Thank Dynark.
I sprinted out of there and met Narcissa at the ramp.
“Whatever you did, it worked!” she said.
“Terrific. You get up to the bridge and help Ana-Zhi. I’ll get rid of these workers.”
“Aye aye.”
Painfully aware that we were almost out of time, I wrestled all six unconscious workers on to a hover-sled, and covered them with a tarp.
“Jannigan, it’s go time!” Chiraine’s voice sounded over the hold’s comm. “We need to seal it up.”
“Almost there,” I said.
Then I drove the cart out of the Vostok and unceremoniously plopped the bodies down near the cargo carrier train—hopefully out of view from the flight tower.
My Aura said one minute, thirty-four seconds. I hope to hell Narcissa was ready to fly.
As I headed back up the ramp, I heard the clack of weapons being brought to bear behind me.
Not good.
“Halt!”
When I turned around, I found myself facing a squad of heavily-armed legionnaires.
“Hands up, asshole! Now!”
“Hey guys, what’s going on? I’m just trying to—”
“Shut it!” The lead legionnaire swung his assault rifle in my direction. “I said to put your goddamn hands—”
Before he could finish his sentence, the legionnaire’s head vanished in a fiery bloom, courtesy of a bolt from the Vostok’s ion lance.
With the air suddenly lit up with the glow of ion blasts, I dove for the cargo bay doors just as they were whirring shut.
A stray blast from one of the legionnaires hit my armored spaulder, knocking me forward into the hold. But luckily I wasn’t injured. The doors clanged behind me.
I raced up to the bridge, barely glancing at the display screens which showed a feed from the hull’s cameras. Undercarriage-mounted CQ blasters twitched as they cut down the remaining legionnaires. But more would come. I knew that for sure.
The timer alarm on my Aura started beeping as I arrived at the bridge.
“We ready?” I asked.
“Almost!” Narcissa sat in the co-pilot’s seat, while Ana-Zhi occupied the pilot’s seat. Chiraine stood in front of the scanning station, flicking through the video feed.
“You want me to move, captain?” Narcissa asked.
“No, you’re good. I’m going up to man the guns. Anyone have eyes on the hangar?”
“Another squad arrived,” Chiraine said. “They’re keeping their distance.”
“That’s good.”
“Not really. They’ve got a shoulder-mounted void cannon.”
“Ana-Zhi?” I called.
“Thirty seconds, kid!” She frantically punched at various controls on the main datapad.
“Narcissa, get the proximity plates charged. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Aye, aye, captain!”
As I climbed up into the gun turret, I felt the rumble as the defensive baffles began to charge.
“Hang on!” Narcissa yelled. “Incoming!”
I threw myself into the gunner’s swing seat, extended the turret out, and scanned the array of viewport screens. On one display I saw the first shot as it streamed out from the legionnaire’s cannon, an electric-blue surge of energy.
Then on another, I saw the bolt smash into our starboard nacelle, which flashed with ripples of energy against the shields.
The feed from the defense console lit up with various alarms. “They hit us hard!” Narcissa announced. “Negative thirty surge.”
“That’s insane,” Chiraine said. “All that from a mobile cannon?”
“The Mayir do like their toys,” I said.
“Also our shields need more than two minutes to fully charge,” Narcissa said.
Just then I felt the jump of our repulsors engaging and the whine of maneuvering jets extending into position.
“Hang tight, people!” Ana-Zhi said.
Where the hell was the Sean bot? Warning lights flashing on my weapons controller caught my attention. It had lost the connection with the daisy-chain targeting system. What the hells was going on?
Another cannon bolt rocked our hull, exploding into shock waves of energy visible on multiple screens.
“They’re trying to disrupt our thrusters,” Narcissa said. “This is going to be close.”
“Jannigan, why aren’t we shooting back?” Chiraine’s voice was filled with panic.
“Something’s jamming the CQ targeting module,” I said.
Then Ana-Zhi’s voice sounded over the comm. “That a good enough reason for you, princess!”
The ship lurched unsteadily as we hovered up off the deck.
“Turn us around!” I yelled to Ana-Zhi. “Give me the shot!” I’d have to go manual if we were going to defend ourselves.
“On it, captain!”
The console lights flickered as another bolt exploded against the hull.
“Negative seventy,” Narcissa reported. “Very bad.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some movement on one of the video viewports. A humanoid shape sprinted towards the ship, moving inhumanly fast, dodging blasts, rolling behind crates, and leaping up onto high-loaders.
I targeted the hull camera at the shape and activated image tracking. Then I zoomed in.
Chiraine had seen it too. “Is that…?”
“Yeah. That’s my dad.”
“Holy shit.”
I watched as the Sean bot dove between a generator pylon and a refueling station, tucking into a roll, and then sprang up and leapt over the heads of a trio of bewildered soldiers.
“Should we open the bay doors?” Chiraine asked.
“No, definitely not,” Narcissa said. “We’d have to shut down the prox plates and that would be suicide.”
“Won’t we have to shut them down anyway?” Chiraine asked. “How will he ever get on board?”
I had been thinking the same thing, but then the solution hit me.
“Keep the landing gear extended!” I yelled.
“You sure?” Narcissa asked.
“Absolutely.” Then I made a silent prayer to Dynark that the Sean bot was thinking what I was thinking.
14
The Vostok banked and we raced over the surface of the hangar, skimming just a few meters over the rows of parked Mayir craft.
I zoned out for a second, and then when I awoke I had launched a spray of mini-JAGs from our cannons. It was almost like I was on auto-pilot, peppering the line of stingrays with kinetic torpedoes. The parked starfighters convulsed and erupted in a chain of explosions.
“Woooo-hooo!” I shouted.
“Way to go, Jannigan!” Narcissa yelled.
“I thought our targeting was being jammed,” Chiraine said.
“That was all by eye, baby!” I said, hoping that the cocky edge in my voice would cover up for the fact that I had no idea of how I was able to hit those ships without a computer.
“Almost free!” Narcissa said.
I had to focus. We were not out
