Against all odds, despite supposedly traveling through an uninhabited sector of the Ascendancy, he had run across an Ailian scout ship.
His computer chimed, and Jack glanced down to see that his weapons were now fully charged. He grabbed his control sticks, his finger on the trigger that controlled his cannons. The
Star's Eye
was armed with two forward-firing charged particle cannons and one double-barreled laser cannon mounted on a swiveling turret on the underbelly. For far-ranged targets, he had two micro-missile tubes. Jack wasn't sure what kind of armaments the other ship had, but he was sure it had more than his and he was
damn
sure it had better shields. But he also knew that because he wasn't dead yet, the pilot was meaning to take him prisoner, and
that
meant reinforcements probably weren't far behind. So Jack needed to get away and get away fast.
The voice came over his comms again. “
Sala'a'kre, relak a...
”
Jack ignored the rest of what the voice was saying and pressed his accelerator to the deck, darting forward towards the Ailian ship. At the same time he squeezed his trigger, sending out several bursts of particle cannon fire. The pilot of the other ship was very good. One beam barely splashed against its shields before the patrol ship darted out of the way. The return fire blasted against Jack's shields as he flew through the space the enemy had previously occupied.
Just like being back in the service
, Jack thought to himself. His grip was death-tight on the control sticks, however, as he reminded himself that he'd never been in combat except in simulators. The enemy ship was a lot more maneuverable than his, and before he even had a chance to think about it the other pilot had gotten on his tail and started hammering his aft section with cannon blasts. Cursing to himself, Jack jerked his ship down and to the left, spiraling away from the punishing assault. His shields wouldn't be able to take much of what the Ailian could give him.
The patrol ship stayed right with him, but Jack's maneuvers made sure that it wouldn't have a straight shot at him for longer than a few seconds. All the while Jack was firing behind him from his laser cannon, knowing that he probably wouldn't score any hits. Any distraction he could offer the pursuing pilot was good, though.
After almost almost three minutes of this cat-and-mouse game, Jack chanced a glance at his navigation computer, which had been automatically working on the next leg of his route. He didn't like what he had seen, although he could hardly have expected anything else. Normally, calculations for a hyperspace jump could take just under an hour, but that was with the jumping ship staying completely motionless. With all the twists and turns that Jack was taking the
Star's Eye
through, the computer's current estimate was sitting at just over four hours.
A screech of metal and the dull thud of an explosion told Jack that he didn't have four minutes, let alone four hours. Red lights were flashing on his status console as he lost his particle cannons, targeting for one of his missile ports, and half of his maneuvering thrusters. His shields were showing yellow, in the danger area, as were his main engines, life support, and shipwide electrical power.
I don't have a lot of options,
Jack thought to himself, sweat dripping down his face.
I can surrender, I can die fighting, or...
“Shit,” he said, making his decision. Feeling his engines straining, Jack leveled out, taking the ship on a straight course. The assault from the Ailian vessel stopped for a moment, as the pilot was perhaps surprised by this sudden development. Jack had been counting on that hesitation to happen, because no pilot in the known universe would think anybody would do anything as stupid as what he was about to do.
Jack looked over as the Ailian ship pulled alongside his. While he was certain the pilot of the other vessel could see into his cockpit, Jack couldn't see through the blacked-out viewports of the other. Nevertheless, he knew the enemy pilot was looking right at him, so he smiled and gave a jaunty wave. Fighting the nausea that was threatening to make him spew his guts all over his controls, Jack reached for the override switch that controlled the safeguards on his hyperspace engines.
“Here we go,” he whispered to himself, and he pressed the switch, turning off the safeguards. Taking a deep breath, Jack did possibly the most desperate thing he'd ever done in his life and activated his hyperdrive, sending himself away from the Ailian ship on a blind path through hyperspace.
