The boys are heading through the wormhole. Will the find the other end? And if the find the other end will they find the Kritons. And if they find the Kritons, what can they do to stop the destruction of Earth? Read on to find out in this chapter written by Douglas.
The Boys of the Lady Lex Chapter 64 "In the Loop" Written By Douglas DD and Benjamin T. C.
As the "Savoy Special" entered the wormhole all of the crew but Ben, who was protected by his wraparound sunglasses, got hit by a blinding white glare. What Ben saw was an amazing array of swirling colors, spinning around a small black circle. He figured the circle must center the other end of the wormhole and adjusted his course towards it.
"I think we want to head for that black dot that all the colors are spinning around," Ben said to no one in particular.
"What black dot? What colors?" Douglas said. "All I see is white."
"The colors outside the windows," Ben said, "the ones flashing by us."
"Nothing is flashing by, all I see is white. I think we're standing still," Douglas said. "You must be hallucinating."
"I'm with Douglas," Nipper said. "All I see is white. It's like we're not moving at all. And it's bright. It's blinding."
In spite of the bright glare, the eyes of Douglas, Andrew, Nipper, and Scottie were glued to the front view screen, as if they were expecting something to suddenly appear. Ben looked around cabin and saw that none of the crew was paying attention to his station.
"Hey guys, it's just colors. Come on!"
Douglas shook his head, startling Ben by shouting out, "Mom!"
"What are you talking about?"
"I was with mom. I saw her. She talked to me."
"I saw her too," Nipper said, fighting back tears.
Ben remembered the time warp that they had encountered when they first saw the wormholes. He remembered how Douglas had disappeared and gone back in time. He looked at Douglas, who appeared solid enough, as did the rest of the crew. They were obviously seeing things he was not. He needed them back now. He tried to figure out why he wasn't being affected by what they were seeing.
"I'm not shitting you," Scottie said. "I can get you all the weed you want."
Ben remembered the time they had been visited by the dead, and how Creevey wasn't affected by whatever was happening. They all figured it was because she was the only female. Well, there were no females on this shuttle, so what was keeping him from being affected?
"Mom, I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" Nipper cried out.
Shit, Ben thought. I need to get them back, but I don't know how. He yanked up on his sunglasses to get a better look at them. The sudden white glare blinded him and he quickly yanked back down on them. It was the dark glasses that were the difference! That was a problem that was easily solved.
Ben reached up to a small instrument panel in over the front views screen a flicked a switch. The windows immediately darkened. He once again lifted up his sun glasses and saw a marked turnaround in the rest of the crew as they started to return to the present reality.
"Whoa!" Douglas exclaimed. "That was intense. Did I go back in time again?"
"Not physically," Ben said. "I don't know if being in the wormhole affected that or not, but physically you all stayed here."
All of the boys started to chat about their experience as Ben tried to keep the shuttle centered in the wormhole. He was having problems seeing out of the screen. "It's too dark for me to see."
"Maybe you should take off your glasses," Andrew admonished, with a look that said I wonder how big brothers ever make it in the world. Nipper looked at him and gave a nod of agreement.
Red faced, Ben pulled them up and set them on the top of his head.
"I knew that."
"Quiet!" Douglas said. "We need to get focused, and fast."
The stern tone of his voice brought everyone completely back to reality and the tasks at hand.
"First, Nipper, you need to take over the engineering station. We're going to miss Jesse. He's the best there is, but you know what to do and you're good too, bro."
"Jesse better be safe," Scottie said, with a hint of anger in his voice.
"Scottie, for now, get over it! We can do nothing for him and we have to do everything for ourselves. As much as I dislike David, I'm sure he's a good commander, and I am even surer Jesse's brother will keep things in line. Now get your head into your job. I need you to see if you can contact the other shuttles. We need to know how they handled the wormhole."
"If they handled the wormhole," Scottie said glumly.
Ben no longer had his shades on. With the view screen darkened the shades would prevent him from seeing out. They rested on the top of his head as he worked to keep the "Savoy Special" centered.
"I can't raise anybody," Scottie said. "I get nothing but static."
"That means radio communication doesn't work inside the wormhole, or they never found out how to deal with the time warp issue."
Ben noticed the dark dot starting to become bigger as the shuttle raced through the wormhole. It was taking up more space on the screen than the colors. Then it changed and became smaller as the colors started to close in on the shuttle.
