by Ryk Brown
Robert yanked his flight control stick back, attempting to pitch up ninety degrees in order to have a good shield facing each attacker, but his attitude thrusters were not responding as well as expected. “I’ve got a problem, here.”
“Bobby!” Gil called over comms. “Translate down and jump!”
“Attitude thrusters are failing!” Robert replied. “She’s sluggish as hell.”
The ship rocked again as more energy bolts slammed into their unshielded stern.
“Port engine offline!” his engineer warned.
Again the ship rocked; this time, so violently that Robert thought his restraints might fail.
“Starboard engine has taken a direct hit.”
Robert attempted to translate downward, but, again, his thrusters were sluggish at best.
“We gotta jump!” Sasha insisted.
“How long until we have a clear jump line?” Robert demanded, continuing to attempt to force his battered ship to translate downward.
The ship rocked again as more weapons fire slammed into the stern.
“Hull breach!” Renny reported. “Starboard side! Just aft of the heat exchangers!”
“Twenty seconds to a clear jump line!” Kasma answered.
“Shit!” Robert cursed as more weapons fire rocked his doomed gunship. He dialed up a two-light-hour jump. “Call the jump!” he ordered.
“Ten seconds!”
The ship rocked again, even more violently than before. A split second later, something deep inside the stern of his ship let go, exploding with incredible force.
“We just lost half our backside!” Renny reported.
“We’re ending over!” Sasha warned.
Robert had no choice. One more shot and they would be doomed. He pressed the jump button.
“Jump complete,” Loki reported as the Aurora came out of its long jump from Sanctuary to Orswella.
“Planet is under attack,” Kaylah reported. “Four gunships and ten octos.”
“I thought we had two minutes?” Nathan said.
“I’ve got debris from three Gunyoki,” Kaylah continued, “and from a Cobra gunship.”
“Which one?” Jessica asked.
“Jump us to the engagement,” Nathan instructed. “Tactical, gunships first, octos second. Comms, as soon as we come out of the jump, order all of our forces out of the battle zone. I don’t want to take out any friendlies.”
“Jumping to the battle zone,” Loki reported.
“Torpedo firing control to the helm,” Nathan ordered. “Make short work of those gunships, Josh.”
“You got it,” Josh replied.
“It’s Striker One,” Kaylah reported. “Half their stern section is gone…they jumped. Oh, my God!”
“Jump complete,” Loki reported as the Aurora came out of its short jump to an orbit over Orswella, just above that of the enemy gunships.
“They must have collided with one of the gunships when they jumped!” Kaylah reported.
Josh swung the Aurora’s nose onto the gunship closest to the wreckage of Striker One and opened fire, blowing it apart with a single round of four plasma torpedoes.
“Striker One is going down!” Kaylah reported.
“Can their hull take the reentry?” Nathan asked.
“Targeting all octos,” Jessica reported. “Firing!”
Josh turned the Aurora slightly to port, and angled it down a bit, bringing the ship’s torpedo cannons onto the second gunship, pressing his firing button the moment the targeting reticle on the main view screen turned green. A split second later, the first round of four torpedoes slammed into the gunship’s shields, overloading them, and causing them to fail. The second round tore into the enemy ship’s hull, splitting it wide open, after which secondary explosions broke it apart.
Nathan pressed the comms controls on his command chair arm, calling up a ship-to-ship channel. “Striker One, Aurora Actual!” Nathan called over comms. “Do you have any attitude control?”
“Not much,” Robert replied. “Renny’s working on it, but I’m afraid a controlled crash is the best we can hope for.”
Josh fired again, destroying the third gunship with three rounds of plasma torpedoes.
“Fourth gunship has jumped,” Kaylah reported.
“Pussy!” Josh exclaimed.
“Octos are jumping, as well.”
“Show me Striker One’s trajectory,” Nathan ordered.
“One moment,” Kaylah replied.
A moment later, an image came onto the screen, and a dotted line, showing Striker One’s projected flight path all the way down to the surface, revealed Nathan’s worst fear to be true. “Your present trajectory puts your impact on the far side of the city, about two kilometers short of the water,” Nathan told him. “Is there any way you can do a burn of some sort? Thrusters? Vent a compartment? Anything?”
“Negative,” Robert replied, sounding somewhat fatalistic. “Renny can’t get any more power to the thrusters, and they’re currently barely strong enough to keep our nose pointed in the direction of our flight, and that’s going to get a lot more difficult once we hit the atmosphere.”
“Can we nudge him?” Jessica wondered. “Or detonate something nearby?”
“Either one will probably make matters worse,” Nathan told her.
“We have to do something,” Jessica insisted.
“Scoop him up,” Cameron suggested.
“What?” Nathan wondered.
“They fit on our flight deck,” she explained. “Just scoop them up.” She looked to Josh who had already turned around, surprised at her suggestion.
“That’s why you put him at the helm, isn’t it?” Cameron insisted. “For something like this?” She looked to Josh, again. “You can do it, can’t you?”
