Chapter 19

Vesta, 34 Demaa, 4395 Orthodox Calendar

Saturday, 20 November, 2008, Native Regional Reckoning

The KES Scimitar, docked at Kosiningi Emergency Response Center, Zoka Prefecture, Karis

This was it.

The ship was ready to launch. Everyone was ready that was going, which was Jason and all the Faey. Miaari and the Kimdori were remaining behind. The Marines were fully armored. Jason and Myleena, having no armor, were on the bridge of the ship, going over the last details of the data that the Scimitar’s computer had downloaded into their gestalts, which basicly dealt with what their stations would require of them. Myleena was sitting at the engineering console, which allowed her to monitor the operation of the ship, and also gave her control over ship functions. Jason was sitting in the captain’s chair, which was actually the position on a Karinne ship that did most of the work. His gestalt was the command controller, and it was by his command that most ship functions were enabled, though Myleena also had the power to activate or deactivate the systems, because she was sitting at the ship’s main engineering console and the ship’s computer recognized her as the main engineer. Jason controlled the defensive systems, the communications, sensors, and other tertiary systems. Zora, being the pilot, had primary control of navigational systems and propulsion. The final chair, a chair for an assistant engineer, was taken by Myri. Everyone else was down in the galley.

The ship was going to be easy to operate, because the computer did almost all the work. Jason just told it what to do, and it did it. The ship’s crew numbered 24 on this ship normally, and 19 of them were engineers and technicians to make sure that the ship ran properly and maintain the equipment the researchers used. Three were pilots, one was the captain, and the last was a first officer. The ship’s computer was no Cybi. It was a Mark II Biogenic Mainframe, and interacting with it was very sterile. It had no personality at all, nothing like Cybi. It was just a dry monotone of a commune in his mind that relayed information, nothing more.

It was going to be hairy from here out. They would not return to Karis until it was all done, if they returned at all. Jason knew that Trillane wasn’t going to just let them waltz in. The ship was unidentified; no telemetry beacon, unmarked, its identifying marks either scoured off by the nebula or faded over time, and they would fire on it even if they didn’t know who was inside it. All Jason hoped was that they’d hold off on firing just long enough to let them get into a position to pick up the people in the mountain, and then they would run the gauntlet to get back out. If they had to land and recover the Legion under fire, it was going to be ugly. So, the plan was speed. Race in, take as much advantage of their confusion and hesitancy to fire on the ship until they had confirmation as possible, land and get his people the hell out of there, then take off and run the gauntlet to get far enough away from Earth’s gravity well so they could use the hyperspace jump engine to escape.

And once that was done, there was still a matter of getting to the Empress and then fighting an entirely different kind of war, a war of words. Denmother Zaa had prepared him well for that, but it still wasn’t going to be very fun. Dealing with a nest of vipers, where one word not delivered with exacting meaning could create a deadly pit from which he could not escape…ugh. He was going to have to kiss Jyslin for her gift to him. Her vast knowledge of the Faey language was going to serve him well when he stepped into that room.

Right now, they were waiting. The four spaceworthy ships they had on hand were being loaded into the very small ship bay, which was located on the top of the ship, as well as the only battle-capable unit on all of Karis. The two small Novas, the Karinne dropship, the dropship they used to get here, and the Gladiator were all being loaded by the Kimdori.

That Gladiator…shit, was that a fearsome looking piece of machinery. Where standard exomechs were sleek, graceful, a reflection of the supple Faey who piloted them, the Gladiator was a bulldog of a mecha, big, heavy, blocky, and it just oozed intimidation. It was no taller than an exomech, about fifteen feet, but it was about twice as wide. Jason had sat in the cockpit while waiting for the Kimdori to finish the repairs, just after dinner, and man, was it different. The ship was interface controlled, with no manual controls at all, only a series of heads-up display panels inside to provide information to the pilot. He’d taken it for a walk around the storage bay, and was surprised at how graceful it was, despite its ungainly appearance. The interface control meant that he basicly had absolute control of it, could control it as exactingly as his own body.

The Novas too were interesting. They too were interface controlled, but they did have manual controls in them. They were chasers, unarmed, small, fast single seaters used for personal planes. But unlike a skimmer, the tiny Novas were more along the lines of a sports car, with their tailless design dominated by a pair of large diamond-shaped wings attached to the very back of the ship, the wings serving as both wings and tail for the craft in the atmosphere. Jason had to take one out for a test flight, and wow. They were fast…they were amazingly fast. And after he got the hang of the interface control, letting go of the stick, he found that the ship was very responsive. And man, was it nimble! Its small size and aerodynamic shape made it very agile in the air, and it could turn on a dime, but the small size of the ship, only about twenty feet long, would make it really hard to adapt it as an armed unit. Putting even one plasma cannon in it would require the engineers to take some of the existing systems out of it. There was just no room in it.

One thing was for sure. After this was over, one of those Novas was going to be sitting in his driveway. Damn were they fun to fly!

But fun would be for later. Right now, he was looking at the hologram projected in front of Zora’s seat, taking up the whole front wall, showing a Kimdori securing the last ship they’d brought in, the dropship they’d come in. The small gray-furred Kimdori grabbed hold of his memory band and looked up at the camera, and seconds later the computer contacted him. [Maintenance reports final exterior craft is secured.]

[Tell them to disembark. Tell me when they’re all off.]

[Acknowledged.]

[Cybi.]

[Yes, Jason?]

[We’ll be leaving in a minute. Give Miaari my orders after we’re gone. Tell if we don’t come back, then Karis is their responsibility, and they have to take care of you. Make sure you tell her that.]

[I will, but I would very much like for you to return home, Jason.]

[That makes two of us.]

The Kimdori were clear of the ship, and all hatches were closed. Jason blew out his breath and prepared for what was coming in a moment of quiet contemplation. When this ship took off, he was doing more than accepting his responsibilities as the Grand Duke Karinne, he was taking responsibility for the eleven lives in this ship that were not his own. He had to make sure they all lived to enjoy whatever rewards they managed to see out of this. If they weren’t all executed, anyway. Alright girls, we’re taking off. Everyone find a seat, and start praying, he sent, strong enough to be heard through the ship. He looked to Zora. “Alright, Zora. It’s all yours.”

“Alright, gals, Jayce, let’s see if two days of constant practice was enough. I see the docking ramp has been retracted, so we’re clear.” She rather deliberately crossed her arms in front of her. “And here we go.”

The Kimdori on the balcony overlooking the docking ramp waved as the Scimitar lifted out of the water, and a flurry of water cascaded down when a power surge through the hull caused all water molecules to be repelled off the ship’s hull, sending a salty rain down onto the sea below. The ship turned as it slowly ascended, then nosed up and accelerated. Jason felt almost no acceleration, though, felt the ship take on what felt like a level attitude, so much so he could have stood up without having to steady himself.

“Wow, the inertial dampers on this thing are good,” Myri noted.

“I’m just glad it has artificial gravity,” Myleena added. “I’d hate to have to float around for the next twenty minutes.”

