“I’ve never seen this many ships in one place,” Zephyr says, a little breathlessly. “Not even during the Krullian war.”
“Two hundred ships,” Bennie says, solemnly. “The Peacekeepers aren’t messing around.”
“After Molandro, I can’t really blame them. This must be nearly three full task forces,” Maxim offers.
On the screen, the massive dreadnought begins to maneuver, keeping the sensor array between it and the oncoming fleet.
“Weird. Look.” Wil points. “It’s keeping the station between it and the fleet. Whatever that thing is trying to do, it’s not done yet. Bennie, can you reply to the message?”
“No, sorry.” Bennie shakes his head. “The jamming is still in full effect—the sender, Gabe, was able to hack the comms system from the inside.”
“Well, I hope Gabe is watching!” Wil says, pushing the throttles all the way forward. The Ghost jumps to full sub-light speed.
The Peacekeeper fleet wastes no time in spreading out, forming a massive firing line. Command carriers quickly establish a perimeter, while smaller cruisers and corvettes form up into squads and start making attack runs. The station is still crawling with drones. Several of the sensor arrays are beginning to move.
The Ghost is racing toward the dreadnought, which is firing on the Peacekeeper corvettes and frigates that have quickly overtaken it. Missiles and blaster fire are flying in all directions. The Ghost is rocking and shaking from stray—and intentional—shots striking its shields.
“Okay, hold on. I’m gonna try to bring us into that cargo hold.”
“Don’t crash like you did on Harrith,” Bennie offers.
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind!” Wil says, pulling hard on the controls while pushing the throttles all the way back and slapping the repulsor lift controls. The Ghost groans and shakes as the main sub-light engines drop to zero and the thrusters kick in, attempting to reverse the ship’s forward motion. The repulsors scream as Wil tilts the nose of the vessel up, adding to the force being used to slow the ship. Something over Bennie’s head erupts in sparks, causing the Brailack to screech and jump out of his chair.
“Wuss,” Wil says, giving Bennie some side-eye, while pushing the reverse thrusters to maximum power. The massive cargo hold looms in front of them, the distance closing fast.
Over the roar of the various engines and overtaxed systems, Zephyr yells, “At least the ship seems preoccupied—it’s not firing on us.”
“Small blessings,” Maxim quips.
The overhead speakers come to life. “What the wurrin are you doing up there? Are we about to die?” Xan shouts.
Just then, the Ghost flies straight into the cargo bay. Still moving extremely fast, it clips a support beam, cutting clean through it. The ship starts to spin as Wil shouts, “Hold on to something!”
Bennie is back in his chair, screaming, “Just—like—Harrith!”
“Shut up!” Wil shouts, pulling on the controls as the landing gear deploys. He flips a switch and the repulsors immediately power down, dropping the ship roughly on to its landing gear. There is a loud groan of metal straining to support the weight of the ship, but it slowly subsides—though the sound of metal scraping on metal doesn’t. Wil toggles a few other controls and everything goes quiet, except for the sound of sobbing. Everyone turns to look at Bennie, who’s clutching his console, huge eyes tightly screwed shut.
“Uh, Bennie—we’re down, safe,” Wil says.
Bennie opens his eyes and sees his three friends staring at him, trying to not laugh too loud. He slides from his seat and flips them off as he exits the bridge.
“He’s getting good at human gestures,” Zephyr observes.
Wil nods. “He really is. Let’s suit up,” he says, as the ship shakes again.