Nathan dropped into the seat to the left of Jalea in the cockpit of Tobin’s ship.
“The walls are starting to come down!” Jessica yelled from the cargo door as she pushed Tobin’s corpse out the hatch.
Nathan looked out the windows and saw the wall to the left of him, toward the back corner, come apart under the force of the continuous barrage. Finally, a large section of it came crashing down, taking three emitters with it. The shield overhead flickered several times.
“It’s failing!” Tug yelled.
Another section of the wall, on the same side but nearer them also collapsed, burying the greenhouse below. The shields flickered a few more times then disappeared altogether.
“Get us in the air!” Nathan ordered.
Jalea pushed the lift throttles forward and the ship began to slowly rise. Rocks and debris fell off the crumbling walls and bounced off the ground, striking the side of the ship. They were only eight meters off the ground when the first salvo struck them in the aft port thrust pod. Their tail dropped sharply and the ship began to roll over to port.
“Compensate!” Nathan yelled.
Jalea tried to compensate by increasing the lift on the port side, but the thrust pod was damaged and not responding. Alarms began to sound as the ship rolled completely over, causing her still firing lift thrusters to drive her hard, upside-down, into the ground. A moment later, they all found themselves lying on the ceiling of the ship, alarms whooping away and the acrid smell of leaking propellant filling their nostrils.
Nathan shook his head, spitting dirt from his mouth. All the windows on his side of the cockpit had been shattered by the force of impact, and dirt had flown into the cockpit as they rolled over. Sections of the overhead control panel, which he was now laying on top of, dug into his side as he tried to get his feet under him. “Jalea!” he yelled. She wasn’t moving. “Jalea! Are you okay?” She began to stir, her consciousness returning. “Come on, we’ve gotta get outta here!”
Nathan grabbed Jalea and pulled her toward him. “Come on, come on,” he urged pushing her out in between the partitions toward the back of the ship. “Let’s go! Everybody out!”
Vladimir slid out of the ship, face first down onto the dirt two meters below. The ship was upside down, slightly on its starboard side. Dust and smoke was everywhere, making it hard to see more than a few feet in front of him. Alarms continued to warble and beep.
“Vlad!” Jessica called from above. “Catch her!” Vladimir extended his arms just in time to catch Tug’s youngest daughter as she fell from the ship. He set her down next to him.
“Do not move, little one,” he instructed. He reached up and grabbed Deliza by the waist as she tried to climb down from the ship, helping her down to the ground. “Grab your sister’s hand and do not let go, no matter what. And stay by my side!” Deliza nodded instant agreement.
Nathan jumped down to the ground, followed by Jalea. Suddenly, pinpoint blasts of energy from sniper-fire started striking the ship and the ground around them. The dust and smoke was still too thick to see very far, so the snipers were taking blind shots in the hopes of hitting something or someone.
“Son-of-a-bitch!” Nathan swore. “We’ve gotta get to cover!” Nathan spun around as shots struck the dirt on either side of him, as he tried to get his bearings. In the haze, he could barely make out the shape of the main house. “Over there!” he shouted. “Head for the house!”
Jalea ran for the house. Vladimir scooped up the little girl, and grabbed Deliza’s arm and followed.
“Jess! Let’s go!” Nathan ordered.
“Tug is hung up on something!” she yelled from inside the ship.
Nathan could hear the sound of the enemy ship that had shot them down before they could get airborne as it turned and headed back toward them. “They’re comin’ back around, Jess! You gotta get out now!”
Jessica struggled to free Tug’s leg, which was pinned between a twisted section of the bench seat and the wall. Somehow, as the ship had rolled over, the bench had pulled free. Tug’s leg had slid in between the bench and the wall, and when the ship came down, the bench folded back and trapped his leg between it and the bulkhead.
“Leave me!” Tug begged her.
“Oh, don’t be so fuckin’ dramatic!” she scolded.
“Come on, Jess!” Nathan called from outside.
“Go, Nathan! We’ll catch up in a minute!”
“God damn it, Jess!” Nathan swore as he departed, running for the cover of the house.
The ship began to shake with increasing violence as the salvos from the approaching enemy ship grew closer with each strike. Finally, the last two energy bolts struck the ship, chopping its rear section clean off. Ironically, the shearing force rocked the ship and freed Tug’s leg. Falling free of his entrapment, he landed on top of Jessica as they both fell against the far side of the upside-down ship.
“Well how about that?” Tug exclaimed.