That was how long it was going to take them to get far enough away to jump out. They couldn’t jump in a gravity well, so they had to get out away from the planet. In that respect, it was different than the hyperspace engines that the Imperium used, that were more tolerant of gravity wells. But, if these engines weren’t as tolerant, they were much better in that there would be no relativity time delay after they entered hyperspace. Their trip to Earth would take 37 seconds, and exactly 37 seconds, in both subjective time and in real time. If they’d used a regular hyperspace ship, that trip would have taken 37 seconds in subjective time, and about 6 days in real time.

The Scimitar cleared the atmosphere, and one side of the hologram showed a camera view of what was before them. But Zora had her eyes on her own console, and looking over her shoulder showed him that she had the starchart up there, a three dimensional representation of space. She zoomed in and a dot in that chart blinked, then turned white. The map noted it at [Star C2450-174], but Jason knew that it was the Earth system.

In the twenty minutes it took them to get to the jump boundary, Jason calmed himself using techniques his father taught him, the meditative focusing exercises taught by martial arts. He was scared out of his mind with what he knew was coming, but he had to keep it together. People were counting on him, and he couldn’t let them down. He had to keep his head, and most of all, he had to control his fear. If those whores from the Siann realized he was afraid, they’d eat him for lunch. He had to be calm, unruffled, and decisive. He had to be confident.

“Alright, we’re here. Earth coordinates locked in. Jump engines are ready,” Zora called. “I got us set to come in behind the moon, Jason, so they don’t see where we came from.”

“Do it,” Jason told her.

Everyone take a seat, we’re jumping in thirty seconds! Zora sent throughout the ship.

Jason bucked the safety belt attached to his chair as the other three in the bridge strapped in and locked their chairs so they wouldn’t swivel. He heard Zora counting down, but this time he closed his eyes. He wasn’t all that curious about the psychodelic images he’d see in hyperspace.

“Three. Two. One. Jump!” Zora barked, and then all his senses went crazy. He tried his best to ignore the strange sounds, the weird smells, focusing his mind by repeating a mantra over and over, waiting out the 37 seconds they would be moving through this nonsensical domain. But it wasn’t easy, because those sounds, those smells, the strange feelings along his skin, they were almost tantalizingly unusual, begging him to explore them. But he kept his focus, keeping his eyes shut.

And it was over. Everything returned to normal. Jason opened his eyes and saw the moon ahead of them, about the size of a beach ball in the hologram, and the planet Earth peeked out from behind it. He shook his head and got control of himself, then looked around. Myleena and Myri were turning to look at the hologram, and Zora was already changing her navigation holograms. “We’re here,” she called. “Alright, I have 37 contacts in orbit around Terra. Looks like Trillane brought a whole squadron of their fleet here,” she grunted. “I’m plotting a course to get us to this mountain of yours. We’ll do a wrap-around of the planet, so they don’t home in on where we’re going.”

“Now we see if those modifications the Kimdori made work,” Jason said as he ordered the Scimitar computer to access Civnet. It did so successfully, and he called Kiaari’s contact number. He relayed it to a hologram that would project out from the little swing-away mini-console that attached to the right side of his chair. A window appeared, and Kiaari’s Terran face, Kate, appeared there. “Thank the Denmother!” Kiaari said explosively. “Do you have any idea how good it is to see you, Jayce?”

“Kiaari, listen carefully. Get everyone gathered together in the aircraft hangar, and get someone in the dropship and the skimmer. You’re going to be picked up in about fifteen minutes.”

“Jason, we lost the dropship,” she told him. “It was shot down last night. We lost Jenny, Bo, and Terry.”

Jason closed his eyes, clenching a fist as he absorbed that unpleasant news. “What happened?”

“We don’t know. We don’t know if they found a way to penetrate the cloak, so we haven’t launched the skimmer since then.”

“Well, get Luke in the skimmer and tell him to be ready to punch it into a belly-oriented landing bay. I want you, Jyslin, Temika, Kumi, Fure, Myra, Tim, and Symone in the skimmer with him. Tell him that he’s gonna have to get it in here while the ship is still descending. He won’t be able to get the skimmer under the ship once it lands.”

“They’re all here, I got Kumi back from Nebraska a few days ago, after Trillane shut Vultech down and nearly caught her. What’s going to happen? I haven’t had any contact with Miaari for days. It’s been really hairy here.”

“We found and salvaged a Karinne ship, Kiaari. We’re in it right now, and about to get down there to pick you up. Just remember, hon, this has to be fast. We have no way to hide from Trillane, and they’re gonna start shooting at us when we don’t answer their hails for identification. Everyone has to get to the ship as fast as they can when we land.”

“You got a Karinne ship?” she gasped. “What kind?”

“A scout ship.”

“Alright, I remember those from my history classes. Stern ramp or bow ladder?”

“The stern ramp. Luke has to get my skimmer into the little auxiliary landing bay in the belly before we can land, but it’s gonna be a tight fit. It was meant for a zip ship, not a skimmer.”

“I’ll do the flying, I remember where the doors are from the pictures.”

“Alright. Just get everyone there, and remember, this has to be as fast as possible. Just leave everything. We’ll only have a couple of minutes at the most, and I’m more worried about the people than the equipment.”

“You got it. We’ll be ready. As soon as you’re in sending range, call out to Jyslin. She’s very anxious to hear from you, and we’ll know it’s almost time when you do.”

“You bet I will. Be there soon.”

“Good luck,” she said, then the call was ended.

“Alright, I got a good course plotted. We’ll hit the atmosphere around Asia and the come in on a shallow high-speed arc down to Colorado.”

Zora brought them in hot. He had a hologram of the sensor readings displayed by the outside view, showing the planet and a series of red dots which were sensor contacts of other ships. None of them moved off their normal course as they came around the moon and accelerated, racing towards the planet. One of them began to slow as they approached the planet and got close enough for energy signatures to start registering on their sensors. When they got within 50,000 kathra of the atmospheric boundary, Jason knew they were made. [Contact. Receiving query hail on standard Faey ship to ship frequency. Open channel?]

[No, ignore it,] Jason ordered. “They’re hailing us, Zora,” he warned her. “They know we’re here.”

“I know,” she said, glancing at the ship location graphic. Everyone find a seat and strap in, this is gonna be a rough entry! she warned.

And it was. The ship shook as they hit the atmosphere, and Zora went as fast as she possibly could without losing control of the ship to air turbulence…which she was doing because the air wake and heat shockwave would deflect any incoming fire; at that speed, the air displaced by the Scimitar was like a solid object, a laminar flow with defined borders that would disrupt and deflect incoming plasma fire from the big heavy-mount plasma cannons on the ships. The ship came in fast, and it came in hot, leaving a glowing trail of burning air behind it as the hull was heated by the atmosphere. The entire ship vibrated violently as the computer responded to the rapid raise in temperature by focusing environmental systems into cooling the interior of the ship. Jason found himself hanging onto his chair as the ship rocked, but he kept his eyes on that hologram by the outside view that showed large Faey cruisers still in orbit changing their courses to move into a position over their ship. They were getting into a firing position.

