“Coming around the final corner, Jack,” Kate yelled. “They’re going to have us on sensors any second now!”
“Hopefully their sensors won’t be able to read through the heat signature until it’s too late!” he responded. “With any luck, we’ll look like an asteroid until we pop out of the atmosphere!”
“Port shielding well past overload, Captain!” Sarah said, panic creeping into her voice. “The shock of exiting the atmosphere will probably kill multiple biogel packs.” She stopped, then added, “even the inoculated ones can’t take this pounding.”
“Understood,” Jack grimly replied.
“Exiting atmosphere in five seconds,” Gina announced. “And… mark!”
The War Angel entered a steep upward climb, creaking and groaning as it moved to escape the planet’s pull. They each grabbed onto something as the stress and strain of breaking away made the ship begin to shake furiously. Finally, with a sensation that felt like a rubber band had just been snapped, the ship found itself free and clear and racing ahead.
“Status!” Jack demanded.
Kate stared down the sensor screen and whistled. “Damn. That thing’s three times our size.”
The Captain turned his attention to Sarah. “Tactical?”
“Thirty seconds to firing range, Captain.”
“Orientation?”
Sarah took a second to look at her readout. “She has her top to us.” The young woman tapped the targeting screen. “Taking aim.”
“Jack!” Kate’s voice had a sense of urgency it had previously lacked. “Sensors show that their alarms have gone off and they are actively scanning us.”
“Are they preparing to send fighters?”
Kate shrugged. “Who knows? The landing bay is on the flip side of where we are and our sensors aren’t getting through all their shielding.” She continued parsing the data readouts that were rolling in, then suddenly shoved herself away from the console with a “Whoa.”
“What’s wrong?” Jack asked.
She pointed at a blinking light. “Comm is lit up. We’re getting incoming from the Omegan ship.”
Keys stood from the Captain’s chair. “Sarah- be ready. Gina- steady as she goes. Kate,” he took a breath and exhaled, “put it through.”
The deep and snarled voice that came through the comm speaker gave Richard chills. “Commander Earth vessel. You will slow down, pull alongside and prepare to be boarded for your journey back to Earth space. Do you understand and comply?”
Jack pressed down on the send button and mustered as much fake sincerity as he possibly could. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”
The Omegan boomed in response. “You will prepare to be boarded or you will be destroyed. Comply!”
Sarah waived at Jack and held up eight fingers. Jack nodded at her, then tapped Gina on the shoulder. He pointed to Sarah, then pointed to the helm and drew his hand across his neck in a slicing motion. She nodded at him in understanding.
“Unable,” Jack said in a monotone, “to comply.” He reached down and shut off the comm system completely.
“Gina- now!” Sarah said. The young astrophysicist hit the full braking thrusters, and as she did, Sarah looked at the screen in front of her. Four laser cannons, four blinking buttons waiting to be pushed.
Jack’s head whipped around and he spotted Sarah anxiously awaiting the word.
And it was given.
No comments:
Post a Comment