Chapter 18: Approach

“What?!” Jack almost fell out of his chair as he stood up. “What do you mean, someone’s following us?”
“What do you think I mean by someone’s following us? Someone’s following us!”
“Well, who is it then?”
“I don’t know! Some big huge ship!”
“What would a big huge ship want with us? We didn’t even do anything!”
“Guys, shut up! Listen to this!” Wizard’s voice rang out above Acid’s and Jack’s, and the two arguing rabbits fell silent. Wizard turned a dial on the console in front of him, and a voice was loudly and clearly heard, as if the speaker was in the cockpit with them.
“I repeat, this is General Grath, of the CAF Fortuna. Identify yourself and your destination.”
Acid made his way quickly to where Wizard sat, picked up a small microphone, and held down a small white button as he spoke into the mic. “This is Commander Acid of the Hybrid Corsair. What’s up, Fortuna?”
“What’s your destination, Corsair?”
Acid replied coolly. “We’re on our way to disable and/or destroy Buster Tank’s satellite, before it disables and/or destroys Carrotus.”
A short silence ensued, during which Grath was apparently relaying information to his other crewmembers. The silence was broken as the general responded.
“We’re going the same way. Judging by the fact that you’re broadcasting on a secure Carrotan frequency, we’re making the assumption that you’re friendly. Therefore, you have docking clearance if you need it.”
“Thank you, Fortuna, but I think we’re okay for now. Your gracious hospitality has been noted. Acid out.”
As Acid replaced the mic, Firefox glanced at him, with a questioning look on his face. “Commander Acid? Did I miss the promotion ceremony or something?”
“Well, I have to make myself sound like I’m worthy of having a spacecraft, especially towards someone as esteemed as a general,” Acid replied. “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to fake my way to the top of the Carrotan military.”
Acid took the controls back from Electrik, who promptly exited the cockpit. Foo attempted to follow him, but walked into the door on his way out. Blaze watched this with extreme interest, and he smiled. “Well, at least with Foo around, this should be a very interesting flight.”
“I should hope so,” Acid replied. “There’s still two and a half hours left until we reach the satellite.”
“Oh.”