“Shields!” Jason gasped, then mirrored that command to the computer. The ship hummed as the power surged, and a graphic to the left of the outer view appeared, one of the ship, showing a glowing green sphere appear around the ship’s icon in the center. Ahead, in their view, there was a shimmer of greenish light, and then the ship’s vibration eased tremenously as the shields took the brunt of the air friction. This is gonna get rough! Jason sent. Hang on! “Zora, they’re about to open fire!”

“I can’t maneuver very much in an atmosphere at this speed!” she warned. “Let’s hope all those burns on the hull are skin deep, and this old man can handle himself!” Show ‘em what you got, baby, Zora sent, probably unintentionally, patting her hand on her console.

They came in over the Pacific, so fast that they could fly from Los Angeles to New York in ten minutes. They slowed as they came down into the thicker air, and miles above, a Faey battle cruiser, nearly half a mile long, swung sideways and rotated so its broadside flank was aimed at the planet. Heavy mount cannons fired streaming coherent plasma down towards the surface, fast enough to keep it coherent but not so fast it shattered in the air and exploded before striking its target. Seconds ticked by as multiple pulses of angry red plasma screamed down from the heavens, meticulously aimed taking wind patterns and the planet’s rotation into account as well as the target’s speed and altitude. But those targeting computers had never tried to target a ship piloted by Zora Sharelle Karinne. Just like Jason, she had a pilot parent, but she literally grew up in a skimmer, and had been flying them since before she could look over the dash. Jason watched in surprised amazement as Zora handled the ship on manual control with a deftness and soft, almost delicate touch that made it seem like she was born wearing an interface. Slight changes in speed and altitude, coupled with evasive maneuvers, outfoxed the targeting computers of the battle cruisers in orbit, who had to be so incredibly accurate to hit a target from 200 miles away that at that range would be like trying to shoot the wings off a fly with a rifle at 400 yards. Plasma bolts showed as red blips on the tactical view on the right, and several of them streaked past the bow of the ship, falling short, even as others rained down like flaming spears of fire…but they continuously missed. None of them missed by much, but none of them came close enough to hit the shields. The Scimitar danced in that deadly rain, and avoided every shot.

Now comes the nasty part, Zora sent. They see they’re not dealing with an amateur they can hit from space, and they’re launching fighters. Sure enough, a series of small yellow dots erupted from the ships in orbit above, even as a series of dots appeared on the leading edge of the display, ground-based fighters. Jason, we’re only gonna have about thirty seconds once we hit the ground, and we’re gonna take fire from both fighters and those cruisers as soon as they realize we’re coming in.

I know, he told her. That’s why we get paid the big bucks.

I wanna see this paycheck, Myleena grunted mentally.

The fighters came into visual range as they crossed the shore of California at 15,000 shakra, ten Dragonfly fighters. That model was fast, sleek, heavily armed, and had strong armor. They intercepted the Scimitar east of Los Angeles, as all ten lined up and fired angry red streaks of plasma energy towards them. Zora was good, but there was no way a ship the size of a destroyer was going to evade fighters, so she aimed right for their center and intended to plow through and make them chase. Angry flashes of greenish light appeared on the front camera, as flares of red appeared on the left ship status image. The shields had stopped the plasma fire! That was metaphased plasma, and the shields stopped it!

Holy shit! The Karinnes’ teryon shields could stop metaphased weapons!

Not without a price, though. Hits on the shields showed a sudden spike in shield generator power, and a heat warning. Even the brief salvo fired as the fighters met them head on was enough to make the shields work. Clearly, though they could stop metaphased weapons, they weren’t very good at it. A hit from a cruiser in orbit would probably overload the shields and bring them down after only one shot.

The fighters scattered and let the big ship race through their ranks, then turned and moved to pursue as more fighters from orbit were lancing in on an intercept vector. Zora adjusted their course as they moved over southern California, not heading directly towards the mountain, so as not to give away their destination. The fighters behind did not open fire, because at the extreme speeds they were going and the distance between them, the plasma fire dispersed before it could reach the target. So they were at maximum throttle, closing the distance so they could get into firing range, but Zora was pushing the throttle herself, keeping the ship going fast, not giving them that chance. Though she was big, the Scimitar had good engines, and they were keeping the much larger ship well separated from the pursuing fightercraft. They were laying down a sonic boom so powerful it was shattering every window ten miles north and south of the ship’s trajectory, they were going so fast.

Just as the space-based fighters, a mix of Dragonfly and Starhawks, got within tactical range, Zora changed course, shifting north, putting them on a curling hooked curve that he could see would bring them over the mountain…but not in a straight line. Clever Zora, she was making her turn look like a defensive course change to keep the approaching fighters off their heads. [What’ll happen if the shields are up when they make contact with a solid object?]

[They will overload.]

[So we have to lower them to land?]

[Correct.]

“Crap,” Jason growled. “Zora, we have to drop shields to land!”

“I know!” she called as she turned more to the north and seemed to want to reach for a throttle as they moved out over Arizona. We got two minutes, girls! Everyone get ready for a very hard and very rough landing! Get into a good position, we’re gonna be hitting the brakes so hard the inertial dampers won’t possibly be able to absorb it all!

In the span of a minute, the ship hooked through Arizona and into Colorado, and then Zora hit the brakes. The ship lurched under them, making it feel like he was about to be pushed out of his seat, but his seat restraints kept him secured. Myri gasped and grunted as the ship slowed down so fast, so hard, that the fighters behind them were taken by surprise. They streaked past the ship, but two of them were too close. They hit the shields of the Scimitar in glancing blows as they tried to get clear and were violently rebounded, and then air resistance did the rest. The composite Neutronium armor of the fighters withstood the stress amazingly well, keeping the fighters from flying into pieces, but the joints between the wings and the fuselage couldn’t take the strain. The wings were ripped off both Dragonflies, and gouts of fiery discharge from ruptured plasma conduit running through the damaged areas vented plasma like little waterfalls as the two ships tumbled out of the sky.

They moved down, slowing down, closer and closer to the mountains below, until the peaks were nearly level with the outside view. Jyslin! Jason sent with all his power as they moved into what he felt was his range, which was about twenty seconds until they landed. You have thirty seconds to get everyone on board! Be ready!

I will! came a weak response.

“Zora, swing us so the stern covers the hangar door from above when we land!” Jason commanded as he ordered the ship to prepare to lower landing skids and the stern ramp, and also ordered the belly bay doors to open.

“You got it!” she replied as Cheyenne Mountain came into view.

It wasn’t rehearsed, but it happened quickly and smoothly. The ship slowed, and slowed, and then it swung its stern around even as it continued forward, tearing the air as it moved against aerodynamics at 500 miles an hour, letting the shields take the brunt of the air resistance. The fighters around them had regrouped and turned to attack the ship, but Jason had a sudden brilliant idea. Yana! We got about twenty fighters incoming! Do something about the pilots!