As much as Jack had been sweating before the jump, now he was sweating even more. Every second that he remained in hyperspace was putting thousands of kilometers between him and the enemy ship, but it also meant an increasing probability that he would collide with a comet, a planet, a star, or any other of the hundreds of objects in space that could kill him.
Jack held the jump for ten long, brutal, agonizing seconds, and then he could bear it no longer. He deactivated his hyperdrive, bringing his ship back into the plane of reality. As soon as he did, the
Star's Eye
was rocked by two large explosions and the cockpit lights flickered before becoming steady again. Groaning, Jack pulled up shipboard status on his computer. All of his engines, shields, and most of his weapons were useless now, and he was steadily losing life support. Reacting quickly, Jack got out of the pilot's chair and ran to an emergency locker just aft of the cockpit. He pulled on a vacuum suit and grabbed three spare air canisters for the attached breathing mask, ensuring that if life support did go completely he'd at least be able to breathe long enough to try to get it started back up again.
Returning to the cockpit, Jack sat down and checked to see what systems he still had available. As far as weaponry was concerned, all he had was one functional launch tube of micro-missiles. He also had his maneuvering jets and hyperspace engines. As well, his computer systems were completely unharmed. Jack knew that with a little finagling he could convert one of the hyperspace engines to operate like a regular one, but he couldn't do anything about the weapons, the disabled engines, and the shields without a place to set the
Star's Eye
down.
“Well,” Jack sighed, “I guess I'm not going to make my destination in time.”
Leaning back in his chair, Jack finally looked out the cockpit windows. He was surprised to find himself in very close proximity to a planet, close enough that only a few minutes of travel would get him to it. If he'd had engines to travel with, that is. Jack pulled up his charts, wondering where exactly his current position was. After several minutes of work the computer pulled up his location on the screen, and Jack was bewildered. According to his charts he wasn't in Ailian or human territory, and the planet in front of him was not labeled.
“Jesus, I didn't think any uncharted planets were left out there.”
Jack took another look at the planet. It wasn't a large planet by any standards, maybe two-thirds as big as Earth. Of the surface that Jack could see, roughly half of it was covered by blue oceans. The rest was one large continent of brown and green, with several small patches of what looked like desert here and there.
Not a bad planet to be stranded near,
Jack thought. He sighed, cracking his knuckles, the adrenaline from his little dogfight starting to bleed off.
Well, guess I'd better get to w-
With a flash and a shockwave that jostled his ship, the Ailian vessel emerged from hyperspace next to Jack, smoke trailing from numerous areas on its hull. He had no idea how it had happened, but somehow the enemy ship had followed him through his blind jump. Even so, the Ailian had evidently not fared as well as he had, and seemed to have had a glancing collision with something while in hyperspace. As Jack watched, the ship began to drift, the largest trails of smoke coming from the area of its engines.
But as damaged as the patrol vessel might have been, it was anything but completely disabled. Jack felt a hammer blow to the side of
Star's Eye
as a beam of laser fire lanced out at him. A hissing noise and a sudden rush of wind blowing aft told Jack that his hull had been breached, and his hand automatically grabbed the breath mask and slapped it to his face. More of his status lights went from yellow to red.
“I'm not going out like this...,” he muttered behind the mask. He was really angry now. His headache was back, he'd only had five hours of sleep in the last two days, and to top it off he was most definitely not going to make his destination on time, which meant he could kiss his paycheck goodbye. Jack pulled up his weapons display and selected his last functioning missile tube.
Jack pulled the trigger, and a salvo of the micro-missiles lit off and made straight for the Ailian patrol ship. He watched the missiles' path, watched as they streaked towards the enemy. There was a sputtering of fire from the Ailian's maneuvering jets as it tried to evade, but without functioning engines there wasn't any way it could avoid them. The line of missiles rippled along the side of the patrol ship, blossoming explosions along its hull. Jack watched, triumphant, as the ship began losing altitude relative to the planet and got caught in the gravity well.
