Alice was under no illusions about the danger she was in. Once they got to their destination, she was pretty sure Darting would leave no witnesses. She'd either shoot Alice and Ben out of hand, or her people would arrange for them to disappear. Either way, the future was bleak.
Alice considered calling the spaceport, or the orbiter, or any nearby ships for help, but what could they do? Plus Darting would hear her speaking the minute she tried to communicate with anyone. Her lips pressed into a thin line, Alice continued to plot as the ship rose higher into the morning sky. They'd almost reached 20,000 metres of altitude, far out over the ocean, before she risked a look back at her passengers. The piloting console was exposed to the sunshine, with the canopy directly overhead, but the passenger chairs were further back, set lower in the flight deck. Anyone sitting in those chairs, like Darting for example, only had a narrow field of view out the top of the canopy. They couldn't look out the sides, and they certainly couldn't see the ocean, far below. In fact, Darting had no idea how high up they were, and that gave Alice an idea. It was a bit crazy, it was unlikely to work, and she'd probably get shot into the bargain, but she couldn't think of anything better.
"We're going to need some fuel," she shouted over her shoulder. "I'm just setting down at the spaceport. It won't take long."
"I didn't say you could land," said Darting.
"If we don't refuel, we'll be landing whether you want to or not," said Alice drily.
"All right, but be quick about it."
"We'll be landing in about five minutes."
Alice leaned forward and selected a sub-menu on the console in front of her. She typed out a command for Arnie, the ship's computer, and submitted it: Arnie, don't speak. Wait five minutes then idle the engines.
The reply was immediate: Understood.
After you cut the thrust, say the words 'landing complete'.
Complying, was the response.
Alice smiled. As an ex-military ship, Arnie was not one to question orders. Even crazy ones. Quickly, she typed another command: Don't fire the jets unless we're about to crash into the surface.
Understood, replied Arnie.
Alice glanced over her shoulder. "We'll be setting down in a minute. Hold on, you might feel a bump." I doubt that very much, she thought, since they weren't actually landing anywhere. On cue, the engines throttled back to a muted roar. The ship's anti-gravity field cancelled out the sudden loss of altitude, but even so Alice felt a twinge in her stomach. The ship was no longer climbing, and was now dropping like a rock towards the planet. By her calculation, they had six or seven minutes before they smashed into the ground.
"Landing complete," said Arnie.
Alice threw off the harness and stood up. "Just going to organise the ground crew," she told Darting.
"Why do you need to speak to them?"
"Last time I filled up here, they used the cheap stuff. I had engine troubles for a week afterwards."
"All right, but don't move out of my sight. And nobody leaves the ship."
Alice gestured at the staircase, which was at the rear of the flight deck. "I've got to go down to the airlock."
"Then we're coming with you."
"Whatever." Alice pushed past as Darting got up, her gun still on Ben, and took the ladder to the airlock with the others behind her. The engines were still idling, their noise almost disguising the sound of wind whistling past the ship. To Alice the faint noise was unmistakable, but she knew the ship and Darting didn't. The anti-gravity cancelled out all motion, so there wasn't even a tell-tale swaying as they dropped towards the ground. In fact, if she hadn't already known, it would have been almost impossible to tell the ship wasn't sitting on the ground. She just hoped Darting wasn't some expert on space travel.
"What's all that noise?" asked Darting. "Why are the engines still running?"
"They have to tick over for a few minutes. It's a cooldown period." Alice held her breath. If Darting did know anything about spaceships, the game was over. However, the woman said nothing, and Alice relaxed.
The three of them reached the airlock, and Alice reached for the hatch set into the floor. Before she opened it, she caught Ben's eye. "Hang on tight, the blast from the thrusters is strong enough to rip your clothes off."
"Just get on with it," snapped Darting, keeping them both covered with her gun.
Alice shrugged and unsealed the hatch. The force of the air pressure blew it in, slamming it back against the deck, and a howling, whistling wind thundered into the ship. Alice's ears popped under the immense air pressure, and they were all thrown backwards, away from the hatch. The gun went flying, skidding across the floor, and Alice recovered first, diving across the deck to scoop it up. Before her fingers closed on the grip, Darting's shoe came down on her wrist, pinning her arm to the deck. Then Darting crouched, fighting the roaring headwind as she scrabbled for the gun. She managed to get hold of it by the barrel, and as she turned it in her hand, ready to fire, Alice realised her gamble had failed. She'd lost.
The gun came up, and Alice braced herself for the shot. Then she realised Darting couldn't shoot her … there was nobody else to fly the jet!
Unfortunately, nobody told Darting. Her face was a mask of anger after Alice's ruse, her eyes mere slits, and as she levelled the weapon it was obvious she was going to shoot.
Ben saw what was about to happen, and he sprang at Darting, ramming her with his shoulder. She was thrown across the airlock directly towards the hatch, and Alice's eyes widened as she saw the woman heading