"The wormhole must be collapsing," Douglas said. "We have to get out of here quickly."
"I have us at full power," Nipper said.
"And I have no idea how far the end of it is. All we can do is speed through here as fast as we can and hope we make it in time.
Suddenly, without warning the colors disappeared and the "Savoy Special" was in empty space. Andrew checked the back view screen just in time to see the wormhole collapse. They had made it through by mere seconds.
"About time you guys showed up," came Trevor's voice over the shuttle's speakers. "We thought maybe you stopped for party or something."
"Did everybody make it through," Douglas asked.
"Yes. But it was interesting."
"You mean because of the time thingy? You all figured out what to do?"
Mike's voice broke in. "What time thingy?"
"The bright light and the flashbacks in time," Douglas said.
"The light through the view screen was intense and the first reaction of all of us was to darken the screen."
It became apparent to the crew of the "Savoy Special" that they had had the time warp problem because of Ben's sun shades. He went through the wormhole thinking there wasn't a problem, so the sun screen remained off long enough for whatever time field the wormhole generated to affect the rest of the crew. The other crew pilots had reacted immediately to the bright light, darkening the view screens before anybody could be affected.
"Have any of you figured out where we are?" Douglas asked.
"Somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Earth," Brian McDowell answered from the "Raptor".
"The Kritons already have a head start toward Earth. We can't waste any time. We need to get there at full power," Douglas said. Then he caught himself. "Sorry, Mike. I guess you're the senior officer here."
"In name only," Mike said. "We're going to do this just like the capture the flag games," Mike said. "You're the one in charge of the fleet. You've been there and done that. Now let's go kick some Kriton ass."
No one took time to argue or think about Mike's decision. They had an operation to perform. Douglas was in charge, as he had been so often in the drills and the games. The months of training under Kalon Masters made their reactions almost automatic. This time, however, it wasn't a drill or a game. It was the real thing.
Douglas got the eight shuttles into formation and heading to Earth at full power. The "Savoy Special" and the "Raptor" were both faster than the six other shuttles, but Douglas decided to keep the small fleet together. Two shuttles weren't going to be a match for the Kriton warships. Even at full force they were in trouble, but Douglas had a plan formulating in his head. For it to succeed, he needed all the force he could muster. And it had to succeed, because if it didn't there would be no Earth left to save.
Other ships had left their stations in the asteroid belt. They worked to stay hidden. Even though they weren't happy about what they had agreed to do, they were like vultures waiting for the battle to take place, hoping they wouldn't need to be a part of it, and that all they would need to do was scavenge off the leftovers.
"Well, what are you going to do, Douglas?" Scottie said with a touch of malice in his voice. Every time he looked at Jesse's empty seat, he felt a touch of anger at Douglas for leaving his boyfriend behind. Deep down, he hoped Douglas would fail. He didn't want the mission to fail; he wanted Douglas to fail miserably and to have Mike, or Scooter, or anybody who wasn't responsible for leaving Jesse behind take over the operation and lead it to success.
"Yeah, that's what I was afraid you'd say." Douglas sat quietly in the command chair, staring out the view screen. He had no idea where to go from here. I'm just fifteen, he thought. How can they expect me to make decisions to save the world? I have enough trouble getting my homework done on time. I can't do this.
Douglas wanted to shuck off all of the responsibility. He had no plan. He had no inkling of a plan. He sat paralyzed with fear. He shook his head and finally made a decision. He decided to radio Mike and tell him to take charge of the operation.
Ben looked at his lover with sympathy, but he knew better than to break into Douglas's thoughts. Douglas would have to win this battle on his own. He could offer his advice later, but at this moment, this decision had to come from deep within the soul of the boy he loved so much.
The quiet of the interior of the "Savoy Special" was interrupted only by the whispering sounds of the ship's instruments and environmental control system. It was a tableau of five young boys, each feeling the pressure and responsibility, four of them waiting with anticipation on the boy, who was supposedly their leader, to act. Andrew and Nipper were looking at each other, the two twelve year olds each frightened and eager. Even Scottie, as his rational mind battled his emotions, knew this was a key moment-the moment that would probably make or break their mission.
