MoonRush (46 page)

Cleo watched over Buton’s shoulder. “We can’t let them have it…”

Buton mulled over what had been on his mind since the broadcast began. “Perhaps I might have an idea, but I will need time to test it.”

“Yeah, right. Time.” Jarod laughed with no mirth. He turned to Simon and asked, “Any suggestions?”

“Full burn, straight down.” Simon pointed once more at the blue orb ahead of them.

Jarod waited, apparently thinking
that
there should be more. Simon continued after a moment.

“Oh. Aim for the water.”

While the pilot and copilot bickered amongst themselves, Buton unbuckled the transport crate that carried the collective hopes and dreams of the crew inside. As he lifted the lid, the crystal glowed, casting a beatific light over the entire hold. Once more
,
Buton found himself gripped with a sense of awe and reverence around the stone. He lifted a small
,
pointed hammer and spoke to the gem.

“Please forgive me.”

Buton struck the diamond, which emitted a loud and deafening ring. The sound echoes through the small spacecraft. Jarod whipped around in his chair.

“What the
—?
”

Buton leaned in toward the jewel
’s
surface, studying it intensely. There wasn
’
t even a slight scratch on the face of the stone. Buton called out to Cleo
,
“Get me the drill
!
” Cleo rushed off to find the tool as Jarod once more turned around
.
H
is face
had
gone beet red.

“Are you crazy?”

Buton understood Jarod’s perspective, but they did not have much time. Not wanting to distract Jarod from his very important job, Buton explained with a certain urgency.

“They only want it for its size. If we smash it into shards, it will be useless to them, but we can still make a
—
”

Another warning shot burst beside them, closer than any of the previous ones. Simon grabbed Jarod’s shoulder and then clutched at his head, closing his eyes for a moment. Simon took a deep breath, apparently to steady himself.

“We’ve got to risk full burn, or they’re gonna trap us. Like, soon.”

Buton,
with
half an ear trained to catch the conversations in the front of the ship, took the large drill Cleo offered and lowered the spinning device toward the diamond. The bit shattered loudly, pieces of metal pinging off of the hull. One of the shards grazed Buton’s shoulder, slicing through his spacesuit and leaving a red trail behind it. Buton muttered to himself,
“Maybe in a laboratory with a fusion metal drill…But we don’t have anything
—
”

Mia pointed to the view
screen ahead, her voice tinged with worry. “I don’t like the look of those satellites.”

Buton stared at what was now visible on
-
screen. A cluster of satellites
,
inert
just
moments before
,
were now peeling open. Sections shifted and rearranged themselves, the communication devices transforming into something far less communicative and far more threatening. Each was morphing into what looked like a large titanium-clawed starfish.

The
Eureka
lurched as
it
was
struck from the side. Buton went flying backward and slammed his elbow into a protruding section of the hull. He arose, rubbing his arm where it had erupted into pins and needles.

Jarod called out, “Strap in!”

Buton did so, but watched as two more satellites sent out grappling hooks attached to tethers. As they struck the ship, the crew was rocked once more, explaining where the first disruption had come from. Jarod looked up from his instruments as the two blows fell on the ship.

“What the
—?
”

The “starfish” rapidly began pulling themselves toward the ship, using the tethers as leverage. They skittered closer and closer, their movements implacable and alien.

Buton breathed, “I never thought
I’d
see one in action.”

Jarod latched on to the statement. “One of what?”

“Taggers. Theoretically, they will attach and breach the hull.” Fascination fought with dread in Buton’s tone. “Once we have crashed, the satellites act as a homing beacon to trace the wreckage.”

Jarod turned to face Simon. “Can we burn them off in descent?”

Simon just shrugged. “How the hell would I know? Do I look like a weapons expert?”

Their leader turned to Buton once more, looking for answers. Or at least support. Buton gave it to him.

“Of all the illogical options, it is the most logical.”

Jarod punched the button for the booster rockets. Metal screamed as they began to enter the
Earth
’s upper atmosphere.

Buton sat back and tried to calm his breathing. For better or worse, they were committed now.