EVERYONE BLOCK YOURSELF NOW! Yana sent with rippling power, and it made all of them, even the telepaths in the mountain below, raise every defense and barrier they possibly could. But even those defenses weren’t enough to completely block out the sheer power of that young lady as she basicly sent what one would call a jamming signal across the telepathic spectrum, a powerful cacophony that would be like an airhorn being blown in the ears of any unprepared telepath within ten miles of the Scimitar. The sudden erratic movements of the fighters closing in from the north and northeast was testament to Yana’s amazing power, as one of the most powerful telepaths among the Faey used that power as a weapon against anyone in the area who was telepathic. She couldn’t block them for long, until they recovered their wits and blocked themselves, but it only had to be for long enough.

With Yana blasting her power at full volume into the mental ears of the enemy pilots, and giving them a hell of a lot more to worry about than just shooting at a landing ship, that left only orbital strikes to worry about. The ship swung over and moved backwards as Jason’s skimmer appeared under them, flying fast and straight and true on a vector that would intercept the landing bay. [Close the bay doors the instant that skimmer is completely inside!] Jason ordered as he lowered the shields, and the ship slowed to a crawl and descended. The green globe around the icon of the ship vanished on the left, and before the ship had even fully opened the bay doors, the skimmer lanced in between them and took up a matching course that made it essentially hover inside the bay. The doors began to close as the hangar doors of the mountain opened, and a group of people started boiling out. Even from that distance, Jason saw a flash of blue among those faces.

Jyslin! She was on the ground! She wasn’t in the skimmer!

The ship shuddered violently as the Scimitar landed, sending up a cloud of dust as landing skids slammed into the ground, and the ramp lowered in a position that was only about 20 meters from the hangar door, with the wide stern of the ship hanging over the mountainside, almost resting on it. Zora couldn’t have landed any better than that! The remaining members of the Legion were running like mad towards the opened stern ramp, and Jason watched as Jyslin, wearing her armor but not her helmet, was waving people ahead of her, getting them into the ship. “Hurry up!” Jason barked over the outside intercom, a voice they would hear. “Twenty seconds! Move it, move it, MOVE!” The first one to reach it literally jumped onto the ramp as it lowered to the ground and dashed up. More were behind him, a stream of Terrans carrying rifles, charging towards their escape ship. Jason glanced at tactical, and saw that the fighters were recovering and moving into an attack posture. Those people on the ground were sitting ducks, and his wife was among them! “Raise the shields!” Jason screamed.

[Raising shields will overload them.]

[It’ll make them come up until they do, so do it! Those shields will keep the fighters from strafing my people on the ground!]

[Objective noted. Raising shields in a directed arc to minimize surface contact.]

And with that, the shield generator projected out a shielf matrix that would only cover the top half of the ship.

Jason had no idea it could do that!

But it couldn’t do it completely. The shields still had to raise as an enclosed sphere, but it only tried to maintain bubble integrity everywhere but over them, maximizing power output only to certain shield grids. The fighters dove on them and started firing, and they did try to fire at the people on the ground, but the shields intercepted that fire and dissipated the power of those plasma bolts into the shield matrix. The generator spiked, throwing multiple warnings across both sides of the holographic display as the shield generators instantly overheated, warning him of an impending shield failure.

The shields failed and came down seconds after they came up, but those seconds were all it took. Jyslin was the only figure not on the ramp, and then she engaged her antigrav and raced up onto the ramp at high speed, literally ramming the people in front of her and driving them before her into the ship.

“Incoming!” Zora barked as red dots appeared on tactical. The cruisers in orbit were firing on them, and the ship was a sitting duck!

“Get us out of here!” Jason screamed as the ship informed him that everyone was off the ramp and in the bay to which the ramp connected. The ramp began to close as the Scimitar lifted off. It had only been on the ground for 24 seconds.

But it was too long. The ship rocked violently as it was struck port amidships by a plasma bolt, slamming into the scorched hull of the ship directly, with nothing softening that blow. The metaphased plasma tried to burn through the hull of the ship, but it encountered a molecular structure so dense, so strongly intermeshed, that it could not disrupt those molecular bonds and penetrate. The plasma detonated on the surface of the hull, the impact and force slamming the ship down nearly a meter and making it list violently to port, sending those in the bay flying to one side as the stern ramp raised to seal them in. The tactical of the ship on the left showed a flashing red splotch on the hull showing the impact, but the computer communicated no immediate damage to him, only a sudden major temperature increase in the sections abutting the struck hull. The ship rocked again as it was hit on the bow, and then one more time, causing a violent list to starbord as the very tip of the starbord wing was hit, almost turning the ship sideways. Each strike exploded on the surface of the hull without penetrating, and each hit did no reported damage outside of cooking the ship’s sections that were struck, sending air temperatures soaring over the boiling point of water in the compartments closest to the hull. The air in the bridge itself became noticably hot, for the bow hit wasn’t far from where the bridge was located.

But then Zora got the ship enough speed to start evading orbital shots. Several more plasma bolts rained down, but they exploded on the surface of the planet when the Scimitar moved out from under them.

“Yana, great job, girl! Get some people down to the ramp bay and check on the rebels, someone might have got hurt when we got hit!” Jason called over an intercom.

You can send again, and we’re on the way, just don’t throw us all over! Yana sent.

Send a doctor, we got some broken bones down here! Jyslin sent.

I’m on the way! Songa sent immediately in reply.

Everyone’s accounted for, love! Jyslin sent to him, her emotions vibrating through her thoughts even with the desperate situation they were in.

Where’d you get this ship, babes? Kumi sent in surprise.

Knock off the chatter, we’re not out of this yet! Myri rebuked as the ship accelerated with shocking speed, sinking Jason back into his chair as the the change of momentum exceeded the ability of the inertial dampers.

Jason, if we switch over to artificial gravity, that’ll help stabilize us! Myleena barked. And Zora can go vertical without slamming everyone down in the bay into the back wall!

Do it, sis! Jason answered, looking back at her.

Everyone grab hold of something right now! Myleena commanded. Activating artifical gravity, so things might get a bit shaky while it overrides natural gravity!

Jason felt a sudden lurch inside the ship, as if he was being pulled three ways at once, and then things settled down. Alright, we’re good! Myleena called.

“Show me why I love you, Zora,” Jason said as the ship began to outrace the fighters.

“It’s because I’m willing to play chicken with a battle cruiser,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at him and winking.

“You’re about to put your money where your mouth is, girl,” Jason told her as they took a sudden steep ascent vector, literally coming up right under one of the cruisers in orbit above.

Listen to me carefully, Zora sent through the ship, sending in that manner that would allow the non-telepathic Terrans to hear her. As soon as we break the atmosphere, in about two minutes, this is going to get very hairy very fast, because the cruisers can use all their guns and not just the ones that can penetrate an atmosphere. Everyone down in the bay, tie yourself down to something or grab hold of something that won’t move. The Marines and Doc Songa are coming right now to get you guys ready for this, and help keep the injured secured. Anyone not tied down or holding onto something is gonna get flung all over creation when I start getting us the hell out of here.

Why are you coming up under that cruiser? Myleena asked.