Suddenly, flames ignited from the leaking fuel lines. Within seconds, the flames blocked the starboard cargo hatch, which had been their intended route of egress.
“This thing’s gonna blow!” Jessica exclaimed as she tried in vain to find a way past the flames.
Nathan finally reached the front steps of the porch when the sound of an explosion came from behind him. A searing hot shock wave launched him forward, crashing through the partially opened front door.
“Nathan! Are you all right?” Vladimir shouted as he ran to help his friend to his feet.
“Oh my God!” Nathan exclaimed as he realized what had happened. He spun around and tried to go back out the front door. “JESS!” Another explosion rocked the house, sending hundreds of small pieces of flaming debris showering in all directions. Nathan had to brush some of the burning fuel from his own clothing to avoid going up in flames himself. He turned to Vladimir, “Jessica and Tug! They were still in there!”
Vladimir grabbed Nathan and pulled him inside. “Come, my friend. There is nothing more you can do for them.”
Kaylah zoomed in on the landing party’s last reported location. As the small farm had just come over the horizon on the moon below, her observation angle was quite steep, making it difficult to see much of the compound contained within the sinkhole. But there was no doubt about what she did see-a large explosion followed by flame and smoke.
“Commander, something is happening at the landing party’s last reported location. There’s been an explosion,” Kaylah reported.
“Can you see the landing party?”
“No, sir, there’s too much smoke, and our angle is still too steep to get a good overhead.” Kaylah noticed movement above the smoke. “Standby, there’s something else.” She quickly changed sensor mode from visual to radar, allowing her to clearly track a small ship circling the sinkhole. “It’s a ship, sir. Same size and configuration as the one that tried to land on us earlier.”
Cameron didn’t like the sound of Ensign Yosef’s report. “Any sign of Tobin’s ship?”
“I’m not sure, sir.” Kaylah reset her sensors back to visual mode and applied various filters to try and discern the shape of the burning object. After keying in additional commands, information detailing the chemical properties of the smoke she was seeing began to list on one of her side screens. “I’m pretty sure that’s Tobin’s ship that’s burning. Its shape is very similar, but there’s no way to be sure. At least not until we get closer.”
“Any luck contacting them over comms?” she asked the communications officer.
“No, sir. And I’m trying all modes, even open channels on the wide band.”
“Damn it,” Cameron swore. “We’ve got less than half an hour to get them back, or we’re going to have to leave them behind. And for all we know that is Tobin’s ship burning down there. We need another ship.”
A smile formed on the face of Ensign Mendez as he stood at the tactical station. “Last I looked, there were two of them in the hangar bay.”
“Contact those ships,” she instructed the comm officer. “See if one of them is willing to fetch the landing party.”
“You think they’ll do it?” Mendez asked. “I mean, willingly?”
“Maybe, if we pay them enough,” Cameron mumbled.
“Commander,” the comm officer said. “The only one answering is the harvester pilot. Shall I transfer him to your comm-set?”
“Sure,” Cameron answered. She was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the constantly changing circumstances. It felt like every time she came up with a plan, something happened forcing her to change it. For someone who always liked to have a solid plan to follow, it was frustrating.
A moment later, Josh’s voice came over Cameron’s comm-set. “What can I do for ya, love?”
Cameron rolled her eyes at the cocky pilot’s attitude. “We’ve got people on the surface, presumably with no way back up. Think one of your shuttles could go down and get them, really quickly?”
“How quick we talking?”
“Thirty minutes, max?”
“I’m guessing your hurry has something to do with that Ta’Akar battle cruiser heading our way?”
“That would be a good guess.”
“Sorry, but the second shuttle’s all shot up, and it’s blocking the first one from launching. Maybe if we had more time to move it-”
“What about your ship?” Cameron interrupted. “Can you still launch?”
“Sure, but how many people we talking about? I’m made for scooping up rocks, not hauling passengers.”
“Four or five?”
“Yeah, I guess I can squeeze them in. So long as they don’t mind a bumpy ride. This thing’s not built for comfort, you know.”
“Great,” Cameron exclaimed. “But how much is it going to cost me?”
“You can buy me dinner,” Josh suggested playfully.
“I’m sure we can figure out some manner of payment. But I think I should warn you, there may be some trouble at the pick-up point.”
“Then make it two dinners!”
“How soon can you depart?” she asked, ignoring his solicitations.
“I’ll be wheels up in a few minutes, love. Just send me their coordinates.”