It was Nipper who finally broke the silence. Nipper had always looked up to his big brother, but had never deferred to him. The two brothers got along as well as any two brothers could, but Nipper was never afraid to speak his mind, to prod Douglas, to be his younger conscience. He knew his brother well, and he knew the silence didn't mean Douglas was working on a plan. It meant Douglas was busy feeling sorry for himself. "Douglas, what's your favorite book?"
Douglas turned his head and looked at Nipper "Huh? What the fuck are you talking about, Nipper? This isn't the time for dumb questions."
Nipper ignored the outburst and went on. "Answer me," he said with all the force his high pitched, prepubescent, voice could muster.
"Ender's Game," Douglas said with little enthusiasm, upset that his thoughts had been interrupted.
"Uh huh. And what did Ender do in one of their battle games?"
"Nipper, shut up. I don't have time for this now."
Ben, Scottie, and Andrew all wondered where Nipper was heading with this. They knew Nipper wasn't one to just ask dumb questions out of the blue, but they wondered if the fear and tension was getting to him.
"Think about when Ender froze his legs to give him more force. Think about how it surprised his opponent, about how it was something they never expected. Think of what Wolfe taught the Hawke and The Birds of Prey."
Douglas looked at his brother, the mask of indecision on his face slowly being replaced by a glimmer in his eyes. The silence was still there, but different. Instead of waiting to see if a decision was going to be made, the boys were waiting to see what the decision was going to be.
Nipper smiled inwardly. Even at twelve he had an instinct for touching a person's psyche. Ender's Game had been about children at war, children charged with saving the Earth, just like them. Douglas loved Ender's Game. He needed to see that just because he was a boy, it didn't mean he couldn't lead, couldn't make a decision, or couldn't do what he knew he had to do.
A slight smile crossed Douglas's lips. "I think you're on to something little bro. I really do think you're on to something."
"That's your plan?" Mike asked.
"What do you think?" Douglas replied.
"Well, it's a plan. It's more than anybody else has."
"I think my dad calls that damning with faint praise."
"You're right that everything has to be geared to taking out the science ship. It's the one with the bomb. The question I have is, how close to Earth does the ship have to be in order to launch the bomb. Maybe it has been launched already."
"I can answer that," Scooter broke in from the "Buford".
"You can?" came a chorus of voices from the various shuttles.
"Um...Sergeant Murdock told me a few things he heard, with the promise I not tell anybody. I don't think that promise means anything now."
"I thought you and Murdock were enemies," Douglas said.
"Let's not talk about it now," Scooter said. He seamlessly went from there to the topic at hand. "I don't know the details; I just know the bomb has to be in a special environment and will lose its force if it is out of it too long. They have to be within fifty thousand kilometers of the target."
"Thanks, Scooter. Looks like we hope we catch up to the Kritons on time and go with the plan. `Savoy Special' out."
Mike turned to Ryan and said, "No wonder they snookered Whitaker into moving the home defense fleet away from Earth."
"What if he wasn't snookered?" Ryan asked innocently.
Mike looked at him, knowing exactly what Ryan meant and hoping he wasn't right.
"I have the Kritons on our sensors," Scottie said.
"How long until we catch up?" Douglas asked.
"Ten minutes," Scottie answered.
"And how long do we have until the bomb is within launching range?"
"Fifteen minutes after that."
"Not much time to save the Earth," Ben said with a humorless laugh.
"Hey, when in history has the fate of mankind been in the hands of a bunch of middle and high school students?" Douglas asked.
"Well, since you ask, the answer is never."
"Pretty scary stuff, huh?"
"Yeah. I keep hoping the cavalry will come riding to the rescue."
"The cavalry is a long way off. It ain't gonna happen. So it looks like it's up to us."
Douglas looked at the sensors. He figured the Kritons had to have seen them by now. The two escorts looked like they had changed course to give the science vessel more coverage. It was time to put the plan into effect. He had no idea if it would work. He was a high school sophomore to be, not a military strategist. But the plan had worked in the capture the flag games; split everybody up and see what shakes loose. Part one was about to be initiated.
The Kritons had detected the incoming shuttles. The acting commanding officer of the flotilla immediately dismissed them as some kind of ineffective police force; mere gnats against the beasts of the Kriton Empire. Nevertheless, he readied his weapons. They would never get close to his ships.
Suddenly there was a bright flash and one of the incoming ships made a ninety degree change in course and shot straight up from its plane of flight. The flame continued to pour out of the back and it twisted and turned and started moving away from his fleet.