There’s really nowhere else to go, they’re bringing in more ships, she answered, pointing at the right display, showing more Faey cruisers moving to intercept. I’ll take my chances playing chicken with the one in front of me instead of trying to punch between them and get raked in a crossfire between two ships.

Sounds scary.

It won’t be boring, Zora sent grimly as they rocketed away from the surface with the fighters in hot pursuit. But when they broke off, scattering behind them according to tactical, both Jason and Zora knew it was so the cruiser ahead of them could open fire without threatening to hit its own fighters.

It was as violent as Zora warned it would be. The cruiser opened up with everything it had, even firing plasma torpedos that barely got two miles into the atmosphere before exploding, creating shockwaves that rocked the ship even from tens of miles away. Zora’s light touch skimmed them through most of the plasma fire, but the ship was struck several times dead in the bow and along the leading edges of its small wings, making the ship buck like an angry horse. Blinking flares of red appeared on the ship graphic on the left showed the weapon strikes on the hull, but the dirty, stained, scarred hull maintained its integrity. They erupted out of the atmosphere and turned straight towards the cruiser, which sent a swarm of fire in their direction even as it began to turn. They saw that they were on a collision course, they were minimizing their visible aspect to the Scimitar. Zora sliced the ship right through the fire, avoiding the plasma torpedos and the ion pulses, sacrificing them to the plasma strikes, as the old vessel rumbled and shook almost continuously as they were struck again and again, and as the temperature in the ship began to climb dangerously and the computer was reporting some damage to systems near the hull, damaged by the vibration and the heat. The cruiser grew in the display, until it took up the entire camera view, and the tactical to the right showed the Scimitar and the enemy ship virtually touching on the tactical display.

“Zora,” Jason called in concern. They got so close, Jason could see the individual plates in the hull, annealed together. “Zora!” Jason said, taking a white-knuckled grip on his chair.

“Calm down, baby,” she told him as she jerked her head to the side. The Scimitar rolled and lurched laterally, turning upside-down in relation to the cruiser, rolling over and racing by the cruiser not fifty feet from its outer hull, almost bouncing the ship off a bulge in the cruiser’s hull as they went over it. An impact like that, between two ships of that size, would have been catastrophic! Jason could only hold his breath as the destroyer-sized ship sliced by the half-mile long monstrosity so close that their artificial gravity fields intersected with each other, sending anything loose in both ships flying since up was in opposite directions on the two vessels. Everyone in the destroyer was ready for this by being tied down or holding onto something, but everyone in the cruiser within the gravity field of the Scimitar was not. The crew in the affected parts of the cruiser and much of their gear and equipment suddenly lifted up and slammed into the ceiling, then dropped back to the floor as the Scimitar passed over.

Zora squeezed the ship past the Trillane orbital ships, and then opened up the engines and hurtled them straight out away from the planet, towards deep space. Fire from five ships behind them chased them, but Zora again showed her light command of the ship by maneuvering them out of the path of the plasma torpedos and ion bolts, the more dangerous of the fire, and basicly allowing the plasma bolts to strike, which the hull had proved it could withstand. But the ships got further and furhter away on the tactical view on the right, as they tried to turn to pursue, even as the fighters raced by the cruisers and gave chase. But this was a different environment, and the Scimitar didn’t have the advantange of all the momentum of re-entry on its side now, which showed that the fighters were quickly catching up to them.

“Idiots!” Zora growled. “If heavy mount plasma cannons couldn’t breach the hull, what do they think fighters are gonna accomplish!”

“As burned as the hull is, they probably can’t tell,” Myleena answered that. “This thing looks like a burned dinner from the outside, Zora. The burns from the plasma bolts are just lost in all the burns from particle strikes from sitting in the nebula for a thousand years.”

The hatchway opened, and Jyslin ran onto the bridge. She threw herself into Jason’s chair, crushing him in her armored arms, her metal-clad body actually hurting him as it jammed into his chest and legs, but all that pain vanished when she pushed her forehead down against his own, establishing a deep communion in that skin to skin contact that conveyed all of her anguish and fear and worry, and also showed him her terrible resolve for making Trillane pay for what they did to him. In that fleeting moment, they just revelled in being together once again, letting their love for each other shine through their minds, through their souls. If only for a second, there was nothing but Jyslin, and everything was right in the universe.

She leaned down and kissed him deeply, putting her armored hands on his face, and he felt the paradox of that cold black metal on his cheeks and jaw, and the searing heat of her lips.

But she understood that they didn’t have time for anything other than that. She gave him one more deep kiss, then raised up and looked down at him, her eyes soft and vulnerable. I thought I lost you, my love, she told him.

Never, he told her, reaching up and putting his hand on her cheek. She kissed the palm of his hand and pressed it against her face, closing her eyes and smiling as she nuzzled his hand.

“Not meaning to break up the reunion or anything, but we’re kinda busy here, babe,” Zora said, looking over her shoulder at them.

“Push off, Zora,” Jyslin said banteringly.

“You can’t order me around, Jys, I’m a Countess now,” she said with an evil grin. “And you’re still a commoner.”

“She’s also my wife, Zora,” Jason told her. “You wanna revise that statement?”

“Maybe in a few minutes, when I have time to think about it, yeah,” she admitted candidly as she looked back to her navigation console. Twenty seconds to jump! Everyone settle in and get ready! Warn the Terrans what’s coming, guys!

“Those fighters are going to be in firing range any second, can we jump under fire?” Jason asked.

“Yeah, we can,” Zora answered.

Jyslin settled so she was sitting on Jason’s lap, and she kept his hand on her face, using that contact to urge herself gently into his mind. She absorbed everything that had happened to him after the attack in Scotland, and her eyes widened and she gasped when she saw what had happened on Karis. Is that true? she gasped, looking at him.

Yeah, it is, he told her. The Faey ancestor who gave me my talent was a Karinne, and the Kimdori led me there to show me, so I’d have a chance against Trillane. Congratulations, Duchess Jyslin Fox Shaddale Karinne. You’re nobility now.

That I can stomach, but this? she sent in surprise, touching the gestalt. A telepathic computer?

It’s a bit more complicated than that, but in a nutshell, yeah. We have to get you and the others interfaces. Nothing on this ship works without one.

Ten seconds! Zora warned as the fighters closed the distance, and then started opening fire. Streams of metaphased plasma lanced through the darkness of space and peppered the stern, as Zora abandoned any evasive maneuvers and concentrated on making the jump. Jason saw from her nav console that her destination was the Draconis system, a big blue dot on the map, and marked with a star to denote its importance. There would be no rest, no respite. They had to jump from Earth directly to Draconis, because Jason had to get to the Empress as fast as possible. Five. Four. Three. Jys, grab hold of him! One. Jump!

It was easier this time. Jason blocked everything out, all sounds, all smells, eveything, focusing only on the feel of Jyslin’s skin under his hand, the pressure she was exerting holding onto him, the feel of her considerable armored weight in his lap and the uncomfortable bite on his legs from the seams of her thighplates. He focused completely on the sensations he knew was real, and it made all the sensory ghosts that afflicted them in hyperspace from getting to him.