* * *

Rob’s eyes were glued to his instruments and the screens showing the
ship’s
outer hull. He watched
a
Tagger rip free and almost collide with the ship that still trailed them. That would’ve been an added bonus. He called up to Jarod.

“They’re hangin’ on. We lost one, but the others’ll have hull contact in forty seconds.”

Jarod yelled out to the crew. “Hold on! I’m gonna try some spin!”

“I don’t know. The ship’s hull tension?” Simon’s worry for his baby read clear in his voice.

“C’mon, have faith in your baby, Simon.” Jarod grinned a death’s head smile at the little man, yanked the controls and twisted viciously.

The
Eureka
barrel-rolled down through the upper atmosphere, almost completely out of control. Rob watched as light after light went from green to yellow…to red. The heat and torque were incredible. But, between those two inescapable forces of nature, Rob watched as another Tagger ripped away from the hull.

Rob whooped. “Yes! I think they’re all off!”

He looked up to
ward
the cockpit, where Jarod’s face and his bulging biceps clearly showed the signs of strain. Cleo tapped him on the shoulder.

“We can stop spinning now.”

Jarod choked back, “Working on it!”

The spinning
-
downward progress continued
,
as suddenly an ominous
whoosh
sounded throughout the cabin. Mia, a hawk watching her instrumental prey, called out.

“Engines one and three out…
d
ammit! Two, now four.”

Rob watched Jarod’s arms shake as he tried to steady their course. Veins in his forehead stood out in stark relief. He called over his shoulder.

“Get
’
em back, folks…I need power!”

Everyone sprang into action, all doing what they could to get the engines back online while the ship was still in free fall.

After adjusting several knobs, Cleo called out, “Try it now!”

Mia flipped several switches, but nothing happened. She flipped them all again with no result. Her movements began to get more and more frenetic with each pass.

Buton started to get up from his place at the computer. “This is useless. We’ve got to manually reset them
—
”

Rob sprang up, ready to do his part. “Got it!”

He ran back to the engine compartment and pulled off the cover. As he studied the panel in front of him, a sharp hiss sounded in the tight space. Rob looked closer and found another Tagger, its red-hot titanium claws ripping through the hull. Rob stared the mechanical monstrosity square in its glowing eye.

“Compared to a hammerhead, you ain’t nothing, buddy.” Rob hit the manual restart and then turned to face the next menace to their ship. This Tagger was going down.

Rob careened off the wall as the ship bucked. He stood up, shook himself off and then bent down to remove one of his artificial legs. He leaned in to taunt the mechanical terror.

“How’d you like a little liquid nitrogen?”

Like something out of one of his second-to-worst nightmares, a tentacle whipped out from the embedded Tagger and jerked the leg away from Rob. The tentacle squeezed tightly, crushing the prosthetic limb and then flinging the broken pieces across the room.

“Hey, I needed that!”

He glared at the monstrosity, then hopped backward, hitting a button on his knee that released a stream of liquid nitrogen from the portion of the prosthesis built into his actual leg.

“Didn’t know about my backup supply, didja?” The spray froze the Tagger in place, effectively sealing the hull.

Rob leaned back against the wall and surveyed his handiwork.

“One spray kills
’
em dead.”

He should talk to his orthopedic surgeon once they got back. Rob was pretty sure he had just found his doc a new marketing catchphrase.

* * *

Buton could do
nothing more
. Rob had gone back to take care of the restart, but as of yet, they had been unable to get the engines back on line. Strange g-forces whipped them back and forth as the ship did what gravity and inertia told her to do.

Buton glanced around the hold. The entire ship was focused on the fight Jarod was waging with the controls as the
Eureka
continued to spiral out of control. The entire group
held its breath
. Without power, they were all helpless to do anything but continue to run through the startup routine over and over again.

Watching the instrument panel in front of Mia, Buton saw
lights
flickering. It was brief, but it was enough to inspire a bit of hope. He called out to her.

“Try it again, Mia!” Mia hit the button.

The ship rumbled as the engines restarted. A ragged cheer burst from the lips of everyone aboard, all at once. Giving one mighty heave to the controls, Jarod righted the ship, and the random forces exerted on the crew abated. Jarod turned partially around as he grinned at his team.

“That was fun, huh?
”