“Do all sixteen-year olds know so much about field generation and superluminal mechanics?”
“I do not believe so,” she admitted, slightly embarrassed. “It is a hobby of mine.”
“A hobby? The only hobby a sixteen-year old girl should have is chasing sixteen-year old boys.
“I’m afraid I do not leave the farm very often,” she admitted.
“That explains it,” Vladimir mumbled.
“I’m sorry?” she said.
“Nothing. Now, tell me about the pulse cannons you spoke of earlier.”
“Tobin is definitely headed for the spaceport,” Ensign Yosef reported. “He’s decelerating and losing altitude. He’s preparing to land.”
“Damn it,” Cameron swore. “Comm, see if you can raise Tobin on the tight-beam.”
“Aye, sir,” the communications officer responded.
“What the hell is he doing?” Cameron muttered.
“Captain,” the comm officer reported. “I’m unable to establish contact with Tobin’s ship. In fact, I’m no longer picking up any transmissions from Haven, sir.”
“What? How can that be?”
“Either our receivers are down, or that entire moon has stopped transmitting.”
“Keep trying,” Cameron ordered. “And use the wide-band if you have to.”
Tobin’s ship rolled off the taxi-way and turned into his berth. Tobin had paid particular attention to adhere to the same landing patterns as always, so as not to attract undue attention to his ship. As soon as he rolled to a stop and dropped the loading ramp on his starboard side, the black and gray armored troops came rushing out of the service building and boarded his small ship. Only being designed to seat six people at the most, the assault team was forced to stand for the short flight yet to come.
The squad leader stepped up to the cockpit door, leaning his head inside. “Get us airborne,” he ordered.
Tobin nervously applied power, backing his ship out of the berth and back out onto the taxi-way, turning and heading forward once more toward the nearest launch apron. Applying more power than usual, he rolled a bit faster than the maximum taxi-speed. He wanted to get this last trip over as quickly as possible.
Without even coming to a complete stop at the launch pad, Tobin applied maximum thrust to lift his small, heavily laden ship into the air, turning inland.
“Tobin is airborne again,” Yosef reported.
“That was fast,” Cameron commented. “Any luck raising him?” she asked her comm officer.
“No, sir.”
“Something is not right,” Cameron said to herself. “Kaylah, keep a close eye on Tobin, and let me know-”
“I’m going to lose him before he reaches the landing party, sir.”
“What?”
“The moon’s rotation, we’re going to lose line of sight in just a few minutes.”
“Damn it! Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Cameron complained.
“I’m sorry, sir. It didn’t occur to me until just now.”
Cameron chastised herself for admonishing Ensign Yosef. She was a science officer after all. She had been serving as the Aurora’s only sensor officer for just a few days, and without the benefit of proper training. “That’s all right, Kaylah,” Cameron said, regaining her composure. “Track them as long as you can.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Comm, try to raise the captain, any way you can. Warn him to be ready for anything.”
“I’ll try, sir,” the comm officer promised. “But even if he were on the air, once we lose line of sight, contact will be impossible.”
“We’ll reach the first touchdown point in thirty seconds,” Tobin shouted from the cockpit.
The squad leader turned to face the men. “Snipers! Prepare to deploy!” The four snipers were standing in pairs at the front of each line of men standing in rows down the center of the ship. Each held tightly onto the overhead rail to steady themselves as the ship turned and banked on its landing approach.
Outside, the small ship kicked up dust and debris as it touched down on the barren ground a few hundred meters from the sinkhole which contained Tug’s farm. Both the cargo door on the starboard side and the personnel door on the port side deployed as soon as the ship touched down, and the four snipers bounded down the ramps, each pair deploying in opposite directions. The snipers all ran low, heading quickly for whatever concealment they could find in their dash to take up positions along the rim of either side of the massive sinkhole.
“Can we go now?” Tobin asked the squad leader.
“Give them two minutes, then lift off and proceed to the insertion point,” he ordered.
Tobin took a deep breath, rolling his eyes as he rubbed the sweat from his hands on his pant legs.
“Commander,” Ensign Yosef announced. “The cargo shuttle is on approach.
Cameron had no interest in the cargo shuttle, until an idea hit her. “Comm, see if you can contact the cargo shuttle.”
A moment later, the comm officer reported back. “Cargo shuttle answers comms, sir.”
“Then the problem is only long range. Did you check the comm array?”
“Yes, sir, ran the diagnostics three times. It checks out.”
A painful thought suddenly occurred to Cameron. “Are we being jammed somehow?” The question was directed at the communications officer.
“I don’t know, sir. This console doesn’t have the capability to determine the cause of the loss of signals. But if we were being jammed, wouldn’t I hear static or something?”
“I’m not really sure,” Cameron admitted. Their electronic countermeasures officer had been killed when his console had exploded in his face when they had rammed a Ta’Akar warship days ago. And the ensign now manning communications from an auxiliary console also lacked the proper training for his current position. It was the same way throughout the ship. Key positions were being filled with anyone remotely capable. Right about now, Cameron was sorely in need of both those particular skill sets.
“Did you hear that?” Jessica asked as they strolled across the compound. She stopped dead in her tracks, trying to listen more intently.
“Hear what?” Nathan asked, stopping as well.
“I thought I heard a ship,” she told him.
“I don’t hear anything,” Nathan said.
Jessica listened intently for a moment longer. “I could’ve sworn I heard a ship coming in.”
“Are you sure it is safe?” Vladimir asked, standing at the top of the boarding ladder next to the cockpit.
“Of course,” Deliza promised with excitement. “My father and I have been working on this for years. We have powered up the reactors many times. It is completely safe, I assure you.” Deliza opened a small access panel on the underside of the ship, revealing externally mounted controls for the starboard reactor core. In a few moments, the panel came to life as the small ship began to hum almost imperceptibly. “See, I told you. The starboard reactor is now running at ten percent.”
A steady beeping sound began to emanate from the cockpit next to Vladimir. He leaned down to locate the source of the alert, and found a large red lamp along the right side of the forward console, flashing repeatedly in time with the beeping. “What is this flashing light?” he asked, unable to decipher the symbols that identified the light’s meaning.
“What light?” Deliza climbed up the boarding ladder, squeezing in next to Vladimir to look for herself. “That’s the proximity alert. But it should only go off when an enemy is nearby.”
Vladimir froze as he noticed a distant sound. Within seconds the sound became louder-the engines of an approaching ship. “Go find your father,” he told her, pushing her down the ladder.
“It’s just a malfunction,” she insisted.
The sound of a ship descending to land in the middle of the compound became quite evident. Vladimir recognized the sound of Tobin’s whiny engines, and they were working harder than they should for an empty ship. “Go now!” he barked. “And stay within the tunnels. Do not go outside!” he added as he jumped down the ladder behind her.