His triumph was short-lived, however. The Ailian ship fired a second salvo of laser beams at Jack, and he was thrown forward against the controls. Alarms began sounding through his ship as he felt an almost imperceptible tug, and he knew that he too had been caught in the planet's gravity well.
“Damn, damn...,” Jack hissed. His hands danced around the controls, trying to find something that he could do to arrest his fall. But he didn't have anything left. The crash was inevitable, and all Jack could do was try to ensure that he would survive it.
As Jack watched the planet rush up, he saw fire starting to lick across his viewports as he hit the atmosphere. The same was happening to the Ailian ship, slightly ahead of him. The distance between the two ships increased as the shape of the patrol vessel tugged on the air, changing its trajectory. Jack's ship, more aerodynamic for atmosphere, kept on a more or less straight course. Jack unstrapped himself from his seat, having watched enough. He flipped a few switches on the console in front of him, hoping that the automatic crash landing functions of the
Star's Eye
would still work well enough. His last view of the planet was of clouds rushing past his windows.
Running back towards the rear of the ship as steadily as he could manage with the jostling of the doomed ship, Jack found the crash room. The crash room was a small compartment, big enough for a person to just fit inside, housing a jump seat suspended by large sturdy springs on the top, bottom, and sides. Jack sat in the seat, strapping himself in tightly. He pulled the door shut and sealed it, listening as the wind of the atmosphere rushed past his hull and whistled through the breaches in the skin of the ship.
Not much longer...
, Jack thought to himself.
Not much longer at all...
He closed his eyes, rested his head against the back of the jump seat, and waited for the crash.
******
The smell of smoke burned Jack's nose, finally rousing him from his stupor. He jerked upright, blinking, then wincing against the throbbing headache and soreness that washed over him. Flexing his arms, he felt himself over, checking for injuries. Besides torn clothing, sore ribs, and a wicked cut across his chest from where one of the jump seat straps had dug into his skin, he seemed to be unhurt. A little late, Jack checked the gauge on his breath mask.
Ran out...fifteen hours ago? Damn...Well, at least that means the atmosphere here isn't poisonous...probably.
Jack unfastened the straps holding him in his seat and stood up, feeling the stiffness in his legs that was to be expected from sitting in one place for half a day.
First things first...
Jack exited the crash room, thankful that there was still enough power left in the ship to operate the doors. A thin haze of smoke hung in the passageway outside. Jack wasn't sure what the source of the smoke might be, but he felt no heat at all as he walked through the ship, so he was pretty sure that whatever had burned wasn't actively burning anymore. He made his way to his cabin in the aft section of the ship, picking his way around fallen sections of ceiling and buckled plating. Once he got there, he grabbed a first aid kit and set to work on his minor injuries. A disinfectant wipe and a generous strip of artificial flesh took care of the cut across his chest, and three aspirin tablets got to work on the headache and the soreness.
Jack pulled off the ripped vacuum suit and flight uniform he'd been wearing. He tossed them in a corner of the cabin and opened a drawer in a side wall for some fresh clothes, of which he hadn't brought many since he'd expected the voyage to only last four days. What he did have was some dusky-blue-patterned camouflage fatigues that he'd kept from his time in the military, which still fit snugly but comfortably on his body. He pulled on a pair of high-topped black boots and grabbed a ballcap to cover his head with.
“Right, then...,” Jack muttered to himself, sitting down on the bed. He was quiet for a moment, trying to decide what to do next. He'd made it through the crash in one piece, which meant the automatic crash landing function of the ship must have at least partially worked. The likelihood that the ship was still flyable, however, was slim. Definitely the
Star's Eye
was not spaceworthy. And unless a miracle of truly biblical proportions had occurred in the time between when Jack had passed out and when he'd woken up, his long-range communications would still be disabled from the earlier fight. Jack knew he wasn't a skilled enough programmer to be able to undo the work of a military override, at least not without a lot of trial and error.