“Lifebuster dropped,” Riptide flightleader shouted. “All ships, overburn out! Now!”
Judy let out a long sigh as she stood, hands behind her back, watching the hologram. Around her, in the command center, a few people clapped. A few others prayed. Rikolfr wept.
Judy just watched the bomb fall. She’d done what she could. Perhaps humankind could rebuild, with the remaining ships that survived. Perhaps the Defiants would continue on.
They’d do it without Alta. She braced herself. Ships scattered, to try to escape the blast. All but one.
That one dove toward the bomb.
“The defect,” Judy whispered.
I speared the bomb with my light-lance, then pulled up in a curve that overwhelmed M-Bot’s incredible GravCaps. The force pressed me against my seat as, by a narrow margin, I crested a dusty hillside—towing the lifebuster bomb after me.
M-Bot put up a timer, mirroring the one on the bomb. Forty-five seconds.
“We need to get this thing outside the death zone,” I said, slamming the throttle full forward and putting everything into an overburn away.
“This will be close,” he said. “I’m extending the atmospheric scoop so we don’t rip that bomb off our light-lance as we accelerate, but above Mag-16 the scoop’s envelope will shrink too much to fully shelter the bomb, so that’s our max for now …”
We tore away from Alta, accelerating to speeds no DDF ship could have managed, despite that restriction. I felt the g-forces even through his GravCaps. We careened through the middle of a pack of DDF ships—they were gone in a blink.
“We’re going to make it!” M-Bot said. “Just barely. But we’ll … Oh.”
“What?” I asked.
“We’ll be in the middle of the blast when it explodes, Spensa. And I don’t want to die. This is very inconvenient.”
The countdown hit ten. Ahead, I saw a swarm of black dots in the air. Krell chasing after the DDF ships.
“There has to be a way out of this!” M-Bot said. “Booster and thrusters: online. No, not fast enough. Acclivity ring and altitude controls: online. Can we rise quickly enough? No, no, no!”
I felt at peace. Serene.
“Communications and stealth systems: online, but useless. Light-lance: online, carrying the bomb. If we drop it too soon, the wave will hit Alta.”
I sank into the ship, feeling—becoming—his very processors as they worked. I felt the number counting down to three.
“Self-repair: offline. Destructors: offline.”
Two.
I felt, more than saw, the blossom of the bomb’s first explosion behind. And I felt, more than heard, M-Bot’s diagnostic tool working.
“Biological component engaged,” his voice said.
One.
“Cytonic hyperdrive: online.”
An explosion of fire surrounding us.
“What?” M-Bot said. “Spin! Engage the—”
I did something with my mind.
We vanished, leaving a ship-size hole in the expanding blossom of flame and destruction.
