I wasn't apprehensive about the fighter until we were seconds from launching.
What if Bafly was part of the trouble?
"Lisel," I said, glancing at him. "Bafly --"
"I don't want to consider it," he replied, which made me realize he'd already thought about the problem.
"You could have said something."
"Tana, my friend--" His fingers played across the controls, and he did not look at me. "I only trust three humans -- you, Krisin, and the Captain. My mistrust of Bafly started before we came to the station and has nothing to do with whether we can trust her or not. The readings are good."
I had watched the power come up as well and nodded. The fighter felt right, which might not have been precisely logical, but it was the best sign I had at the moment.
"Let's do it."
The transition from station to space went far easier than from the ship where we were often launching with a dozen other fighters around us. I automatically made a check, both visual and scanner, before I got my head back into the current problem.
"I'd rather be facing weres," I mumbled.
"I agree."
We had launched close to our target, but I didn't head straight there. I expected the crew to be a little worried about us, no matter how much of a show we'd put on. I was right. The sensors showed a build-up of power in the Sailfor's grid. The ship didn't have much for weapons, but they wouldn't need anything very powerful with us this close.
I turned us in the opposite direction. "We're getting out of visual sight of the Sailfor. See if Krisin is back at Admin yet. I want info on what is going on -- and maybe a bit of help. Use our own codes. Let's keep this off the main lines.
It took a moment before Krisin came online, breathless and sounding more panicked than usual.
"How does it look there?" I asked.
"Things are heating up. We have reports of some stores raided. If you don't want this getting worse, you had better convince the Sailfor that they aren't going to just cut and run."
"We're almost ready for our run. I need you to play games with the station scanners and show us still going the long way around the station."
"Ah." A pause, and I could imagine his hands already moving over the computer keys. "Yes. Not hard. Set to go in thirty seconds from now."
"Excellent. See you soon."
He grunted an answer.
"Yeah, I wish you were here, too," I said. Lisel made a sound of agreement. "But we can do this."
"I am cutting you out of the sensors in twenty seconds and replacing you with a blip. You'll have one minute to get into position and take care of that bastard ship."
"We're sure it's the enemy?" Lisel asked.
"Crew is shooting people now," he warned. "If they are the raiders, they're helping them out anyway. Go."
"Stay safe."
"And you two."
Lisel tapped the screen where we suddenly were moving in a slightly different direction. Krisin had done an excellent job. I fired the right-side engine, used the station as a board, and spun us so that we ducked down under it.
Lisel said nothing. He did watch the screens, though. It occurred to me that Sailfour wasn't a huge ship to have taken on all the stations and all the loot they must have gathered. Lisel knew it too. He was watching for another ship or two that was likely holding off just out of range.
Nothing we couldn't handle, I told myself. Bring them on.
One at a time.
I was used to maneuvering near larger craft, and in some ways, the station was more manageable than anything else. It was not going to suddenly sweep around and move off in an odd direction. My main concern was that the Sailfour would be above us as I dipped under the station --
"Sailfour's weapons just came online," Lisel warned.
"How about any of the other ships?"
"None so far," he said. "So they might not have allies."
"Well, not here yet, at least."
Lisel grunted in agreement. I could tell that he was keeping an eye on anything moving out beyond the station. I suspected Krisin did the same. That was how we worked, and I didn't have to ask Krisin what he was doing right now.
That left me free to concentrate on doing this right. If we simply swept around from either side of the bays, the Sailfour would have us in their sights. Being a small fighter craft gave me far more maneuverability. Since ships like Sailfor didn't have room -- or need -- for a fighter, they were unlikely to consider how easily we could move.
That was my main hope.
I thought Lisel mumbled something under his breath as we came up under the bottom of the craft. I hadn't known him to be religious at all, but that sure sounded like a prayer to me.
I sure wished we had time for that conversation, but ... no. The damned Sailfor had laser canons. They even had them on the underside of the craft, and the moment we appeared in range.
"Damn," I mumbled.
But Lisel was already on it. The canon was slow to power up. Clearly, it was a late addition to the system and not well-integrated into the system. I suspect those bulges didn't show up as weapons on a station scan.
My first shot hit just to the right of the canon. Close, and caused a bit of a glitch, but not good enough.
"We have a problem," Lisel said. He even said it very calmly, which sent a chill straight through me.
"Yes?"
"Reading six ships, just dropped off slide and far too close. I can't read anything definite on them, but ..."
"Yeah. We have a problem."
No comments:
Post a Comment