“Where’s that?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“Right at the bottom. Chiraine, zoom in for us.”
The image grew in size until the bottom of the control station filled the screen. The primary reactor appeared to be a two-hundred-meter diameter sphere suspended in an inner chamber.
“That’s where we need to take the Levirion,” the Sean bot said.
“Wait,” I said. “We’re going in up here?” I pointed to the hangar area at the top of the station.
“Yes.”
“And we need to get down there?”
“Yes.”
“That’s over seven hundred meters.”
“I’m aware of that, JJ. I’ve been ingesting these schematics as we speak. Chiraine, you might want to send them to everyone’s Aura.”
“Will do,” she replied.
“Time check?” the Sean bot asked. “Anyone?”
I was certain that he knew exactly what the elapsed time was. This was just my dad’s way of ‘managing’ us.
“Four minutes until intercept,” Ana-Zhi said.
“Jannigan, get up to the turret and prepare the torps.”
“The Mayir are still out of range,” I said.
“They won’t be for long.”
That was true. I climbed up and got settled in the swing seat as the weapons controller flashed to life.
“JJ, we primed? I want the plasma heads.”
I confirmed with the AI-assist, then said, “Yeah, tubes are loaded.”
“Keep it manual, son. You’re going to be targeting the tunnel superstructure.”
“Not the Baeder?”
“Negative. We want to get in there and close the door.”
“But there are other entrances,” I said. “This isn’t the only way in.” I had the schematics up on my Aura and counted at least five other tunnels into the main hangar.
“This is the only entrance large enough to accommodate a ship the size of the Baeder,” the Sean bot said. “Now focus, will you, JJ?”
I still wasn’t convinced that blasting the Fountain was the smartest idea. We didn’t know if it had any sort of point defense systems that might lock on us and blow us into space dust. But it was pretty clear that the Sean bot wasn’t receptive to any naysaying right about now.
“In about sixty seconds, things are going to get a little intense for you organics,” he said. “Strap in, everybody.”
The targeting system sounded an alert, and the AI-assist requested a handover. The aft viewport screen showed the Baeder closing on us quickly.
“They’re on us!” I said. “Range is—”
“Executing J-turn!” the Sean bot interrupted me. “Hang on!”
I locked my harness just as the ship abruptly spun—a full 180 degrees rotation according to the gyro display. Then everything shook as the thrusters fired in a braking maneuver that turned my stomach inside-out. The lights flickered, screens went dark, and we lost gravity for a few seconds as the compensators struggled against overload.
“You’ll have less than ten seconds to take two shots, JJ. Take a deep breath and make both of them count, son.”
“Two seconds? Starting when?”
The bow screen came back to life, with my targeting computer overlaying a barrage of real-time data and reticiles on the video feed. The screen showed the hangar tunnel zooming past as we hurtled backwards through it.
“Fire at will!”
I didn’t do anything dumb like close my eyes, but I did feel myself relax and almost melt into my gunner’s seat.
Then it was like time slowed down.
When I saw the massive beams and struts appear, I tracked them with my HUD and then fired. One, then two.
It was all over in less than a second.
But then the video feed burned hot white.
Boom!
“Torps away!” I tried to say, but my voice was drowned out by the cacophony of engine roar, thruster fire, and z-field generators cycling up.
The display came back to reveal that we were now inside the hangar itself, a cavernous space that could easily fit twenty Vostoks end-to-end.
Thank Dynark we were stopping. I had a vision of us punching through the other side of the hangar—or more likely exploding against it. But the thrusters arrested our motion and the Sean bot deftly spun the ship around and eased it into a docking berth.
“What just happened?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“We’re docked and Jannigan destroyed the hangar tunnel and bought us some time,” the Sean bot said. “Let’s not waste it.”
“Agreed,” Narcissa said.
I climbed down from the turret to find the Sean bot extending a mooring arm and securing the ship. I didn’t even know that the Vostok had a mooring arm.
“Nice shooting there, Jannigan,” Narcissa said.
“Thanks.”
We all made our way to the weapons locker to gear up.
“Sidearms only,” the Sean bot said. “We’ll likely need our hands free.”
Down in the hold we suited up, checking each other’s seals as well as our own. There was no time to outfit a sled, so we just stuffed side bags with whatever we could carry.
“Jannigan, you get to hold on to this.” The Sean bot handed me the Levirion.
“Oh goody.”
“Don’t lose it, son.”
“Yeah, no pressure.”
“Everyone check your Aura,” Chiraine said. “See the schematics?”
“Yeah,” Narcissa said. “But I’d feel a bit better if there was some atmosphere in there. And gravity.”
“There is an atmosphere,” the Sean bot said. “Rhya atmosphere. Nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide. In that order.”
“In other words, keep your hat on, sister,” Ana-Zhi said.
“And your magtouch activated,” I chimed in. “We probably don’t want to be floating away in there.”
“Move out,” the Sean bot said.
After disembarking from the Vostok, we found ourselves in a vast enclosed landing bay and dry dock filled with gantries, staging pads, and maintenance bays. A fair number of Rhya craft were moored on the deck. Their odd organic shapes made them look more like giant sea creatures than starships.
Ana-Zhi noticed Narcissa eyeing one of the ships. “Don’t get any ideas, stretch. You wouldn’t even be able to find the on button for the simplest of Rhya ships.”
“I can look, can’t I?”
We ducked under a cluster of conduits and cables, weaved around refueling stations and towers of scaffolding, and finally reached a thick blast door set in a circular wall at the center of the station.
