IceFlight Page 29
Nightwing groaned and tasted blood. His first conscious breath turned to a rasping cough, but he ignored it. He forced his eyes to focus and his brain to interpret the data floating before him. The projections sparked and flashed erratically, but their information could still be read. The Bandit was braking and remained online for passage. His eyes flicked to the point position and he cursed mentally.
It was coming fast and he had only minimal time to apply the requisite tension to open a passage. His shaking finger moved between the projected ship’s systems to initiate entry. The power logo rippled then cracked and a shock seared his hand. He took a shaky breath that hurt his throat before trying the connection again. A rasping voice briefly distracted him.
“If you fail to make passage, I’ll gut you, Nightwing.”
Wing continued the familiar movements and his voice was calm. “If I fail to make passage, we’re all dead.”
“I can still gut you first,” Greon promised, but Wing was no longer listening.
He tried for the third time to release exotic matter, targeting the point that would force the passage open. Another crackling surge stabbed his arm, but this time he persisted. He felt sweat on his upper lip, while his pulse surged, but his effort was rewarded.
A surge of exotic matter speared from the Bandit’s split nose to impale the passage, and Wing tried to relax. His hands were shaking and he needed them to be still. Light flared across the still-sealed singularity and streamed into space as the Bandit hurtled closer. The most delicate part of adjusting the passage was holding it open long enough for the ship to pass through, and Wing knew he would need all of his skill to maintain its integrity with a damaged vessel. He looked down at his trembling hands and grimaced. There was no more time.
Greon barked something that he ignored and the ship swept head-on into the singularity. Wing reached into his display without further hesitation. The familiar movements steadied his hands and he showed no doubt or indecision. He released the surge of power that split time and space. His mind and hands flew to make subtle adjustments and the black wall ahead exploded in a rainbow shower.
The ship drove through the coruscating colors to dive into a bright whirlpool, while Wing struggled to hold that pulsing passage away from its battered hull. His mind called up another display that was projected only to his left eye as they exited the system.
He watched the kres ship turn hard to sweep around behind them. Its quick response would leave little time to conceal his trap at the other end. Perhaps too little.
Wing’s attention shifted back to the point display, where space still blossomed with color. The brilliant passage closed around them and tightened until the Bandit’s containment field glowed red. That struggling shield was all that stood between the ruptured nest and the twisted space of a singularity.
Wing made a last supreme effort to hold the ship together with mind and hands while he forced it forward. The protective field shrank and pulsed higher in the spectrum, until it could barely be seen. Its ultraviolet sheen bulged inward beneath the mass of the passage and Wing stared at a stretched singularity only centimetres from his face. He watched the oil-on-water rainbows of an open passage with fascination and tensed, waiting for the field’s final collapse. However, the misshapen sleeve of energy held.
The Bandit shot from the passage and into darkness, expelled by an energy wave when the singularity squeezed shut and its rainbow throat collapsed. The ship hit the cold of deep space and its containment field regained transparency and shape. The Bandit’s hull cooled too and warning logos dimmed as it drifted into a different part of the galaxy.
“Yes,” Wing breathed, and jerked convulsively when a heavy hand clutched his shoulder.
Greon dragged himself across to hover at his Senior’s station. They watched silently as the streamers of light dispersed, fading to the darkness of a new system. The Bandit moved on sedately and Wing groaned with relief. Dying was never desirable, but being killed by his best friend’s ship would add a most unpleasant twist.
“Not bad,” Greon grunted, and pushed off against Wing to return to his seat. “One day you’ll fail me and I’ll get to kill you, but not today.” He smiled at Wing, but that manic expression did nothing to reassure his Senior. “Now, what’s the total of your plan? Tell me... how do we destroy them?”
30
Kill Them All Too