“Thanks, Josh,” she told him. “And good luck.”
The harvester began quickly backing out of the hangar bay, headed for the transfer airlock at a rate slightly faster than normal. The helmeted pilot, his faceplate still hiding his facial features, constantly rotated his head from side to side as well as looking down at his consoles as he tried to keep from hitting anything in the chaotic aftermath of the earlier boarding attempt.
“Any luck contacting them?” Cameron asked the comm officer.
“No, sir. I’m pretty sure someone is jamming communications on the surface.”
“The harvester is rolling onto the flight deck now, Commander,” Ensign Mendez reported from the tactical station.
“Warn the pilot about the comm-jamming going on down there,” she ordered Mendez.
The harvester continued to roll quickly backwards as it came out of the transfer airlock and out onto the open flight deck. It immediately applied slight upward thrust, its gear retracting as soon as it left the deck. Another short burst shooting forward from braking thrusters embedded in the harvester’s nose caused it to float back away from the ship more quickly. Applying side thrust, the little ship quickly slid to the right, clearing the ship just before the large drive section was about to slam into it from behind. As it cleared the side of the ship, it snap-rolled to the right and swung its nose down, firing its main engines at full thrust as it accelerated quickly away from the Aurora on its journey to the moon below.
“The harvester’s away,” Mendez chuckled. “Damn that guy-”
“Flies like a nut,” Cameron finished. “Yeah, I know. But that nut’s the only hope they’ve got right now.”
Nathan continued looking out the broken front window of the main house. The air outside was still thick with black and gray smoke from the burning wreckage of Tobin’s ship, less than a dozen meters away. Thankfully, there had been no more shots fired at them by the snipers since they had made it inside the house. “What the hell are they waiting for?”
Deliza sat in the corner, holding her younger sister in her lap, keeping her little head against her chest to keep her from staring at her mother’s corpse on the living room floor. Jalea knelt beside them, trying to calm the child.
“Reinforcements,” Vladimir suggested.
“Yes,” Jalea agreed, rising from the girls to move back toward the others at the windows. “They must be coming from elsewhere-a ship in orbit, perhaps-or they’d already be upon us.”
Nathan looked outside again, trying to see the snipers through the smoke. “If we could just get past those snipers, we might be able to make our way back to town on foot, maybe find another way off this moon and back to the ship.”
“I expect there is a Ta’Akar ship nearby,” Jalea advised him. “If so…”
“…then the Aurora’s got her own problems to deal with,” Nathan surmised. “Hell, they’ve probably already jumped away.”
“You worry too much, Nathan,” Vladimir said. “They will come for us. You will see.”
“God, I hope you’re right.”
Suddenly, the snipers began firing through the windows. Blasts of energy broke through the remaining glass, slamming into floors and furniture, sending splinters flying in all directions and charring everything they struck. Jalea grabbed the girls, dragging them down to the floor and pushing them into the corner tucked in behind a cabinet.
Vladimir scrambled on his hands and knees to the side window and began firing blindly toward the ridge line with his hand gun, hoping he’d get lucky and hit one of the snipers. Following his friend’s example, Nathan scrambled to the opposite side and did the same.
Moments later, the shuttle began firing its pulse cannon at the main house. Each blast tore through the roof, passing through the upper floor and breaking through the ceiling above them, bringing a shower of debris down on top of them with every blast. The young girls screamed with each blast.
“Jesus!” Nathan yelled. He had little doubt that they were all about to be either buried in a pile of burning debris or completely vaporized.
“They’re trying to drive us out into the open!” Vladimir replied. “To force us to surrender!”
“By bombing the crap out of us?” Nathan asked as he continued firing wildly out the window.
One of the main beams cracked and bowed downward, bringing more debris from the ceiling above. With the following blast, the beam split completely, crashing to the floor narrowly missing Vladimir.
“We’ve gotta get outta here!” Nathan hollered, scrambling across the shattered living room toward the kitchen. “Through the back!”
As if the shuttle’s gunner had heard him, the next few salvos impacted the back half of the house, collapsing the kitchen roof. Nathan opened the kitchen door just in time to see the ceiling come crashing down, dust and debris bouncing up into his face in the doorway, knocking him backward into the living room. “Guess not!”
Josh looked out the forward windshield over the nose of the harvester as it raced along less than fifteen meters above the surface of the Haven countryside. In the distance, maybe twenty kilometers in front of them, he could see the pillar of black smoke rising from the surface, spreading to the right as it rose into the sky.
