1899- Journey to Mars

Bixie tugged his hand and pointed to an area off the front of the Argent, “Dere.”

Several hundred singleships flew in a tight formation, coming at the Argent from the right front.

Ekka came up behind Billy and saw them, too. “I will wake the others.” In minutes, everyone had seen the singleships.

Koothrappally said, “We are in the jaws of a vise.”

Billy said, “Ekka, sit beside me and work the laser cannons. The rest of you, watch for holes in the hull.”

Avi asked, “Is the golden robot still behind us?”

“Yes, close enough to fire, if its beam still works. If not, it will reach our ship before the end of day.”

As if in answer, a yellow beam shot beside the hull and lit the ship’s interior.

Billy said, “We’ll sell our lives dear on this day.” He turned the Argent straight toward the army of singleships.

The move surprised the morts, and Billy flew the Argent through the new hole that Ekka blasted in their ranks. He banked to the left and circled to give Ekka another chance to shoot, but the singleships were already breaking formation and flying around the Argent like hundreds of angry hornets. Ekka pointed into the distance, “More of them!” And still coming was the golden robot, straight for the ship.

Ekka was right about more singleships. Koothrappally calculated in his head and said, “Sixteen hundred additional ships are approaching to do battle.”

Avi said, “There are too many.”

Dakota started to say something, but was knocked from his seat when the Argent rocked to the side as a singleship flew into it.

The battle was joined.

A yellow beam scorched the side of the Argent and the inside wood walls caught fire.

Pat jumped to his feet and raced to the firefighting gear nearby. He started the little steam engine on the hand-held extinguisher and worked the trigger, sending a foaming spray that stuck to the wall. The flames disappeared in a wink. The walls smoked, but did not reignite. The lanky lawman sat down again, but kept the extinguisher beside him with the little engine running and sending out tiny wisps of steam from a straw-sized exhaust.

Guthrie’s glowing heart rolled in the bowl, almost flying out. Bixie hurried to it and carried the glowing ball back to her seat, where she held it to her chest as the ship jerked and shuddered from more impacts. The orb glowed brighter, and two crooked blue rays, as thin as a child’s fingers, emerged from the ball and touched Bixie’s face like a toddler touches a friend.

Another metal-screeching blow struck underneath the Argent and Billy watched the suicidal singleship’s debris ricochet away into the ether.

Edgar said, “The gold man’s fifty yards behind us, Billy.”

The remaining singleships reached the battle and flew at the Argent en masse. Billy barrel rolled the ship at the same time as he turned the nose upward. Metal rivets screeched like rusty nails pulled from wood, and several popped loose to shoot across the ship’s interior, making clicking sounds as they bounced across the surface. Wood creaked and splintered from the strain Billy put on the ship with his aerial acrobatics, but she held together.

The barrel roll move got them to the edge of the singleships, but that was all.

Bixie yelled, “Billy! Da second space station Guthrie told you about, it’s near us!”

Bixie’s yell startled Billy, but he recovered quickly.

A yellow beam missed the Argent by five feet, vaporizing half a dozen singleships that were caught in it.

Billy forced the groaning Argent into a hard curve and pointed it in the direction where the last group of singleships originated. The space station had to be there. Billy said, “Hang on!” Another yellow beam missed and took out two more singleships.

Ekka looked at him, “You’ve thought of something.”

“It’s desperate, but the only choice.”

“Do it,” Ekka said, and she shot a dozen singleships out of the sky in mere seconds.

Billy circled back through the center of the singleships once more, with the Golden Man tight on his tail. He worked the ship

so that two singleships on a suicide attack narrowly missed the Argent and slammed into the gold robot.