Josh broke through the thin atmosphere of the moon and angled the shuttle toward the Battle Cruisers. Already he could see the streams of Legion fighters pouring out of the two massive spaceships. Six smaller support ships, a third of the size of the Battle Cruisers, were aligned before the two ships.
He and Pack kept a low profile, hidden by the moon. Cassa’s swiftly drawn breath echoed in the cockpit. Josh could appreciate her concern. While he already knew how large the Battle Cruisers were, seeing them for the first time with the fleet and with hundreds of fighters pouring out of them was a sight he would never forget.
“Josh,” Cassa whispered when she saw two bursts of light from the bottom turret cannons.
They watched in horrid fascination as twin bolts of energy hit the planet below. Josh could hear Pack’s soft curse in his ear. The fight had begun.
“This is going to get nasty, Cassa,” Josh warned.
Hundreds of fighters suddenly swept past them. Hidden by the dark side of the moon, the Gallant rebel forces surged toward the Legion fighters. Below them, lights flashed around the planet. Josh and Pack turned away from the mass and focused on their target. They needed to disable the shields on the Battle Cruisers. Until then, the rebellion would be limited in the damage they could do while the Legion continued firing on the planet from above.
“Phantom Two, you have a Legion fighter coming up on your tail,” Josh warned, coming into position to cover Pack and Bantu when one of the Legion fighters broke off and headed for them. “He’s on your left. Stay in position, I’m coming in to cover you.”
“Affirmative, Phantom One,” Pack replied.
Josh watched as Pack weaved back and forth to keep from being locked on. Pressing the shuttle forward, Josh came up behind the Legion fighter. The moment he was in range, Cassa opened fire. They watched as the fighter spun out of control, barely missing one of the smaller escort ships.
“Josh, to the right,” Cassa warned, swiveling her seat and taking aim.
“Good shot!” Josh exclaimed when Cassa cut the other fighter down in a brilliant explosion.
“Phantom One, take position, watch out for the turret guns underneath,” base warned. “Phantom Two, GKL Team is drawing fire away, proceed to contact.”
“Phantom Two, affirmative,” Pack replied, tilting and moving toward the first Battle Cruiser. “Josh, protect my sister.”
“I will, Pack,” Josh promised. “We’ll see you when this is over.”
Josh turned his focus onto the second Battle Cruiser. The plan was for them to connect and enter through a remote access chute that was protected from the mounted guns. Several years before, Bantu had stumbled across one of the original engineers of the Battle Cruisers in a bar. The two had struck up a conversation that had proven to be very informative. Bantu explained that it was a serious design flaw that had been covered up by the original designers. The problem was that the only way to access and connect with it was by using a service shuttle.
“It was just one of those strange bits of information that you never forget. I remember checking out the chute to make sure the old man was telling me the truth. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that he was!” Bantu had shared when they were planning the attack. “The thing is, it was made for a service shuttle. They are the only type of spacecraft designed to fit into the space and connect. That was another reason the engineers didn’t say anything. They figured that during a battle, no one would be using a service shuttle.”
“Do we have access to any of these shuttles?” Josh remembered asking.
“Yes,” Pack had answered. “We use them to transport items from the planet to the moon.”
“We’ll need to modify them with some weapons,” Hutu suggested. “It shouldn’t take long.”
It hadn’t. Within hours, the modifications to two of the shuttles had been completed. Now, the only thing Josh wished they could have done was add more horsepower to them. Trying to do combat between the shuttles and a Legion fighter was like locating a flea on a Mammoth’s ass.
“Phantom One, you have a clear path,” the Base communications officer announced.
“Roger, Base,” Josh replied.
“Josh, there is a channel wide enough for the shuttle. If you stay in it, we should be able to remain undetected and out of sight from the fighters,” Cassa said, swiveling around in her seat to get a better view.
“I see it,” Josh responded. “Keep an eye out for any stragglers, Cassa. We’ll be sitting ducks if they catch us.”
“One of the things you will have to do when this is over is to teach me some of your phrases,” Cassa replied with a humorous chuckle. “I do not know what a sitting duck is, but I believe I know what you mean. I will keep an eye out for any more Legion fighters.”
