Will set the ship on the same heading the Earth ships took when they left Celentus.

“Doesn’t look like they’re returning to Earth,” observed Will. “They must have established a base somewhere else.”

“Well, they’ve got a two day head start, so I hope the modifications they made to the sensors work.”

Will nodded. “Only one way to find out.” He flipped a switch. “Anything?”

Debra was quiet as she bent over the sensor display. She turned a few knobs. “Getting something very faint,” she reported, “almost like a haze.” She checked the display again. “However, it does seem to be following the heading the ships took out of the Celentus system.”

Will smiled. “Looks like we’ve got a trail.” He accelerated the ship to its maximum speed. “Now to catch them.”

Over the next two days, the haze they were following slowly increased in intensity.

Checking the scanner, Will shook his head while fighting back a yawn. “They haven’t changed course once since they left Celentus.”

“Then, maybe we can see where they’re going,” suggested Debra.

“Good idea.” Will flipped a switch and the star chart for the region of space they were traveling through came up on the viewscreen. Tapping a button, a line showed up on the screen extrapolating their path forward. It went a long way before intersecting with a star system.

Debra pressed a button and the image zoomed in. “Star system Omega-245,” she read from the scanner in front of her. “No record of it ever being explored.”

“Still three days out,” said Will. “It’s possible they changed course somewhere ahead, but I doubt it. Looks like that’s where they went.”

“In that case,” insisted Debra, “you need to get some sleep.”

“I’ve gotten sleep,” answered Will.

“I wouldn’t call catching a quick nap in your chair sleeping.”

“But …” he began, but Debra cut him off.

“Look, the autopilot is on and you’ve trained me to fly the ship in case anything happens,” she said sharply. “Do you trust me or not?”

Will looked down sheepishly. “Yeah, I trust you. I guess old habits die hard. When I was with Gwen, I could never risk leaving the control cabin.”

Debra shook her head. “Well, I’m not Gwen.”

“No you’re not,” answered Will with a smile as he unstrapped himself and climbed down the ladder to the crew quarters.

They were a day out from the Omega-245 system when Debra noticed something odd on the scanner. “Look at this Will,” she said transferring the scanner readings to the viewscreen. It showed the radiation trail they’d been following continuing on as before, but a much smaller trail could now be seen diverging from it on a new heading.

Will brought up the star chart. “The trail seems to be heading for that nebula up ahead.”

“So you think they know we’re following them?”

Will shook his head. “We’re still too far away. More likely they’re just being cautious. However, it won’t be long before we’re in sensor range of that nebula.”

He shifted the control stick. “No need to let them know we’re here. Let’s give that nebula a wide berth.”

Reaching the edge of the Omega-245 system, Will brought the ship to a stop. “Can you tell what planet they went to,” he asked.

Debra looked at the scanner. “The radiation trail seems to lead to the fourth planet. It’s habitable, but just barely.”

“Are there any ships in orbit?”

She shook her head. “Too far away to tell.”

“Can’t risk getting too much closer without being detected,” noted Will.

Debra bent over the scanner. “The star in this system has a lot of electromagnetic fluctuations. That might hamper their sensors if we approach from the inner region of the star system.”

Will nodded and set course to fly around the outer edge of the Omega-245 system until the star lay between them and the fourth planet. He flipped a switch and a violet shimmer enveloped the ship. “Strap yourself in,” he ordered. “It’s going to get rough as we get close to the star.”

“Right,” answered Debra strapping herself in.

Will set course for the star. To insure they wouldn’t be detected, they needed to get closer than the orbit of the second planet. Even before reaching the orbit of the third planet, the shield began to glow and the ship shook as electromagnetic pulses from the star hit the ship. Will had to fight the controls to keep the ship on course.

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It only grew worse as they approached the orbital radius of the second planet. The normally violet shields were now a blinding white. “Shifting auxiliary power to shields,” yelled Will as alarms began to sound indicating the ship’s skin temperature was approaching critical.

Debra’s eyes never left the scanner as they moved closer to the star. “No good,” she called out. “We need to alter course.”

Will pulled the control stick to the right and slowly the ship began to turn until it was moving parallel to the star’s surface. The alarm continued to sound. “Still to close,” shouted Will.

He again changed the ship’s heading to move away from the star and in a few minutes the alarms stopped sounding and the shields returned to a more normal color.

They continued on until they at last reach a point between the star and the fourth planet. Debra tried scanning it. “No good,” she reported. “Still too much electromagnetic interference.

Will adjusted the ship’s trajectory, and began slowly moving towards the fourth planet. It took nearly two hours, but they finally reached a point where the sensors worked.

“Looks like two ships in orbit,” said Debra. “Can’t get readings from the surface, but the other ships must be on the ground unloading their jerlinium. I’m not seeing any sign of jerlinium radiation on the two ships in orbit.”

“Hmmm,” considered Will. “Two against one, normally I’d like those odds, but we need to play this smart.”

“Agreed,” said Debra. “We have the element of surprise on our side so we need to take advantage of it.” She bent over the scanner again. “The two ships in orbit are not far apart so there will be times when they’re both behind the planet.”

