RAEFF (Jim Able: Offworld Book 6) by Ed Charlton (best books to read fiction .TXT) 📗

and black. The flier lurched upward, and they became nearly weightless. Control panels flashed to life again, and the alarms sounded again.

“This is not good,” called Tamric.

“Which bit?” quipped Jim.

“Several systems just reset.”

“Are we still flying?”

“Yes, but we are not concealed. The stealth systems are not operating.”

Jim stared at the anxious face across the cabin. “Maybe we’re hidden by the storm itself. What can you do to get them back before we come out of it?”

“Without knowing the exact cause of the problem, very...”

The flier shook them sideways, and gravity regained its full strength, unfortunately angled some way up the port wall rather than down to the floor.

“Ouch!” Jim muttered as the arm of his seat slammed into his side.

“Raeda!” Tamric called. “Full stealth mode immediately!”

The ship’s voice returned an unhurried, “Stealth systems not operational. External sensors have been damaged. External plates have been damaged. External modules have been damaged.”

“Shit!” said Jim.

“Awaiting command,” replied the ship.

Tamric was shaking his head. “We’ll just have to drop to the ground as soon as we can and hope for the best.”

“Awaiting command,” said the ship.

“What about going back up?”

“We’re almost there. We’ll be visible longer if we abort now.” Tamric shrugged and waited for Jim’s agreement.

“Please restate command,” said the ship.

Jim nodded.

Tamric reached up and turned off the voice recognition.

The flier dropped out of the dark mass of the storm and hovered like a bird of prey. A wake of steam boiled off the hull as wind blasted the rain into burning sections of the plating.

Jim squinted at the rain-blurred images of the ground.

“There. Fifty degrees. Trees with a flat field beyond.”

“Got it!” said Tamric.

Within a minute, they were on the ground. Tamric brought them as close to the trees as he thought safe.

“Well done,” said Jim.

“Thanks. How do we find out where we are?”

“Work it out from the sensor logs.”

Tamric shook his head. “We were without sensors for several seconds. We don’t know how fast we were blown or in which direction.”

“So we guess. There’s a limit to how far we could have strayed.”

While they examined the logs, an alarm began to sound.

“What now?” asked Jim.

“Fire,” said Tamric calmly. “Outside. Port wing. Let’s have a look.”

He entered a series of commands, and an image of the flier’s hull appeared on a screen.

“What the hell is that?” Jim pointed at the glowing trench that stretched from the wing’s front edge into the main fuselage.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Tamric said, shaking his head. “Did we hit something?”

“It’s like it vaporized the plates. They’re still burning!”

“Maybe the rain is strong enough to put it out.”

“It doesn’t look like it.”

They were silent a moment and watched glowing steam drift upward from curled edges that twinkled alternately orange and intensely white.

Tamric reached up and reactivated the voice control.

“Raeda! Damage report.”

The ship intoned a litany of disaster. The burning area, out of their view, continued through into vital systems. When it was done, Jim and Tamric shared a long silence.

“Anything in your training help here?” asked Jim with a touch of bitterness.

Tamric nodded. “Abandon ship. Take any necessary supplies, retrieve minimum communications equipment for emergency rescue, complete the mission if feasible, destroy the ship upon leaving.”

Jim nodded. “All very sound. Being marooned here is not a good idea. We’re now dependent on Tella’s arrival. You get the comm-units. I’ll get some supplies.”

Tamric nodded and began to extract the equipment from the console.

Jim muttered and cursed to himself while he added to the contents of the emergency backpacks. I could use Tella’s experience. I’m trained in administrative law enforcement. What am I doing here? Marhan was right—I’m a scribbler. We’re in a dangerous situation and I’m babysitting a boy monk! I don’t need someone else’s life dependent on me.

Tamric’s voice called from the cockpit. “Jim, we have a problem.”

“Tell me about it,” he muttered and went back through the narrow passage to the flight cabin.

Tamric was pointing at the sensor display. “Vehicles are moving this way.”

Jim shrugged. “Could be a coincidence.”

Tamric shook his head. “Three groups, converging on this location. They saw us.”

“Let’s move. Try to get the autodestruct to finish before they arrive.”

“I have started the countdown already.”

***

The air was intensely cold. The storm had not lessened; wind swirled in gusts and updrafts that slapped and pushed at them as they walked. In dim light, they groped their way into the trees, hoping to be through the woods before the fireworks started.

Tamric held a direction-finder in one outstretched hand, wiping rain from its display with the other.

“Left a little,” he shouted. “When we get to the far edge of the trees, we can follow it north before we break cover.”

Jim nodded, too uncomfortable and too blinded by rain to reply. He was worried about the trees. They were all dead. The ground was littered with branches and twigs that crunched underfoot. He saw nothing green anywhere, just dead wood. This is going to be pretty when it burns, he thought.

It did not take long. Jim and Tamric had only picked their way for five or six minutes into the woods when the world behind them lit up with the white and silver fireball.

Even facing away from it, they were dazzled.

“Quick!” called Jim. “This lot may burn, despite the rain!”

Tamric nodded and increased his pace, but they both found it impossible to hurry. They tripped and helped each other up time and again. Small superheated chunks of the flier were dropping all around. Fires began flaring everywhere.

Jim stood to look back at the fires from the edge of the trees. “So much for slipping in unnoticed.” He wiped rain from his face and smiled grimly.

“So far, so good!” called Tamric. “We can follow the trees north until we get over that rise and, then, cut across to more cover.”

Jim nodded and hoped Tella was having a better time than he was.

Tamric steered them both along the boundary of the field. Jim’s heart was thumping as they ran, trying to keep low, across a stretch of bald hillside.