It would take several days to reach the Celentus system so Will and Debra prepared for the task ahead. Will went over the shuttle’s systems while Debra made sure everything they might need was onboard. Will was glad to finally be doing something. Planning is good, he thought, but what good is planning if you don’t actually do something.

However, when the planning ends, there’s nothing to distract you from thinking about what you’re about to do. There were moments when Will would stop what he was doing and just stare into space wondering if they were doing the right thing. Debra came upon him on one such occasion. He sat on the floor of the shuttle, an open panel before him and he was just staring at it.

“You okay?” she asked putting down the cables she was carrying.

He looked up at her. “Normally, I can’t wait to get started on a mission, but this one …” his voice trailed off.

She sat down on the floor beside him. “You’ve never fought against people from Earth before have you?”

“No,” he answered in a low voice. He looked over at her. “And what makes it worse is that I likely know many of them. Either from the academy or fighting alongside them during the Trelent War.”

She put a hand on his shoulder. “But what about Celentus?”

Will was silent for a moment, but finally nodded. “I know, but I wish there was some other way. Talking to them won’t work. Following orders without question is ingrained in all cadets at the academy.”

“You didn’t.”

Will gave a small smile. “I almost did, but I had someone who cared enough to knock some sense into me.” He began screwing the panel back into place, but paused and gazed over at Debra. “Thanks.”

Finishing putting the panel back, he got up and helped Debra to her feet. Although not looking forward to what they were about to do, he knew it had to be done. Giving one last look around the shuttle he gave a nod. “Looks like we’re ready to go."

They reached the Celentus system early the next morning and Will landed the ship in the crater of a small moon of the next planet out from Celentus. Although it would’ve been nice to get closer, Will didn’t want to risk being detected. He’d tried to convince Debra to remain with the ship while he took the shuttle, but she wasn’t having it. After donning their spacesuits, they boarded the shuttle.

A few minutes later, the shuttle bay door of the ship slid open and the shuttle lifted off. Setting course for Celentus, Will fired the shuttle’s engines. However, within five minutes, he’d shut them down.

To insure that they weren’t spotted, they were going to rely on the momentum from the short engine firing to reach the Weapon ship using the control thrusters to adjust their trajectory and to slow down as they neared their target. The shuttle’s systems, including life support, were set to minimum energy levels. They’d have to rely on their spacesuits.

Because their sensors would betray their presence, Debra used the shuttle’s optical scanner to keep track of their position calling required trajectory adjustments to Will. It was tedious work and it would take them nearly ten hours to reach the Weapon ship.

“Half a degree port,” said Debra through the suit’s speaker without lifting her helmeted head from the optical scanner. “Target two hundred thousand miles.”

They’d been traveling for nearly eight hours and had finally reached the point where they needed to start slowing down. Will activated the forward control thrusters which would act against the shuttle’s motion. The shuttle shuddered slightly as they came on and the shuttle’s velocity ever so slowly began to drop.

At nine and a half hours, the Weapons ship could finally be seen with the naked eye. It was in geostationary orbit around the planet, an excellent location to intercept any incoming ships. The shuttle’s velocity had dropped substantially and it would take another half an hour to cover the last two hundred miles to their target.

Will used the control thrusters to fine tune their velocity so they’d stop at the entry hatch to the tunnel which led to the weapon power systems. Debra scanned the area around them to see if any ships were approaching. In addition to the Weapon ship there were at least another dozen ships in close orbit around the planet. However, none of them moved towards the shuttle.

During the final fifteen minutes of their approach, Will never let go of the control and he adjusted the attitude and direction to keep them from hitting the ship which was less that twenty feet away. Sweat poured down his face and he had to adjust his suit’s environmental controls to keep his helmet from fogging up.

“Forty feet,” called Debra.

Will again fired the forward control thrusters so they come to a stop at the hatch

“Twenty feet.”

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“Ten.”

The shuttle was now barely moving and with one final thruster firing the shuttle came to a stop ten feet below the hatch. Will looked up at the ship which filled the sky above them. “Made it,” came his voice from the speaker.

They’d disabled the radio on the shuttle and in their suits because they didn’t want to risk a stray radio signal giving them away. So Will would be out of contact once he left the shuttle. Debra handed Will the tool kit which contained all the tools he’d need to sabotage the weapon’s power coupling. He slid the strap around his neck and opened the shuttle’s upper hatch.

He clipped one end of a tether to his spacesuit and the other to the hook on the hatch. He’d have preferred using a jetpack, but its power signature might have been given them away. Just before he began climbing the latter to the hatch, Debra tapped his shoulder.

“Be careful.”

Will nodded and began climbing the ladder. Once out of the shuttle, he pushed his legs off the shuttle towards the ship’s hatch. He slowly moved upward and once the handles near the hatch were in reach, he grabbed one.

