Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [114]
Already Parvik was easing back on the boosters, and Jackson felt himself drifting against the straps holding him in place. Black space yawned outside the viewport, and he felt an overwhelming sense of relief as they left the atmosphere of Batuun behind.
“I’ve got her in a low orbit,” the pilot said as he twisted some dials on the communications array. “I’m trying to raise my destroyer, the Starguard. No luck so far, but we’ll have a better chance as we come around the far side of the world. Like I said, she had to keep out of range of the PDB, so she might still be staying below the horizon.”
Despite Parvik’s confident words, Jackson detected an undercurrent of worry that was alarming to observe in the previously unflappable Assarn. The lieutenant got the impression that even if the Starguard was on the other side of the planet, Parvik had expected to be able to make contact. The SEALS officer hoped he was right. Without a sanctuary on the Assarn vessel, they would have precious little chance of surviving in orbit until, and if, Pegasus arrived for them.
For a long fifteen minutes the pilot worked at various channels, sending out a coded summons and listening for a response. The great splotch of Batuu City slowly crept away from them, finally vanishing over the horizon as the shuttle, engines silent now, completed a half orbit around the green jungled world.
“I’m getting a beacon—a homing signal,” Parvik said through clenched teeth. “It’s Starguard. But there’s no response to my call.”
Jackson noticed that the pilot’s knuckles were white as he worked the controls, making adjustments to the shuttle’s orbit as he brought the little spacecraft closer to his ship. His face was creased with lines of worry, and the lieutenant sensed that he was afraid of what he would find when they got closer to the warship. They followed its position on the vidscreen as the shuttle closed in, and it was clear that the destroyer was drifting, not moving under its own power. They closed in farther, and some of the men started staring out the portholes, looking for a visual sighting.
“There she is!” cried the keen-eyed Falco. “In orbit there, maybe ten klicks away.”
The SEALS and their companions were silent as the shuttle moved closer to a drifting object that slowly resolved itself into a cigar-shaped spacecraft. But even from a distance, it was clear that something was terribly wrong.
“That is our destination?” Director Parker said in dismay.
The shuttle moved into orbit less than a kilometer from the Assarn destroyer, and it was obvious that the ship was a derelict. The hull was perforated in a dozen places, and one of the two engines was dangling limply, attached only by a few strands of torn metal. There were no lights, no signs of power anywhere on the ship.
“The Eluoi must have caught her napping,” Parvik said grimly. “By the tombs of my ancestors, they won’t get away with this!”
“I’m sorry,” Jackson said, touching the pilot on the shoulder, feeling the grief—and fury—coursing through the man’s taut, wiry frame.
“So am I,” the Assarn growled. They drifted in space, very close to the derelict, and the officer keenly felt the helplessness of their situation. Without pressure suits, they couldn’t even cross over to Starguard to look for the remote chance of any survivors or clues to what had caused its destruction.
“What’s our survival time frame?” Jackson asked the pilot bluntly. “How long can we stay up here and wait for Pegasus?” He was acutely aware that he had no way of knowing if the light frigate had even received their SOS call, much less been able to find the Batuun star system.
“Air and water for a hundred hours, give or take,” the pilot said. “No food to speak of, but we’ll suffocate before we starve, for what that’s worth.”
“We could always land on the planet so LaRue could kill another dinosaur,” Falco whispered, drawing a dirty look from the master chief.
“More to the point,” Parvik said, “the Eluoi have some armed shuttles in orbit around the planet. When they track us down, we’re pretty much sitting