It was over. Reality snapped back into place around them, and he opened his eyes and found himself looking at the blue and green jewel which was the planet Draconis. Zora had jumped them in as close as she could get them, and the ship lurched forward as many smaller ships took note of this monstosity that had just jumped in, a ship of alien design to them that looked like it just came from a battle, and they gave it one hell of a wide berth as it advanced towards the planet. “Myleena, how bad off are we?” Jason called as he urged Jyslin off his lap and unbuckled himself, then stood up. Jason ordered the computer to broadcast the Siann message on a diplomatic frequency, part of what Zaa had taught him for this ordeal. So long as they gave that broadcast, they couldn’t be challenged until the matter was settled by elements of the Empress’ personal staff. No ships could fire on them or approach them, but the Scimitar could not raise shields, come within one thousand kathra of the planet, nor open any gunports, maintaining a completely docile posture. It was a flag of truce that only the Empress could order violated.

Anyone not busy, I need damage control teams! Myleena sent through the ship. Get the Terrans that aren’t injured to help! I got plasma leaks all over and we got some environmental failures in the stern!

How bad? Jason asked.

It coulda been a hell of a lot worse, she answered. We have a couple of days of work ahead of us, but the ship’s still spaceworthy. The redundant systems took over when the primaries went down. We’re running on auxiliary power and life support in section 25 on all decks, deck 1 and 2 sections 1, 2, and 21, and the primary exchanger on deck 14 blew. The shield generator is in standby after a critical overheat, and won’t come back up until it runs a self diagnostic. She opened up to send through the ship. Anyone that works damage control needs to be in armor or an E-suit! E-suits are stowed in cargo bay 3, two decks up and one section forward of the ramp bay.

Are you sure they still work after a thousand years? Min called.

I checked them, they work, she answered, standing up. Everyone just stay there, I’m coming down!

Songa, how bad are the injuries? Jason called.

Three broken bones and a concussion, she answered. Nothing I can’t handle, Jayce.

Can we get out of the skimmer now? Kumi called.

Yeah, Myleena, swing by the belly bay and take them to the ramp.

She gave him a wave of the hand as she rushed to the hatch. Just hang there a minute, I’m on the way to get you.

Myleena? As in the Black Ops engineer that was working against us? Tim asked curiously.

The same, honey, but we’re on the same side now, she answered. Turns out me and Jason are cousins, so we have a common interest.

Jason, you’re a Merrane? Kumi asked in surprise.

No, I’m a Karinne, he answered.

A who?

It’s a long story. Just sit tight and wait for Myleena, then go with her and help get the plasma leaks under control. This ship has to get you guys home. Zora, after I leave, I want you to jump back to Karis and wait there, before Trillane gets their fleet here to pick up where we left off at Earth. I don’t want the ship out where they can see it and get any bright ideas.

How will we know to come get you?

The Kimdori have an ambassador here, I can get a message relayed to Miaari’s ship. As soon as they decide to pick up the call I’m making and answer me, I’ll be leaving in the Nova.

[Message incoming. Imperial priority channel,] the computer warned.

Speak of the devil, and he knocks at your door, Jason mused as he ordered the computer to put the image on the center hologram.

He found himself looking at a mature Faey male wearing a shimmering gold formal shirt, like a doublet or something, with a diamond chain woven into his pale green hair and a thick emerald teardrop hanging from his left ear. “This is a priority channel reserved for official Imperial business,” the Faey man sniffed scornfully, looking at Jason, his eyes moving to and fro as he took in the bridge and the people on it. “It’s an Imperial crime to use this channel and broadcast the message you are sending out.”

“It’s no crime at all for me,” Jason answered, a bit bluntly, turning to face the hologram. “By the Laws of Siann, I demand an immediate audience with Her Imperial Majesty, Dahnai Merrane. The laws state that I am entitled to this audience no matter who I am, and if I’m found to have used this protocol without the proper right to do so, I can’t be executed until after I stand before her and say what I have to say. It’s called the Martyr’s Gambit, and you can look it up in the charter if you don’t believe me. If the Empress wants to execute me, you can’t do it until after I make my statement, and only after I am declared unfit to use this channel legally. That is the law.”

The male gave him a strange look. “You have correctly cited the law,” he said with some respect. “But you cannot call for the Martyr’s Gambit to be granted audience with Her Imperial Majesty until you strike the Gong of Morr. Your ship may not be fired upon without Imperial permission, but let’s just see you get down here without breaking the conditions of the Ducal Call,” he said, somewhat smugly.

“The Empress can grant me safe passage to the palace,” Jason protested.

“Yes, I suppose she could. If I bothered to inform her of this. But, given I know who you are and I’m aware of that sizable price on your head, I think I’ll make a call to Grand Duchess Trillane instead,” the male grinned. “Let’s just see you get down here in one piece when the Trillanes mobilize their Draconis garrison to intercept you,” he added, and then he ended the transmission.

“Why that son of a bitch!” Zora snapped.

“How is he going to explain to the Empress why there’s a ship up here broadcasting the flag of truce without explaining why he hasn’t talked to whoever’s doing it?” Myri demanded.

“I’ll bet she doesn’t even know,” Jason growled. “If they think that’s going to stop me, they got another thing coming. Myri, take the conn,” Jason ordered as he told the computer to prep the Nova for takeoff.

What are you doing? Jyslin demanded.

If they want me to ring the gong and fulfill the technicalities of the law, fine, he snapped mentally. I’m going to take the Nova and go down there.

Jason, the Novas are unarmed, Myri protested.

True, but they’re fast as lightning, and once I get the Nova into the airspace of the Imperial Palace, it’s instant death for anyone who fires on me. Right now time is on my side. If I can get down there before that Merrane asshole gets through to the Trillanes, I can get to the palace before anyone can stop me.

Jason, that’s crazy.

Sometimes crazy works, he answered immediately, which made Myri laugh despite herself.

Jason, love, don’t do this, Jyslin pleaded, holding onto his hands. Bring this ship down. Let us go together. It would be safer, and I don’t want to see you putting yourself in danger.

This ship can’t go, love, or it’ll break the truce and they can fire on it, he told her, touching her face. And now, this is a battle of words, and I’m the only one that can fight it. So, I won’t take all of you into harm’s way. This is my fight now. You fought for me back on Earth, my love, you fought hard and you fought well. But your fight is over now. It’s my responsibility, and I have to take it back from you. This is something I have to do, or Earth will never be free of the Trillanes. If you’ve ever trusted me before, my love, trust me now. I’ve flown the Nova before, back on Karis. I got very familiar with it, because I knew I’d have to land on Draconis in another ship, so I picked the fastest thing I could find that would let me outrun anyone else. I know how it handles, and I promise you that it’s the fastest thing on this planet. If there’s anything that could get me down there to the front door of the palace in one piece, it’s that Nova. Now, let me go, love. Every second counts.

She gave him a stricken look, then sighed and let go of his hand.

That’s my girl. Go sit in Myri’s seat and have them fill you in.

