“Hold up, hold up,” Dave said. “Our speed is decreasing and from the image of the other saucer on the wall, our shots are getting weaker, too.”
“So what’s going wrong?”
Just then a light flash from the other saucer blasted in through the side wall, sending sharp metal fragments into the passenger section. Air started screaming out of the hole making it hard to breath. Dave pulled back on the thruster and the elevation control. The saucer slowed and dropped rapidly, breaking away from the enemy craft. Honi felt light headed, even as she breathed harder, the oxygen was being sucked out of the hole in the saucer. As they dropped below 15,000 feet, fresh air began rushing back in through the hole.
“So what the hell happened?” Honi asked, still trying to catch her breath.
“I think weapons, shields and thrusters all run off the same power system,” Dave said. “We need to let them recharge!”
The saucer hovered in the air as Dave frantically searched the displays on the console.
“Yes. See this indicator over here? Available power is rising.”
“They’re coming after us!” Honi shouted. “What are we going to do?”
“We need time to recharge the weapon system.” Dave turned off the shield and waited.
The enemy saucer dove in the distance and commenced an attack run at them.
“They’re coming in!” Honi shouted. “We’re sitting ducks!”
“That’s exactly what I want them to think,” Dave replied. He watched the available power rise. “Just a little bit more.”
The enemy craft was streaking toward them at high speed. From the trajectory, Honi realized the other saucer would pass to their right, firing at them in the process.
“Shields on now!” Dave shouted. “Hang on!” He moved the saucer directly across the path of the oncoming craft, which instead of firing was maneuvering, trying to avoid a collision.
“Fire now!”
Honi tapped the red dot and a bright flash of light struck the other saucer on the lower surface, sending bits of debris into the air as it sped by. Dave touched the control for cloaking and a yellow ring appeared next to the red ring around the interior of the dome.
“I think their sensors can still pick up where we are,” Dave said.
Honi looked at the available power indicator. The power was dropping slowly. “Cloaking draws a lot of power.”
Dave glanced at the indicator. “It does. Let’s give it a minute and see what they do.”
The other saucer reversed direction and came at them again.
“The cloaking doesn’t hide us from them, so there’s no point in having it on.” He turned the cloaking off. The yellow ring around the inner dome disappeared. The enemy craft was making another run at them, this time keeping a little more distance in between.
“Don’t fire until they’re directly to our side. Shortest distance.”
“Right,” Honi said.
Just before she tapped the red dot, the other saucer fired. Another hole blasted through the wall of their saucer, injuring one of Dave’s men. Honi tapped the red dot and the flash of light impacted the other saucer, sending more debris into the air.
“Damn. That went right through the shield!”
Dave spun the saucer around, increased the thruster control and took off in pursuit of the other saucer. The rush of air through the open holes made a deafening roaring sound.
“Obviously we didn’t hit anything vital,” Dave shouted over the noise. “Anybody have any idea where the most vulnerable place is on that thing?”
“Try the dome on the underside!” Andropov shouted. “That’s where the main power source is located.”
Honi looked at the image of the other saucer on the inner wall of their craft. There was a bright red circle in the center of the craft. The default aiming point must be dead center, she thought.
“That must be the targeting point,” Honi said. “How do I move it?”
Dave was glancing around the control console. “I don’t know!” he shouted.
“Try richtenpunkt or richtenzeiger!” Andropov shouted.
“Richtenzeiger! I found it!”
She moved her finger inside the circle under the label. The targeting circle moved on the image of the other saucer. Honi settled the bright red circle on the side of the dome under the saucer where the power source was located.
They were gaining on the other vehicle rapidly. Dave dove below the other saucer and Honi tapped the red dot. The other saucer bolted suddenly to the right, leaving the impact of the light flash glancing off the under-side edge of the dome. The other saucer fired and again blasted another hole through the side of their craft. Pieces of light gray metal exploded through the inner room. One of the fragments struck Honi in right the shoulder, embedding itself in her muscle.
Dave adjusted his course and closed again on the other saucer, diving under to the left. Honi fired at the same time as the other saucer. This time they were hit with a glancing blow and the other saucer took a direct hit on the underside of the dome as it turned sharply in front of them. The bright white glow on the surface of the other saucer blinked on and off quickly and then went out. The other saucer tipped to the side and began falling toward the mountains below. Dave and Honi watched the tumbling craft as it fell. It crashed into the rocky side of a mountain.
Honi reached over and pulled the small piece of metal from her shoulder. She winced as it came out. She looked around. There wasn’t any place to dispose of it, so she tucked it into a vest pocket. “How did you know what to do?” she asked Dave.
“Well, when we fired at them from fighter jets, they always jumped up and went over the incoming missiles. Those missiles climb slowly, but another saucer doesn’t have the same limitations. That’s why I went down and under.”
“And the rest?”
“Observe and adapt. Unofficial motto of my unit.”
“Well, it certainly worked.”
The President’s Unit medic unbuckled from his harness, came over to Honi, cut the sleeve off her shirt and wrapped her wound.
“Thanks.”
The medic attended to two other members of the President’s Unit who had also been struck by debris, and then strapped back into his harness.
Dave guided the saucer north over Puerto Rico. When Bermuda appeared on the navigational display he turned northwest.
“What do you think the little yellow dots are?” Honi asked.
Dave looked at the navigational display. He shrugged. “Commercial aircraft, maybe?”
“Could they see us?”
“Good question. We’re coming into US airspace. We don’t want to stir things up too much. NORAD will have us on radar soon, if they don’t already. Activate the cloaking again.”
She touched the circle and a yellow ring appeared around the dome in the ceiling again.
“So we’re no longer on radar?”
Dave smiled back at her. “That is my assumption.”
“I’ve got to get one of these for myself. This is just so cool.”
“Isn’t it?” They cruised northwest for a few more minutes.
Dave pulled back on the speed and started dropping in altitude. “I hope everybody got their orders straight. Touch the ‘cloak’ circle again.”
She did and the yellow ring around the dome went off.
Red dots began to appear in the navigation circle, some closing in on them.
“Moment of truth,” Dave said.
Honi noted how close the red dots were getting to them. “Our fighters?”
Dave nodded. “Don’t touch any red dots. They’re friends — it’s just that this system won’t think so.”
He slowed the saucer even more. Two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets pulled alongside of them. A blinking white ring appeared around the red dot on the right.