Desai pressed the correct button, and the ship performed a microjump so we now were in clear space, not shielded by an asteroid. Skippy had programmed five jump options into the jump navigation system and I'd memorized them, they were also listed on the command chair display and on my iPad. Option Alpha was for a jump close to the Flower so we could recover that ship, the plan was to jump close to the Flower, send a signal for that ship to perform a short range jump, match the jump with the Dutchman, take the Flower onto a docking platform, and then jump to the outer edge of the star system. Option Charlie was a microjump away from the asteroid we were hiding behind, in case our position had been discovered, but we needed to remain in the area to recover dropships.

"Can I ask why we're not going after the Flower?" Skippy asked.

"We will. Signal the Flower to jump to the rendezvous point." Even with the signal crawling along at the speed of light, it would reach our pirated Kristang frigate in a few minutes, and that apparently derelict ship would suddenly come to life and power up engines for a short range jump.

"Done." Skippy reported. "Colonel Joe, why are we still here?"

"You have control of the nuke near their main docking bay?"

"Yes, of course. I told you that." The Kristang had rigged the research section of the asteroid research base to self destruct with a nuke; if anyone invaded the base and the Kristang lost control, they could blow up the base with a single explosion. The nuke was there so enemies would decide raiding the research base wasn't worth the cost, and it certainly would have deterred us, except that Skippy took control of it shortly before we launched the dropships.

“How big is it?”

“I assume you mean explosive yield, that weapon is roughly eight megatons. A typical W76 warhead, in your American Trident submarine-launched missiles, is one hundred kilotons, by comparison."

"Light it up."

"What?" Skippy, Desai and Walorski said the same thing at the same time.

"Skippy, do not argue with me. I know you wiped their computer memory, but we left behind DNA in there, blood, it could tell the Kristang that humans were involved in the raid. I can’t risk that. Light it up. Right now."

To his credit, Skippy knew when not to argue. "Weapon enabled on The Big Red Button."

I pressed the button. The asteroid flared an intense light. Desai jumped us away before the debris hit us.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN    HOME