He ran at full speed through the ship, down to the stern where the main landing bay was. There, crammed into the small bay, were both of the functional Novas, both dropships, and that evil-looking Gladiator e-mech. The canopy of the closer Nova was open, and the ship was already powered up and waiting for him. He almost jumped up to the canopy edge, scrambling up the retractable ladder, then dropped down into the seat and started strapping himself in. His gestalt took over primary control of the Nova, and it was by telepathic communion that he ordered the canopy to close and the landing bay to activate the airskin shield to prevent decompression and open the bay doors. The doors swung open silently overhead, but there was a loud warning klaxon blaring through the bay warning that the doors were open. Alright, I’m heading out. Zora, get this ship out of here. Jump back to Karis as soon as you get the doors closed, and get the repairs underway.

A cacophony of sendings touched him, all of them warning him to be careful, to watch himself, and be safe, even if some of them had no idea what was going on, like Kumi, the Terran telepaths, Fure, Yohne, and Myra. He grabbed posts on each side of the cockpit that were nothing but handholds, so he wouldn’t touch the controls, and then interfaced with the Nova and established a direct controls link. Now, the ship would literally fly by his thoughts, giving him absolute control over the vessel, a control every bit as exacting and perfect as Zora’s had been over the Scimitar. The ship lifted off from the deck the instant the canopy closed, and then it rocketed up and out of the bay even as it retracted its landing gear, sucking Jason into the seat. The little ship did have a rudimentary inertial damper system, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the system in the Scimitar. It would shave a few G-factors off his turns and acceleration, but wouldn’t nullify it.

The little ship reacted to his very desires, flying with an absolute perfection of intent with him that it was like he was flying and not the ship. It turned and lanced away from the Scimitar with startling speed, shocking the hell out of the sensor officers who were monitoring traffic and watching the strange, old ship that had jumped in unscheduled from unknown origins. They’d never seen a ship accelerate so fast before! Jason enabled communications, and listened to the controllers trying to contact him.

“You have no clearance to approach Draconis! Slow to a stop and enable your telemetry beacon and pilot identification or we will call in fighters to stop you!” one of the controllers warned, as the ship relayed that over a speaker in the cockpit.

[This ship has no telemetry beacon, and my pilot identification is Jason Fox, pilot control number T93-2775. If that’s not enough, you wanna call in fighters? Fine. Let’s see them catch me,] Jason communed, which the Nova’s computer translated into a gravband transmission that the controllers would hear audibly.

In a matter of seconds, the tiny ship traversed a thousand kathra and turned to make a high-speed atmospheric entry. By the time the controllers scrambled fighters to intercept the Nova, it was already leaving a trail of burning air behind it as it breached the atmosphere and descended, heat burning the air around the ship as the ship’s heat shields absorbed the majority of the energy, keeping the cockpit comfortable. Jason brought the ship down in a very steep descent angle, slowing down as he descended, coming in over the ocean and not far from Dracora.

Jason had outrun the fighters in space. He wasn’t so lucky with the fighters stationed in Dracora itself. A tactical hologram popped up on the right showing the city and a swarm of at least two dozen contacts rising up from the city an moving towards him. He realized that he couldn’t come straight at the city. He had to circle it, get them to get behind him, then turn and race for the palace once he had them out from between him and his goal. He veered off to the north, moving out over the continenent and going wide, turning away from the city. The fighters continued to climb, but were now on an intercept vector. He widened that circle until he was flying directly away from the city, which put all of them behind him. The tactical hologram suddenly widened and showed four groups of contacts, two to the west, one to the north, and one almost directly over his position and a hundred miles up. Those were the space-based fighters entering the atmosphere to chase him down.

He couldn’t stay on this course. He turned, a wide circle even as he continued to descend, causing the city-based fighters to change course to intercept, until he was out over the ocean again. He studied the four groups and saw that no matter which way he went, he was going to run smack into one of them. The closest group, the ones from the city, were going to intercept him before he reached the city no matter which way he went, because if he went too far wide, one of those other groups was going to intercept him first. If he tried to race through them, he was running a huge risk, since the Nova had no armor. It was nothing but a flying engine, built for speed and agility—

Speed and agility.

Agility.

Holy shit, was that a crazy idea…but sometimes crazy works.

He saw that there was only one way he was going to reach the palace alive, and that was to go through the city-based fighters, and minimize their opportunities to shoot at him. And there was only one way to do that. He had to put the ship on the deck.

Between the buildings of Dracora, right through the city itself.

They’d be maniacs to fire at him in those artificial canyons between three hundred story buildings, they’d be killing a hell of a lot of civillians. And down there, the Nova’s small size and superior maneuverability would give him a decisive advantage. It could out-turn a Starhawk or Dragonfly, and down there, turning ability was going to be the most critical aspect of a ship.

It was insane, but there was no other way.

Jason nosed the ship into a power dive, going straight down, racing at the deep blue of the ocean below as he kept a mental eye on his altitide, a number in his mind’s eye that decreased with alarming rapidity. The ship began to vibrate and shudder as it plowed through the thick air near the surface, but Jason ignored that, keeping one eye on his altitude and one on the Dracora fighters, who were now racing towards him. He was sixty kathra off the coast, and he was lined up to come right over the Medical Annex and enter the city proper.

10,0000 shakra. The ship still shuddered heavily, making a banging sound, and the city fighters were 20 kathra away.

5,000 shakra. The sea filled his canopy view now, and the fighters were 7 kathra away, seconds from firing range.

1,000 shakra! Jason pulled up, hard, even as the lead fighters opened fire on him with deadly bolts of metaphased plasma streams. They didn’t count on him using such a brutal angle, and angle that would make most pilots pass out, so their initial salvo went wide of him. Jason felt his eyeballs sink back into his head as his vision grayed out from the immense pressure of coming out of such a powerful dive, but the Nova’s inertial dampers kept him from exceeding his limits and passing out. The tips of the ends of the two diamond-shaped wings hit the ocean, shattering a wave and sending a shower of misty water drops into the air. The impact made the Nova lurch, however, and almost slammed the bow into the ocean. Jason managed to recover, and then punched the ship at full throttle, skimming so close to the water’s edge that the gentle windblown waves very nearly hit the belly of the ship. The high speed at water’s edge created a huge twin columns of water high into the air behind him, a wake of spray that concealed the ship from the eyes of the pilots behind and forced them to rely on targeting scanners. But they were too busy turning and trying to catch up to the small Nova, pushing their engines beyond maximum, which just barely allowed them to keep up with the smaller, faster craft.. Jason had to dip the ship high to avoid a small pleasure boat ten kathra from the shore, and the sonic boom behind him overturned the craft and sent its five occupants flying, splashing into the sea. The fifteen fighters behind charged past the capsized boat, but one of the pilots called out to sea rescue to come pick them up.

It was just safe enough for them to try, he realized. Jason felt the edges of it as one of those pilots in the fighters behind him reached out with her mind, and tried to attack Jason. He brushed aside her assault with almost scornful disdain, but he was too busy lining up his entry into the city to worry about striking back at her. At 1600 kathra an hour, almost 750 miles an hour, that shoreline was going to be behind him in a matter of seconds! He slowed down as he turned the ship, and the fighters behind seemed to pull up, waiting for him to pull up and go over the buildings ahead. But he didn’t.

