Indigo followed Vlosh to the command ship, feeling ridiculous for having suggested that Vlosh thought she was useless. Obviously, she wasn’t useless. She was meant to help save their race after all. But having him believe that she could somehow help defeat the Mulgor with her tennis skills was beyond anything she would have expected.

It had just been instinct to hit the laser. Nothing more, nothing less. She hadn’t even been thinking in that moment. As a member of a less advanced race, it was hard for her to believe she had any skills or abilities that the Draconians did not. Perhaps it had just been dumb luck after all, and she would just let Vlosh and the rest of the armada down when she couldn’t pull it off the second time.

She stood behind him as he strode onto the bridge and addressed his officers. Her face burned hot when he explained to his crew what he planned for her to do. She wanted to tell him it was a silly idea. But what did she know? If the general of the Draconian military wanted her to shoot lasers at lasers, who was she to say he was wrong?

Indigo was a brave, strong-willed person. She could handle anything that was thrown at her. The events of the last week had proved that to her beyond a shadow of a doubt. She’d rescued her friend from the college dorm in the middle of an alien invasion, stood up to redneck marauders, survived the dead of her family, and mated with an alien. She could do this if she had to.

“We will use one of the drone ships,” Vlosh explained. “Ensign, please teach my mate how to use the weapon systems aboard the drone before launch.”

“How long do I have to figure out how to do this?” she asked, thinking it would take days to learn how to use the weapons.

“An hour. We need to launch an attack now, while they are distracted with the traitor’s information.”

“An hour? You’ve got to be kidding.”

“How long did it take you to learn how to use the laser gun you used to take down that Mulgor fighter jet?” he asked her, crossing his arms and looking at her with a smirk.

“About fifteen minutes,” she admitted.

“See, my mate is a genius with weapons,” he said proudly.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said.

“Don’t disagree with me on the bridge of my own ship!” he said with mock sternness.

“Okay, okay. Show me how this is done, oh mighty leader,” she said, sitting in the chair next to the officer who was supposed to instruct her.

“Good. I know you will face this like you face every challenge,” he said, puffing out his chest. “With a brave, strong heart and a clever mind.”

She snorted, but it made her heart swell to hear him speak of her with such pride. The ensign launched a drone ship from the docking bay and it flew out in front of the command bridge. She could see it through the big window and also through the screen in front of her. The officer flicked a few buttons and suddenly her screen showed the dashboard controls of the drone.

“Use this lever button to shoot the laser weapon array,” he said, showing her how to do it.

“How do I aim?” she asked, feeling totally confused and out of her element. The laser gun had been pretty much like a regular gun. She’d never flown a fighter jet, and she certainly had never used a laser weapon array. He showed her a few buttons to control the aim. She still didn’t get it.

“Could we make this more natural for me somehow?” she asked, hoping there were some alternatives to the confusing aiming system.

“How would it feel more natural for you?”

“Maybe if I felt like I was doing the shooting… Or if it felt like I was hitting with a racket.”

“What is a racket?” the officer said.

“It’s like a stick with a net at the end that you use to hit a ball. I played tennis in college. That was where I got the whole idea to hit the laser in the first place. It was just instinct. This doesn’t feel instinctive at all.”

“I can probably adjust the controls to accommodate that,” the officer said.

A few moments later, they had a virtual reality helmet and something along the lines of a Wii controller ready for her to play around with. It felt much more natural and she got the controls almost right away. When she swung the controller, that’s when the laser shot. They made all the adjustments so that it felt just like playing tennis.

“Let’s try a few practice rounds on dummy targets,” the officer said. “I will control the jet’s movements, you control the weapons. Ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go!” She felt excitement swell in her stomach. It was almost like a crazy video game that combined the action of tennis with a space jet laser fight.

The officer moved her jet toward targets that she could see inside her virtual reality helmet. They were mock Mulgor craft, coming at her at high speed, much faster than tennis.

They shot at her and she missed every single laser strike.

“It’s too fast. I’ll never be able to hit that!”

“Just keep trying,” she heard Vlosh say.

“Vlosh, what if I fail?”

“You won’t fail. And besides, this is just an experiment.”

She let out a deep sigh. If he wasn’t resting the hopes of the entire war on her tennis backhand, then fine, she’d keep trying.

The officer started the practice test again and this time, she shot one of the ships but not a laser. It was all so damned fast. Her senses just wouldn’t keep up.

“What were you thinking when you took out that Mulgor ship on the moon?” Vlosh said behind her.

“I was thinking I better hit it, or I was going to die,” she said.

“Maybe that might help now.”

“I doubt it. Now there are way more lives on the line besides mine.”

“There aren’t any lives on the line. We still have an entire fleet of fighter jets and the entire Draconian armada,” he said gruffly.

