Chapter 14
When the sleds burst out into clear space, lit by the harsh white glare of the neutron star, the fighters were still right on their tails, and closer than ever.
‘How do they do that?’ Tarun asked, ‘there’s no way they could have seen through that globulus. Are we transmitting or something.’
‘Quarks, Tarun, you are getting paranoid,’ Aurora quipped.
‘Well you can hardly blame me in the circumstances -- someone is trying to kill me.’
‘Hang on, what’s that?’ Loren said. She worked away at her control panel.
‘You are not actually checking, are you, Loren? Aurora said scathingly. ‘How paranoid can you get?’
Mervyn’s stomach sunk, but not from gravity this time. Whenever they made progress another obstacle always dragged them down again. How long could this streak of bad luck last? ‘What have you found, Loren?’
‘I don’t know... it’s very weak.... got it! Great Muons! We’re transmitting, a super-luminal beacon, and it’s coming from inside the sled?’ Mervyn looked around frantically for anything that could resemble a superluminal transmitter, but everything looked normal.
‘We’ve got to get rid of it before the next course adjustment. What size is it, Loren?’
‘I don’t know. As long as my forearm and just as thick I suppose -- it’s not a small thing -- hard to conceal, probably disguised as something else.’
The sled dived into the next globulus. The final course correction was due any moment. Hadn’t they been inside a globulus when first kidnapped by the Naga? Even before they announced themselves the Naga’s pilots knew exactly who they were. How had he tracked them that time? Had their sleds been transmitting since then? If so then someone had tampered with their sleds on Academy One. A half remembered conversation in the star dome came back to him.
‘The extinguisher!’ He snapped himself free and grabbed the canister from its cradle. ‘The extinguishers, Loren, -- De Monsero told Hidraba to switch the extinguishers in our sleds. Quick, Aurora, chuck yours out the airlock!’
‘Extinguishers? De Monsero? What are you on about, Mervyn?’
Mervyn slammed his fire extinguisher in the airlock and vacated it. The canister spun off into space. Without propulsion it dropped far behind at subluminal speed.
‘You’re right, Merv,’ Tarun said, ‘your sled’s no longer trans--’
‘Final course correction coming up in three,’ Loren interrupted, ’Tarun, ditch your extinguisher, now... two...’
‘I’ve got it.’
‘One... ‘
‘Canister evacuated.’
‘Execute!’
They waited as a pure white light shone through the gloom of the thinning globulus like a lighthouse beam through fog: the neutron star. Ribbons of dust spiralled around them, torn apart by the solar wind streaming from the star. Then they were clear.
‘It worked,’ Loren shouted. ‘The beta fighters are still on our original course.’
De Monsero would answer for that one, but right now Mervyn had more pressing matters to think about. He looked about for the other fighters, ‘Where are the alpha group, Tarun?’
‘Somewhere round the other side of the nova, you don’t need to worry about them yet. The next time you see them though, they’ll be coming straight at us.’
He didn’t like the sound of that, but at least they had eluded the beta group for the moment. They entered the gravity well of the neutron star -- he could feel it tugging at his guts. He allowed himself a brief smile -- another small victory, but the biggest test of all was still to come
The piercingly brightness of the star, hauntingly compelling in its purity, filled Mervyn’s viewscreen. The star drove everything from it, sweeping away the surrounding gas and dust. Soon even the viewscreen’s highest filters could not cope with the intense brightness and he had to switch them off, flying on instrument readings alone. The sensors clearly showed the gamma jets streaming out of the star’s poles, gyrating like gigantic lasers attached to a crazed gyroscope. The gamma jets left the star at almost the speed of light, corrugating the fabric of space time into as they went. This was their goal. He swallowed hard, if he mistimed the crossing the jet would be shred them down to their subatomic particles. One moment there; the next wiped out ever. A high risk strategy, but their only chance of survival in this deadly pursuit.
‘Fighters dead ahead,’ Tarun shouted, as a photon blast exploded ahead. The alpha group were early: three fighters hurtling straight towards them. The lead fighter opened fire again.
‘Stay on course!’ Mervyn ordered, as photon blasts erupted around the sleds, making them bounce and jerk wildly. He fought the controls.
‘We’re hit! We’re hit!’ Tarun screamed.
‘Quiet,’ Aurora snapped. ‘I’m trying to concentrate. We’ll deal with it in a moment.’
‘We’ve got a fire and no extinguisher.’
‘Smother it with the fire blanket before it gets any bigger,’ Aurora ordered.
Normally it would have been madness to attempt to avoid head on photon blasts, but the biolink gave him pinpoint control. He was as one with his sled. The lead fighter shot past and came about for another run. Mervyn dismissed it from his mind -- it would have to catch up again -- the two ahead were far more deadly. He no longer needed to think what he was doing, as soon as he saw the photon blasts the sled adjusted to weave between them.
Without warning a crunching noise filled his ears. He whirled round to investigate, but their sled was intact.
‘It’s caving in!’ Tarun shouted hysterically.
‘Transfer full auxiliary power to hull integrity!’ Aurora said calmly.
‘The transfer link’s out.’
‘Re-route it.’
‘No time, we’re losing hull integrity.’
‘Suit up!’ A lot of scrabbling and bumping followed Aurora’s order.
‘Oh quarks,’ Loren breathed. ‘They’re putting their spacesuits on.’
‘What’s happening over there, guys?’ Mervyn asked. More crunching sounds, and a scream, which echoed through the biolink it could only be Aurora.
Mervyn froze as he heard the ominous hiss of escaping air.