The Moon and Beyond by John E. Siers

Author:John E. Siers [Siers, John E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Theogony Books
Published: 2021-06-21T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

“Don’t worry, Rosa. These tunnels are far down in the mountain. We will be safe here,” Carlos Rodriguez told his wife. “You wait here. I just need to go to the other end and make sure the water is turned off for the tomato beds. If a pipe breaks or something, they might flood.”

“Can I come with you?”

“It’s wet and muddy down there,” he said. “I’ll only be a minute. You wait here and finish putting on your survival suit.”

“All right, but hurry back.”

* * *

“C’mon, baby…C’mon, baby,” Lorna muttered. Starfire’s command deck had been redesigned with three seats—two up front and Lorna’s command chair, slightly above and behind the other two. While the ship could be conned from any of the three stations, it was designed to be operated by a team of people, each with different responsibilities. Rob Giotti, in the left seat, had the helm, while Tommy Sakura handled systems and engineering from the right. Lorna had the ship’s computer, weaponry, and targeting functions locked into her console. Her attention fixed on the display, she was mentally willing the targets to appear.

Obligingly, they did. Six bright blips suddenly bloomed on the screen, and the targeting system went into acquisition mode. Lorna tensed, her fingers tightening slightly on the fire control stick.

“Lock on, baby,” she demanded and was rewarded a moment later as a bright red circle appeared around one of the blips. The targeting system was not equipped to fire automatically, but Lorna’s reaction was cat-quick. Her index finger twitched, and Graser One spit its beam of energy at the invisible target over 400 kilometers away. A hellish fireball blossomed ahead, and the forward viewscreen darkened automatically in response to its sun-bright fury.

“Yessss!” Lorna hissed. “Find me another one.”

As if in answer, another blip sprouted a crimson ring on her screen. She had already flipped her weapons select switch to bring Graser Two online while the first weapon recharged. She squeezed the trigger again and a second fireball blossomed, this time a mere 80 kilometers away. It was so bright, the forward screen went almost black. The remaining targets had moved off the edges of the screen, and Lorna realized they were passing her.

“Rob! I have the conn!” she shouted. Giotti had no time to acknowledge before Lorna slammed the flight controls hard over, wheeling the big ship around as fast as her thrusters could manage it. With an expert touch, she caught it as the ship reversed itself and stopped it on the exact reciprocal of her previous course. She poured full power to the drive, applying 60 gees of acceleration to kill the ship’s previous vector. Nonetheless, it would take time to stop, and the warheads were falling very rapidly toward the Moon. She would never catch them, but she might get one more shot…

“C’mon, baby—just one more,” she pleaded. There it was! The targeting system locked on to the single, receding blip just as Graser One’s ready light came back on. Lorna

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