interest.”
“If not, then they surely will when that Ta’Akar warship unloads on them,” Jessica said under her breath.
“You don’t think he was bluffing?” Nathan asked.
“You saw the video,” Jessica reminded him.
“Yeah, but we still don’t know for sure who was responsible for that, the Ta’Akar or the Karuzari.”
Jessica looked up from her console to look Nathan in the eyes. “Nathan, at some point you’re gonna have to decide once and for all who you can trust.”
Her words hung in the air for what might have been an eternity, had his thoughts not been immediately interrupted a moment later.
“Captain, I have the shuttle,” the comm-officer reported.
“Loki!” Nathan called over his comm-set. “Did you pick them up? Are you on your way?”
“Yes, but we almost didn’t make it, Captain. It’s a mad house down there. The entire spaceport is locked down. We had to bust our way out!”
“Cam, can you send them an intercept heading and speed?”
“Heading, yes. Speed? Tell them to go as fast as possible.”
“Jessica, how are we looking?”
“It’s going to be close,” she admitted. “If I had a more exact idea of their weapons range-”
“Abby, adjust your plot to start from a few hundred thousand kilometers downrange of the intercept point that Cam is calculating.”
“Got it,” Cam announced. “Sending course data to Abby and the shuttle.”
“Loki. We’re sending you a course heading. Taking that heading at full speed.”
“Uh, okay.”
“You’re going to have to land at full speed. We’ll try to slow down to match you as best we can. But we’ve got bad guys on our tail.”
“Yeah. I’m starting to notice that you guys kind of attract them.”
“We’re three minutes from intercept,” Cameron announced.
“Jess?”
“Four, maybe five until they can get missiles on us.”
“Holy crap, I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Loki exclaimed as he stared out the forward view ports. They were approaching the Aurora at full speed, more than ten times their usual landing speed. Loki knew that it was all relative; all that was important was the difference in velocity between the two ships. But still, both ships were traveling incredibly fast. And the fact that they only had a minute or two to land before the warship that was chasing them both got close enough to fire didn’t help calm his nerves.
“Relax, Loki, I’ve got this,” Josh assured him.
“Incoming!” Jessica announced from the tactical station. “She’s launched four missiles. Impact in two minutes.”
“Prepare to fire all rail guns, point-defense mode, aft,” Nathan ordered.
“The shuttle is still in the line of fire,” Jessica warned.
Nathan snapped his fingers at the comm-officer. “Get me the shuttle.” A moment later the comm-officer turned his head back toward the captain and nodded. “Josh, I need you on the deck now. We’ve got incoming and you guys are blocking my point-defense systems.”
“Working on it.”
“How long?”
“One minute, max.”
Nathan looked at Jessica.
“It takes at least thirty seconds to spin up a point-defense field.”
“Damn!”
The shuttle drifted over the Aurora’s main propulsion section as it continued on its way forward toward the flight deck.
“Can’t you move this thing any faster?” Loki begged.
“A minute ago you were complaining that we were going too fast. Now we’re too slow?”
“Just get us down.”
The shuttle finally cleared the propulsion section and began rapidly descending toward the flight deck.
“Our firing solution is clear,” Jessica announced.
“Fire all rail guns,” Nathan ordered.
Having already been deployed and aimed, the rail guns immediately began to open fire, just as the shuttle touched down gently on the flight deck.
“We’re down!” Loki announced.
“Abby,” Nathan asked. “How quickly can you plot a jump to just out of their weapons range?”
“How far?”
“I don’t care. Whatever is quickest. Just get us out of the range of those missiles!”
“Give me a minute. Cameron, send me your new course.”
Cameron stood slightly and stretched over to her left to reach the middle of the unmanned navigator’s station on the other side of the center pedestal that separated the helm and the navigation consoles in order to transfer the course data to Abby.
“Oh shit,” Jessica exclaimed suddenly. “One got through. Brace for impact!”
As the shuttle began to roll off the landing apron and into the hangar bay, a missile streaked overhead, no more than twenty meters above their heads just to the left of them.
Josh and Loki looked at each other. “Uh oh.”
The missile passed over most of the ship, skimming along until it struck the upper portion of the hull just forward of the primary bulkhead line. The force of the explosion was immense, sending pieces of the outer hull flying in all directions.
The bridge shook violently as the missile exploded. The entire room suddenly shifted to the right, taking the floor out from under anyone standing, as well as sliding the chairs right out from under anyone sitting. Everyone on the starboard side of the bridge immediately found themselves on the floor. Nathan and Jessica, who had been standing at the tactical station, found themselves in a pile just to the left of where they had been standing. Kaylah and the acting communications officer, both of whose consoles were on the port side of the bridge, found themselves slamming into their consoles face first. Cameron, who was partially standing and stretching to her left to try and reach the navigation console went toppling over the center console and into the navigator’s chair, ending up in a pile on the far side of the entire flight console.
The lights went dark, with only the illumination from the main view screen lighting the bridge. A few systems shorted and sparked, but the lights quickly came back on, and the crew picked themselves up. All but one.
“Abby!” Nathan called out. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she answered as she climbed back into her chair.
“Tell me you have a jump ready?”
“Yes, sir. I do.”
“Jump! Jump! Jump!”
As Abby initiated the jump, Jessica, who had just gotten back on her feet quickly killed the point-defense fire. The view screen darkened and a moment later the room was bathed by the blue-white flash of the jump.
“Cam, verify our position!” Nathan turned toward the helm, but Cameron wasn’t there.
“Sir!” Kaylah cried.
Nathan turned his gaze to the left and saw Kaylah dropping to her knees next to Cameron’s motionless body.
“Med-Team to the bridge!” Nathan ordered as he rushed over to Cameron’s side. “Is she?” He couldn’t bring himself to say the word.
Kaylah felt for a pulse at Cameron’s neck. “She’s alive, sir. But her breathing is very shallow, and I can barely feel her pulse.”
“Stay with her, Kaylah.” Nathan rose and immediately sat at the helm to assume the job of flying the ship.