Will tapped several buttons and a view of the planet with the orbits of the two ships appeared on the viewscreen. “Looks like that would give us twenty minutes to reach the planet. We’ll need to get closer before we can give it a shot.”

Will powered down non-vital ship systems and minimized the power usage of the remaining systems. They were now far enough away from Omega-245’s star to disable the shields. Slowly, he edged the ship closer to the planet while Debra kept an eye on the ships in orbit.

“No change,” she reported as they continued approaching the planet.

After almost an hour, Will leaned back and smiled. “It will require maximum velocity, but we should be able to reach the planet while being shielded from view by the ships in orbit.”

“What about stopping?” asked Debra.

“We’ll have to use the planet’s atmosphere for braking. If we hit it right we’ll end up it an orbit on the opposite side of the planet from the other ships.”

“And if we don’t?”

“We’ll either burn up in the atmosphere or bounce off it and spin out of control.”

Debra shook her head. “You sure know how to sweet talk a girl,” she said with a laugh. “The ships will move behind the planet in five minutes.”

Will set his hand on the control stick and waited.

“Now!” called Debra.

He shoved the stick forward throwing him and Debra back in their seats as the ship shot forward. As they flew towards the planet, Will and Debra brought all of the ships systems back online. Nearing the planet, Will activated the shields. The greyish-brown planet rapidly grew larger on the viewscreen.

“Two minutes to atmosphere,” called Will as he fine-tuned the ship’s trajectory to enter it at the right angle. “One-minute!”

“Hold on!” he cried. The ship shook and twisted as the air outside the ship turned a bright red. The temperature in the control cabin was increasing rapidly and sweat began pouring down Will and Debra’s faces.

“Skin temperature reaching critical, but shields are holding,” shouted Debra.

“Controls sluggish,” answered Will. “Having trouble keeping the nose up.”

Through it all, Will kept an eye on the ship’s velocity. When it hit twenty-five thousand miles per hour, he pulled back on the control stick. “Let’s get out of here.”

Slowly the red flame surrounding the ship began to fade. “Temperatures dropping,” reported Debra as they finally reached orbit.

“Scan the surface,” ordered Will. “We’ve got to find their base before they know we’re here.”

“I’m getting a large jerlinium radiation reading a thousand miles away,” said Debra. “Adjust your heading fifteen degrees.”

Will brought up the tactical screen and activated the ships weapons. With steely resolve he took the ship back into the atmosphere, setting course for the radiation Debra had detected. The ship shook slightly as they moved deeper into the atmosphere, but it was nothing like what they’d just experienced.

“The two ships in orbit are moving to intercept,” exclaimed Debra.

“How long?”

“Five minutes.”

Will nodded. “That should just be enough time.” He accelerated the ship downward leveling it off when they were less that two hundred feet off the ground. Will moved the ship up and down to avoid hills and mountains as he bore down on the base.

“Sensors show a single large building along with nine ships on the ground,” reported Debra as they drew closer. “Several ships are powering up.”

Now in weapons range, Will began firing the ship’s plasma blasters, concentrating his fire on the ships that were trying to take off. Unable to activate their shield while so close to the ground, explosions racked the ships when they were hit and they fell back to the ground. None made it into the air.

“Where’s the other ships?” he shouted as he turned around for another pass.

“Two minutes out,” called Debra.

This time he targeted the building hitting it multiple times. Explosions and fires ripped through the building and as Will’s ship swung back into the sky, the building exploded sending chunks of steel and concrete flying hundreds of feet into the air.

“Did we get the jerlinium?” he asked as he prepared to turn the ship around for another pass.

“Radiation reading less than 10% of original,” confirmed Debra.

“Then let’s get out of here.” Will pulled up on the control stick and the ship started gaining altitude.

The ship shuddered and the ship’s light flicked as a plasma blast hit them. The two ships from orbit had reached them. Will immediately began evasive maneuvers, but they were hit again.

“Can’t shake them trying to get to space,” explained Will as he turned the ship’s nose downward and headed towards the ground. “Let’s see how good their pilots are.”

As the ship accelerated downward, it gained some distance from the other two ships. However, the other ships were soon in pursuit and resumed their firing.

“Shields down fifty percent,” called Debra after another hit.

“Hold on,” yelled Will as he pulled back hard on the control stick causing the ship to shoot back up into air with less than fifty feet to spare. Rocks and dirt were kicked up in the air by its wake. One of the two ships had pulled up earlier, but the other had remained on Will’s tail.

Blinded by the debris kicked up by the passage of Will’s ship, it didn’t pull up in time and slammed into the ground kicking up even more debris into the air.

Using the momentum developed by heading for the ground, Will’s ship shot upward towards space leaving the ship which had turned away behind. However, it continued its pursuit.

“Can we outrun it?” asked Debra.

Will shook his head. “No, they’re as fast as we are. Plus, I’m sure they’ve radioed the ship which remained behind in the nebula. It won’t be long before it’s two against one again.”