“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.”
— 10 -
As soon as the inner transfer airlock door rose far enough, crewmen carrying portable fire extinguishers, rescue gear, and medical bags came ducking under, pouring into the bay. Most headed straight for the harvester, knowing that it contained their landing party.
Tug’s fighter, having landed without significant damage, had already pulled to one side and shutdown its engines. By the time the would-be rescuers reached him, his canopy was already open and his helmet removed.
The harvester however, was in much worse shape. Having slammed into the deck and into the wall before sliding back into the open, the poor little ship was fairly mangled and would obviously never fly again.
As rescuers ran towards the harvester, the hatch cracked open slightly. Vladimir pushed from the inside, trying to get the stuck hatch open as acrid smoke from burning circuits within the ship came seeping out of the hatchway. The rescuers quickly climbed onto the battered harvester and began prying at the hatch from the outside, but to no avail. Within seconds, another rescuer brought up a heavily powered-cutting tool and quickly sliced through the hinges of the hatch, freeing it from the harvester.
With the hatch now removed, the remaining gray smoke poured out of the harvester. Vladimir quickly tossed
