Hawk_Hand of the Machine by Van Allen Plexico

Author:Van Allen Plexico [Plexico, Van Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: White Rocket Books
Published: 2012-05-06T23:00:00+00:00

3: HAWK

Hawk’s ship disengaged from the hull of the enemy vessel and tumbled away like a piece of discarded flotsam for several seconds. Then its thrusters activated and it cruised smoothly into open space, even as blossoms of flame erupted from various spots along the other ship’s hull.

Hawk took over and manipulated the controls with a mastery born of RNA injections his body had been given prior to his awakening. He spun them about so that the black ship filled the forward viewport.

“Nice work,” he told Falcon, as they watched the big vessel spouting fireballs from a dozen places. It canted about, the nose moving downward and the tail end swinging slowly forward. “Their stabilizers are gone, at least. Looks like navigational controls, too.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” the cyborg cautioned. “We don’t know what it takes to completely kill one of those things. In fact—”

Before Falcon could complete his sentence, the warning he was attempting to give came true. The fires died down, the ship moved back so that its nose pointed directly at them, and blasts of energy weapons fire sprayed out.

“Evasive,” shouted Falcon, even as Hawk danced his little ship up and down, side to side. The blasts missed connecting with them by the scantest of distances, and Hawk could have sworn he actually felt the intense heat, even through the void of space, as the deadly plasma bolts zipped past.

“Do we have hyperdrive back?” the big man demanded.

“Negative,” the ship responded. “It returned for a moment, some seconds ago, but—”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Hawk shouted, continuing to dance the ship amidst the barrage of fire.

“Before I could, it was suppressed again,” the ship stated. “They have a device that—”

“I was sure I blew that part up,” Falcon muttered. “I was sure that was it.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” Hawk shot back, his eyes locked on the tactical display and his hands gripping the flight controls. “I’m open to any new ideas!”

Falcon growled deep in his throat but didn’t say anything. The ship, for once, remained quiet.

A bolt of energy passed by so close that the viewport flared with blinding brilliance and the two occupants instinctively shielded their eyes with their hands. Hawk cursed, knowing it was only a matter of seconds—if that long—before the gunners on the enemy vessel got lucky and connected.

And then something unexpected happened: A bolt of energy flashed past them going the other way.

They didn’t realize this at first, of course. The blasts moved too quickly for that. What they did perceive relatively quickly was that the enemy was no longer firing directly at them—though it was still firing.

Hawk frowned and, glancing back at an equally perplexed Falcon, demanded, “Ship! What just happened?”

“We are being approached by an unknown vessel of considerable size,” it squawked. “The enemy ship is now firing on it—and being fired upon, in return.”

The tiniest bit of relief crept over both men in the cockpit area, though it was as always tempered with caution.

“Who is it?”

“Unknown. Detecting massive

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