'm gonna die, I'm taking you with me."
A ferocious determination etched on his face for no one to see as he slammed the boost button a second time. To his surprise it fired again with another jolt of acceleration just as the two ships collided. He remembered seeing the Viper's hull ripped apart, he remembered the searing heat of an explosion as it hit him in the chest, but then he was floating freely above the carnage looking down, his soul free from his body flying to where ever released souls go.
Towards him came another one. Out of the smoke and flames of the Viper rose another soul just like his. It suddenly became important to Sneak to arrive first at their destination, where ever that might be.
'I need to tell my side to the angels first,' he remembered thinking, 'I'm not a bad guy, am I?'
And then there was only darkness.
Next: Coming Soon ...