“There are a few that I’ll have to make sure I share,” Josh replied.
“I look forward to learning them,” Cassa whispered, staring up at the underbelly of the Battle Cruiser. “It is so huge.”
“Second new phrase to remember, Cassa. The bigger they are, the harder they fall,” Josh said in a reassuring tone. “I see the chute Bantu was talking about.”
Josh focused on bringing the shuttle into alignment. The section was very narrow and would leave little room for error. Seeing it up close, he could understand why the original engineers decided it wouldn’t be a factor since only the boxy service shuttles could fit in the tight, rectangular section. Josh was thankful for the training he had received back in Houston as he fired the thrusters. A part of him wished that Ash was here. His friend was a pro at doing this. As it was, Josh knew that it would take all of his skills to maneuver them safely to the connecting hatch.
“Cassa, bring the weapons in,” Josh ordered, lightly touching the controls as they drew closer to the underbelly of the Battle Cruiser.
“Done,” Cassa replied.
Several minutes later, the shuttle gently bumped against the chute connection. Josh could hear Cassa sealing the tube between the two spaceships. He quickly unstrapped and gave the order for the modified Fighter Bot to stand ready for a rapid departure.
Josh rose from the pilot’s seat once the shuttle was transferred to the Fighter Bot. He quickly exited the cabin and strode back to where Cassa was waiting for him near the top access hatch. She gave him a calm, reassuring smile.
“Stay close to me,” he ordered in a husky voice. “If things take a turn for the worse, get back to the shuttle and get out of here.”
She nodded and stepped to the side. “We need to get to the access panel on E214. It is four levels up. This will take us up two levels before we have to work our way to the next levels. Fortunately, this is not a main section of the ship. If we are lucky, there will be very few personnel along the way.”
Josh ran his fingers across her cheek. “You are ignoring my instructions,” he murmured.
Cassa shook her head. “No, I’m not. I’m just choosing to believe that nothing will go wrong. I won’t leave you behind, Josh. We have a mission. I want to focus on completing it without thinking about what could happen. If I thought about it, I wouldn’t be able to do what needs to be done,” she softly admitted.
For a moment, déjà vu struck him as his father’s haunting words swept through him. Drawing in a deep breath, he brushed a kiss across Cassa’s lips. She was right, of course. He had never let the dangers of a mission stop him before. Once again, he felt that swift flood of fear run through him at the thought of something happening to her. He quickly locked it away.
“Have I told you lately how much I love you?” He murmured before stepping back. “Stay close.”
“I will,” she promised.
Josh climbed up the ladder and pressed the release for the hatch. It slid back to reveal the bottom access into the Battle Cruiser. He reached down when he felt Cassa’s hand and took the small device that Bantu had given them. Placing it against the outer control panel, he pressed the screen. It lit up with dancing patterns, scrolling in dizzying speed before a series of symbols appeared and the lock on the hatch disengaged.
“We’re in,” Josh murmured, handing the device back to Cassa.
“Bantu is a genius,” Cassa replied, climbing up the ladder behind him. “The Legion has no idea what he is capable of.”
“I hope they never find out,” Josh retorted, pulling himself up through the narrow access tunnel.
He reached down and helped Cassa up. Releasing her hand, he started down the path he had memorized from the blueprint that Bantu had pulled up from the database he had stored when he deserted. Turning left, he came to the end where the panel opened into the first main corridor.
The low hum of the ship echoed around them. Deciding he had no choice but to chance discovery, he pushed against the release on the panel. It silently slid open. Josh glanced back and forth and motioned for Cassa to follow him. So far, so good. Now, if only the rest of the mission turned out as smoothly.
*.*.*
“I thought you said this would work,” Pack hissed to Bantu.
“It will, I just need more time,” Bantu muttered, staring at the screen. “This isn’t something you can rush, Pack. If I screw up, I could blow the whole damn ship up!”
Pack turned to look at Bantu with an expression of disbelief. He blinked several times as it slowly sunk in. Drawing in a deep breath, he leaned down to stare at his friend.
“Are you saying you can program the ship to self-destruct?” Pack asked in a calm voice.
