Stanton looked like he was about to ask what that was supposed to mean, but he stopped as a look of grim understanding came over his face. “Are you ready to die?”
“I guess I am,” Stacia said. “You?”
“Hell no. But since when has death waited for people to be ready?”
He flicked a number of switches, and the engines, which had been in stand-by mode, roared to full power. He made a quick announcement over the intercom that Skin and Kendara had better be strapped in, then he pushed forward the lever that brought Daddy’s Adult Toy into the air.
“Do you remember the coordinates I gave you last night while we were talking about this?” Stacia asked.
“Yep. Looks like they’re just over a kilometer from here.”
“Stay under fifty meters until we get to that point. The security platforms shouldn’t pick us up until then.”
“That’s going to be difficult with these hills.”
“I guess that means now’s your chance to prove that your crash wasn’t really your fault.”
A startling number of red lights and alarms went off as Stanton skimmed the hilly surface on the way to their final launch point. Stanton gave most of the lights no more than a cursory glance before he shut them off, but a couple he left on even though he quieted their alarms. Stacia raised an eyebrow at this, but Stanton either didn’t notice or else couldn’t be bothered to answer her silent question. Apparently, he was in the zone, which was exactly where Stacia needed him to stay.
Just before they reached the coordinates, Stacia saw a number of Shellheads coming over a distant hill. Whether Kendara had lied or simply been wrong, there were significantly more than she had said. If they had waited, they would have been slaughtered. It seemed that Stacia had made the right decision in taking off right away, or at least the decision that was less wrong.
“Okay,” Stanton said. “We’re at the coordinates without getting blown out of the sky yet. Want to double check to make sure I’ve got them right?”
“Look’s correct.”
“And what exactly is it supposed to do if we fly up from here?”
“The security platforms in orbit are positioned so that up to five of them can fire on one location all at once for maximum likelihood of hitting their target even from orbit. When we were planning this, however, we found a few spots where the system isn’t quite as secure. If we start up from here, we’ll have only two of the platforms targeting us to start with, and only one able to get us after we leave the atmosphere. Do you remember what you’re supposed to do at the end?”
“I do, but again, I can’t be sure the ship is in any shape to do it.”
“Too late to worry about that now. Any last words?”
“How about ‘Nobody leaves Leviathan?’”
“Nobody but us,” Stacia said. “Hit it.”
Stanton pulled back on the stick, engaged the thrusters, and shot Daddy’s Adult Toy straight up into the air. Stacia had approximately one to two minutes to contemplate the way the g-forces felt like they were trying to rip her apart before they were likely to encounter the first salvo from orbit. Normally, a ship leaving a planet didn’t have to go this fast anymore, or at this extreme of an angle. Even so, the inertial dampeners should have been limiting the gravitational effects of the takeoff on them. Apparently, that had been one of the flashing red lights. From somewhere behind Stacia in the ship (or beneath her, depending on how she looked at it), Skin screamed at the sudden shock to her system. Stacia felt a sudden swell of pity for the young woman. She’d never even seen a ship take off from the planet’s surface, let alone been in one, and she would be completely unprepared for the roughness of their trip. With any luck, Stacia would be able to comfort her later. For now, trying to get out of her seat to go back to her would be suicide.
Another warning went off on the console, this time one Stacia clearly recognized. “First energy salvo from the platforms coming toward us.”
“I see that on the instruments,” Stanton said. “Hold on.”
“I’m already holding on!”
“Well, hold on harder.”
Stanton pulled the stick in a quick jerk to the left. Somehow, the gravitational forces pulling at her managed to get worse for a moment, and the entire ship shimmied to the side just in time to miss an enormous beam of energy lancing down at them. It vanished out of view below, no doubt hitting somewhere in the hills and vaporizing everything unlucky enough to be in its path.
“I think that one might have singed a wing,” Stanton said through gritted teeth.
“The other platform just fired off two beams at once.”
“Crap. This one’s going to be tricky.” Stanton pulled back on the stick so far that they were practically upside down compared to the ground. Stacia couldn’t see the beams from this angle, but the instruments showed that they criss-crossed right where the Toy would have been if not for Stanton’s maneuver. As Stanton wrestled with the stick in an effort to bring the ship back on the right course, the entire craft started to rattle and shake.
“I’m assuming it’s not supposed to do that?” Stacia asked.
“No. That’s bad.”
“Can the platforms see that we’re having problems?”
“Most likely.”
“Okay. Time to do it then.”
“No, we need to wait until we’re higher.”
“If I say it’s time…”
“You may be the rescuer, but I’m the pilot, and I say that if we try your final trick before we reach vacuum, then we’re all going back down to Leviathan the hard way.”
Stacia would have nodded if her head wasn’t plastered against the back of her seat. “Okay. I trust you.”
“You might want to have the switch for the hold doors ready, though. Our window of opportunity is going to be small.”
Two more beams shot past them, both of which Stanton was able to dodge, but with every maneuver, the ship’s shimmy got worse. A large number of new red lights lit up all across the control panels, including one very large and ominous one that Stacia recognized as belonging to the reactor.
“Stanton…”
“I see that, too. Can’t do anything about it.”
I gave up being a Galactic Marine for this, Stacia thought. Everything that ever meant anything to me. Was it worth it? She looked over at Stanton, the son of the woman who had saved her family. One way or the other, Stacia’s part in all this was done. She’d fulfilled the vow she’d made before she’d even been old enough to truly know what a vow was.
Yes. It was worth it.
“They’re changing tactics,” Stacia said. “Instruments show them launching a barrage of missiles.”
“How many?”
“Uh, all of them, it looks like. Every missile ever. How much longer until we’re in position?”
“Thirty seconds.”
Stacia didn’t bother to tell him what he likely already knew. Missiles would not be as fast as the plasma beams, but that kind of wall of explosive material would be near impossible to dodge. And the instruments said they would strike in twenty-six seconds.
In a last moment of inspiration, Stacia opened a channel to the platforms, then talked as though she’d just done it by accident. “We’re not going to make it!”
“We can make it. Just make sure you…” Stacia almost turned off the channel, but he seemed to understand what she was doing just before he gave their plan away. “Just keep hanging on!”
Nineteen seconds. Stacia forced a hand onto the lever that would blow the emergency explosives on the cargo hold doors.
“I can’t do it!” Stanton said. “I can’t dodge them!” Despite his words, he gripped the stick tighter.