“Damned right he can,” Jessica insisted.
“Of course,” Josh replied. “No pressure,” he muttered as he turned back around.
“Robert,” Nathan called over comms. “Get everyone secured. We’re coming to get you.”
“You’re what?” Robert asked, confused.
“We’re going to scoop you up with the port forward flight deck.”
“Are you insane?”
“You got a better idea?” Jessica asked over comms.
“This was your idea, wasn’t it?” Robert accused Jessica.
“Actually, it was Captain Taylor’s idea,” Nathan corrected. “I know it sounds crazy, but I believe Josh can do it.”
“Captain, you can’t risk the Aurora just to save us,” Robert argued.
“Shut the hell up, Bobert!” Jessica scolded. “We’re coming to get you whether you like it or not!”
“Uh, it would help if they could stop spinning,” Josh suggested.
“Did he say what I think he said?” Sasha asked.
Robert looked at his copilot. “He did.”
“Is this going to work?”
“Beats the hell out of me,” Robert admitted. “Renny, I’m going to need as much power to the thrusters as possible, to get us out of this spin, so they can scoop us up.”
“Come again?” his engineer asked.
“The Aurora is going to try to scoop us up into their port forward flight bay.”
“Uh…”
“It’s either that, or we crash into the surface and take out a few blocks of the city.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Renny replied.
“Everyone else, start buttoning up the ship,” Robert instructed. “It probably won’t be a soft landing, and we’re already a mess. Use emergency sealant on all hatches. Seal us in tight, just in case.”
“How are they going to get to us once we’re down?” Sasha wondered.
“I’m sure they’ll figure out something,” Robert replied.
; “Don’t those bays have emergency doors?”
“Yeah, but they don’t come down that fast,” Robert explained. “If we crack open, we’ll depressurize in seconds.”
“So, this plan pretty much sucks, then,” Sasha concluded.
“Yup, pretty much,” Robert agreed.
Vladimir entered the rescue trunk as teams suited up in preparation for the recovery of Striker One. “Chief, I’ve got men disconnecting the motors on the emergency outer doors.”
“Uh, we’re going to need that bay pressurized before we crack her open,” the chief of the rescue team said.
“Those doors are too damned slow,” Vladimir insisted. “With the motors disconnected, we can jack up the gravity levels across the threshold right after Striker One crosses the line. The door should come down in seconds.”
“And if it breaks?” the chief asked. “That thing’s gotta weigh a ton.”
“Four point two tons, to be exact,” Vladimir replied. “I will dial the gravity back down just before impact. That should help. I’ve also got the pump safeties removed, so we can pressurize the bay in less than a minute.”
“If it’s all right with you, I’m going to take a few tanks of blow seal in with us.”
“It will work,” Vladimir insisted.
Commander Prechitt glanced at the port side of his canopy as another Nighthawk jumped in next to him.
“What’s going on?” Talisha asked over comms.
“The Aurora took out three of the gunships and eight of the octos. The others jumped out,” the commander explained. “The rest of us are flying cover, in case they come back, while the Aurora rescues Striker One.”
“Rescues?” Talisha wondered.
“They’re shot to shit and going down pretty much dead stick.”
“How are they going to rescue them?”
“They’re going to scoop them up in one of their flight bays.”
“You’re kidding…” Talisha replied in shock.
“Nope.”
After a pause, she asked, “Are things always this crazy with you guys?”
“More often than not, yes,” the commander replied.
“Where do I sign up?” Talisha joked.
“Unless Striker One can alter its attitude to parallel its flight path, you will have to approach from below the vessel in order to successfully capture it within the port forward flight bay,” the voice of the Aurora’s AI explained.
“I expect I’m gonna need your help on this, Aurora,” Josh admitted.
“I believe this maneuver is well within your demonstrated piloting abilities, Mister Hayes. However, I stand ready to assist.”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t do it,” Josh replied, “but thanks.”
“If we have to come up from below, our stern is going to dip into the atmosphere and create considerable drag,” Kaylah warned.
“Can we come in from above?” Jessica wondered.
“Better to come in from underneath,” Nathan insisted. “Her back end is a mess. If something goes wrong, and some of that mess catches the hull, it’ll tear us open. Or, it could catch on the door frame, and they’d be stuck half in and half out. Better to enter the bay nose first.”
“We’re a fifteen-hundred-meter ship,” Loki reminded them. “It’s going to take a lot of thrust to keep our tail from dragging in the atmosphere and causing us to miss.”
“If I may make a suggestion?” the Aurora asked.
“Please,” Nathan replied.
“Allow me to handle the aft thrusters to compensate for tail drag in the atmosphere. That will allow Mister Hayes to concentrate on capturing the damaged vessel within the port forward flight bay.”
“Josh?” Nathan asked.
“Sounds good to me,” Josh replied, happy for the help.
“Very well, Aurora. Compensation for atmospheric drag is your responsibility.”
