Even with King Raphul’s offer of a fast ship to help, Will and Debra knew they were on their own. The nebula where the other ship had been hiding was less than a day away and was likely already moving towards them. Unless Will changed course, it would reach them in less than ten hours. A ship from Celentus would takes days to reach them.

Although the space cruiser could match the speed of Will’s ship. It couldn’t match its maneuverability. He just needed some way to take advantage of that.

As they flew, Debra continued scanning the system. “The outer planets of this system are gas giants,” she reported putting a schematic of the system on the viewscreen. All have rings similar to Saturn and a large number of smaller moons. The sixth planet is closest.”

“Any nearby asteroid fields?” asked Will.

“No.”

The radio crackled to life. “Captain Power,” came a female voice. “This is Captain Wendle, please respond.”

Will recognized the voice. She’d been a few years behind him at the academy and had graduated near the top of her class and had served under him during the Trelent War. He’d even recommended her for promotion after she’d saved a platoon from capture.

“Normally, I’d be happy to hear from you Captain, but not now. Please stand down.”

“You know I can’t do that,” came the reply. “Surrender and I assure you that you will be treated fairly.”

Will knew she meant it, but also knew she wasn’t in charge.

“No, I won’t stand idly by and see innocent people killed. Invading another planet to plunder its resources goes against everything we were taught in the academy. How can you be part of that?”

There was silence for a moment. Finally, her voice came back over the radio. “That was a different time, Will. You better than anyone should know all the threats that Earth faces. We must have the ability to defend ourselves and if that means taking what we need to do that, then so be it.”

Will’s heart sank. This wasn’t the Sally Wendle he’d known. “You’ve changed Sally,” he answered, “and not for the better. Power out.” He flipped off the radio.

He set course for the sixth planet, the space cruiser in pursuit.

“You okay?” asked Debra.

“I never thought she’d be part of this,” answered Will in a voice that cracked with emotion. “I don’t know how Grandle did it, but he’s somehow convinced her and many others that nothing can stand in the way of defending Earth, no matter how wrong it is.”

“So what are you going to do?”

He looked over at Debra. “Whatever I have to. Hopefully, we can disable her ship. If not, well …” his voice trailed off.

As they drew closer to the planet, Debra brought it up on the viewscreen. “Looks like your typical gas giant,” she began. “Dozens of smaller moons along with a few larger ones, a couple with atmospheres. The ring’s composed of rubble and ice.”

Will nodded. “Just what I was hoping for.” He adjusted the ship’s heading for the nearest of the larger moons. The space cruiser matched his heading.

Both ships picked up speed as they approached the moon. “How close can we get?” called Will.

“Nothing extends more than five miles above the surface.”

His eyes remained fixed on the viewscreen and his hands tightened on the controls as they drew closer to the moon with the ship’s speed increasing. To keep from tearing the ship apart, Will had to shut down the engines when they got close. They zoomed past it with just a few miles to spare, its gravity altering the ship’s trajectory. Will kept his eyes on the viewscreen, waiting for just the right moment to fire the engines. “Initiating ignition sequence,” he cried, firing the engines to escape the moon’s gravity and slingshot towards the rings.

“Space cruiser’s following,” reported Debra. “They’re still out of weapons range.”

Will nodded grimly, “Yeah, Sally’s not one to back down from a challenge.” He fine-tuned the ship’s approach to the rings. “Let’s see how she deals with this one.”

The ship leveled off just above the densest part of the rings. The shields shimmered as small particles impacted the ship, but they caused no damage. Will maintained this course for several minutes to insure the cruiser had committed to following him.

“Still following?”

“Yes.”

Will began flipping switches. “Then it’s time to disappear. Tell me when sensors no longer detect the cruiser.”

“Right.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The ship’s rear plasma blasters began firing at the ring material behind them creating a large cloud of debris and crystalized water vaper. Will kept firing.

“Now!” cried Debra.

Will pulled the control stick hard to the left and the ship plunged into the gas giant’s atmosphere. Will and Debra were thrown back and forth against their seat straps as Will fought to maintain control of the ship in the turbulent atmosphere.

“Exterior temperature increasing,” called out Debra. “Pressure loads approaching structural limits.”

The shields were soon glowing white as the temperature of the ship’s exterior continued to increase. From below came flashes of light as lightning bolts blazed across the turbulent sky.

“Got to get higher,” cried Will using all his strength to pull the control stick back to take the ship back higher into the atmosphere. As the ship slowly moved up in the atmosphere, its exterior temperatures began to drop and the shields slowly returned to their normal violet color. It was still a rough ride, but the ship was safe. Will slowly turned the ship in a large arc until it was headed back the way it came.

Will wiped his brow. “Anything on sensors?”

Debra shook her head. “Not a thing.”

“Good. If we’re blind so are they.”

“So where you we go from here?” asked Debra.

“Sally’s smart,” said Will. “I’m sure she already knows we’ve changed course. My guess is that she’ll move away from the planet and put her ship in a parking orbit to wait us out.”

“Yeah,” agreed Debra, “and we’ll have no idea where she is.”

Will smiled. “Perhaps not.”