“Twenty seconds out,” his co-pilot, Loki, reported over the whine of the engines. The two of them had been flying the harvester together for nearly six months, ever since Josh had first arrived on Haven.
“Volander landing party, Harvester. Do you copy?” Josh waited a few seconds for an answer, but got none. “Guess we’re gonna have to surprise them,” he smiled.
Loki tightened the shoulder straps on his flight harness. Although Josh was an amazing pilot, he had a tendency to do things without warning. “You sure you wanna go in so fast, Josh?”
“This’ll have to do,” Josh chuckled.
As the distance closed, they could begin to make out the shape of the enemy shuttle as it circled over the sinkhole, firing its pulse cannon at targets below.
“Pulse cannons,” Loki pointed out.
“I see them.”
“I’m assuming you’ve got a plan?”
Josh said nothing, only clucked like a chicken.
“Great,” Loki said, grabbing the hand-holds on the top edges of the front and side consoles to brace himself. He knew what was coming, and he knew from experience that he’d best hold on tight.
As they rapidly closed on the enemy shuttle, it continued its slow circle, turning toward the oncoming harvester.
“Oh shit!” Loki cried.
For a brief moment, Loki was sure he could see the faces of the flight crew on the shuttle as it suddenly rolled sharply to its right to avoid colliding with the onrushing harvester. Josh immediately rolled slightly opposite the enemy ship, pulling his nose up ever so slightly to send his ship into a tight, high-g turn. “YES!” he cried out in victory. “I NEVER FLINCH!”
The enemy shuttle did not pull his nose up as he rolled, which resulted in a sudden loss of altitude bringing him below the top of the sinkhole and sending him diving toward its wall.
Inside the main house, the sound of the harvester rocketing by at high velocity shook the entire structure, knocking them off their feet. For a brief moment, they were deafened by the roar of the harvester’s main drive as it blew past them at incredible speed.
“What the hell was that?” Nathan wondered as he picked himself up, noticing that the bombardment had stopped. A moment later the ground shook once more as a tremendous crash came from outside. Nathan spun around to look out the windows. Through the smoke he could barely make out the image of the enemy shuttle as it slammed into the side of the sinkhole, falling into the greenhouse below before exploding.
“Holy shit!”
“Volander landing party, Harvester. Do you copy?” The voice coming over his comm-set was unfamiliar to him, but Nathan answered the hail nonetheless.
“This is Captain Scott! Who’s calling?”
“It’s your ride, Captain! That sweet little commander of yours sent us to bring you home!”
“Sweet little commander?” Vladimir wondered.
“He must be talking about Cameron,” Nathan said.
“Great!” Nathan told him over the comms. “How did you take out that shuttle?”
“No time to chit-chat, Captain. I’ve gotta deal with a few snipers first. Get your people ready to move out! I’ll be down in a minute to pick you up!”
“Copy that!” Nathan answered.
“There’s another explosion at their position!” Kaylah reported.
“Who is it?” Cameron snapped. “Is it the harvester?”
“No, sir! I show the harvester still maneuvering!” Ensign Mendez reported with excitement. The son-of-a-bitch took him head on at max velocity!”
“Christ! He played chicken with them?”
“That guy is insane!” Mendez exclaimed.
Loki flinched as sniper rounds struck the nose of the harvester. “They’re shooting at us, Josh!”
“No shit, really?”
The harvester dipped down to no more than two meters above the ground as it reached the first sniper, who dove out of the way. A few seconds later Josh turned hard to starboard, smacking the next sniper with the thrust wash from his main drive and knocking him off the cliff into the sinkhole.
Vladimir looked out the window to try and determine why the snipers were no longer firing at them. He quickly realized the cause of their distraction when he saw the harvester come swinging around to line up with the opposite ridge line. “He’s buzzing the snipers!”
On the next pass, Josh flew so low that his exhaust was lighting the sparse vegetation on fire. Loki closed his eyes as they nearly slammed into the first sniper, who dove face down hoping to avoid being hit, only to find his own armor melting to his back due to the heat of the passing harvester’s exhaust. A few seconds later, there was a sickening thud.
“OH SHIT!” Josh yelled.
Loki opened his eyes again, only to see a red smear on the nose of the harvester that ran up onto the front windshield. “What happened?”
“I took off his fucking head!” Josh giggled.
Loki shook his head. “You’re a sick little dude, you know that, don’t you?”
