“Oh my God, you did it!” Cameron shouted, unaware that her mic was open.
“Of course I did it, love!” he answered as he spun his ship back around, dropped his gear and settled onto the deck. “Sorry I scorched your doors, though.” Cameron quickly keyed off her mic, slightly embarrassed at her outburst. “You gonna let me in or what?”
“Commander, Hangar Bay reports all secure,” the comm officer reported.
Cameron took a deep breath and sighed. “Tell me that guy doesn’t remind you of someone,” she said as she started closing the outer bay door.
“Commander,” Kaylah said. “That contact is back. It just came out from behind the gas giant.”
Cameron had another sinking feeling. “Let me guess.” Cameron muttered.
“Transferring track to tactical.”
Cameron looked at the tactical display, watching the ship ID display as it searched for a match. Within seconds, the ID system displayed the specs for a Ta’Akar cruiser, just like the one they had faced on their way out of the asteroid field a few days ago. “Tell Mendez to get his ass up here,” she ordered as she left the tactical station and made her way to the helm, “I need him at tactical. Call all hands to battle stations,” she added. “We’re leaving the rings.”
The sniper peered into his electronic sighting system, studying the little screen that showed a close up view of the distant greenhouse. Suddenly, the helmeted head and armored shoulders of one of his comrades made his way through the greenhouse back the way he had come a few minutes earlier, in a standard tactical crouch so as to maintain a low target profile. It was an unnecessary effort that the older, more experienced sniper found amusing, attributing the extra caution to the inexperience of many of the newer members of the assault team. Satisfied that his teammate had dealt with the threat in that vicinity, the sniper continued his search for targets of opportunity.
After entering the reactor shack, Jessica removed the helmet she had taken from the soldier she had killed minutes earlier. “Jesus! Do these guys ever clean their gear?” she cursed as she tossed the helmet aside and removed the shoulder armor.
She looked around the dimly lit room until she located the target of her search-the shield control panel. There were four rows of toggle switches, about a dozen or so in each row. At one side there was a rocker switch and a lever. Unfortunately, they were all marked in a language that she did not understand.
“When in doubt, turn them all on.” She quickly flipped all the toggle switches up and depressed the rocker switch. All of the little green lights above each toggle switch lit up. “So far so good,” she said as she grabbed the lever and moved it all the way over. One of the large metal boxes in the room began to hum loudly, sending shivers up her spine. “Whoa. I hope it’s supposed to do that.” A moment later, the red light above the lever turned green, and she heard a strange whistling hum coming from outside. She moved over to the outside door of the shack and peeked out. Above the sinkhole, there was a shimmering glow of slightly opaque white with little specks dancing about. “So that’s what a shield looks like, huh?” She looked over at the main farm house, not more than ten meters away. She could see soldiers about to enter the back of the house, obviously hoping to get the drop on Tug and his wife who were still firing on the troops near Tobin’s ship. To her right, she could see Tobin through his cockpit windows, a nervous grin on his gaunt face as he watched the assault from the safety of his ship. “I knew we couldn’t trust that skinny little fucker,” she mumbled to herself, as she turned her comm-set back on.
“They’re coming around to your side!” Ranni warned.
Tug looked out the broken window in front of him and saw two black and gray soldiers running for cover. He opened up on them, managing to kill the second one but missing the first when his battery pack gave out.
“Mine is dead!” he hollered.
“Take mine!” Ranni ordered, tossing her weapon to him as she turned to run towards the kitchen. “I’ve got another one in the kitchen!”
Suddenly, the kitchen door swung open and two red bolts of energy burst forth, striking Ranni in the chest, knocking her backwards and killing her instantly.
“RANNI!” Tug screamed as he ran to her. He dropped to his knees at her side, clutching her still smoldering and lifeless body as two soldiers stormed into the room from the kitchen door and grabbed him, wrestling away his weapon and holding him face down to the floor. They were followed by their squad leader, who strode confidently in, full of swagger. “Pick him up,” he ordered.
“What was that?” Nathan asked when he heard the hum from outside.
“She did it,” Jalea announced as she headed out the door. “She got the shield up.”
“Wait! Where the hell are you going?” Nathan watched as she ran out across the compound, stopping momentarily at the vehicle. “Is she crazy?”
Jalea sprinted the remaining distance from the vehicle to the back of Tobin’s ship.
Nathan struggled with his fear as he tried to decide what to do. He didn’t know what Jalea was up to, but he was pretty sure it was a better plan than sitting on his ass waiting to get shot. At least with the overhead shield active, the snipers couldn’t pick them off.
Nathan knew the shield might not last, and his fear of dying doing nothing quickly overcame his fear of dying doing something. “Stay here!” he instructed Deliza as he exited the shack in pursuit of Jalea-who by now had already circled around the aft end of Tobin’s ship.
Jalea peeked around the engine cowling of Tobin’s ship. His engines were still idling, and while in such close proximity the noise was almost deafening. After seeing that there were no soldiers in sight, she moved around and made her way quickly and quietly up the cargo ramp into Tobin’s small ship.
She stopped at the top of the ramp to peek inside toward the cockpit. Seeing only Tobin, she strode calmly into the ship and headed forward toward the cockpit, her weapon held down at her side.
Tobin was happily enjoying his view of the capture of Tug through the front windows of the main house when he sensed someone’s presence and spun around. “Jalea,” he said, his expression suddenly becoming anxious. “I can explain-”
“A little early, aren’t you?” Jalea asked coldly as she raised her weapon.
Tobin’s eyes widened. “Wait. We had a deal-”
Jalea fired a single shot, striking Tobin in the head, turning his skull into a mound of burnt skin, hair, and bone that slumped forward against the console as it smoldered.
Nathan came charging up the ramp a moment later, his weapon held ready. He came to a sudden stop, repulsed by the sight and smell of Tobin’s smoldering head.
“What happened?”
“He was working with for Ta’Akar,” she exclaimed.
Nathan was furious. “I thought you said we could trust him!”
“I said we had used his services many times in the past,” she corrected. “I never said I trusted him.”
“But-”
“Apparently, the Ta’Akar offered him greater payment than we did,” she explained as she turned to exit.
“How the hell are we going to fly this ship?”
“I will fly it.”
“Oh, so now you’re a pilot as well?” he asked as he followed her.
Jessica slowly opened the back door to the main house and crept inside the storm porch. As she carefully closed the door, she noticed Tug’s youngest girl hiding in a corner, huddled down low. Jessica smiled at her, and held one finger up to her pursed lips, gesturing for her to stay quiet. The little girl nodded agreement. Jessica made a goofy face at the girl to ease her tension but only got the slightest of smiles. Jessica continued on, hoping the little girl would be smart enough to stay hidden.