Debra gave Will a puzzled look. “And how do we pull that off?”

He began flipping switches and typing in commands. “We use the shuttle as bait. I’m setting it’s autopilot to send it out a hundred or so miles ahead of us and have it occasionally move higher in the atmosphere. It won’t give the cruiser a clear sensor read, but they’ll know something’s there.” He pressed a button and the ship slowed.

“And they’ll think it’s us?”

“I hope so,” answered Will as he finished typing and pressed a button. The ship shook slightly as the shuttle bay door opened and the shuttle left the ship. It swung around in front of the ship and soon the light of its engines disappeared into the murky atmosphere in front of them. It wasn’t long before it vanished from the sensors

“How will we know they took the bait,” asked Debra, a bit of doubt in her voice. “We don’t have sensors.”

“Sally’s not one to waste an advantage. If she thinks she’s found us, she won’t hesitate to fire to drive us out of the atmosphere.” He turned a knob and the view of the dimly lit clouds in front of the ship appeared on the viewscreen. “We just need to keep our eyes peeled for the flash of blaster fire.”

“Shuttle should be in position,” declared Will and he increased the ship’s speed to match that of the shuttle. “Now we wait.”

Will and Debra intently stared at the viewscreen, barely daring to blink so they wouldn’t miss anything. However, as the hours dragged on, Will began to wonder if Sally had seen through his plan.

“There!” finally cried Debra, as bright flashes of light illuminated the clouds in front of them.

“Here we go,” uttered Will grimly as he pushed the control forward and the ship accelerated towards the source of the light. Debra brought the weapons online so they’d be ready the instant they left the atmosphere.

Breaking through the clouds, the space cruiser was less than ten miles above them. Will knew they’d likely detected his ship’s approach, but too late for them to take evasive measures. From near point blank range Will began firing, scoring multiple hits to the ship’s engines and underside. The cruiser’s shields flashed and then failed.

As Will’s ship zoomed past the cruiser, they returned fire, but the bolts of energy passed harmlessly by.

Debra bend over the scanner. “Their engines are damaged,” she reported. “Can probably achieve half speed at best.”

Will nodded. “Casualties?”

“Some, but no fatalities.”

“Thank goodness,” uttered Will, letting out a sigh. “Let’s get out of here.”

Setting course for Celentus, the ship was soon out of the Omega-245 system.

“Do you think the other ship is still heading this way?” asked Debra.

Will nodded. “Grandle may have convinced the military it’s acceptable to invade other planets, but there’s no way he’d ever get them to forget their loyalty to their fellow officers. That ship is coming to relieve its stranded comrades and if in the process, they have a chance to even the score with us, they’ll take it.”

Debra typed some numbers into the computer. “Our best guess on time to intercept is eight hours. You should get some rest while you can.”

Will was about to argue, but he knew she was right. Beyond all the physical aches was the emotional ache of what had happened to Sally. In many ways, she was like him and yet she blindly followed Grindle’s order to invade an innocent world. That hurt more than anything.

“Wake me in three hours,” he ordered as he started down the ladder. “And sooner if anything changes,” he added as his head disappeared into the floor.

Debra smiled as Will disappeared below. He hadn’t engaged the autopilot before leaving, the first time that’d happened. She couldn’t help but appreciate the show of confidence.

Three hours later, she buzzed Will’s room. “It’s three hours, Will,” said her voice through the intercom.

“I’ll be right up.”

In a few minutes he was climbing back into the control cabin.

“Any problems?”

“Everything was quiet. Nothing on sensors and all the ships systems are in good shape.”

“Thanks. Now why don’t you grab some shuteye? I’ll wake you in three hours.”

“Yeah, I could use some sleep.” She patted his shoulder once she’d unstrapped herself. “Flying this thing isn’t as easy as it looks.”

When Debra finally rejoined Will, all was still quiet. Debra activated the modified sensors in the hope that the jerlinium radiation would provide more warning of the ship’s approach than the standard sensors would.

Eight hours passed, then eight and a half, but still nothing. It was approaching nine hours when something finally showed up on sensors. “Sensors detect a ship approaching,” exclaimed Debra. “Time to intercept, ten minutes.”

Will activated the ship’s shields and brought the weapons online.

“They’re veering off,” reported Debra. “Looks like they don’t want to fight.”

“Captain Power,” came a voice from the radio. “This Captain Drake, we request safe passage so we might assist our comrades in the Omega-245 system.” Although not said out loud, the tone of the voice seemed to add, “that you attacked.”

“Jettison your load of jerlinium,” demanded Will, “and I promise you safe passage.”

There was silence for a few minutes, but finally Captain Drake answered. “Very well. We’ve ejected the cargo compartment,” he said angrily. “Your sensors should be able to confirm that.”

Will looked over at Debra and she nodded.

“Confirmed,” radioed Will.

The other ship shot past them and continued on its way to Omega-245.

Will waited until they were out of sensor range before moving the ship towards the cargo compartment. Aiming the ship’s plasma blasters at it he fired.

A massive explosion ripped through the compartment and a powerful blast wave slammed into Will’s ship sending it spiraling out of control.