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trigger fingers steady long enough
yipe
!"
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Zahn, Timothy - Spinneret
Carmen twitched violently, the flyer's automatic systems smoothing out the
effect on their motion. Bare meters away, flanking them on both sides, the
alien flyers had suddenly appeared. Close up, she realized for the first time
just how big they really were.
"Carmen!" Hafner's cry was half agonized expletive, half bewildered question.
"I don't know
," she shook her head, feeling her own nerve sliding away. "Twenty seconds ago
they were fifteen kilometers away I never even saw them move."
She broke off, forcing her mind back to the task at hand.
For all their superior equipment
, she told herself firmly, we know something they don't
. But how to use that knowledge, now that their opponents would be watching
their every move?
She thought of a way. Maybe.
"Take a deep breath, Peter," she ordered, "and brace yourself. Here goes
nothing."
Ahead, Olympus was sweeping toward them like an inverted tornado. Pulling back
on the stick, Carmen shoved the throttle to full power, sending the flyer
arcing toward the clouds. The alien craft matched the maneuver without the
slightest trouble that she could detect; matched it again when she turned the
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flyer to point due south. Olympus's cone flashed past, far beneath and to her
right.
Somewhere along here Flyer Two had lost all power
Gritting her teeth, she shut down the repulsers.
The sudden silence seemed to roar in her ears. She spared a quick glance to
the side, found Hafner tight-lipped but with the look of understanding in his
eyes.
Giving her full attention to flaps and elevons, she tried to remember every
scrap she'd ever learned about gliding. The review, unfortunately, didn't take
long.
"Any idea what our range is like this?" Hafner asked, his voice studiously
casual.
"None." She tried to match his tone, but her performance wasn't nearly as good
as his. "We were still climbing when I cut power and we're just leveling out
now. It all depends on the glide characteristics of this thing, and I have no
idea what those
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Zahn, Timothy - Spinneret are. I think we'll be past the crash site before we
have to restart the engines, but I
don't know how much farther than that we'll get."
Hafner turned and gazed out the window. "Staying right with us, aren't they? I
wonder how we'll be able to tell if hey! He's dropping below us a bit."
Carmen shot a glance out her side. "This one, too." Could it have happened
already? Without so much as a flash of light or crackle of radio static to
mark the event? "Hang on," she told Hafner. "We're going to gamble."
Pulling back on the stick, she brought the flyer's nose up sharply, killing
their forward momentum in a standard stall maneuver. If the aliens still had
power, they would have no trouble staying with her & and with most of their
speed gone, she would have no choice but to give up and abort the whole plan
"They're still going down!" Hafner called, his fist slamming excitedly onto
the edge of the control board. "They're gliding, too.
We did it
!"
Carmen's reply was a long exhalation of a breath she hadn't realized she was
holding. Pulling out of the stall, she sent them into a lazy starboard turn.
Only when they were heading west did she risk starting the engines again. They
caught at once, and as she started them back toward Olympus she flipped on the
radio once more. "Attention, invaders," she said. "Your aircraft, which we
ordered to back off, have been dealt with. If you value your lives you will
leave Astra immediately." Switching off, she gave Hafner a tight smile. "If
nothing else, that should confuse them."
But Hafner was still staring out the window. "Carmen, can you take us back
toward where the aliens just went down? I'm not sure, but I think it's
started."
It had indeed started.
Unnoticeably at first, of course. Aboard the huge M'zarch landing craft the
only indication was a slight vibration, unexplained but not especially
worrisome; the troops outside, their attention turned outward, never noticed
as the skids melted silently into the ground. The giant ships sank down to
rest on their bellies and continued further & and by the time the hull-breach
alarms began their clanging,
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Zahn, Timothy - Spinneret it was too late. The underside repulsers, already
being eaten away, could not be fired.
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