"Sir, approaching Pavonis Orbital Shipyards." the commanding pilot of the shuttle was the first one to talk after many minutes. Until now, we have only been listening to the ambiance of the spacecraft as it flew higher and higher, eventually reaching outer space.
"Is the other shuttle still chasing us?" I asked.
"Yes, and we are still being jammed." the co-pilot said. "However, the vessel following us isn't likely a shuttle."
"What is it, then?" I asked.
"It is more like a drone, I believe. I am not sure, it might just be a type of Federation shuttle I am not familiar with." he said.
"Doesn't matter." interrupted the pilot. "Someone doesn't want us alive, and that's the problem. Sir, do we continue as instructed?"
"Just fly by the shipyards as I told you." I said.
In a few seconds, we zipped by the naval shipyards, and so did the vessel chasing us. In that time period, there was no movement at all in the shipyards. We were completely ignored. None of the guns fired, and no fighters were launched from the hangars.
"Sir?" the pilot turned to me again.
"I don't know, go straight." I said. "Let's think of something in the meanwhile."
"We are going to run out of delta-v very soon." the co-pilot said. "We can't run for long."
"Wait." the pilot said. "Sir, the chaser has turned around and is now decelerating. It is no longer in pursuit."
"It could be a trick." Frans commented.
"Unlikely." I said. "There is nothing one could gain in a close range space pursuit by decelerating."
"Says the augmented intelligence superhuman." Nuan tried to mock me.
"I am a former navy admiral, lady." I said. "If even I don't know what I am doing, no one else here does."
"We've seen many stupid admirals too, you idiot." said Nuan.
"I mean... Well, yes, fair enough." I couldn't come up with a proper reply.
"We have about 45 seconds of burn time left." the co-pilot said. "There is no way we can go anywhere with this."
"Shutdown the engines and all non-essential systems." I ordered. The pilot and co-pilot both agreed, and we were only left with the fuel cells, power distributor, heat management and life support systems running. Our shuttle had already reached Mars escape velocity, and we were drifting away from our home planet.
"The fuel cells should keep everything powered for about 8 and a half hours, and we get plus 10 hours from the battery... We have 18 and a half hours to be rescued." the co-pilot said.
"Or we could just switch to solar power, you moron." said the pilot.
"Oh." the co-pilot paused. "Yeah, I totally forgot about that!"
"That's why you never get to fly solo..." the pilot quietly murmured.
"What now? Are we stranded?" asked Nuan.
"Don't worry, miss, everything is under contr-"
"We are stranded, yes, and very badly too." I didn't let the co-pilot finish.
"Perfect." said Nuan, and kept looking out of the window. The co-pilot looked at me questioningly, then turned back to his flight control panel.
"How far did that other ship go?" I asked.
"I don't know, I turned the sensors off." said the co-pilot.
"Well then, turn them on again." said the commanding pilot.
The sensors and the flight panel screens came back to life.
"It it more than ten kilometers away already." the commanding pilot said. "Now traveling away with a relative speed of more than 250 meters per second."
"Turn on the communication systems." I said.
"Turning on..." said the co-pilot.
"Good, we are no longer being jammed." said the commanding pilot. "Maybe it got too far away for that."
"Pilot, I want you to send a message to the coordinates I will give you." I said. "Actually, no, give me the controls for a while."
"Yes, sir." the commanding pilot left his seat, and I sat there.
"What are you doing?" Nuan asked me.
"Sending a letter to a friend of mine." I said.
"There are better times to do such things." she said.
"Not if she has a military spaceship." I said.
And copies of the same S.O.S. message were sent to where I thought Lodos could be by now - not too far past Mars' orbit around the Sun hopefully.
"Are we relying on a single ship? Why don't we broadcast an S.O.S.?" asked the co-pilot.
"Good question." I said, but nothing more. He looked at me, puzzled, but didn't ask the question again.
"And now?" asked Nuan.
"Now, we wait." I said. "It can take a few hours until we receive a reply. A bit longer until she arrives."
"Am I going to sit here doing nothing for hours?" asked Nuan, slightly angrily.
"Well, you could sing for us..." I suggested, as a joke. Nuan's answer was a deadly stare.
"Okay, okay, I get it." I said.
"My Vineura doesn't work here." Frans said.
"Seriously, what do we do?" Nuan asked again.
"I don't know, does anyone want to tell us a story?"
"Heh. Why don't you tell them about the time you almost crashed a freighter into an orbital refinery?" the commanding pilot said to his co-pilot.
"Oh, shut up, it wasn't even my fault!" replied the co-pilot.
"Yeah, and whose fault was that, then? Mine?"
"It was the traffic control who ordered me to apply thrust forwards!" the co-pilot started arguing with his commander.
"She told you that to reduce your backwards velocity, not to go forwards and smash into the structure!"
"Well, I didn't smash into the structure!"
"Still, you almost did; and you didn't crash only thanks to the flight computer."
The friendly fight among the shuttle pilots went on.
"I don't understand anything, I am going to sleep." said Nuan.
"Good night." I said.
"Maybe you should have some rest too, Mr. President." Frans suggested.
"No." I said. "I took a stimulant just a while ago, when we were in the ministry, there is no way I can sleep now."
"I see." he said. "Well then... I guess we will just watch the stars for now."