To pass the time, the rabbits inhabiting the Hybrid Corsair had a lengthy discussion for about an hour and a bit, of which the topic veered unpredictably from piloting to politics, and had almost reached a heated argument regarding genetically altered carrots when another transmission was heard across the intercom.
“Hybrid Corsair, this is the Fortuna,” the voice said. It was not General Grath’s voice; while it was that of a male, it was not as deep as Grath’s tone. “We’re approaching a Carrotan spatial mine field. If you’ll allow us to lead the way, we can repel the mines before we head through. Just stay close enough, and we’ll get you across without any damage.”
Wizard was still sitting at the intercom when the message came through. Forestalling a direct response, he looked to Acid, who nodded back to him. Wizard picked up the mic, and held the white button down as he replied. “Acknowledged, Fortuna. Lead the way.”
The Fortuna drifted along as the Corsair slowed to a halt, and for the first time they got a chance to see what the larger ship looked like as it floated in front of them. It was a kilometer-long behemoth, bristling with turrets of every kind, and defended by glistening armour. It resembled a giant sword as it flew by, of which the crosshilt must have been a hundred meters long, twice the length of the entire Corsair.
As the Fortuna continued forward towards the minefield, Acid piloted the Corsair skilfully to within a few meters of the underside of the great ship. Jazz watched as a mine floated silently past the side of the Corsair.
Suddenly, a bright flash erupted from the starboard side of the Fortuna’s hull. and another from the lower port side. Acid quickly gestured to Phish to take the controls, dashed over to where Wizard sat, and picked up the mic from the console, leaning onto the white button. “Fortuna? Whatever happened to the idea of repelling the mines before plowing through?”
“This isn’t a Carrotan mine field! Our repulsors have no effect on the mines!”
Before Acid could respond, another voice spoke. It was high and drawling, and its tone made it impossible to tell whether it was male or female.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? A command ship and a destroyer, wandered right into our minefield. What a delightful intrusion. Heeheehee, this should be fun...”
The Fortuna’s crewmember was obviously not pleased with this newcomer, who was so bluntly acting as if he (or she, as the voice did not betray the speaker’s gender) was in total control. “Who are you, and what do you want with us?”
“Oh, we’re not about to tell you who we are; that would defeat the purpose. We will, however, tell you what we want. We want your ships.”
“What?!” Whoever was speaking on behalf of the Fortuna was stunned with shock. “You can’t be serious!”
“Oh, we’re serious all right,” the voice continued. “Dead serious. Tell you what, we’ll even make it easy on you. Give up your ships without a fight, and we won’t kill you.”
The speaker on the Fortuna suddenly lowered his voice to a whisper, speaking only to the crew of the Corsair. “Get into the docking bay ASAP. Let us know when you’re safe inside. We won’t have two ships exposed if we only need one.”
“Ten-four,” Acid replied, knowing that only the Fortuna could hear him. “We’re moving now.”
As Phish piloted the Corsair towards the opening door of the Fortuna’s docking bay, Blaze caught a glimpse of their captors’ ship. It was small and sleek, as dark a grey as the mines it controlled. It had four short, curved wings in an X position. He decided that the ship must be an interceptor. Blaze was considering suggesting to Acid that he could just ice the ship and be done with it, when he realized the distinct possibility that there could be more than one of them. A command ship and a destroyer would have no chance trying to dodge mines and interceptors at the same time; they’d be taken apart in no time before they could get away.
As soon as the Corsair was inside the docking bay, the door began to slide closed again. Blaze took the microphone from Acid. “Do you have any super-wave weapons you could use?”
“We’re already one step ahead of you there. We’re charging our EMP, and we’re only going to need a few more seconds before we can use it.”
“Excellent. Fire at will; we’re into the docking bay, snug as a bug in a rug.”
At that moment, the high, drawling voice was heard again. “Well? Are you going to hand your ships over peacefully, or are we going to do this the hard way?”
“No, I think it’s you who’s going to have things the hard way this time,” was the snapped-back reply. Two seconds later, the EMP fired, causing the whole length of the Fortuna to shake as the massive shockwave was released. Everything, including the impudent interceptor, was struck by the expanding blast. There was some static over the intercom, and then there was silence for a disconcerting few seconds. The whole ordeal had lasted four minutes.
Finally, a friendly voice, not the harsh one of their now-incapacitated captors, came through for them. “Everything OK down there?”
Acid was the one to reply. “We’re all good down here. Did the EMP work?”
“Perfectly. We’re now free to go.”
“Good.”
There was a rumbling as the Fortuna’s engines ignited, and a few clunks were heard as the deactivated mines bumped off of the ship’s hull. The clunks eventually began to fade, and a few minutes later they had stopped completely. They had escaped the minefield.

Another hour passed with no great event. The minutes ticked by like hours themselves, and the crew of the Corsair tried to find something that they could busy themselves with to make the time go by faster. Nothing seemed to work, and they ended up in a large card game with a few crewmembers from the Fortuna.
It was General Grath that found them. He narrowed his eyes at his crewmembers setting up their individual hands, then simply stated, “We’ve found the satellite. We need all hands on deck.”
The rabbits immediately departed the table, and rushed up to the Fortuna’s command deck. When they got there, they couldn’t help but notice, through the semicircular viewport, the hundreds of ships poised and locked to fire upon the command ship. Behind the armada was Buster Tank’s devastating satellite, but the swarm of ships barred the Fortuna’s path.
It was then that they heard an overly familiar voice.
“You know, that stunt you pulled back at the minefield wasn’t very nice,” came the sickeningly drawn-out voice. “It looks as if we’ll have to teach you a lesson.”
The flotilla of fighters and interceptors began to close in. The Fortuna had fallen into a trap, and there was no way out but to fight.
Grath glanced at Acid. “Does your ship have enough firepower on it to handle this kind of fleet?”
“Of course,” Acid replied, with a smile on his face.
“Then get yourselves ready to wreak some havoc. Everything we’ve got is needed.”
“Consider it done.”
As the crew of the Corsair was hurrying back towards the docking bay, Acid brought up the topic of his ship’s awesome cargo. “Do you guys remember the three ‘bots I was telling you about earlier?”
“Yeah,” Lori replied.
“Well, this is the time to use them.”
“Wheefun,” Lori grinned, and she, along with Jazz and Spaz, tore off down the hallway to the docking bay.