Nathan copied Vladimir’s preparations, bracing himself in similar fashion as the small ship bounced and vibrated on its wild ascent.
“Enemy vessel is breaking the horizon,” Mendez reported from tactical. “She’ll have guns on us in thirty seconds.”
Cameron looked at her flight and navigation displays. If they broke orbit now and accelerated away from the planet at maximum sub-light speeds, she could jump away without taking any fire from the incoming warship. But that would condemn the entire landing party, which she wasn’t ready to do just yet. On the other hand, if she waited too long, by the time the harvester caught up to them, there was a good chance there would be little left of them to catch up to.
“Abby?” Cameron hailed. “I don’t suppose we could jump from orbit?”
“I would not advise it,” she warned.
“Yeah, why is that again?”
“The effect of the moon’s gravity well could cause our arrival point to be considerably off target. Who knows where we could come out-”
“Yeah, in the middle of a sun. I got that. But how far off might Haven’s gravity well make us?”
“I’m not really sure. It took us days to calculate the effects of Jupiter’s gravity well on our first jump.”
“Well, if you had to guess.”
“I’m not sure I could. There are so many variables-like the distance of the jump, for example. And there are two gravity wells here. Both the moon’s and the planet’s.”
“But if the jump were short? Say, a few million kilometers?”
Abby was suddenly deep in thought. “Give me a minute,” she said as she began furiously making calculations.
“We’re hit!” Loki cried out. The back of Nathan’s head slammed against the wall as the aft end of the harvester suddenly shifted violently to starboard.
“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Josh reported. “We’re still good!” Josh pulled the control stick hard over and gave it a twist with his right hand as he manipulated the main thrust throttles with his left. The harvester suddenly rolled to starboard, going into a spiraling maneuver that caused them to drop significantly below their original glide path, forcing their pursuers to adjust their attack. The maneuver was just another of a series of bizarre attempts to avoid the incoming fire from the two Ta’Akar fighters that had intercepted them shortly after takeoff.
So violently had Josh twisted the little harvester around that Nathan had completely lost track of their course and attitude in relation to Haven. During his flight training back at the academy, he had spent several months qualifying in small tactical craft, including the Tactical Space Fighter used by the Fleet. That training had included an array of evasive tactics and maneuvers, but none of that had prepared him for what they were currently experiencing. It was all that Nathan could do to keep from dry heaving.
He opened his eyes. The cabin was darker than before, lit only by the flashes of energy blasts as they streaked by them. The internal lighting had been shut down to save power for use by the harvester’s limited shielding. He looked at Vladimir, who also looked a little shaken.
A grin suddenly spread across Vladimir’s face. “This pilot! He is either very good, or he is very drunk!”
Nathan looked at Tug’s daughters. Deliza held her little sister tightly on her lap. The child had her face buried in her sister’s chest, not wanting to see any of what was going on around them.
Jalea appeared nearly as shaken as the rest of them, but continued to stare straight ahead out the front windshield, as if trying to keep track of the events transpiring outside in the vacuum of space.
The ship rocked again as another blast stuck them on the starboard side, super-heating the bulkhead that Vladimir was leaning against, drawing a Russian curse as he leaned forward abruptly to avoid serious burns to his back. Luckily, the cold of space quickly cooled the exterior, and within seconds the bulkhead was only warm to the touch.
“Bozhe Moi,” he exclaimed. “The hull must not be very thick.” His eyes were wide with the realization of how little material was between them and the weapons that were being repeatedly fired at them.
“There she is!” Loki announced, pointing to the right.
“She’s taking fire!” Josh added.
Despite the shaking and the sparks showering down from an overhead circuit panel, Nathan somehow managed to get to his knees and crawl forward enough to peer out the forward windshield of the harvester. A few hundred kilometers in front of them was the Aurora-his ship-and it was taking fire as it waited for them to reach the relative safety of her hangar bay. It was nothing more than a speck. If it hadn’t been for the explosions of energy weapons against her hull, he might not have been able to pick it out against the stars.
“Two minutes!” Mendez called over the noise of battle. He watched his tactical display as the harvester darted about, jerking to and fro as he tried to shake the fighters on his tail. “He can’t evade them forever! Nobody’s that lucky!”
Explosions otherwise silent in the dead of space, reverberated through the ship. Alarms warning of stressed systems played from nearly every console on the bridge. The constant din of the bridge staff as they communicated with the rest of the crew throughout the ship during battle was almost overwhelming.
“How’s it look, Abby?” Cameron asked from the helm.
“I think it’ll work,”
“You think?”
“It will work,” she insisted. “How far do you want to jump?”
“How long does it take to calculate a normal jump, say something at least a few light years?”
“Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes?”
“How long will it take you to calculate a jump thirty light minutes away from here?”
“A few minutes at the most,” Abby said.
“So quick?”
“The shorter the jump, the easier it is to calculate.”
“Do it,” Cameron ordered.
The ship rocked as another missile got through their weakened point-defense field.
“Damn it! I wish I could take evasive maneuvers!” But she knew she had to hold a steady course until the harvester made it safely to their flight deck.
“We just lost another turret!” Mendez reported. “We’re down to eight!”
Cameron knew that there was no way they could maintain an effective point defense field with only eight functioning rail gun turrets.
“Shit! There’s a third one!” Loki announced. “Four o’clock, farther back!”
“Son-of-bitch!” Josh declared. “Who are you people?” Josh shouted over his shoulder. He was beginning to wonder who it was he and Loki had gotten mixed up with, and why the Ta’Akar wanted them so badly.
It was the first time since they had been rescued that Nathan heard any desperation in the crazy pilot’s voice. Nathan looked at Vladimir, whose own expression was as serious as he had ever seen.
“Na…an…you…py?” The voice over his comm-set was broken and barely understandable. But it was familiar. He instinctively cupped his hands over his ears, trying to isolate the voice from all the noise in the bouncing ship.
“…than, this is…ssica! D…copy?”
“Oh my God!” Nathan mumbled. “Jess! Is that you?” he called back over the comm-set. “Where are you?”
“In…ighter…hind you!”
“It’s Jessica!” Nathan hollered.
“What?” Vladimir couldn’t believe it.
“Chan…ourse! Hard… ight!”
“What? You’re breaking up? Can you repeat?”
“Change…rse! Co…ard…right! Do…t…now!”
Nathan suddenly realized what was happening. “Change course! Come hard to starboard now!”
“What?” Josh asked, wondering if Nathan had lost his mind.
“DO IT!”
Josh got the message, and immediately put the little ship into a tight right turn. “How long do you want me to hold this turn?”
“The third fighter is firing on the first one!” Mendez reported, a bit confused by what he was witnessing.
“What?” Cameron was also shocked.
“Holy shit! He’s gone! The first fighter is gone! The second one is breaking off their pursuit! He’s trying to evade the third one!”