"Flame out!" came a voice over the radio. Just as he suspected, it was a flame out, one more indication of the inferior equipment of the Earthers. They had gotten lucky; being in the right place at the right time when they had created the second wormhole. There would now be no luck involved. Their little ships would be swatted away as one would swat away an irritating insect.
The commander's smile got even broader as he saw the formation of the other seven ships break into disarray. This would be easier than he anticipated.
Mike's voice was the next one he heard. "It looks like the Savoy Special' has flamed out. I guess they didn't give it a close enough inspection. Looks like it's up to us guys. I'm taking charge now. We can't panic now guys. We need to keep formation and stick to the plan. Raptor' you will need to take over the role of the `SS' in the plan now, since you have the fastest shuttle."
"Roger that," came Trevor's voice. He broke away from the disintegrating formation. The Kriton commander, who had a decent knowledge of English, could tell that despite the orders of the Earth commander and his talk of a plan, the attacking ships were obviously disorganized.
The "Raptor" broke away from the disorganized formation, its target obviously being the science ship. The commander ordered his two escort ships to shift position some, giving the science ship maximum coverage. He wished one more escort could have made it through the worm hole.
The "Raptor" looped over the plane of the Kritons and came in at angle, alone and exposed. Kyle moved the shuttle expertly through evasive maneuvers, barely outrunning the weapons pattern of the Kritons.
Dylan locked the shuttle's weapons on the center of the science ship and fired.
"Eat my shorts!" Trevor yelled.
The shot glanced off the shields of the science ship. The other six shuttles wove their way around the Kritons, dodging the fire of the two escort ships, trying to sting some with their much less powerful weapons.
The Kriton commander could see that he needed to get rid of this annoyance quickly before they got a lucky hit in on the science vessel, whose shields were more to protect against space debris than against weapons. It was only the low power of the shuttles' weapons that kept the first hit from being fatal. He quickly ordered six fighters to be launched and to go on the attack.
Mike smiled as he saw the hangar doors open. Unlike the SFA ships, the Kritons kept their fighters in hangars rather than docked on the outside of their ships. The fighters were exactly what they wanted. He knew they could easily outfight and out dodge the Kriton fighters. Even if these had the Kriton cloaking technology, they had learned quickly how to track their attack routes during the war games. The Kritons may have made a big mistake there, by overplaying their hand. He gave a quick numeric order and the JFSA shuttles burst into various directions, looking even more disorganized than ever.
The one shuttle that seemed to be persistent in its attack on the science vessel was the "Raptor". It kept darting and dodging, getting in quick hits, keeping at least two Kriton shuttles chasing it, making the two starships stay in a tight formation. The other shuttles looked as if they were trying to organize an attack, but they failed to do much more than be nuisances flying across the view screens and putting blips on the sensors. The Kriton commander saw them as kids playing at war, amazed at their piloting ability, but knowing their total lack of organization kept them from being a serious threat. He did realize that the science vessel was still subject to a lucky hit, especially from the persistent attacker, and he kept his attention focused. The thirteen shuttles flying past and filling the sensors with their images created tracking chaos, but in ten minutes they would be within launching range. As soon as the bomb was launched it would be surrounded by the six fighters still in their hangars plus the fighters already launched. It would be next to impossible to penetrate that shield and hit the bomb with a weapon. The bomb would quickly accelerate faster than their fighters, but the same would be true for the Earth shuttles. The cocoon would protect the bomb until it was safely out of range. Then nothing could stop it. Ten more minutes, and for all intents and purposes his mission would be accomplished.
"He can launch the bomb in ten minutes," Scottie said.
"Plenty of time," Douglas replied.
"Are you sure we can't just shoot the bomb after it's launched?" Andrew asked, confident in his ability to hit the small target.
"No," Douglas said. "And you know the reasons. The bomb will probably be traveling faster than our top speed, and we can't warp this close to a gravity well. They probably will use their fighters as a cocoon for it, and we won't be able to get through that. And, lastly, the target is too small. We miss it; we can't catch it and do it again. We have to get the science ship, and that's what this plan is all about."
Andrew felt crushed by the comment on the target size. He knew he could hit anything. "But we will still, probably, only have one chance at the science ship," he said. "So what's the difference?"
