Crackling static filled the cabin. Aaen's heart jumped and his feet started to tingle out of anticipation—his legs stiffened up and he felt his hands becoming clammy. He wondered what could be causing the static, attributing the distortion with active or directed interference. He didn't like what either would mean.
"Can you clear the line up at all?" Maxon asked.
Mason scanned the readouts on her screen and then turned her head. "There's some kind of interference at the source,"
Oh shoot. Aaen thought.
"Are you there? . . . Are you there?" a male voice asked in a panicked loud whisper. Abrupt mechanical sounds echoed in the background. He sounded almost completely out of breath. "Galileo! Respond!—GALILEO!" More panicked gasps.
Multiple sharp hand gestures from around the bridge encouraged Maxon to respond. Aaen watched as the planet was getting bigger. The battleship veered to port and began accelerating at a low angle. Aaen nodded as the battleship passed out of sight.
"Take us into a high orbit," Maxon commanded. Aaen nodded acknowledgement.
"Galileo! There's no time, they're onto me. You must listen closely!" the male voice said sharply. The planet was getting lower in the viewscreen.
Maxon leaned forward, coupling her hands in front of her. "Go ahead,"
"The Module Cloaking Device is ahead of schedule—"
SHOOT!
"They're already preparing it to be installed on a battleship to be tested on an unknown target. My cover was—" another loud mechanical sound echoed in the background, followed by a distant explosion, "You have to intercept the device before they get it installed on the battleship!" another explosion, this one much closer, and then the sounds of a coordinated search effort, getting louder by the second, "I'm transmitting its location to you know. You will only have minutes to intercept the device before we lost track of it. Channel: Murcury-Thirteen! I repeat: MURCURY-Thirteen! HURRY!"
Another explosion, and then the sound of a loud particle energy discharge tore through the bridge. Aaen's spine began to tingle. The planet was out of sight. Aaen turned and nodded with a serious look on his face at Maxon, who appeared concerned and distressed. . . Mason turned and nodded.
"Commander. We've got him. He was transmitting something. The transmitter was destroyed immediately after it was sent."
"Is he still alive?" a ghoulish female voice said sharply.
"No,"
. . .Man down.
Maxon tapped Mason on the shoulder and then pointed to the bottom of her screen.
"Increase security around this facility, and then—" Mason closed the channel, an action that was confirmed with three low beeping sounds.
"What are we gonna do now, Captain?" Aaen asked directly.
There was a near-silence in the cabin as Maxon looked at the darkness in the viewscreen. "Mason, pull up the coordinates of the cloaking device. Commander Aaen, prepare to land the shuttle—we're going on an away mission."
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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