It's A Deadly Job, But Somebody's Gotta Do It

I nodded. "I was thinking we could nova in behind this moon." I pointed to the appropriate spot on the vid-screen. "It should shelter us from their scanners and provide us with a good view of the station. Once we have a feel for their defenses, we can nova onto their doorstep, hope we aren't fragged, and fire a couple of rounds into their reactor."

"What about the trix?" Tempest asked. "Weren't we supposed to bring it back?"

"Screw the trix! If High Command wants me to destroy the platform, I'll do my best. But if those bastards want some trix, they can go mine it themselves!"

Once again, Tempest was strangely quiet. "Maybe we should use this moon instead," he said at last, and the view on the vid-screen shifted. "It's farther away, but we could hide in the rings. I think it'll be harder for them to see us there."

I nodded sagely, as if I'd anticipated the suggestion. "Can you plot a course? Or activate the NOVA drive? Or whatever it is we have to do to jump to that moon? Keep us at least a thousand meters from any other object!"

"Worried about frag, Jonny?"

"I just don't trust the eggheads doing the calculations. They're not the ones who have to do the dying when they make mistakes."

A series of pictures flashed on the vid-screen, too fast for me to follow. "Course plotted," Tempest said after a few seconds. "This will take us to a point fifteen hundred meters above the rings. We'll arrive on the far side of the moon, which, as long as this recon data is reliable, should keep our entrance secret."

"Our entrance?"

After a brief pause, Tempest asked sarcastically, "Have you ever seen a ship nova?"

"Yeah."

"What's it look like?"

"What do you mean? There's a bright flash of light and then the ship is there."

An uncomfortable silence filled the cockpit. Tempest seemed to be waiting for something, and I wasn't giving it to him. After a long pause he sighed, or approximated the sound of a sigh, and prompted, "A bright flash of light . . ."

Then it dawned on me. "I see," I said, somewhat chagrined. "I suppose it would blow our cover if the enemy's sensors reported a bright flash of light out in the middle of nowhere."

"Momma Cougar didn't raise no dummies," Tempest mocked.

"Hey," I replied, "give me a break. I'm not used to flying a ship that's NOVA-equipped!"

"I understand, Jon," Tempest said, and he sounded sincere. "I'm not used to flying with an idiot. It's going to take some time for us to adjust to our circumstances."

"I hate you," I mumbled, but apparently not quietly enough.

"I hate you too, Jonny."

The engines whined behind me. "NOVA drive powering up," Tempest said, his sarcasm put aside now that we had work to do. The needles jabbed into my hands, and I cursed. The vibration of the ship increased.

I waited anxiously, holding my breath. I'd novaed many times in the past, but always on a capital ship. I didn't remember anything shaking on the capital ships.

The whine of the engines grew to a crescendo. I tightened my grip on the flight controls, waiting for the ship to fly apart. Suddenly, I saw a flash, and the view through the cockpit changed. I could a see a moon, blue and lifeless, with a series of banded rings orbiting it.

"Jump window open," Tempest said, his voice barely carrying over the noise.

"What do I do?" I asked. I wasn't sure if Tempest could hear me, so I yelled, "Do I fly through?"

". . . Windo . . . pass thro . . . Don't . . . gage engines . . . til we're . . . ough"