DN - Jet Catch

“Dreadnought, how close are you?” Calamity asks.

“I’m almost there!”

“Doc, do it,” says Calamity. And then, “Danny, you’d better catch us or I’m gonna look like an asshole.”

Simple interception isn’t the problem. I’ve got to catch them in such a way that their momentum doesn’t smear them all against the walls.

“Backup power links are severed—rerouting,” says Doc. “Damnit! There’s some kind of mechanocite infection in the flight computers.”

I snap hard over to match the tilt-engine’s course and speed. It’s all but vertical, nose-down, racing to the ocean at terminal velocity. My fingers brush the fuselage, find a handhold, and then slip away. The damn thing is covered in low-friction hard gel to help boost its speed during flight. It’s almost impossible to get a firm grip.

“Avionics are back,” says Doc. “Hey lookit that, we just passed five hundred feet and falling. Any fuckin’ time now, Danny!”

“Dreadnought, sooner is better,” says Calamity.

“I’m working on it,” I mutter. Aw, screw it; Doc can chew me out later. I punch a hole in the bottom of the fuselage. A few more shrieking impacts and I’m wrist-deep and groping around for something solid to grab onto. We’re low enough that I can see the waves below.

The weight of the tilt-engine settles on my shoulders, and I start pushing it into a gentle curve back to horizontal. We’ve still got a few hundred feet of altitude to burn and I don’t want to hurt anyone inside with a hard-G turn. “Tell me if I’m going too fast.”

“Faster, turn us faster,” says Codex as the jet continues hurtling to Earth.

“How’s Kinetiq doing?” asks Calamity.

“It’s not fair that I have a hangover,” says Kinetiq. “I didn’t even get drunk first.”

We pass horizontal and the weight of the jet begins to pull up away from me as the wings bite air and generate lift.

“Altitude is going back up,” says Doc with considerable relief in her voice. “Dreadnought, bring us ten degrees to starboard and we’ll be back on course.”

- Sovereign, Chapter 28