‘Please tell me we’re getting a signal?’ Ed asked, turning to face Rayl, after he watched the last of the fleet vanish from the Dubl’ouin system.
Rayl was quiet for a few moments while she tapped away on her control icons. Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing and turned to face her.
This was the first test of the trackers placed on both the Hope and Triyl’s attack ship and if they didn’t work at the extreme distances required, then they were in deep trouble.
Finally, she looked up at them all and smiled. The holomap swiftly dragged its range out until the fleet, indicated by a flashing red diamond icon, reappeared over one thousand light years distant.
An audible sigh of relief circulated around the bridge.
‘And before you ask,’ said Rayl, ‘they’re heading directly for GDA space.’
‘I hope our message got there,’ said Andy. ‘Because if it didn’t, they’re not going to be very chuffed with us.’
‘Then we’d better make sure we get there first and find a way to deflect the Hope,’ said Phil.
‘Hasn’t this ship got a tractor beam of some kind?’ asked Conor, now sitting with the group of Callametans. He’d followed Ed down to the bridge a few minutes ago and been introduced to everyone.
‘It has,’ said Linda. ‘But alas probably not powerful enough to divert such a huge weight travelling at a high sub-light speed.’
‘Which is why I’m going onboard to activate the manoeuvring jets,’ said Tocc.
‘That hasn’t been decided yet,’ said Linda.
‘It’s not your decision to make,’ Tocc countered, pointing at Linda with two arms. ‘It’ll be my life on the line.’
‘But it’s still risking someone piloting our shuttle to get you there and back,’ Linda said, glaring and raising her voice slightly.
‘I could do that,’ said Cleo, appearing arms crossed and leaning against a bulkhead next to Tocc.
‘You’re supposed to be on our side,’ said Linda, scowling.
‘I’m on the side of saving lives,’ replied Cleo. ‘And anyway, I could take the Cartella, it has better shields and weaponry, so I could defend myself. It was where I was born after all.’
Linda huffed loudly and looked over at Ed, who shrugged and nodded.
‘She has a point,’ he said, thinking. ‘Cleo, is there enough data space for Hope as well as you on the Cartella?’
‘Ample,’ she said, smiling. ‘She would need several minutes of uninterrupted download time though.’
‘Start getting her off as soon as you’re in range.’
‘So it’s decided then?’ Linda snapped.
‘Unless you can think of another way to save billions of lives?’ said Ed, trying to think of a way to placate Linda’s objections. ‘Andy and I will cover the Cartella in the mini-mes.’
‘And you’re going out in your flying coffins too,’ said an exasperated Linda. ‘It just gets better! Phil, you have the ship, I’ll be in my cabin.’
Linda stood and before anyone could comment, disappeared down on the tube lift.
‘She gets more protective every day,’ said Rayl, looking over at Ed.
‘I’m sure she’s worse since her accident,’ said Andy. ‘She doesn’t like anyone leaving the safety of the ship at all now.’
‘I’ll let her calm down a bit and go and give her a hug,’ said Phil, concentrating on setting up the first pursuit jump.
‘No, Phil,’ said Ed, slumping back into his couch. ‘I really think that ought to be me.’
Pol, who’d been sitting quietly for ages, put two of her hands up.
‘Erm – what exactly are mini-mes and flying coffins?’ she asked, a look of concern on her face.
‘Oh, don’t you start,’ said Andy, rolling his eyes theatrically.
‘No,’ said Ed. ‘It’s a legitimate question.’
He turned to face Pol.
‘They’re small experimental personal fighters,’ he said. ‘Like a cloaked miniature weapons platform. The GDA gave us them last year.’
‘Lent us,’ said Andy. ‘We just haven’t given them back yet.’
‘Well, they are jolly useful at times,’ said Ed, remembering the havoc they’d instigated by jumping them into an enemy battleship’s hangars and unleashing laser fire and kataligo missiles from within.
A grin lit up Andy’s face.
‘The Mogul and Blend ships have big hangars too,’ he said.
‘You read my mind,’ said Ed, returning the grin. ‘Just don’t tell Linda.’
They all sat back and watched the holomap for a while before Phil looked around at the sea of faces.
‘You can all go and rest, you know. It’s going to take us a few days to get there,’ he said.
‘He’s right, you know,’ said Andy, standing and stretching. ‘Lunch will be served in the blister lounge forthwith.’
‘Can there be some of that warm brown stuff with the puffy things?’ asked Tocc, giving Andy a thumbs up with four thumbs.
‘The what?’ said Ed, pulling a questioning face.
‘She means the chicken jalfrezi and garlic naan,’ said Andy, smiling and returning the thumbs up.