"So, Yarg is covering the Americas, the Pacific and Asia from the base in New Hampshire, leaving us free to focus on the Middle East. You'll still need to keep an eye on the Atlantic, Europe and Africa, but that's a lot easier than handling the alerts for the whole thing."
Emily nodded. "You're definitely heading after the others, then."
Nick quirked an eyebrow. Emily grinned back. "Of course you are. This is Terra Group. Naturally, the backup will need backup."
"Exactly. And, if I'm not mistaken, that footstep in the corridor will be Lieutenant S'ytsirk, looking for a ride."
As Nick rose to leave, and Noreh appeared in the doorway, Emily muttered under her breath. "Showoff."
Already halfway to the door, Nick called over his shoulder, "I heard that."
Emily just grinned again, and turned back to the control console.
Noreh looked out the window of the airspeeder, as the Atlantic ocean raced by beneath. This vehicle was nothing like the TIE fighter she normally flew with the Graces. It had a lower flight ceiling for one thing, but the ride was far more comfortable.
She looked across at Nick, who had his seat back and his feet up on the console. The airspeeder's autopilot took care of guiding them along the course Nick had plotted to their Middle Eastern destination.
"Is it always like this?"
"Like what?" The Australian answered without opening his eyes.
"So quiet. So lonely."
"Out here? You bet. It's one of the things I like best about this sort of trip. Plenty of time to sit and think while the computer does all the work. It's also a good time to catch up on sleep."
"But don't you ever want to take more control? This. . . this is like being a passenger the whole time."
Nick straightened is his cushioned seat, opening his eyes and turning to face the Mendellian pilot. "Noreh, trust me. Do what I do for a while, and you will soon treasure any chances you get to act like a passenger."
Noreh opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again, thinking about what the Terra Group agent had said. Any response she might have then made was cut off by an insistent alarm from the airspeeder's control panel.
Nick's eyes narrowed, as he murmured, "And it looks like this particular chance just ended."
He touched a control, and the airspeeder's command couches moved back to their usual positions. "Strap in," he ordered.
As Noreh complied, she looked over the displays she could see. They were in unfamiliar positions though, and as she tried to figure them out, she asked, "What is it?"
"Something that has no business being here. Twelve, you got anything?"
"Two fighters, Uglies, heading for your position." Emily's voice was calm, belying the fact that she was announcing several tonnes of death heading for two of her friends and comrades in arms. "And no, I can't tell you where they came from."
"Uglies. What the hell are two Uglies doing on Earth, let alone out here in the middle of fucking nowhere?"
Even as he swore under his breath, Nick's hands were moving smoothly over numerous controls that had been concealed shortly before. He hesitated as he reached for what Noreh recognised as weapons activation switches.
"Unidentified vehicle, you have entered a restricted airspace. If you do not follow our instructions precisely, your vessel will be destroyed."
"Friendly," Nick murmured softly. He left the weapons switches alone, however, as he proceeded to shift the airspeeder to the altitude and heading the voice specified.
"Very good. If you attempt to leave our escort formation, your vessel will be destroyed."
One of the patchwork vehicles assumed a kill position directly behind Nick's speeder. The other took up formation slightly ahead of the speeder, but off to the port side. Noreh nodded to herself. No combat pilot was going to be happy with even an apparently unarmed speeder on their tail.
Noreh studied the strange craft escorting them to their unknown destination. The one ahead looked as though someone had tried to wed a B-wing's gyroscopic cockpit and some of its weaponry with the engines and wings of a TIE interceptor. She couldn't see the one behind as clearly, but the TIE cockpit ball at its centre was all too familiar, as were the twin lasers pointed directly at them.
Nick was studying the vehicles, too. Glancing briefly at Noreh, he raised an eyebrow. She nodded her head once, firmly. She wasn't sure what he had in mind, but the glitter in his eye suggested he would have gone ahead regardless of her reaction.
"Escorting vessels, I don't suppose you could tell us what the hell this is all about?" As Nick started speaking, he flicked a large rocker switch at the end of the row of weapon activation switches. As he continued speaking, he started activating weapons. To Noreh's suprise, she heard none of the familiar noises of weaponry powering up. Finally, he touched another control that, Noreh was sure, should have switched on the shields. It didn't seem to do anything. Whatever Nick had been doing, it certainly didn't seem to be alarming their escorts the way powering up weapons certainly should.
"Unidentified vehicle, maintain altitude and heading. Don't think you're going anywhere else in that overpowered skyhopper of yours."
At that comment, Noreh saw the feral gleam in Nick's eyes spring to full life. His left hand slammed down on the rocker switch, as the right slewed the speeder's nose to port. Noreh felt the speeder shudder as the scanner showed a spear of flame streaking out towards the trailing fighter. Then more jolts as green blasterfire slammed into the suddenly activated rear shields. She saw a coruscating bolt of azure light lance out towards the leading escort, before her stomach tried to leap out of her mouth. Freefall.
Freefall. In an aircraft. Noreh watched as all of the electronic displays inside the surpisingly well-armed speeder flicked off. She tried to take comfort in the flaming ball of wreckage falling behind them, or the inert object dropping towards the sea before them. But, when they were falling as well, the destruction of their former escorts seemed cold comfort indeed.
Then the lights flicked back on, the familiar whine of the repulsorlifts was back, and Nick's airspeeder was sitting alone once more, the surface of the Atlantic barely disturbed by the strange vessels that had just crashed through it. Almost before it had begun, the fight was finished.
Noreh drew in a long shuddering breath. "I think. . . I think I'd like to take back that passenger crack."
Nick smiled grimly. "Apology accepted. We're just lucky those guys didn't have shields, and that certain people recognise the value of a sucker punch."
"Certain people being you?"
Nick just nodded. "Although, I must say I thought the power rig had enough juice for that stunt." Even as he started musing, Nick was redirecting the craft towards Africa, laying out a more circuitous route to their destination. The cautious course should let him, or Emily, spot if they were being followed.
"Twelve, we're going to have to take this slowly. No sense inviting more guests to gatecrash the party. Let the Chief know we're going to be a little later than he anticipated."
"Roger. What about the guys who jumped you?"
"Kick off an analysis of all the surveillance records for this part of the Atlantic. Anything more is going to have to wait until the current mess is dealt with. Keep it between the three of us and the Boss for now."
"Can do. Twelve out."
Nick terminated the call to Emily to find Noreh regarding him steadily. "You didn't know the power was going to cut out?"
"I didn't know. There should have been enough grunt to do everything I did, and keep the ship in the air."
"If you had known, you would have found a way to warn me." It was a statement, more than a question.
"Perhaps."
In that cool reply, Noreh thought she caught a glimpse of an important part of this usually reserved member of Terra Group. He would have warned her, but only if doing so didn't risk what he was trying to do. She wondered if she could ever manage that sort of icy determination to achieve her goals. She wondered if she could ever want to do so.
"So, what the hell did you hit them with, anyway?"
"Ah well, . . ."
With that, Nick, all efficient lethality only moments earlier, launched into an enthusiastic description of the concealed forward-mounted ion cannon, rear-directed missile launcher. He seemed particularly enamoured of the novel power system design which allowed those weapons and the shields to be brought close to full effectiveness in the time it took the enemy to notice their powering up. Noreh almost shook her head in bemusement. It was like she was sharing the speeder with two completely different people.