The harvester pulled up hard until it was almost vertical, backing off on the power until it was about to stall. As it did, the ship banked over to port and dove back down, pulling up just enough to angle toward the center of the sinkhole. Within seconds they were nearly there, and Josh pulled up the nose, firing his landing thrusters at maximum burn to stop their descent. The little ship came to a hover in the middle of the compound, directly in front of the main house, spinning around to point its nose toward the front door before extending its gear and dropping the last meter to the ground.
The side hatch to the harvester popped open. Loki leaned out to wave at the landing party, signaling them to move quickly as they exited the main house and ran towards the ship. Vladimir scooped up the little girl and handed her up to Loki who pulled her into the ship. Deliza was next, followed by Jalea.
“We’ve gotta go back and look for Jessica!” Nathan shouted.
“There’s no time!” Loki objected. “There’s a warship on the way! If we’re not back in ten minutes, your ship’s leaving without you!”
“But she could still be alive!” Nathan argued.
“Nathan! We’ve got to go!” Vladimir insisted.
“No! I have to be sure!”
“Nathan! You’re the captain now! Your responsibility is to your ship!” Vladimir grabbed Nathan by the collar and shoved him up the side of the harvester. “Now get in there!” Vladimir shoved Nathan up to the hatch, climbing up behind him.
There were only two seats in the small cabin behind the cockpit of the harvester, which were taken by Jalea on one side and Deliza on the other with her little sister in her lap. Nathan and Vladimir crammed themselves onto the floor, between Jalea’s feet and the front bulkhead that separated the small cabin from the cockpit. Loki pulled the hatch closed and stepped over them, returning to the cockpit as he hollered, “Let’s go!”
Before Loki even sat down, the harvester leapt into the air, its main drive kicking in and sending it accelerating away as its landing gear retracted.
“Message from the harvester, sir,” the comm officer reported. “They’re inbound, with five passengers!”
“Yes!” Cameron said, a wave of relief washing over her. “What’s their ETA?”
“Ten minutes, sir.”
Cameron turned to Ensign Mendez at the tactical station directly behind her.
Mendez shook his head, a dour look on his face. “Eight minutes and we’ll be toe-to-toe with that warship.”
Cameron took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I don’t suppose we got the torpedoes working yet?” Another look from Mendez confirmed what she already knew. “Battle stations everyone. Deploy the rail guns, point-defense mode.”
“We’ve got company!” Loki reported as he buckled himself back into his seat. “Ta’Akar fighters on an intercept course. They’ll be on us in two.”
“Hang on, ladies and gentlemen!” Josh yelled over his shoulder toward the back cabin. “It’s gonna get interesting!”
Vladimir raised his feet and planted them firmly against the bulkhead opposite him, on either side of Nathan to brace himself. With his left hand, he grabbed the edge of the arm rest of the seat next to him where Deliza sat holding her younger sister in her lap. “Excuse me.”
Nathan copied Vladimir’s preparations, bracing himself in similar fashion as the small ship bounced and vibrated on its wild ascent.
“Enemy vessel is breaking the horizon,” Mendez reported from tactical. “She’ll have guns on us in thirty seconds.”
Cameron looked at her flight and navigation displays. If they broke orbit now and accelerated away from the planet at maximum sub-light speeds, she could jump away without taking any fire from the incoming warship. But that would condemn the entire landing party, which she wasn’t ready to do just yet. On the other hand, if she waited too long, by the time the harvester caught up to them, there was a good chance there would be little left of them to catch up to.
“Abby?” Cameron hailed. “I don’t suppose we could jump from orbit?”
“I would not advise it,” she warned.
“Yeah, why is that again?”
“The effect of the moon’s gravity well could cause our arrival point to be considerably off target. Who knows where we could come out-”
“Yeah, in the middle of a sun. I got that. But how far off might Haven’s gravity well make us?”
“I’m not really sure. It took us days to calculate the effects of Jupiter’s gravity well on our first jump.”
“Well, if you had to guess.”
“I’m not sure I could. There are so many variables-like the distance of the jump, for example. And there are two gravity wells here. Both the moon’s and the planet’s.”
“But if the jump were short? Say, a few million kilometers?”
Abby was suddenly deep in thought. “Give me a minute,” she said as she began furiously making calculations.
“We’re hit!” Loki cried out. The back of Nathan’s head slammed against the wall as the aft end of the harvester suddenly shifted violently to starboard.
