The Jan Davis fused on through space. Tiger had a warpod on the pulsdar. “It just released a spread of six missiles at us. I can smash it anytime you say, Colonel.”
Riley looked hard at the Colonel, who was sitting in one of the jumpseats. When all she saw were vacant eyes staring back at her, she said, “I think the Colonel is out of commission, Tiger. Evade the missiles, then take out the warpod.”
“Roger that,” Tiger said. He pushed the throttles forward, flying straight at the incoming missiles. Three miles away, he pulled the fuser up, flying over the missiles, which turned with him to follow.
“There it is,” Riley said, pointing at a shadow on the pulsdar that represented the attacking warpod.
Tiger swept the fuser along, the missiles continuing to follow him, then poured on the coal, flashing over the warpod. The pulsdar lit up as one of the warpod’s own missiles struck it. Then a second, third, and fourth hit it. There was nothing much left for the fifth and sixth missiles to blow up. “They’re smashed,” Tiger said.
“Colonel, we took out the warpod,” Riley said to no reply.
“I’ve seen him like this before,” the sheriff said. “He’ll snap out of it.”
“Was he like this when he decided to put the horde in L5?”
The sheriff put his hand on the Colonel’s armrest and pulled himself down to face the great man. “Come on, Colonel, pull yourself together. We need you.”
The Colonel kept staring ahead except for an occasional blink.
“A warpod has docked with the station,” Tiger said, observing the pulsdar.
“The Colonel may be indisposed,” the sheriff said, “but his orders stand. Smash the station.”
“We’re not going to smash the station,” Riley retorted. “If we can, we’re going to rescue Maria.”
“Hold on,” Tiger said. “Our pulsdar is picking up something big between the moon and the Earth.”
Riley looked at the pulsdar and was surprised by the size of the echo. She moved a cursor over it. “Puter, calculate velocity and course of the target,” Riley said.
The puter replied, Target is accelerating. It will strike the Earth in eighteen hours.
“How big is it?”
One point two miles in diameter.
Riley and Tiger exchanged shocked glances. “How do we stop that thing?” Riley asked.
“Nothing can stop it,” Tiger replied. “Maybe it could be deflected.”
“With what?” When Tiger had no answer, Riley said, “We need to alert Earth.”
“We can’t reach Earth through our jerry-rigged apparatus,” Tiger replied.
Riley thought for a moment, then said, “The station can call Earth. Let’s go there.”
Tiger plotted a course for the station and pushed the throttle forward. “We’ll be at the station in an hour,” he said.