“Understood,” the Aurora replied. “I would also suggest that you channel additional power to all aft shields to prevent overheating of the outer hull, which could interfere with proper thruster operations.”
“Jess?” Nathan called.
“I’m all over it,” Jessica replied.
“If we’re going to do this, it needs to be soon,” Kaylah warned. “They’re going to hit atmospheric interface in five minutes. Two minutes after that, they’ll start burning up.”
“Mister Hayes,” Nathan said.
Josh took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing,” he said as he pitched the ship up and began translating toward the planet.
“Striker One, Aurora Actual,” Nathan called over comms. “You need to stop that rotation, Robert.”
“Got it,” Robert replied. “Give me a minute.”
“Time is of the essence,” Nathan warned. “In just over six minutes, you’re going to start heating up.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Robert replied.
“I’m just saying…”
Robert struggled with his flight control stick, trying to get his battered ship’s attitude thrusters to work well enough to stop their spin.
“You’re over thrusting,” Sasha said again.
“These damned things aren’t working right,” Robert replied. “Sometimes they respond, sometimes they don’t. I can’t find an input level that yields a consistent result.”
“Try minimum inputs only,” Sasha suggested. “Thrust and wait. If that doesn’t work, try it again, but don’t give it more thrust.”
Robert tried again, applying the tiniest bit of lateral thrust. As expected, nothing happened. He repeated the process, giving just the minimum control input. Two times, three times, four. On the fifth attempt, the thrusters fired for a brief moment. “Okay. That worked.” He began twisting the input level wheel around the base of the flight control stick. “I’m going to lock it down and then back it off, just a touch, to keep me from giving too much control input.”
“Good thinking,” Sasha agreed.
Robert finished twisting the wheel to its fully locked position and then backed it off a quarter-rotation. After taking a deep breath, he was ready to try again. One input, two, three… “I’ve got thrust.” He continued to apply control inputs but couldn’t get any reliable response. “It seems random. Renny, why the hell isn’t every control input getting to the thrusters?”
“It’s either a faulty control input processor or a short in the signal line,” the engineer replied. “I’m trying to boost the signal strength between the processor and the thrusters to compensate.”
“What if we reprogrammed the processor to send only specific commands for thrust—both thrust time and level—regardless of the strength of the control input?” Sasha suggested.
“That will only help if the problem is between the flight control stick and the processor,” Renny said. “I don’t see how that could be.”
“Do it anyway,” Robert ordered, “and program it to only send a single thrust command through, regardless of the number of inputs from my stick.”
“If I do that, you’ll only be able to thrust once along each axis.”
“Put a reset timer on it,” Sasha suggested. “Maybe ten seconds?”
“Make it five,” Robert decided. “I may need to apply a second thrust along the same axis more quickly.”
“I can do the reprogramming,” Kasma offered.
“Renny?” Robert asked.
“Great. That way I can work on the signal strength to the thrusters, themselves,” the engineer replied.
“We need this done yesterday, guys,” Robert reminded them. “We’ve got about four minutes.”
The Aurora descended into an extremely low orbit over Orswella, sliding into position two kilometers beneath the still-spinning Striker One as it began to pitch upward.
Striker One stood in a v
ertical orientation relative to the planet below, both its nose and what was left of its stern were oscillating in opposite directions, parallel to the gunship’s longitudinal axis.
“Striker One is still oscillating,” Kaylah reported.
“How badly?” Nathan asked.
“It’s spinning around its central axis, nose, and stern in opposite directions,” Kaylah explained.
“Drawing opposing circles,” Cameron commented. “An expression from flight school.”
“I remember that,” Nathan said. “It was caused by an underpowered thruster that was reporting normal thrust.”
“If you didn’t catch the condition early on, it could become impossible to correct,” Cameron finished for him.
“But Robert has tens of thousands of hours behind the stick,” Nathan insisted. “There’s no way he wouldn’t notice a thruster problem.”
“Considering the amount of damage to the stern of his ship, I’m surprised he even has thrusters,” Nathan said.
“His CG is off,” Josh said, looking at the image of the oscillating gunship sliding into view from overhead as their nose finished pitching upward.
“We’re picking up tail drag,” Loki warned.
“I am compensating now,” the voice of the Aurora’s AI commented.
“It’s going to be nearly impossible to maintain speed due to the drag, using only translation thrusters,” Loki warned.
“I have routed additional power to the acceleration chambers on all dorsal translation thrusters, proportionally, according to the amount of drag being induced by each portion of the ship,” Aurora assured them.
“Well, all right, then,” Josh said.
“The diameter of the stern oscillation is greater than the height of the port forward flight deck threshold,” Kaylah warned.
“I can get ‘em,” Josh insisted.
Nathan didn’t look as convinced. “How?”
“Uh…”
“It is possible,” the Aurora said, “by entering the same type of spin pattern as the target, but at larger oscillation diameters, which must be reduced gradually during approach so the pattern is identical at the time the target crosses the recovery threshold.”