At 250 miles an hour, Jason lanced in between the hospital and the Medical Services administrative headquarters only 100 shakra above the ground, shattering windows in both buildings for ten stories and dragging an air wake behind him so powerful it overturned parked hovercars, uprooted two trees, and knocked everyone to the ground and sent them tumbling.

The fighters behind broke up. Ten of them pulled up to go high, but five of them gave chase through the city itself, and Jason learned almost immediately that they were crazy enough to fire at him. He almost didn’t believe it when the lead ship opened fire, forcing him to evade wildly in the narrow canyon of the major artery through the huge buildings, as streams of plasma sizzled by the canopy and slammed into a building far ahead, sending a spray of fire, plascrete, and glass showering towards the ground. Jason’s fast eyes and quick reflexes let him catch sight of a border, and he turned the ship hard and descended at the same time, doing a banking vertical turn to get away from the fighters. They matched the turn, and he turned again at the end of the building, banking high and to the right to prevent them from getting a line of fire, then turned to the left and dropped to the deck, the tip of his wing mere feet from the ground as he banked through and levelled out. The five fighters turned into the parkway behind him, and he punched the throttle to get to the end of one of the two hundred story buildings between which he flew before they could shoot at him. He just barely managed to make the corner just as the lead fire unleashed a pair of plasma bolts from the gunports under and to each side of the nosecone, as the Nova turned left and ascended.

Right towards a suspended walkway between the two buildings!

Jason reacted out of sheer panic, spinning the ship and going high, and he just barely cleared the walkway, so close his canopy almost hit the roof of the glass and metal bridge as he passed over it inverted. He hooked down to get behind it, and behind him, in his rear monitor display on the left, he saw the glass and metal walkway explode as the lead fighter rammed it. The Dragonfly spun in the flying debris, relatively undamaged from the impact but the impact sending it somersalting out of control, and it dropped to the ground in a wide arc along with the remains of the bridge, plowing into the ground in a huge cloud of dust.

Jason was too busy gripping the posts in a white-knuckled grip to care much about shaking one of his pursuers, for the other four had cleared the bridge, and there were still ten more overhead, shadowing the movements of those on the deck, waiting for the Nova to come out into the open where they could get a shot at it. Jason weaved the ship between two blocks of buildings in a scissors motion, turning back on his path with each cleared building, getting a feel for the spacing between the buildings. The Starhawks and Dragonflies kept up with him, unable to line up a shot but not dropping out of the chase, so Jason started taking the turns faster and faster, pitting his natural reflexes and his superior machine against his more experienced pursuers in their slower, less maneuverable ships. He took one turn so fast that the leading edge of his right wing nicked the glass of the building, shattering it and sending glass flying into the parkway below. But the lead Starhawk clipped its entire wing into the glass, the wing caught on a wall, and then the ship vanished as it was yanked into the building, sending a fiery cloud of building materials billowing out into the air. The Starhawk plowed through the entire floor and erupted from the glass around the corner, in a straight line from where it went in, then dropped the hundred shakra to the ground below as just part of a rain of debris.

The Nova came out into a vacant lot, and Jason punched it to get through before the fighters above dove down and opened fire. He turned vertical and skimmed along the side of a building with his canopy mere inches from the glass, his air wake shattering it behind him, and then he dove to the deck as he made another turn, weaving left and then right. He nearly rammed a hovercar that came out from between the buildings in front of him, his wake sending the hovercar spinning out of control to crash into the ground, but he never saw what happened because he’d already turned between another pair of buildings. He realized he was getting deeper into the city, where the buildings would be even larger, and there would be more open space between them, giving the fighters more opportunities to fire at him. But he was also coming into some slow traffic, moving into an area of the city where hovercars flew at the altitude he was using; most sections of the city, the hovercars and zip ships flew above building level, only descending between them to land. But here, closer to the center of the city, the buildings were so tall, so massive that many hovercars simply flew between them, turning corners, mirroring what ground-bound cars back on Earth did on city streets. Those hovercars were now obstacles to avoid, as the Nova lanced along a parkway between two monstrous buildings, even as the hovercars seemed to be warned about the oncoming fast movers and tried to get out of the way, most of them going up. But, the open space let Jason open the throttle more, using his ship’s advantages of speed and agility to overcome the experience of his adversaries.

He lost another pursuer when he banked a corner going nearly 200 miles an hour, plastering him to his seat because he took the bank oriented in the direction of the force, and the three remaining fighters mimicked him as they took the turn themselves. But the last remaining Starhawk just couldn’t navigate the turn at that speed, and her belly slammed into the side of a building. Again, the armored fighter survived the impact, but that impact sent it out of control, bouncing it right off the building to plow stern first into the building on the far side, disappearing into it in a cloud of dust and shattered glass. The two remaining pursuers were in Dragonflies, which were smaller and more agile that Starhawks. He led those two on a mad, chaotic, meandering chase through Dracora, always turning just before they could get a line of fire at him, speeding up to nearly 500 miles an hour in the straightaways the braking hard and navigating tight, right-angle turns at almost impossible speeds, and basicly aggravating the hell out of them. The fighters above kept trying to get into a position where they could dive down and take a shot at him from above, but he kept turning wildly, almost randomly, making it impossible to predict where he was going to go.

But Jason knew where he was going, and thanks to Miaari’s sharing, he had a detailed memory of this city. He knew exactly where he was, exactly which direction the palace was in, and he was following a route that would take him right to the palace without surrendering cover from the fighters behind him, which were the much bigger threat. He could see it when the fighters overhead dove at him and react, but those two fighters behind him could shoot him down if they got a clear shot. That was the one thing he absolutely could not give them.

He turned a corner and found himself staring at a swarm of hovercars! He rolled around one car and then dove under a bunch of them, then had to jerk high to avoid one that dove away to get out of his path, but had dove right down into him. He ordered his fighter’s comm to broadcast on emergency control, a frequency every hovercar’s radio would receive, but someone else beat him to it. “This is an emergency! Fighters are pursuing a renegade ship within Dracora proper, in the Trades district! All hovercars and civilian traffic in the Trades and Barter districts are to land immediately! Repeat, all hovercars and civilian traffic in the Trades and Barter districts are to land immediately!”

That actually helped. When the Nova took another turn hard and fast, it did so over a series of hovercars that were diving to the ground, moving to follow the emergency instructions and land so they would get out of danger. Jason banked again, hard, between two glass towers, and saw a glittering crystal lattice spire in the distance ahead. The spire of the palace!

Now came the gamble. He hit that broad avenue and put the Nova into overdrive, maxing out the throttle in a hard command. He was slammed into the seat of the fighter and felt his head swim as it punched supersonic in a heartbeat, the broad grassy avenue narrowing and narrowing in his vision, becoming a razor thin sliver between blurring glass and steel, where the slightest dev