“No choice. I’ll airbrake us in the upper atmosphere.”

Milla grimaced but said nothing to contradict him.

The shuttle was designed to take heavy atmospheric friction, so she had little doubt that they would be able to manage that. What worried her was the high particulate density in the moon’s atmosphere and what coming in hot would do to their heat shields. If they lost the ceramic plates that protected them from heat buildup, then things would get uncomfortable rather quickly.

At the moment, however, she didn’t think that Steph was likely to listen to those worries.

She could even hear his response.

You want uncomfortable heat buildup? Let’s slow down and let them hit us with a beam for a few milliseconds. That would be uncomfortable heat buildup.

Worst of all, even as she heard his voice, right down to his distinctive accent, Milla knew that he would be right.

So she just sighed and started calculating the angle of attack they would need to maximize their odds of living through what Steph was planning on doing.

“You will need a steeper angle of attack,” she said finally. “Atmosphere is thinner than standard and much lower to the surface. Watch for volcanic cones as we approach. The largest ones appear to reach beyond the edge of the atmosphere.”

“Oh, great,” Steph groused, rolling his eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Partially. Depends on how you define atmosphere. In order to achieve significant braking, you may well have to drop below the height of several prominent volcanoes that I can scan from here. They are active, Steph. Do not fly us through their plumes.”

“Right,” Steph said. “Seal all exterior vents, and shield all nonessential sensors. Batten down the hatches, Milla; it looks like a doozy of a storm is coming.”

Milla didn’t bother trying to parse the meaning of the last bit, instead focusing on shielding all their nonessential gear. That meant that they were about to be flying half-blind, at least for a short while, since the shielding would block the scanners while protecting the ship.

“Hang on tight,” Steph said as he nosed the shuttle into the moon and pushed the throttle forward again. “We’re going in.”

►►►

► In space, a pursuit had the appearance of little more than two ships that happened to be leisurely flying in the same general direction. There was no exciting rush of motion, no sonic booms and engine roars filling the skies. At any scale that the action was comprehensible, the action was also nonexistent.

Lasers flashed between shooter and target, nothing but an almost festive twinkling marking their passage as the beams encountered dust particulates and vaporized them in turn.

As the moon approached, however, the action began to compress rapidly.