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

"Ten minutes, forty-two seconds, provided they don't change their velocity."

"And how long before they could get back to the station?"

"Without knowing their maximum speed, it's impossible-"

"A guess, Toolbox! Give me a guess."

"I'd say between twenty and thirty minutes." The klaxon sounded again. "You want me to pilot the ship deeper into the rings? It'll hide us from their scans a little better."

I considered our options. "No, I have a better idea." I grabbed the controls and accelerated. I left the safety of the rings and faced off against the approaching fleet. Just to make sure they saw me, or heard me, or whatever the Trellix did with the electromagnetic wavelengths corresponding to our visual range, I shot a few blasts from the turbolasers at them.

"This is your better idea?" Tempest asked, and I thought I heard him groan.

"It's a good idea," I said, defending my plan.

"I don't suppose you want to share it with me." The Trellix fleet accelerated. The two squadrons of fighters advanced, leaving the capital ship behind. All of the ships were moving away from the base.

"Sure. We wait until the Trellix are on top of us, then we nova to the base. They won't expect that, since ships this size aren't supposed to be NOVA-equipped. We fire a few shots at the base, make sure it blows up, fly up next to the freighter, open a jump window and hope its big enough for both of us to fly through."

There was a humming from within the console. "You know, Jonny," Tempest said, a hint of regret in his tone. "That's actually a pretty good plan."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll do something stupid before too long."

A few of the more zealous Trellix began to fire shots at us, even though they were too far away for the blasts to do any damage. Nevertheless, I watched, a little nervously, as the green and blue laser bolts shot past. Somewhere to my left a chunk of icy rock exploded, and I was disappointed by the lack of sound.

That's one of the only things I hate about space battles. No good sound effects.

The fleet was drawing near. My plan was to wait until they were a few hundred meters away, then nova to the freighter. Tempest ruined my plan. "There's something you ought to know, Jonny."

"Stop calling me Jonny!" I snapped, then calmed myself. "What?"

"We can't be moving when we nova."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not a complicated concept, Jonny," Tempest replied. He spoke slowly, enunciating each word carefully. "We cannot engage the NOVA drive while the ship is in motion."

"Why didn't you mention this before?"

"I don't know . . ." Tempest snapped back. "I didn't want to ruin your nap?"

"Power up the NOVA drive!" I said. "We're gonna want to jump before the fleet's within weapons range!" Another noise sounded from the console, a different pitch than before. "What's that?"

"The fleet's within weapons range," Tempest told me. "A full three thousand meters farther away than the database says! You'd think the Stellar Fleet would keep their records accurate!"

The engines started to hum again, and the console began to vibrate, but we still had about a minute before we could make the jump. "Better get your hands on the needles," Tempest said, "or we're not going anywhere."

I sighed, then reached for the flight controls. Once again the needles shot into my hands, though only for an instant. A green light flashed on the console and the NOVA drive engaged. The rumbling in the cockpit increased, but the fleet was rapidly approaching. Their aim was improving too. Each shot came closer to hitting the Dragon.

"Can we power up the energy fields?" I asked.

"Only to about twenty-five percent. The NOVA drive needs the rest of the power."