“Oh, of course. What can we do?” Milla asked, wishing suddenly that she’d spent a little more time on navigation and piloting and less on her own specialties.

Suddenly, being an expert in starship weaponry didn’t feel so useful.

“I’m going to have to fly this one by ear,” Steph said, “but they’re clearly tracking us now . . .”

“We are dark, yes?”

“Yes, but the planet is behind us now. They can see our silhouette,” he answered. “Even if we go to adaptive camo, there’s no way to match the infrared output of the planet . . . not from up here anyway.”

Milla shifted nervously in her seat as Stephen glowered suddenly, leaning forward as much as his straps would allow. She didn’t think she liked that look, not when she was sitting across from him in a small shuttle at least.

“I am not going to enjoy this, am I?” she asked weakly.

“Depends.” Steph chuckled. “Do you like carnival rides?”

“No,” she answered. “I do not know what carnival rides are. However, I am quite sure I do not like them.”

“Pity. Don’t throw up,” Steph said as he pushed the stick forward and dropped the shuttle into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant.

►►►

IBC Piar Cohn

► “The target craft has dropped into the atmosphere. We’re losing contact in the upper atmospheric clouds.”

“Smart.” Aymes shook his head. “Very smart. Hand off tactical command of the pursuit to the commander of parasite Five. Inform him I want that craft intact if possible, in pieces if not.”

“Yes Captain.”

Aymes shifted to look at the distant contact. “In the meantime, we have more important things to deal with.”

He calculated the distance in his head, working out the numbers. Aymes figured they had another couple full cycles before the visible scanners picked up the reaction of the contact to their instant scan. However, the space dimension scanners should be showing changes very quickly.

“Alter course, plot best time intercept for the primary target,” he ordered.

“Yes Captain. We have three such courses prepared. Do we assume they hold their current course, move to intercept, or average the two?” the helmsman asked.

“Average the two,” Aymes said, “but lean in the direction of an intercept.”

“On your orders, Captain.”

“You have my orders, and my permission.”

►►►

Shuttle Eagle One

► “The primary vessel is altering course.”

“Toward us?” Steph asked.

“No. I am getting a redshift on their signal through the passive scanners,” Milla answered. “They are moving away from the planet.”

Steph bit his lip, thinking about it, then shook his head.

“Must have spotted the Odysseus,” he decided. “Well, nothing we can do for them right now. We have our own problems.”

Turbulence rocked the shuttle as Steph took them into another cloud bank, heading south as Eagle One began circumnavigating the gas giant.

“Light off our radar,” he said. “Look for turbulence behind us.”