come closer and add your shields to mine. We’re going to try to give her a little push.”
Two X-wings and another clawcraft joined him and his wingmate. With half of Twin Suns all working simultaneously, the freighter’s heading gradually began to change, but it required a redirection of all available power to both engines and shields from all ships. Jag kept a wary eye on the freighter, just in case she tried anything.
Five degrees would do it, he decided. That would take the freighter well past
Selonia
and clear of Bakura’s atmosphere—
He caught a flash out of the corner of his eye. At that exact moment a dozen instruments on his console spiked, and he realized that a spray of neutrinos had just washed over him.
“Did anyone else catch that?”
“Affirmative, Twin One,” the leader of Flight B replied. “Look at the drive units.”
Jag craned to look out the rear of his cockpit’s transparent canopy. The freighter’s engines were stuttering furiously now, thrust ebbing and fading in wildly erratic energy swings.
“I don’t like the look of this,” he mumbled under his breath.
The words had barely left his lips when the drive units emitted a particularly bright flash, then died completely.
“Break off!” he called over the comm. “All fighters, disengage immediately!” He was already wrenching the controls of his clawcraft up and away from the stricken freighter. “Full power to aft shields! Put everything you’ve got between us and that thing! She’s going to—”
There was a blinding white flash from behind him, then something picked up his clawcraft and spun it like a top around all axes. He clutched at the sides of his flight seat, hearing nothing but the scream of tortured matter over the comm.
Then the rough ride was over, and the stars reappeared.
Jag damped down his spin and checked on the four other starfighters. He was relieved to find them all present, if a little shaken by the experience. All that remained of
Jaunty Cavalier
was a jagged chunk of wreckage, possibly a section of the forward structural chassis. The rest had been blown to atoms by the drive failure.
“Bakura Orbital Control,” he said solemnly into his comm. “I think you can kiss your credits good-bye.”
“Don’t write it off just yet, Twin One,” came the voice of Captain Mayn. “We registered a launch from
Jaunty Cavalier
just before the detonation. It looked like a small pod of some kind.”
This surprised Jag. “An escape pod? Are you sure? I didn’t see anything.”
“I’m positive,” Mayn returned. “It was on the opposite side of the ship from you, which was probably why you didn’t see it.”
“Heading for Bakura, you mean?” Jag was still slightly disoriented from the shock wave, but he knew his up from his down. Every spacer did in a gravity well. “Does it have thrusters?”
“They’re firing, but it’s not enough. Reentry will be too steep. Want to go fetch it, or should we hand it over to Bakura OC?”
“Negative on that,” Orbital Control said over the open line. “We wouldn’t be able to get there in time. Sorry, Twin One, but it’s going to have to be you or no one at all.”
“Understood,” Jag said, silently hoping there’d be no more surprises in store for him.
He sent his clawcraft swooping around the growing cloud of wreckage, his engines on maximum burn. The pod appeared on his scope a second later, streaking downward. Its velocity was increasing, but it was no match for a clawcraft at full throttle. He decelerated cautiously alongside as it loomed large in his scopes. There were no obvious booby traps or triggers, just the blinking of an emergency beacon, bright and repetitive on the subspace channels.
Jag didn’t know exactly what sort of communications capacities the Corellian Engineering Corporation provided its escape capsules, but he didn’t imagine they’d bemuch. Before locking on to the pod, he scanned the subspace channels looking for any
Two X-wings and another clawcraft joined him and his wingmate. With half of Twin Suns all working simultaneously, the freighter’s heading gradually began to change, but it required a redirection of all available power to both engines and shields from all ships. Jag kept a wary eye on the freighter, just in case she tried anything.
Five degrees would do it, he decided. That would take the freighter well past
Selonia
and clear of Bakura’s atmosphere—
He caught a flash out of the corner of his eye. At that exact moment a dozen instruments on his console spiked, and he realized that a spray of neutrinos had just washed over him.
“Did anyone else catch that?”
“Affirmative, Twin One,” the leader of Flight B replied. “Look at the drive units.”
Jag craned to look out the rear of his cockpit’s transparent canopy. The freighter’s engines were stuttering furiously now, thrust ebbing and fading in wildly erratic energy swings.
“I don’t like the look of this,” he mumbled under his breath.
The words had barely left his lips when the drive units emitted a particularly bright flash, then died completely.
“Break off!” he called over the comm. “All fighters, disengage immediately!” He was already wrenching the controls of his clawcraft up and away from the stricken freighter. “Full power to aft shields! Put everything you’ve got between us and that thing! She’s going to—”
There was a blinding white flash from behind him, then something picked up his clawcraft and spun it like a top around all axes. He clutched at the sides of his flight seat, hearing nothing but the scream of tortured matter over the comm.
Then the rough ride was over, and the stars reappeared.
Jag damped down his spin and checked on the four other starfighters. He was relieved to find them all present, if a little shaken by the experience. All that remained of
Jaunty Cavalier
was a jagged chunk of wreckage, possibly a section of the forward structural chassis. The rest had been blown to atoms by the drive failure.
“Bakura Orbital Control,” he said solemnly into his comm. “I think you can kiss your credits good-bye.”
“Don’t write it off just yet, Twin One,” came the voice of Captain Mayn. “We registered a launch from
Jaunty Cavalier
just before the detonation. It looked like a small pod of some kind.”
This surprised Jag. “An escape pod? Are you sure? I didn’t see anything.”
“I’m positive,” Mayn returned. “It was on the opposite side of the ship from you, which was probably why you didn’t see it.”
“Heading for Bakura, you mean?” Jag was still slightly disoriented from the shock wave, but he knew his up from his down. Every spacer did in a gravity well. “Does it have thrusters?”
“They’re firing, but it’s not enough. Reentry will be too steep. Want to go fetch it, or should we hand it over to Bakura OC?”
“Negative on that,” Orbital Control said over the open line. “We wouldn’t be able to get there in time. Sorry, Twin One, but it’s going to have to be you or no one at all.”
“Understood,” Jag said, silently hoping there’d be no more surprises in store for him.
He sent his clawcraft swooping around the growing cloud of wreckage, his engines on maximum burn. The pod appeared on his scope a second later, streaking downward. Its velocity was increasing, but it was no match for a clawcraft at full throttle. He decelerated cautiously alongside as it loomed large in his scopes. There were no obvious booby traps or triggers, just the blinking of an emergency beacon, bright and repetitive on the subspace channels.
Jag didn’t know exactly what sort of communications capacities the Corellian Engineering Corporation provided its escape capsules, but he didn’t imagine they’d bemuch. Before locking on to the pod, he scanned the subspace channels looking for any
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