“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Josh reported. “We’re still good!” Josh pulled the control stick hard over and gave it a twist with his right hand as he manipulated the main thrust throttles with his left. The harvester suddenly rolled to starboard, going into a spiraling maneuver that caused them to drop significantly below their original glide path, forcing their pursuers to adjust their attack. The maneuver was just another of a series of bizarre attempts to avoid the incoming fire from the two Ta’Akar fighters that had intercepted them shortly after takeoff.
So violently had Josh twisted the little harvester around that Nathan had completely lost track of their course and attitude in relation to Haven. During his flight training back at the academy, he had spent several months qualifying in small tactical craft, including the Tactical Space Fighter used by the Fleet. That training had included an array of evasive tactics and maneuvers, but none of that had prepared him for what they were currently experiencing. It was all that Nathan could do to keep from dry heaving.
He opened his eyes. The cabin was darker than before, lit only by the flashes of energy blasts as they streaked by them. The internal lighting had been shut down to save power for use by the harvester’s limited shielding. He looked at Vladimir, who also looked a little shaken.
A grin suddenly spread across Vladimir’s face. “This pilot! He is either very good, or he is very drunk!”
Nathan looked at Tug’s daughters. Deliza held her little sister tightly on her lap. The child had her face buried in her sister’s chest, not wanting to see any of what was going on around them.
Jalea appeared nearly as shaken as the rest of them, but continued to stare straight ahead out the front windshield, as if trying to keep track of the events transpiring outside in the vacuum of space.
The ship rocked again as another blast stuck them on the starboard side, super-heating the bulkhead that Vladimir was leaning against, drawing a Russian curse as he leaned forward abruptly to avoid serious burns to his back. Luckily, the cold of space quickly cooled the exterior, and within seconds the bulkhead was only warm to the touch.
“Bozhe Moi,” he exclaimed. “The hull must not be very thick.” His eyes were wide with the realization of how little material was between them and the weapons that were being repeatedly fired at them.
“There she is!” Loki announced, pointing to the right.
“She’s taking fire!” Josh added.
Despite the shaking and the sparks showering down from an overhead circuit panel, Nathan somehow managed to get to his knees and crawl forward enough to peer out the forward windshield of the harvester. A few hundred kilometers in front of them was the Aurora-his ship-and it was taking fire as it waited for them to reach the relative safety of her hangar bay. It was nothing more than a speck. If it hadn’t been for the explosions of energy weapons against her hull, he might not have been able to pick it out against the stars.
“Two minutes!” Mendez called over the noise of battle. He watched his tactical display as the harvester darted about, jerking to and fro as he tried to shake the fighters on his tail. “He can’t evade them forever! Nobody’s that lucky!”
Explosions otherwise silent in the dead of space, reverberated through the ship. Alarms warning of stressed systems played from nearly every console on the bridge. The constant din of the bridge staff as they communicated with the rest of the crew throughout the ship during battle was almost overwhelming.
“How’s it look, Abby?” Cameron asked from the helm.
“I think it’ll work,”
“You think?”
“It will work,” she insisted. “How far do you want to jump?”
“How long does it take to calculate a normal jump, say something at least a few light years?”
“Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes?”
“How long will it take you to calculate a jump thirty light minutes away from here?”
“A few minutes at the most,” Abby said.
“So quick?”
“The shorter the jump, the easier it is to calculate.”
“Do it,” Cameron ordered.
The ship rocked as another missile got through their weakened point-defense field.
“Damn it! I wish I could take evasive maneuvers!” But she knew she had to hold a steady course until the harvester made it safely to their flight deck.
“We just lost another turret!” Mendez reported. “We’re down to eight!”
Cameron knew that there was no way they could maintain an effective point defense field with only eight functioning rail gun turrets.
“Shit! There’s a third one!” Loki announced. “Four o’clock, farther back!”
“Son-of-bitch!” Josh declared. “Who are you people?” Josh shouted over his shoulder. He was beginning to wonder who it was he and Loki had gotten mixed up with, and why the Ta’Akar wanted them so badly.
It was the first time since they had been rescued that Nathan heard any desperation in the crazy pilot’s voice. Nathan looked at Vladimir, whose own expression was as serious as he had ever seen.
“Na…an…you…py?” The voice over his comm-set was broken and barely understandable. But it was familiar. He instinctively cupped his hands over his ears, trying to isolate the voice from all the noise in the bouncing ship.
“…than, this is…ssica! D…copy?”