After steadying himself, he started looking around for the hatch mechanism. He finally found it to one side of the hatch. It was a T-shaped bar located to the side of the hatch. Grabbing it, he pulled it out and then rotated it clockwise. The hatch slid open.

Unhooking the tether from his spacesuit, he hooked to the handle by the hatch then he climbed inside. The tunnel stretched out as far as the eye could see and was filled with a pulsating dull red light. However, this was no ordinary light, but beta-gamma radiation. His spacesuit would protect him for about twenty-five minutes, but after that the radiation would begin to damage his internal organs, potentially being fatal.

The weapon system power couplings were about fifty feet down the tunnel and Will quickly began crawling. The radiation detector in his suit began beeping and flashing a green light. The light would turn red when the radiation protection failed.

It took nearly five minutes to reach the power couplings. He hurriedly opened the tool kit and began removing the bolts from the panel covering them. Power tools wouldn’t work in the high radiation environment of the tunnel so he had to remove the six bolts with hand tools and a spacesuit doesn’t exactly provide the best leverage.

Will was breathing heavy by the time the last bolt had been removed. He’d now been in the tunnel for over ten minutes. Pulling off the panel, he took out one of the heavy duty cables which needed to be attached to each end of the power coupling. Getting the first end attached was easy, but for the second end he had to reach up into the wall and feel around until he could get it to connect. Then he had to do it for the other two couplings.

Finishing, he immediately started crawling back to the hatch as quickly as he could. He’d only gotten halfway when his radiation detector began flashing yellow. He had only a few minutes of protection left. Just as he reached the hatch, the display turned red. Grabbing the handle, he flung himself outside and reached for the hatch mechanism. As soon as he got hold of it, he twisted it counterclockwise and pushed it in. The hatch slid shut and the radiation detector in his suit stopped beeping.

He floated there for a minute trying to catch his breath before hooking the tether back to his spacesuit and slowing pulling himself back to the shuttle. Climbing back inside, he unhooked the tether before closing the hatch. More than anything, Will wanted to take off his helmet and take in a deep breath of fresh air, but with the shuttle’s life support system turned off, that wasn’t about to happen.

“Were you successful?”

“Yes,” answered Will, still trying to catch his breath.

Once they were both strapped in, he began to once again fire the control thrusters, this time to move them away from the Weapon ship. Unfortunately, without the initial boost provided by firing the shuttle’s engines as they did when they left Will’s ship, it would take them nearly a week to reach Will’s ship.

Time was of the essence since they needed to force the Weapon ship to fire its weapon before Will’s sabotage was discovered. They set course for Celentus’s nearest moon hoping that once they were behind it they could fire the shuttle’s engines without attracting attention. It took almost two hours to get in position, but at last they were ready. Will fired the shuttle’s engines and they zoomed away from the moon.

Debra kept watch behind them with the optical scanner for any ships which might be in pursuit.

“One of the other ships is leaving orbit,” reported Debra excitedly after they’d only been under thrust for a few minutes.

“So much for sneaking out,” called Will as he began flipping switches bringing all the shuttle’s systems to full power. A dull green haze enveloped the shuttle as its shields came online and a full tactical display appeared on the viewscreen.

It showed twelve space cruisers in low orbit around Celentus with one starting to move away from the planet. The Weapon ship maintained its position since it made no sense for it to go after a single shuttle.

“It should take some time for the ship to get out of orbit,” said Will. “So we should get a good head start, but a shuttle can’t outrun a space cruiser.”

“Can we get to the ship before they reach us?”

Will scanned the control panel and looked up at the trajectory display mumbling to himself. Finally, he shook his head. “Probably not, but we can certainly out maneuver them.”

The shuttle flew onward, back to the moon where they’d hidden Will’s ship. However, the space cruiser was now in free space and rapidly drawing closer to the shuttle. Just as the moon they were heading for showed up at the edge of the sensors, the cruiser came into weapons range and began firing.

Will pulled back hard on the control stick while pushing it to the left. The shuttle leapt upward and sharply cut to the left causing the weapon fire to pass harmlessly below it. However, the cruiser was quickly back on the shuttle’s tail and fired again. Will kept evading, but each time the cruiser recovered more quickly and did a better job of anticipating his moves.

Reaching the moon, Will pushed forward on the control stick causing the shuttle to dive towards the surface knowing the cruiser couldn’t follow. That’s when a plasma blast from the cruiser finally hit the shuttle. Will and Debra were thrown sideways, the chair straps digging into their skin. However, the shields held and Will was able to maintain control of the shuttle.

Then another plasma blast hit them, this one knocking out the shields. The shuttle shook and began to spin as smoke filled the cabin and alarms blared.

Will fought with the controls and frantically flipped switches, but their situation didn’t change. “Engines and attitude control are out,” he shouted to be heard over the alarms.

Spinning wildly, the shuttle careened towards the moon’s surface.