Raine VS The End of the World Read Free

stretched his muscles as Rutger rotated the flight tray.
    “Slim chance, I know, but is it feasible to send a message back to warn ourselves?”
    Elizabeth checked the central console.
    “All messenger droids are out of range. We can’t send a safe envelope without risking temporal interference.”
    “And even if we could, we can’t patch it directly.” He shook his head as the launch sequence counted down. “Any probe would have to jump to a point before we began the project, and we’d need to avoid any chance of interception. Plus, encryption--”
    “Impossible. We don’t even have enough time to escape.”
    “No, we don’t,” Carl replied, glancing out the cockpit at his wife as she boarded the Falcon , the identical fighter beside him.
    “But she does,” Elizabeth finished the sentence. She brought the photo from her dash up to the face-cam. The family picture held on the Eagle’s comm. screen, catching Carl off guard in the middle of his pre-flight checklist. A single tear ran down Elizabeth’s face, which she carefully hid from her husband.
    There wasn’t a star in the universe that shone brighter than their daughter. Lily was the loveliest thing they had ever seen, and both knew that they would do anything for her.
    This was never in the plan. She was their pride and joy, their hope for a better future once the mission objectives had been reached. Now she was about to become Earth’s only hope.
    “We have three minutes,” she said, taking deep breaths as the cabin pressurized. “Just three minutes.”
    “Temporal Drive needs five to cool the fuel cells. Instruct the droid. I’ll input parameter data for the warp and ready the cruisers.”
    Elizabeth nodded, and their radiant fusion engines roared to life.
    “Captains, how may I be of service?” Rutger announced as its physical incarnation, XF-22, wheeled onto the docking bay, announcing its presence with a familiar chirp.
    “We have an extra special task for you,” said Elizabeth. “Run Protocol Seven-Nine-Tango-Alpha.”
    ╬
    Seated uncomfortably on Destroyer 1446’s command chair with a forced calm, Captain Black counted down the Hermes’ last few seconds. At seven left on the clock, something ejected from the Belladonna . It didn’t resemble an escape pod.
    Before it could be identified, a series of powerful jolts shook the bridge. They’d been hit by fire from a small craft. The weapons had somehow penetrated their electromagnetic plasma shields.
    “What’s going on?” the Captain yelled.
    “A rogue ship! It’s taken out the docking lances!”
    Captain Black stood and took in the incredulous scene outside his observation dome. Every one of their five-foot-wide titanium cables had been snapped; they were floating in dead space.
    “Shoot to stun! Immobilize it!” he yelled. “Turn the heat up on the tractor beam! Their interference patterns won’t hold forever.”
    Gunners drew beads on the target. The pilot nimbly, almost preternaturally, avoided all laser fire.
    Within seconds, a thundering blast echoed from below.
    “W-we’ve lost the tractor beams, sir!”
    The protective debris shield surrounding the Belladonna glowed bright blue. A blinding energy pulse blasted the space junk in waves; bolts lashed out as forked webs of lightning.
    “The fools!” Captain Black barked as his Destroyer jolted again. Now there were two fighters zipping like stray flies, peppering the 1446 with searing blasts.
    “Captain, weapons are of unknown origin! Beam conduit sensors scrambled. Outer plasma defenses failing, fast!”
    “Prioritize shield reinforcement. How long until we reach critical condition?”
    The engineering officer leapt from his seat. “Rear thrusters in danger! We can’t take much more, sir!”
    “Sit your ass back down, God damn it!”
    Alternately eyeing the bridge’s exit and the Captain’s hand twitching against his holster, the officer sunk back into his seat. You could have heard a pin drop.
    “Weapons