"The difference is the science ship is bigger and the shuttles are taking hits, even if they are too far away to do any real damage," Douglas answered. "But each hit weakens the shield and makes it easier for us. One thing about Jake Masters, he didn't scrimp when he built this thing. It's fast, maneuverable, and has some real kick ass weapons."
"Are you sure they won't be expecting us?" Nipper asked.
"I'm not sure of that at all. But they have a lot of distractions going on right now. I figure after our `flame out' they figure we're off dead in space somewhere. From what Kalon and Wolfe said the Kritons aren't the best at keeping track of what goes on around them. They value fire power over stealth and figure everybody else does too." Douglas hoped with every fiber of his being that he was right.
The beam hit the "Buford" hard, jerking it off course, its shield barely holding.
"One more hit like that and we're toast," Scooter said.
"One more hit of any kind and we're toast," Jeff retorted.
TJ was silent, his face grim.
"TJ, we need you involved in this," Jeff said. "We've pretty much been doing this without a CO." Jeff was struggling to get the "Buford" back into the fray.
TJ remained silent. His thoughts were on the Fagin, on watching it burst into a ball of flame, of knowing his brother had been a member of the crew.
"TJ, we know you're hurting about RJ," Scooter said gently. "He was your brother. We all knew RJ and we all knew he was a fighter, no matter what. Right now, he would want you to be fighting for the things he died for. We need you TJ. Your brother needs you."
TJ kept the grim look locked on his face, but he knew what Scooter was saying was right. The time to mourn would have to be later. If RJ were alive, he would be busy firing his weapons and kicking Kriton ass. TJ took a deep breath. His face was still grim, but the crew could see a spark come back to his eyes. Up until now Jeff had maneuvered the "Buford" pretty much on his own while hoping TJ would take up his command responsibilities.
"Make another pass at the science ship, starboard side. Evasive attack pattern B."
Jeff looked at Scooter and smiled as he put the "Buford" back into action.
Ben looked at the battle raging off in the distance. For a moment he thought the "Buford" had been knocked out of the fight, but she had come back to life and had made a pass over the science ship, getting off as close a hit as anybody. She then headed out, a Kriton fighter hot on her tail.
Jeff ran evasive maneuvers trying to shake the Kriton fighter off his tail, but the hit they had taken made the shuttle sluggish and he knew the Kriton would be on them for a direct hit all too soon.
The crew of the "Raptor" could see the trouble the "Buford" was in. Trevor and Spencer quickly formulated a plan. Trevor broke in on the "Buford's" radio, telling them their idea.
"It sounds tricky and our controls aren't responding well. If they don't react instantly there is no second chance," TJ said.
"We'll take that chance," Trevor responded. "If we don't do something now, the Kriton is gonna roast you."
"Then let's do it," TJ said.
Kyle shot the "Raptor" in front of an oncoming Kriton fighter. The fighter's pilot was surprised since the "Raptor" had been the shuttle creating the most havoc and had been impossible to touch. But the shuttle's pilot had obviously made a youthful mistake, and the Kriton pilot was ready to take advantage of it.
Jeff changed the heading of the "Buford" and suddenly the two shuttles were heading on a collision course, directly at each other.
On the "Savoy Special" Scottie looked at his instruments. "Holy shit! They're heading right for each other."
"That's Trevor!" Ben exclaimed. "What is he doing?"
They watched helplessly as the two shuttles headed towards each other while working to evade the fire of the Kriton fighters behind them.
Trevor looked at his instruments. He knew the margin for error here was close to zero. Sweat was dripping down his face as he stared at his instruments. He was going to be the one to make the decision when to end this space going game of chicken. The collision alarms started blaring but he ignored them. The "Raptor" careened straight towards the oncoming "Buford", both of them with Kriton fighters behind, trying to shoot off a piece of their asses. The klaxons were blaring, red lights were flashing, and Ian found himself screaming when Trevor yelled, "NOW!"
Kyle hit the touch screen in front of him and the "Raptor" shot up at a relative up position. On the "Buford" Jeff did the same, and the "Buford", though a bit sluggishly, dipped to a relative down position. Both Kriton pilots, with their proximity alarms off and totally intent on their targets, realized too late what had happened and collided head on in a spectacular explosion.
"Nice piloting," Trevor said to both pilots.
