The Starwolves Read Online Free PDF Page B

crew had had enough. Launches and transports began to leave her after a
long moment, and even a few escape modules popped out of their tiny bays. That
left a nearly intact battleship to drift, which the Starwolves could recover at
their convenience.
    Velmeran accelerated quickly after the remainder of the fleet, with Keth and
Steena close behind him. Keth had been hard pressed to keep up this pace. But
he had disabled that last battleship, if more by chance than actual skill. Now
he felt young and quick again, encouraged by his success. He moved rapidly
through the fleet, firing into the tail of a destroyer as he bore down on the
remaining battleship. He was coming up close behind one of the carriers,
but he ignored her as he sighted on his real target. The destroyer he had just
strafed exploded and he glanced back, wondering if he had been responsible for
that.
    He turned back to his intended prey, only to see that the carrier had turned
abruptly across his path. He was streaking down the length of her hull on a
course that would cause him to strike her just forward of her bays, in the crew
section just behind the bridge. Already it was too late to turn away. Just
ahead he saw a large airlock with double doors nearly as wide as his own ship.
This was one of the main crew ports; a wide corridor would run right through
the width of the ship, emerging on an identical lock on the opposite side. If
he kept up his speed, and his shields held, he could poke a hole right through
this carrier.
    Keth threw full power to his engines and dove straight toward those double
doors. His fighter struck with a jarring impact, crashing through both outer
and inner lock doors. For an instant longer the shields continued to hold,
forcing a path for the fighter by crushing back the walls and ceiling of the
corridor. But the stress was too great, and the shields suddenly failed
explosively. The wings and fins of the fighter were ripped off in that same
instant, but its main body was thrown forward to slide down the length of the
corridor. The walls continued to press on it, breaking its momentum, grinding
slowly to a stop that left it firmly wedged in the passage.
    Keth released his tight grip on the controls and sat back, breathing
heavily. He would have made it if his engines had not failed, for the
doors of the second airlock were only five meters from the nose of his ship. If
he could restart his generator, he could shoot out those doors and use his
engines to squeeze on through. He removed his helmet and the upper straps of
his seat so that he could bend over the screen and small keyboard on his
on-board computer, ordering a systems check.
    The screen began with a four-way schematic of the fighter, then began to
subtract from those sketches to allow for missing parts. The computer
considered the extent of the damage and announced its verdict: failure: all
main systems. But he had expected that, and began to work his way past all the
safeties and lock-outs and tried to restart the generator. There was no
response except that the computer investigated the damage again, thinking
about it a long time before it reached a conclusion: generator inoperative:
failure all main systems. To prove its point, it quickly sketched out the
schematic for the generator and main power channels. Keth knew enough about the
mechanics to see that this ship was better off scrap.
    That left him one last chance. He quickly locked down his helmet and powered
up his suit, then released the canopy. He could still abandon his ship, jump
overboard out of the lock just ahead, and call for someone to pick him up. But
the canopy rose only a short distance before it jammed against the ceiling
overhead. Ordinarily he would have been able to rip that canopy from its
hinges, but not while he was trapped within the confined cockpit. His genetically
bred strength was defeated by poor leverage.
    "Meran, can you hear me?" he asked over com, rather
apologetically. "I seem to be in