“Oh my God!” Nathan mumbled. “Jess! Is that you?” he called back over the comm-set. “Where are you?”
“In…ighter…hind you!”
“It’s Jessica!” Nathan hollered.
“What?” Vladimir couldn’t believe it.
“Chan…ourse! Hard… ight!”
“What? You’re breaking up? Can you repeat?”
“Change…rse! Co…ard…right! Do…t…now!”
Nathan suddenly realized what was happening. “Change course! Come hard to starboard now!”
“What?” Josh asked, wondering if Nathan had lost his mind.
“DO IT!”
Josh got the message, and immediately put the little ship into a tight right turn. “How long do you want me to hold this turn?”
“The third fighter is firing on the first one!” Mendez reported, a bit confused by what he was witnessing.
“What?” Cameron was also shocked.
“Holy shit! He’s gone! The first fighter is gone! The second one is breaking off their pursuit! He’s trying to evade the third one!”
“What the hell?” Cameron mumbled.
“Oh yeah!” Jessica cheered from the back seat of the old fighter.
Tug yanked the stick back to the left and added power to his engines. “The other one’s breaking off. I’m going after him.”
“What the hell for?” Jessica argued. “Let’s just get the hell outta here, shall we?”
“He’s faking retreat,” Tug insisted. “He’ll try to come around and get behind us.”
“How do you know?”
“That’s what I would do,” Tug answered calmly.
“Okay.”
“Jess! Where did you come from?” Nathan asked over the comm-set “Is Tug with you?”
“Who do you think is flying this thing?” she laughed.
“Commander! The third fighter is a friendly!” the communications officer reported.
“How do you know?” Cameron challenged.
“I’m picking up traffic between it and the harvester,” he told her as he transferred the signal to the loudspeakers.
“Long story, skipper,” Jessica’s voice said over the comms. “I’ll fill you in later. Now head for the ship while we take out the other punk. And tell Cam not to leave without us!”
“What the hell happened down there?” Cameron wondered aloud.
“They’re flying into the warship’s firing solution,” Mendez warned. “They won’t survive a hit from their big guns.”
“Then let’s give them some cover,” Cameron said, as she cut the main engines and pulled back on the controls.
The Aurora’s nose pitched up, stopping at a ninety-degree angle to her flight path. Unable to maintain a firing solution for a point-defense field, the rail guns automatically stopped firing. The enemy warship, however, did not, and continued its relentless barrage.
“What the hell is she doing?” Loki asked as they watched the Aurora pitch up.
“That lady’s as crazy as I am,” Josh laughed.
Nathan also laughed. “She’s showing them her belly,” he explained. “It’s the toughest part of the ship.”
With no point-defense field to at least partially protect them, the Aurora was taking every shot at full force into her undersides, but it had been designed to be used for emergency aero-braking and atmospheric entry in the event of a crash landing. With three times as many layers as the rest of the ship, and much heavier structural support, Cameron hoped that the Aurora’s bottom side would protect them all long enough to recover the two smaller ships and jump away. It wasn’t exactly a textbook maneuver, but it was working.
The second fighter was now only fifty meters in front of them, as they chased him through a tight turn to port. The enemy pilot kept varying his turn rate in a desperate effort to trick Tug into losing his target lock. However, it was to no avail, as this wasn’t Tug’s first dog-fight.
A small puff of maneuvering thrust squirted out of the nose of the second fighter, just as it had numerous times over the last few seconds during the turn. This time… it was a bit more thrust than usual.
“You can’t be that stupid,” Tug mumbled.
The enemy fighter suddenly began to rapidly pitch back as it tried to do an end over to bring its own guns to bear on Tug and Jessica. For a brief moment, the enemy’s profile became considerably larger, giving Tug a splendid target and an easy kill. A single squeeze of the trigger on his control stick, and a red bolt of energy leapt from his cannon striking the enemy dead center, rupturing his fuel tanks and igniting a blinding explosion.
“What happened?” Jessica asked as the debris from the exploding enemy ship struck them like rain falling from the sky.
“Caius was always more interested in quantity than quality,” Tug mumbled.
“What?” Jessica asked from behind.
“Nothing. Let’s rejoin the others.”
“Hang on, people!” Josh yelled from the cockpit. “This ain’t gonna be pretty!”
“What’s wrong?” Nathan asked. After the Aurora had pitched up and started blocking the incoming fire, their ride had been comparatively smooth.