"Piece of cake," Kyle said confidently, although he was still trying to find a way to breathe. On the "Buford" Jeff was breathing with more difficulty when he realized that both the main and back-up directional controls were blown out again by the evasive maneuver. They had come within a touch on the screen to a head-on collision with one of the Kriton fighters.
The Kriton commander had released six more fighters, leaving two in reserve. The collision left him no choice but to release his reserves as well, and he cursed the young Earth pilots. The fighters were now forming a tight barrier around the science ship, ready to become a cocoon as soon as the bomb was launched. They were now four minutes from the launch point. He considered launching the bomb early, but knew the weapon was quite temperamental and fragile, so he elected to follow his orders and not launch early. Of course, his orders hadn't anticipated anything but a token police force resistance either.
One of the Earth shuttles was obviously disabled. He would deal with it later. The quick one was circling back but would now find the science ship a much more difficult target than his hit and run tactics could handle. One other shuttle had flamed out and had not been a factor in the fighting at all. The other five shuttles were slow and weak and had been little more than nuisances that now stood no chance of breaking his new defensive barrier.
The crew of the "Savoy Special" had watched it all, from the space age game of chicken to the strengthening of the defenses around the science ship. "Four minutes until launch," Scottie said.
"Time to do it," Douglas said. "Let's hope Trevor's last hit did the job on their shields...and that Jake's weapons are as powerful as we were told." The entire crew knew they would only get one chance. He looked at Ben. "And let's hope that you can pull it off this time."
Ben gave Douglas a wild grin, clicked on his music, reached up and pulled down his sunglasses and said, "Nothing to hope for. It's a done deal."
He hit the touch screen, issued an order to Scottie, and the "Savoy Special" started into a tight spiral. For a quick instant he wished it was Jesse in the engineering seat and not Scottie, but he shook the thought from his mind. Scottie wasn't in Jesse's class as an engineer, but he knew what he was doing.
All five pairs of eyes looked intently on the instruments. The Kritons were still not close enough to eyeball out of the view screen, but that would change quickly. Ben maintained the spiral, but the inertial dampeners and the gravity generator functioning smoothly to maintain equilibrium. The Kriton ships were coming within visual distance. It was now time for the real show to begin.
Ben put the spiraling shuttle into a Quinlan loop and the dampeners and generators groaned. Even so, he was well within their tolerances.
The Kritons picked up the incoming shuttle. At first they thought it was yet another intruder, but quickly realized it was the shuttle that had supposedly flamed out. They had forgotten about it and their defense, as tight as it was, didn't anticipate an attack from that direction. Part of the plan had been for the "disorganized" JFSA shuttles to stay totally out of that sector of space after the ten minute mark and the Kritons had taken the bait. They now had to shift their fighter defense to handle the new attacker.
"He is in one of those loops the Earthers love so much," the XO of the Kriton flagship said.
"And we know those loops to the meter," the commander said. He pointed to a spot on the map filling the screen in front of him. "They will come out of it right here in precisely ten seconds. Fire on my command."
The XO counted down the time and at zero the commander shouted, "Fire!" A blaze of light and energy shot out of the ship and dissipated into empty space. The "Savoy Special" hadn't pulled out of the loop. Instead it was doubling it, tightening it, doing the nearly impossible Double Quinlan loop.
"It has to come out here!" the Kriton science officer said, pointing to the map. Once again the order to fire came, and once again nothing was touched but vacuum.
Ben had tightened the loop yet again and was tripling it, a maneuver Kalon Masters had told him was impossible because no shuttle could ever stand the strain. But Ben had convinced Douglas that the "Savoy Special" was no ordinary shuttle, that Kalon Masters himself said it was capable of much more than even the finest SFA shuttle. He kept his fingers pressed to the touch screen as the inertial dampener, the gravity generator, and the frame and fuselage of the shuttle screamed for mercy. Ben felt the increasing g forces as the loop tightened. Sweat flowed from his face as his fingers worked across the touch screen like those of a concert pianist running along the keys of a grand piano.
The science officer now had no idea where the shuttle would end up and the weapons officer could get no kind of a computer lock on it. The fighters were working to close the defensive gap around the science ship as Ben hit the pad with three fingers, bringing a groan from the shuttle that made the frightened, perspiring crew think the shuttle was breaking up.
