‘Hang on a moment.’ She closed her eyes and listened. ‘I’m sorry, Cap’n, I.’ She shook her head, waved it away. Realisation crossed her face, and she looked momentarily ashamed. ‘The freighter, Jez! What’s wrong with you?’ ‘Can you hear it?’ he asked her, keeping his voice firm. Sometimes he dreaded being alone with her in the cockpit. Ever since Samarla, just being around her made him uneasy. Moonlight reflected from wide pupils, discs of bright white like the eyes of a night predator. Her head jerked up and she fixed her gaze on him. She was staring at a set of charts on the metal desk in front of her, but she wasn’t seeing them. A small woman in shapeless overalls, black hair tied back from her face. The only other occupant of the cockpit was his navigator, sitting at her station in shadow. When there was no reply, he leaned round to look over his shoulder. I mean, why shouldn’t I-’įrey pulled off the earcuff before they could get to bickering, cutting the connection to his outflyers. actually I like it up here,’ said Harkins timidly. ‘Bored,’ said Pinn immediately, the pilot’s voice transmitted to Frey’s ear via his silver earcuff. ‘You fellers alright up there?’ he asked. He searched for Pinn and Harkins, but he couldn’t see them either. Lightning lit up a distant cloud a crackling grumble rolled across the sky. They’d be hiding deep in the storm, riding it as far as it would take them. His eyes roamed the massive shelves and canyons of cloud, looking for a sign of their target. He knew he shouldn’t be out in the open, but he needed the respite. These last few hours had been hard on his nerves. When no immediate disaster occurred, he slumped back in his seat and allowed himself to relax for a moment. The peace had come so suddenly that he suspected it was a trick. A full moon shone down on a mountainous world of looming thunderheads, piled masses sliding past, borne on an invisible current.įrey eased off on the flight stick and listened suspiciously as the thrusters settled back to their usual tone. The last light of dusk painted the night soft and bloody. ‘Will you just give it up?’ he yelled at the storm in exasperation, as he hauled back on the flight stick hard enough to pop a shoulder joint.Īs if at his command, the cloud flurried away and the Ketty Jay broke out into clear sky. These days, he didn’t trust her to fly at all. She had uncanny night vision and a way of reading the wind that was nothing short of eerie. Ordinarily, he’d have left this kind of flying to Jez. His ears were still ringing when he felt his stomach plunge and the Ketty Jay was sucked down into an air pocket. Frey winced in anticipation of the thunder, and cringed when it hit. Lightning flickered somewhere, a dull flare muted by the intervening murk, briefly illuminating the darkened cockpit. Tatters of cloud flapped at the windglass like angry black ghosts.įrey bullied the Ketty Jay onward, teeth gritted. Bulkheads groaned, fixtures rattled, thrusters clawed the air. The Ketty Jay shuddered and bucked, shoved this way and that by crosswinds as Frey wrestled with the flight stick. ![]() That was how he found himself flying through the heart of a thunderstorm, on the trail of a target he couldn’t even see. Lacking the ability to win in a fair fight, he survived instead by guile and the illogical optimism favoured by gamblers and drunks, which made the riskiest of plans seem like a good idea at the time. The Optimist - Stormriding - Jez is Distracted - Women’s Intuition - A Majestic DeclineĬaptain Darian Frey was accustomed to long odds his whole life, he’d been an outside chance.
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