Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

remove themselves from the gravity well while they still can. Once I’ve estimated enough time has passed for
    them to be safely out of range, I will restart the systems and attempt a landing. Of course, with the sensors down I have no way of knowing whether they’ll have left or not. And we will be very close to the surface of the planet by the time I restart the engines. Still, it’s these little moments of drama that make life worth living, isn’t it?” There was a long pause in the utter darkness of the bridge. “I’m going to shoot him,” said Hazel finally. “Moon, say something so I know where to aim. You’re completely bloody insane!”
    “Quite,” said Moon. “Which is why the Hadenman will be fooled. They are incapable of such imaginative leaps. Fortunately, I am no longer limited to merely logical thinking.”
    “Oh, great,” said Owen. “A Hadenman who’s acquired a taste for Russian roulette. I feel sick. How much longer do we have to free-fall before you can restart the engines?”
    “Ah,” said Moon. “Now, that is the tricky bit.” “What?” said Bonnie. “What did he just say? And why have I got this terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that I’m really not going to like his answer?”
    “Well,” said Moon, “to be absolutely sure the golden ship is out of range, I will have to leave it to the last possible moment, and then hope there are enough functional systems left in the ship to restart and control the engines. There will not, unfortunately, be any room for error.” “Right,” said Midnight. “That is it.
    Time we were leaving, Bonnie. A good warrior always knows when to cut her losses and head for the horizon. Hazel, nice to have known you, but I think this would be a really good time for you to return Bonnie and I to our own dimensions. Not that I don’t have any faith in your demented friend, but I really don’t think I want to be here to see how this all turns out.”
    “Yeah,” said Bonnie. “What she said.”
    “Tough,” said Hazel. “I’m not entirely sure how I do what I do, but I’m pretty sure that if I were to send you back right now, you’d both still be traveling at your present speed. Which means you’d probably reappear at the exact spot I took you from, only traveling at something well past the speed of sound.
    When you eventually hit something solid, they’d have to scrape up your remains with a palette knife. Of course, if you really want to risk it…” “Oh, hell,” said Bonnie. “We wouldn’t think of deserting our friends in their hour of need. Would we, Midnight?”
    “Of course not,” said Midnight. “Perish the thought. I think I feel sick.” “Moon,” said Owen. “I’m really very sure the golden ship is gone by now. Start the bloody engines.”
    “Actually,” said Moon, “I have been attempting to restart the engines for the past twenty-two seconds, to no avail. I can only assume the damage to the computer systems was more extreme than I conjectured.” Hazel made a noise in the dark. “Think of something, Owen!”
    “Mostly I’m thinking about strangling Moon,” said Owen. “I have come up with another plan,” said Moon. “Your stardrive is derived from alien technology, and therefore has its own, separate, systems.
    These appear to be intact. I believe I can maintain a connection long enough to use the alien drive to jump-start the standard engines.”
    “Hold everything,” said Bonnie. “You want to activate a hyperdrive this far into a planet’s gravity well?
    You could collapse the whole star system! Bad as things are, I have no desire to see what the inside of a black hole looks like!” “Trust me,” said Moon. “I’m almost sure I know what I’m doing.” There was a moment that seemed to last forever. Space turned inside out, stretching and almost tearing, and colors slowed to a crawl. There was a brilliant light coming from somewhere, but they weren’t seeing it with their eyes. Angels were singing a single sustained chord, in a harmony almost too perfect to be borne.
    And then everything snapped back to normal, and the light was just the bridge’s normal lighting and the
    song was the roar of the ship’s engines as Moon fought to slow the Sunstrider II’s plummeting descent.
    Owen looked dazedly about him, and slowly realized some of the control panels were back on-line again.
    “We have sensors!” said Owen. “No sign of the Hadenmen ship, but the surface of the planet