Captain Navarre: the Science Officer, #12 by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781644702789
Publisher: Knotted Road Press

PART 3

Del was lower than he would have flown on a normal run. Down where the shuttle’s stubby wings acted as lifting surfaces rather than merely air brakes he could deploy while coming in to land at some boring, civilized place.

Scanners had picked them up a ways out. Probably before those fools realized he’d seen them. A group of small ships flying above his flight path.

There was a risk coming in low like this. Underneath them from the west. The fools had gone to a more standard six thousand meters to hang out. Bullies in a hallway. Or on a stoop. Waiting for you to walk by.

Del could have avoided them. Flown high and dropped on them like a hawk. Circled around either edge.

Didn’t want to look like he was afraid of the punks. That would never do.

Instead, he needed to teach them a few things. Common courtesy would probably be an impossible lesson, but he had a few easier ones on the docket today.

Flying like a professional was merely the opening bid.

Del looked over at Javier and noted the man taking a moment to cinch his harness an extra bit tighter.

Just ’cause, as it were.

Del didn’t mean to laugh maniacally. It just came out that way.

“All hands, brace for turbulence,” he announced, like they’d wandered into a storm or something. “Check your harness and close all drink containers.”

Syntha was a dry world. Not a lot of rain ever fell, so the only storms you had to worry about were usually levitated sand, which carried an electrical charge that could short things out if you weren’t paying attention.

Like Del was never paying attention.

“Dragoon, let’s not engage them on the first pass,” Del said on the private channel to the killer in front of him. “They might prove hospitable.”

Her response probably included flying pigs, but he’d already tuned her out.

The shuttle was coming in hot from an angle, and a bevy of hawks had just decided to fall out of the sky to chase him.

Silly buggers.

Del slammed the thrusters to the second highest slot, holding back one last surprise for later. He was already moving at least as fast as they were, and he had life support and surround-sound stereo while they might be using every bit of power and thrust they could generate to keep up.

One finger found a switch and the sound of steel drums filled the room. Aft, old timers would understand what was about to happen. Maybe they’d explain it to the kids.

And maybe they’d just let them find out the hard way.

Five signals. Zero-three-zero and high, so coming down on him from the right. They’d already fucked up, though, coming in at too steep an angle and the wrong approach vector, thinking they could swoop around behind him when he went by.

At these kinds of speeds, time was measured in blinks.

Del leveled off at eight hundred meters, zooming like a madman, and watched the five shift up, and over, trying to find the line that would let them get onto his ass.

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