One World

Part 20

The silver-haired Ardanian sat in his fighter, waiting impatiently for the autopilot to guide him out of the mothership and into Earth orbit. 

According to the radar, Gabriel's fighter was getting further away with each passing second, and if he didn't follow the runaway immediately, he'd lose the man entirely.

Rag'ell clenched his hands into fists.

No, he wasn't going to let that happen.

He realised how much the thought of losing Gabriel was breaking him. What if he escaped and Rag'ell never saw him again?

No, he was determined to find the Earthling, even if it meant tearing the planet apart.

For the second time.

"Find me a private communication channel with the PPS55 fighter and activate it," he ordered the computer.

The radio link light went on.

"Gabriel, if you can hear me, respond," Rag'ell said as calmly as he could, watching as the autopilot navigated his starcraft away from the mothership and further into space. "Trying to land this fighter on Earth is extremely risky. Turn back."

"Oh, you'd like that," came over the radio, and despite the situation, the Supreme couldn't help but smile when he heard the familiar voice.

"You will crash and kill yourself."

"I'm sure you're concerned about my life and not your air fighter, but don't worry. I'm a pilot, I can land any plane."

"This is not like flying terrestrial planes."

"No, it's so much easier," he heard the enthusiastic laugh, and could imagine the amused face of the dark-haired man who loved flying more than anything else in the world.

And Rag'ell realised that he, in turn, loved that untamed Earthling who threw himself into every danger.

"Please, Gabriel, at least activate the autopilot to help you navigate."

"I'm not stupid, the autopilot will try to return to the mothership."

"If you do not follow my orders, I will stop you myself," the Supreme said in a threatening tone that he suspected would not intimidate their former captive in the least.

"How? We both know you won't allow them to shoot me down. Otherwise, you would have done so long ago."

"There are other ways I can stop you."

"Go ahead, but first try and catch me."

Rag'ell smiled at the unwavering confidence of this rebel who perhaps thought he could compete with him, then instructed the computer, "Deactivate the autopilot and hand me the controls."

He put on the goggles and touched the control panel with his fingers.

All the data on his course and trajectory appeared on the dark screen of the glasses. He let the system calculate the best possible vector to approach the escaping fighter and accelerated.

If he got close enough, he could activate an electromagnetic pulse that would temporarily disable the engines and bring the small spacecraft to a halt. However, he had to use this technology before the fighter entered the planet's atmosphere. Once it did, disabling the flight systems would endanger the pilot's life and cause an uncontrolled fall.

It took several long moments to get close enough to see the fugitive for himself, not merely as a blip on the radar.

The sight surprised him.

He'd expected the human to have difficulty getting used to the controls, but he manoeuvred the fighter with absolute precision. He'd never seen anyone so in tune with an aircraft on the first attempt.