When a Good Space Flight Goes Sideways

Doc is known for doing the impossible, but she runs into some very unique challenges in Girl Gone Nova. Creating a character who is so dangerous and smart (or having that character appear inside your head…) created a lot of challenges for me. I vowed that, going forward, I wouldn’t create anyone with a higher IQ than me. I didn’t pay attention to that vow, however, maybe because I don’t know my IQ. LOL

Anyway, this excerpt continues from last week‘s…

She felt the ship shudder as the field engulfed her ship, then a lurch, as if she’d stood on the brakes. Only her straps kept her from hitting the canopy—which didn’t mean the sudden stop didn’t hurt.

Okay, now they’d pissed her off. She kick-started the sub light engines and threw them into reverse. The ship shuddered, danced and shimmied as she fought the field’s attempt to drag her toward the planet. All that did was slow the drag.

Another system pinged a warning. The field was attempting to pierce her shields. What the freak? Based on her scans, it would have had the same effect as getting hit by a stun weapon. She checked shield strength. Holding for now. Interesting that they were attempting to disable ship and pilot.

She used the scanners to pinpoint the source of the beam and brought weapons systems on line. Targeting failed to lock. The energy field interfered with it, too.

Warnings began to blare about almost every system. On the HUD, she could see the field tighten and wrap around her, like a hand closing into a fist. If she could break free, she might be able to open a hyperspace window and get clear before they could expand it again. She transferred power from everywhere she could find to sub lights. She did some quick mental calculations, her hand hovering over her thrusters as she watched the field tighten.

“That’s right, shrink yourself down nice and tight…”

She hit the thrusters, not sure if the tearing sound was the ship coming apart or her overactive imagination. More warning lights kicked on, but she didn’t have time to shut them off. On the HUD her nose started to clear the edge of the field. She got a targeting solution and fired. Metal shrieked. The ship shuddered again, and she saw the nose go, felt the vibration as her engines sheared off. Her HUD flickered and went down.

So Doc’s routine flight goes terribly wrong. You can find out what happens to her right now by clicking on this link.

I’ll be sharing a few more snippets on my social media! You can check them out there!

Perilously yours,

Pauline