Bantu scowled. “Of course I can,” he snapped. “Each ship has a self-destruct sequence! It is part of the safety protocol.”
This time it was Pack’s turned to scowl. How the hell was blowing up your own ship a part of the safety protocol? It opened up a whole new idiom in the word vulnerability for the Battle Cruisers!
“Why didn’t you tell us that before?” Pack demanded in a low voice.
“What? Why would I want to blow up the ship when I am on it?” Bantu asked in a puzzled tone. “It isn’t like it gives you a lot of time to evacuate. Everyone is supposed to do that before the commander starts the countdown.”
“Where did you learn about this?” Pack hissed.
“There aren’t a lot of challenges involved in just programming Service Bots all day, every day, you know. I was bored! I spent ten years doing nothing else. It was fun seeing what else I could do. I discovered the coding when I hacked into Commander Meagoes files about a year after I was taken,” Bantu replied.
“Did you hack into General Landais’ files?” Pack pressed, squatting down next to the bank of servers that Bantu was working on.
Pack watched Bantu nervously swallow. “No, he does all of his own encrypting. I saw what he did to those that tried stuff on his ship. It wasn’t pretty,” Bantu muttered. “Getting sucked out into space is not how I wanted to end up.”
““Bantu, this is better than shutting down the shields. This would cripple the attack forces. Can you hack in and get the code for the self-destruct for these two ships?” Pack asked.
“Yes… Yes, I think so,” Bantu stuttered. “It may take a little while.”
“Try. I’ll notify Josh and Cassa,” Pack said.
Bantu nodded and accessed the encrypted file he had programmed several years before. He wasn’t even sure it would still work. He had tried it on each ship up until his last assignment. One of the other programmers had told him how General Landais once discovered that someone was trying to hack into his personal files. He had found the person and ejected them out into space, making sure it was broadcast to the entire crew. The ninety seconds it took for the man to die was ninety seconds longer than Bantu wanted to watch on the recorded transmission. He had spent the first six months on board having nightmares of being cast out into space.
Pack stood up and stepped away from the bank of servers. He glanced around the corner to make sure the door was still sealed before he pressed the code to contact Josh and Cassa. He wasn’t sure if it would work this deep inside the ship, he could only hope that it did and that they hadn’t been captured.
“Go ahead,” Josh said in a barely audible voice.
“Bantu may have a way to access a self-destruct sequence programmed into the ship's computer,” Pack responded, glancing back at Bantu who nodded and gave him a thumbs up signal. “Correction, he has a program that can open it."
“Can Cassa access it?” Josh asked in a harsh tone.
Pack turned and looked at Bantu. “Can Cassa access the file?” He asked.
“Yes,” Bantu replied with a sharp nod. “Let me talk to her.”
“He wants to talk to Cassa,” Pack said.
“Tell me what to do, Bantu,” Cassa’s soft voice asked.
Bantu glanced at Pack and turned his back to him. “Go to file CLB1. The password is CassalovesBantu,” he muttered, shooting a fierce glare at Pack when he snorted. “Upload the file. It will search for the ship’s self-destruct program and match it with the commander’s code. You’ll have to manually input the sequence three times before it will activate. They really should have used a voice activation as well. It would have helped a little.”
“We’ll be sure to recommend that to the next Legion ship’s commander before we blow his ship up,” Josh retorted dryly.
Pack grinned when he saw Bantu grimace after he realized that Josh was listening in. If they survived this, he would have to try to introduce Bantu to a few other women. It was clear that Cassa was no longer available.
“Listen, once you find the sequence, you only have a minute to type the self-destruct numbers in. If you don’t, an alarm will trigger unless you type in the words cancel command. I almost got caught the first time I did it.”
“I’ve got it,” Cassa replied in a soft voice. “It is searching.”
“Bantu, we’ve got company,” Pack whispered when he heard the sound of the door opening.
“Three times, Cassa,” Bantu muttered urgently. “Oh, and you’ll only have fifteen minutes to get out!”
Pack heard Bantu’s muffled curse when he cut the communications between them. He nodded to Bantu to continue with what he was doing. Slipping around the other side, he went in search of their visitor.