She peeled off the helmet and glanced back at him. He was being weird since his dragon calmed down. She wasn’t sure if she liked his new attitude. The last thing Indigo needed was a crap load of stress. Couldn’t she just go back to the apartment and take a long bath or something?

“Then why don’t you have one of the jet fighters do this?” she asked.

“You have the magic touch,” he said.

“You don’t believe in magic, do you?”

“Magic, luck, fate, whatever you want to call it. It exists. When you took down that Mulgor ship, it could have been any of those things. If you did it before, I believe you can do it again.”

“Vlosh, this is a lot of pressure.”

“Good, that was how you felt when you took down the ship on the moon.”

“You’re kind of being a dick right now, babe,” she said, putting the helmet back on.

She heard him let out a hearty laugh behind her. She’d been through so much, she just wanted to rest. But Vlosh had this idea that she would save the day and help drive back the Mulgor. Maybe he was on to something. Who was to say? Maybe it was her destiny to hit a laser like a tennis ball and drive the Mulgor back to whatever hell they’d come from.

“Fine, let’s try again.” She held her pretend racket and felt her heart beating hard in her chest, echoing in her ears. Sweat trickled down her brow and she felt herself go into a kind of heightened awareness she went into during tennis matches.

The Mulgor ships came at her, shooting their lasers all around. She focused on one ship as it barreled toward her, a hint of a light coming from its gun before it shot. The laser came at her and she swung her racket. With some crazy luck, she hit the laser with her own laser. The lasers collided and shot back toward the oncoming jet. It exploded in front of her.

Everyone cheered at the big screen showing the simulation. She pulled off the helmet and smiled at Vlosh, who just nodded at her like he knew she could do it all along.

“All right. Time for the real test. You will shoot at the mothership’s weapons when they fire at you.”

“How do you even know this will work?” she asked Vlosh.

“Our new lasers have this effect on Mulgor lasers. You were the one to discover it. You will take them down.”

“You’re crazy,” she muttered. But she had to admit, she liked his faith in her. She also liked the excitement of being part of the crew and using her skills for something instead of letting them lapse into memory.

The drone ship took off with an escort of a fleet of fighter jets. As the drone approached the mothership, she got into her tennis stance and waited.

Mulgor jets came out and shot at the Draconian fighters. Her own drone dodged and wove around the other vessels, controlled by the officer who’d taught her.

She was as ready as she’d ever be for this. As crazy as it was, she was starting to believe it would work. Vlosh was showing just how much he believed in her. She had to believe in herself with that much support behind her.

The Mulgor jets tried to take her down, but the pilot of the drone sped away. Getting close to the mothership wasn’t that easy, let alone getting it to fire at them.

Her breathing was heavy as she stood in her stance and watched through her helmet.

The drone sped toward the mothership as if it was on a suicide mission. She sucked a deep breath and held back nausea from the overwhelming speed of the drone.

She saw the same hint of light on the weapons array of the mothership and swung. It was a hail mary swing and she knew it. The laser shot. When her racket came forward, it smashed right into the laser. She could feel it in her controller in her hand. The vibrations went up her wrist and arm.

The lasers collided and mingled. Weird electric ribbons spun around the mothership’s laser and traveled back to the gun within the ship.

Indigo stood in shock as an entire chunk of the mothership blew apart. All the Mulgor fighter jets pulled back to defend the command ship. While she was standing in stunned silence, and the Draconians around her cheered, a Mulgor fighter shot down her drone.

She screamed and pulled off the helmet. It clanged on the floor and suddenly Vlosh had his arms around her, lifting her off the ground.

“I knew you could do it!” he said, kissing her hard on the cheeks and mouth.

“I can’t believe that worked,” she breathed. “I honestly did not believe it would work.”

“I did,” he whispered in her ear.

“Why? Why me?”

“Because you are my miracle. We didn’t know combining Mulgor and our new Draconian lasers would do that until you took down that Mulgor ship,” he said.

“But anyone could have shot that after you knew it would work.”

“Anyone is not my beautiful, brave, clever bride. That is only you.”

He kissed her hard on the mouth, while the other Draconians continued to talk loudly about the implications to their mission.

“Sir,” an officer said. “You have to see this.”

Vlosh and Indigo looked up at the screen in front of them. The Mulgor fleet was moving out of Venus’s orbit and one by one, every ship in their fleet jumped out of the solar system.

“They’re gone,” Vlosh said triumphantly.

“Where did they go?” Indigo whispered.

“Contact Draconia, update them on our status. Inform them of the new laser technique. And warn that the Mulgor fleet might be headed their way.”

“Yes, sir,” the officer said.

Vlosh took Indigo’s hand and led her off the bridge.