“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
