The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Seventy One

Grace's instructions were matter-of-fact, as if this was nothing more than a training exercise. As if every second that passed wasn't a moment stolen from death.

'Now stay close. We're not out of this yet. Hold your positions relative to mine and stay as tight as you can. Ellie, can you feed your navigation data to the Jubilee?'

Ellie looked helplessly at the controls. She could intuit flying something well enough, but that? 'I don't know how to do that. I'm sorry.'

'That's alright, Ellie. You're doing wonderfully! Okay, listen carefully. This is what I need you to do. I need you to locate the exit on your scanner, and then head straight for it. I'll fall in behind you and continue on your vector. Understand?

'Yes!'

'Good. When I give the word, you need to fall back behind the others. Stay as close on my line as you can. Just make sure you're not in front of me. Have you got all of that?

'Yes, but we can't go in a straight line anymore. The ships moved.'

Tila answered before Grace could reply. She understood the plan.

'That's okay, El. That's why you have to get out of the way.'

'I will.'

'She doesn't like being last,' Tila said to her mother. Grace noted the strange tone of concern in Tila's voice and hid it behind a smile. That was something to discuss later.

Ellie recalled the stored waypoint and oriented her ship. It was only a few degrees up and right of their position. When her Valkyrie was pointing in the right direction she said so.

'Is that working?'

'Perfect, Ellie, you did that just right, now it's time to get out of the way.'

'Uh,' said Malachi, 'I have some bad news.'

'Mal, no, not now! I don't want to hear it,' vented Tila.

'You do. We have more cabal incoming. All directions.'

Tila looked down at the Jubilee's scanner and thumped the controls.

'Oh, could they just not! For one minute!'

The Jubilee pulled ahead of the Valkyries, forming the point of a spear. Turret weapons spun to orient forward and prepare for a frontal assault. Tila held on and watched the scanner. From up ahead, a half-dozen red chevrons were creeping toward the centre of the display. Another group popped onto the display behind them on an intercept course.

'They're coming. They're everywhere,' she told her mother.

'I know.' Grace checked weapon systems. The side guns had cooled and were ready for action.

'There's a lot of them.'

'I know, Tila.'

'What are you going to do?'

'We're going to leave. Ellie says this is the way?'

'Yes.'

'Do you trust her?' Grace pressed another sequence of buttons. The upper turret whirred to face forward, it's arc of fire bracketed to only a few degrees off centre. The spinning barrels now the sharp end of a cone.

'Always.'

'Then this the way.'

'They're coming closer,' Malachi warned.

Grace smiled. 'I know.'

Cabal fighters appeared in front of them, and Grace opened fire.

She held nothing back. Gone was the acrobatic flying and stealthy manoeuvres. Now Grace drove forward without relent, without wavering. Every weapon on the ship sprang to life. The Last Jubilee had become the glowing point of a spear thrusting into the heart of the enemy.