“Got a bogey on our tail,” he reported. “Gotta get in that ship and bang out.”
“Take a quick three-sixty. I’ll get the hostile,” Comet suggested.
Jax pulled hard into a tight circle. “Now, Comet,” he urged.
“Yes, dear,” she replied calmly, squeezing her hand on the trigger. The hostile that chased them blew up as Jackson continued his three-sixty and straightened out in line with the opening bay. “This’ll be close,” Comet calculated.
“Have no fear,” Jax replied as he accelerated. Even before they were through, Comet ordered the Captain to close the bay door and enter compression. The Wraiths’ ship slipped through the tight opening and slid on the bay floor, far too fast to stop before hitting the inside wall. Jax pivoted the craft on its center point and punched the throttle for exactly point-seven-three seconds. The crafts’ momentum halted immediately and they settled to a stop a meter from the wall.
“That was risky,” Comet commented.
“What? There was no risk. I had it all spec’d out,” Jax claimed.
“But you don’t know what you don’t know…” she teased, removing her helmet and smiling at him.
He also took off his head gear and looked at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied. He took her hand and squeezed it.
“I need a shower. Let’s get out of here.”
“Copy that.”
*
“Hailey, I was thinking…” Jackson said as he toweled his hair dry. “We should hand this information over to the Grand Admiral, not SWORD.”
Hailey pondered the suggestion for a few seconds, rubbing moisturizer onto her hands. “If SWORD has it, who knows when the Navy will get it? And the Navy needs it now.”
“SWORD will pull us,” Jackson predicted. “Talk about hell to pay.”
“I didn’t want to be here in the first place. The question is, will they pop us?” Hailey asked, putting a finger gun to her head. “Hold on. I’m getting a hyperwave from Lucky. She wants to know the outcome.”
Jackson smiled. “Tell her we couldn’t get the data. The Naldím destroyed the computers so we wouldn’t get their tech.”
“We failed the mission?”
He shrugged and grinned. “We’re out of practice.”
Hailey smiled. “Let’s see if the captain can get us to Imperium.”
Vengeful Dawn Page 21