“We’ve got a lot of damage, and a nose dive ain’t exactly an ideal angle for a landing!”
Nathan looked forward between the partitions. Through the forward windshield of the cockpit, he could see the Aurora, not more than a hundred meters away and coming up fast. But since she had pitched up, their approach was now perpendicular to her length. There was no way they could change course fast enough to avoid smashing head-first into her flight deck. “Oh my God.”
“Tell me you’re ready, Abby!” Cameron said.
“Hangar bay! Prepare for crash landing!” Mendez called over the comms. “All hands brace for collision!”
“I’m ready!” Abby promised.
“Hang on, people! We’re gonna have to take a few more shots to the nose!” Cameron announced.
“HA HA!” Josh screamed, his eyes widening. Nathan spun his head back to his left to look forward once more.
“She’s pitching down!” Loki yelled.
“Oh I’m in love with that woman!” Josh cheered.
Nathan watched as the Aurora pitched her nose back down until it once again was pointed in the same direction as her heading. Now they had a somewhat normal approach angle, although still somewhat fast.
“They’ve launched missiles!” Ensign Mendez reported. “Six inbound! All conventional! ETA thirty seconds!”
“Standby, Abby!”
Abigail moved her hand over the large round jump button that one of the technicians had permanently wired into her console, now that it was the official Jump Control station. She flipped open the cover and turned the key above the button, arming it. “Standing by,” she answered, her finger hovering over the button.
“Here we go!” Josh announced. He pulled his nose up hard and fired his landing thrusters. Designed to provide the lift needed for atmospheric flight, other than his mains they were the most powerful engine he had and therefore the most effective at quickly reducing their forward velocity. A quick glance to his right and Josh saw Tug doing the same thing with his old fighter as he too tried to make an emergency landing right next to them.
“Let’s hope she remembered to open the outer doors this time,” Josh mumbled.
As they slid in under the flight deck’s canopy, they pushed their nose back down and extended their landing gear. But there was not enough time for the harvester’s gear to fully extend before it hit the flight deck, and the gear folded back up against the harvester’s underside in twisted heaps.
Tug’s fighter fared better, its gear extending more rapidly and locking just in time to touch down yet still with considerable force. Having suffered far less damage than the harvester, Tug’s fighter was able to use its braking thrusters to come to a comfortable and controlled stop.
The harvester, however, was not so lucky. It slid across the flight deck into the outer airlock bay, sparks flying as it careened off the starboard wall and skidded back out toward the center of the bay, nearly colliding with Tug’s fighter.
“They’re down!” Mendez reported.
“Kill main viewer,” Cameron ordered. “Jump!”
A pale blue wave of light washed out from the Aurora’s shield emitters. In a split second, the bluish light grew into a glowing ball that encompassed the entire ship, before it suddenly turned white and fell back in upon her, erasing the ship from local existence, leaving nothing but an empty hole in space for the approaching missiles to cruise through.
“Jump completed,” Abby reported no more than a second later.
“Main viewer up,” Cameron ordered. “Kaylah, get a fix on our position, and then locate that warship. And let’s try to reduce our emissions as much as possible. The harder it is for them to spot us, the more time we’ll have to prepare for our next jump.”
“Already on it, sir,” Ensign Yosef reported.
“Abby, start plotting an escape jump, open space, anywhere outside of this system.
“Which direction?”
“Don’t really care.” Cameron turned to Mendez at tactical. “Did they make it?”
“Don’t know yet, sir. The outer doors just finished closing. The transfer airlock will be repressed in two minutes.”
“Very well. Good work everyone.”
“Commander?” Ensign Yosef called. “Okay, this is really weird.”
“What is it?” Cameron asked tentatively. Their history of unexpected occurrences had been nearly non-stop since they had departed Earth a week ago.
“I’ve found the warship.”
“Great. Where is it?”
“It’s still on the far side of the gas giant.”
“What?”
“Yes, sir. It’s right where it would’ve been before we first detected it.” Kaylah’s eyes suddenly widened and her mouth hung open. “Oh my God, and there’s us.”
“What?” Cameron repeated more emphatically.
“Okay,” Kaylah exclaimed, “this is going to take some getting used to.” She turned to face Cameron. “We’re thirty-eight light minutes out from Haven, sir. We’re seeing what was, what happened thirty-eight minutes ago. I’m seeing us still sitting in the rings.”
“Whoa,” Mendez said aloud.
Cameron smiled. “You’re right. That is going to take some getting used to.”