Andrew could feel his head and body throbbing as he looked out the view screen. The twelve year old knew that the weight of this whole mission was on him now. He knew that his twin brother had been the hero, the Bird of Prey, the one everybody looked up to, but now he was on the sideline, watching like every one else to see if the "Savoy Special" could finish off the attack with a kill. He had told Ben and Douglas he was the best, he could to it, but a streak of doubt hit his mind. Trevor was the best, not him. Trevor should be in this seat, not him. Trevor was the alpha twin and always had been, not him. As the "Savoy Special" pulled out of the loop his thoughts started to overwhelm him.
A voice came at him. It was his own voice, but it was not his voice. It was both a whisper and a scream. "You can do it, Andrew," Trevor said. "You can do it because you're the best."
Andrew's mind went blank, the groans of the equipment and the hull stopped, and there was nothing but him and the view screen and his keypad as the "Savoy Special" came out of her loop. Ironically she was shielded from the Kriton warships by the science ship and two of the fighters assigned to protect her. But Andrew didn't know it nor did he care. All he saw was the hull of the science ship a few thousand meters from him and the weapons keypad under his fingers. His orders had been simple. Fire when ready. Well, he was ready. He hit the three, four, and seven buttons on the keypad and the full force of the former smuggler's shuttle shot out of the weapons ports, scoring a direct hit on the center of the science ship's hull, hitting the volatile engineering section of the ship.
Like any explosion in space, it was circular, throwing flame and debris in every direction, including the path of the attacking shuttle. The shuttle's shields were on minimal power to preserve all the energy needed for her triple loop as well as for her weapons, but they were strong enough to deflect the shooting debris. The "Savoy Special" shot through the flames in the spot that, moments before, had been occupied by a space ship. As the shuttle came out the other side, a spinning piece of debris hit the same antenna that Jesse had risked his life to free, knocking it clean off the shuttle's hull. The impact knocked the shuttle off its course, putting it into a spin. The loss of the antenna created a short that knocked out the shuttle's power. The shuttle's momentum kept it moving of course, since there is no friction in space to slow a moving body, but it would be obvious to any observer that the shuttle was powerless.
"I can get the power back up in two minutes," Scottie said, knowing that Jesse would take half as long. "By the way, great shot Andrew. Awesome shot."
Andrew grinned. "Did you guys hear Trevor?"
"Trevor?" Ben asked. "On the radio you mean?"
"No, I mean here on the shuttle."
"Sorry, Andrew, all I heard was you saying you were the best. And you were the best Andrew. That was a perfectly placed and timed shot."
Nipper gave Andrew a quick kiss on his lips. "I agree."
"Add me to the Andrew admiration society," Douglas said. "But right now I think we better worry about those two Kriton warships and the fighters. I figure we have more like thirty seconds to get ready because we will be dead long before two minutes have passed."
They could see the fighters turning and coming in for the kill on the crippled shuttle. The only thing keeping them from coming in quicker was the worry that the shuttle might be playing dead one more time and they weren't about to be fooled again. Douglas guessed at why they were slow to close, but he knew their stay of execution wouldn't last long.
The Kriton commander's face was clenched in anger as he watched the debris of the science ship fly off into space. He simply couldn't believe that a group of mere children could have killed his mission. He knew that he would have a very difficult time explaining it to the high command. He knew that General Elihu's plan was now doomed to failure, because it had required the detonation of the xanthium bomb. As much as he hated to admit it2 the Earthers had a larger, more powerful fleet than Kriton and Elihu had relied completely on his sneak attack.
The commander was not about to leave without exacting revenge. There were eight Earth shuttles. Two of them were currently powerless and they would eliminate them first, although he knew he would have to be careful in case the Earth children elected to fight without honor again and were actually faking. He was especially leery of the shuttle that had just destroyed the mission. Five of the shuttles had showed themselves to be slow, with inferior weaponry. He would go after them next, and then chase down the last shuttle, the quick one with the sting that had created all the early havoc. That shuttle was quicker than his fighters, but it could not outrun his star ship.
He looked at "Savoy Special." They would be the first to go, the children without honor, who had destroyed not only his mission but his career. He told his pilot to move in closer to the shuttle, and then ordered his weapons officer to lock weapons on it. He told his fighter pilots that the first shot would be his, and then they could come in and finish the kill, acting like scavengers, making sure there was no flesh left.
A smile creased the angry face of the commander as the starship moved into weapons range and he prepared to give the order to fire.
To be continued.