Absolutely nothing had gone wrong since the Kosmo's dramatic departure from Saturn. Just how the SSG-controlled saucer got beyond the Pluto Cloud, they didn't know. But he simply blew past every SG frontier post he came to, following the saucer's phosphorescent contrail in the sky. There were some SG pursuits, especially once they'd busted out beyond the Solar System and headed in the direction of the Star Trench. Hundreds of regular SG ships were moving back and forth through this corridor. Some were spacefighters, others Starcrashers, still others just hump ships with weapons on them. It didn't make any difference. Anyone who tried to chase the KosmoVox simply got lost in their cosmic dust.
And strangely, Hunter knew — he just knew—what was happening aboard the saucer. He knew about the stink and the slime and the strange calls from ghostly children. He knew about the spray bomb and the popping back and forth between dimensions. He even knew it was the infamous Finn-Cool McLyx at the helm.
He knew these things as clearly as if he was riding aboard the saucer himself.
But he had no idea how he knew these things.
And that was starting to bother him.
Annie was at his side during the entire adventure, of course, kneeling next to him, looking gorgeous, her arm hugging his leg. Zoloff was hanging over his shoulder the whole way, too. They had rooted him on continuously during the chase, praising his flying skills and being very vocal in how heroic he was, taking on the SSG practically single-handedly.
For many reasons, though, it shouldn't have been this easy. The KosmoVox was so old it didn't have any of the ul-trasophisticated long-range scanning equipment that more contemporary Empire ships employed. Nor did it have anything more than a simple navigation suite. But they always knew where they were going and what was around them simply because Zoloff had this fantastic ability to just look out one of the tiny ship's small windows and tell them exactly where they were at any given moment.
And at mis moment they were just minutes from Doomsday 212, and they had apparently caught up with the saucer just in time. The SSG ship was flying very irregularly, almost convulsing its way through space. Hunter had the KosmoVox flying at nearly full speed, its velocity indicator had long ago disappeared into the red. And even though it seemed like the saucer would have the ability to go much, much faster, Hunter had had no problems at all keeping up with it.
And that bothered him, too.
"Now that we have it in sight, we have to do something!" Hunter yelled up to Zoloff now. Their prop core was sizzling badly, and it was not quiet inside the old ship. It almost seemed like they had left a door open or something, and the wind was roaring in — impossible, of course.
Zoloff yelled back, "What are your suggestions?"
Hunter was stumped. He scanned the control panel but did not find what he was looking for.
"Does this rig have any weapons?" he yelled. He couldn't believe he hadn't checked for such a thing before.
There was just a moment's pause, then Zoloff yelled back, "No! There was never any need!"
"Why not?" Annie wanted to know, asking a rare question.
"We built it to move our spies around " Zoloff replied. "We always flew too quick to shoot at anything or to have anything shoot at us."
Just great, Hunter thought. Now what?
"How can we stop it then?" he yelled back to Zoloff. The saucer was getting bigger in their field of vision.
"We'll have to ram it," was Zoloff's surprising answer.
Hunter looked back at him. "Ram it?"
Zoloff got that crazy smile again. "It's an old Russian tactic," he said. "Keep hitting it until it goes down!"
Hunter hesitated, but only for a moment. As desperate as Zoloff's suggestion sounded, they really didn't have any other choice. They had to stop the saucer. A planet full of his friends was in grave danger, and the fate of a large section of space was at stake.
If only I had the Flying Machine, he thought again. His six X blasters would have vaporized the saucer in seconds, as it was unarmed, too, at least with defensive weapons. But he was stuck out here, with his prey before him, and no way to take it down.
Unless he rammed it.
"Brave Russian pilots," Zoloff was telling him. "During the Great Patriotic War. They would get up behind German bombers and use their propellers to saw off their tails. A Heinkel cannot fly without a tail. And that monster in front of us cannot fly with half its body missing."
Hunter couldn't argue that. Plus time was running out. They were just minutes from reaching Doomsday 212 now.
So he would have to ram the SSG ship in order to destroy it, its bomb, and everyone on board.
But he knew by doing so, it would be the end of them, too.
Zoloff patted him once on the shoulder. Annie hugged his leg.
'Tear not, my friend," the Ancient Cosmonaut said. "We are what we are, and we do what we can do."
Hunter tapped his left breast pocket twice, then pushed the throttle just a little bit farther into the control panel.
The KosmoVox shot ahead, slamming into the rear end of the saucer a moment later. The collision was fantastic and violent. Sparks everywhere, fire coming right up to Hunter's eyes, metal crashed and bent. A thunderous booming noise that shouldn't have been.
So this is how it ends, he thought.
"What better way?" another voice asked.
He looked down and saw Annie smiling up at him. At least she will be with me, he thought.
The saucer increased its speed slightly and managed to pull away from the KosmoVox. Hunter stayed right behind it, though. He could see the puncture wound he'd caused in its skin. Air and other unidentifiable gases were spewing out of it. He saw a flicker of flame, too.
"Again!" Zoloff cried.
But Hunter was already jamming the throttle forward. They hit the saucer a second time. Again there was a huge explosion of sparks. Again a surprising, thundering boom! Again, flames that seemed so close to him, they went right around him without burning his face at all.
Again, the saucer managed to pull itself ahead.
Hunter didn't wait for any encouragement this time. He zoomed up, over, and then straight down, this time hitting the saucer square on its circular flight deck. This was the hardest impact of all; this time he knew he'd caused a mortal wound. He'd penetrated the saucer so deeply, he could see the startled, frightened faces of the SSG deck crew. He was almost eyeball to eyeball with McLyx and his comm officers. McLyx saw him, and in a sort of audio slow motion, screamed at him, "You?"
Hunter blinked — and suddenly they were back out in space again. The saucer, heavily damaged, smoking fiercely, was somehow still staggering on its way.
Another push of the throttle. Another collision. This time right into the belly of the ship. Hunter was astonished to see the two bomb security men up on the balcony, staring down at him. Their faces said it alclass="underline" Is this real? Then they quickly fled the bomb bay. Hunter didn't blame them. The nose of the KosmoVox had not only pierced the shimmering pool of water, it came within inches of the big spray bomb itself.
But how could this be? Ramming his way into the saucer's thin skin was one thing. But busting through a trio of Level 10 force fields?
That was almost impossible.
"You're doing it!" Annie cried, this as Hunter laid off the throttle, and the saucer began spinning away from them again. There was no doubt though, it was in serious trouble. "You're doing it!"