The Patrick Henry hove into sight beneath them. Aiax cast a disbelieving
look at Harm.
"You intend to land on the surface of that vessel? I may have given you control, but I'm not certain about the degree of precision in the controls."
"That's what I'm going to land it manually."
"You are insane, Tau'ri."
"People tell me that a lot. I'm probably going to develop a complex."
"I do not know what you mean by that, but if you get it from being told you are insane, I think you should have one."
"We have to try this. Decloak, let's give those guys something to tell their grandchildren about."
"I thought you kept your Chapa'ai a secret?"
"It can't stay that way forever."
A voice came over the communication system.
"Rabb?! That you?!"
"You see why I didn't want many people getting a look at this thing?"
"What the hell is it?"
"I'll tell you in private when we're down safely. Don't let anyone near it once we're down."
"We? There's more than one of you on that thing?"
"I've got Lieutenant Colonel MacKenzie with me, and a couple of other people you don't know. Is the deck clear?"
"It's all yours. I hope I'm not gonna have that thing cluttering it up for too long."
"We'll be out of your hair as soon as possible, skipper. I just need to call my guys stateside and they'll be out to pick us up. But I'd appreciate it if this didn't get mentioned in any debriefings short of the Joint Chiefs."
"I don't think my superiors would believe this anyway. But I want to hear the story behind this."
"I'll try and get you and the CAG clearance. Now I need to concentrate, so I'll talk to you in a bit. Rabb out."
Harm placed his hands on the controls, exchanging a rueful look with his father.
"Well, this is something you don't get to do every day."
Harm Sr smiled. "Didn't ever picture myself back on a carrier, let alone landing on one like this."
Harm focussed all his attention on the gently pitching deck growing ever closer beneath them. Their lack of anti-gravity systems meant he would have to break at exactly the right time using the thrusters normally used in take-off, using exactly the right amount of force and making sure it hit the deck in exactly the right place.
Beads of sweat appeared on his brow, which was already as white as a sheet. No-one breathed.
The skeleton crew of officers and men whom Toby Ingles had allowed to remain on the bridge of the Patrick Henry didn't breathe either, though for different reasons. The XO voiced what they were all thinking.
"No-one on the planet has the technology to build a ship like that. They were invisible as well as off-radar until just before you started speaking to Captain Rabb. If we were even thinking about technology like that, there'd be rumours."
The CAG stood transfixed. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I think we're looking at an alien spaceship. And knowing Rabb, he probably stole it."
"There's a UFO about to land on my deck. What the hell has Rabb gotten involved in this time?"
Silence fell again, as the Rabb's craft descended slowly towards the largest open space on he deck. Again it was the XO who spoke.
"Wonder what's wrong with it?"
"What?"
"Look at that thing. No-one would try to land that on a carrier, especially one full of people he knows and who are gonna want explanations, unless something was wrong and for some reason he couldn't get it to dry land. And aren't those scorch marks?"
"They could be. Or they could be perfectly normal. There's no way we can tell."
"But as it's Rabb, I wouldn't put money on it being in perfect condition. He does spend a lot of time in damamged birds." This was the CAG putting his two cents in.
"But he always seems to come out of it okay. None of his crashes have ever been his fault, and he's had more than his share of them."
"Let's hope he knows what he's doing with that thing."
The deck was only a few feet below now. Harm's jaw was clenched tight, his eyes not moving from the screen that showed him what was going on beneath him. He took a deep breath in through his nose, then fired the thrusters that would, hopefully, balance out the pull gravity had on the ship at the moment it touched the deck, no sooner and no later.
Those last couple of seconds were the worst. If he had timed that last thrust wrong, he wouldn't know until it was too late to do more than hit the controls and pray.
Both on the cargo ship and on the bridge of the Henry, people waited for the impact with baited breath.
There was a screech of metal as deck met hull. Then silence.
"You intend to land on the surface of that vessel? I may have given you control, but I'm not certain about the degree of precision in the controls."
"That's what I'm going to land it manually."
"You are insane, Tau'ri."
"People tell me that a lot. I'm probably going to develop a complex."
"I do not know what you mean by that, but if you get it from being told you are insane, I think you should have one."
"We have to try this. Decloak, let's give those guys something to tell their grandchildren about."
"I thought you kept your Chapa'ai a secret?"
"It can't stay that way forever."
A voice came over the communication system.
"Rabb?! That you?!"
"You see why I didn't want many people getting a look at this thing?"
"What the hell is it?"
"I'll tell you in private when we're down safely. Don't let anyone near it once we're down."
"We? There's more than one of you on that thing?"
"I've got Lieutenant Colonel MacKenzie with me, and a couple of other people you don't know. Is the deck clear?"
"It's all yours. I hope I'm not gonna have that thing cluttering it up for too long."
"We'll be out of your hair as soon as possible, skipper. I just need to call my guys stateside and they'll be out to pick us up. But I'd appreciate it if this didn't get mentioned in any debriefings short of the Joint Chiefs."
"I don't think my superiors would believe this anyway. But I want to hear the story behind this."
"I'll try and get you and the CAG clearance. Now I need to concentrate, so I'll talk to you in a bit. Rabb out."
Harm placed his hands on the controls, exchanging a rueful look with his father.
"Well, this is something you don't get to do every day."
Harm Sr smiled. "Didn't ever picture myself back on a carrier, let alone landing on one like this."
Harm focussed all his attention on the gently pitching deck growing ever closer beneath them. Their lack of anti-gravity systems meant he would have to break at exactly the right time using the thrusters normally used in take-off, using exactly the right amount of force and making sure it hit the deck in exactly the right place.
Beads of sweat appeared on his brow, which was already as white as a sheet. No-one breathed.
The skeleton crew of officers and men whom Toby Ingles had allowed to remain on the bridge of the Patrick Henry didn't breathe either, though for different reasons. The XO voiced what they were all thinking.
"No-one on the planet has the technology to build a ship like that. They were invisible as well as off-radar until just before you started speaking to Captain Rabb. If we were even thinking about technology like that, there'd be rumours."
The CAG stood transfixed. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I think we're looking at an alien spaceship. And knowing Rabb, he probably stole it."
"There's a UFO about to land on my deck. What the hell has Rabb gotten involved in this time?"
Silence fell again, as the Rabb's craft descended slowly towards the largest open space on he deck. Again it was the XO who spoke.
"Wonder what's wrong with it?"
"What?"
"Look at that thing. No-one would try to land that on a carrier, especially one full of people he knows and who are gonna want explanations, unless something was wrong and for some reason he couldn't get it to dry land. And aren't those scorch marks?"
"They could be. Or they could be perfectly normal. There's no way we can tell."
"But as it's Rabb, I wouldn't put money on it being in perfect condition. He does spend a lot of time in damamged birds." This was the CAG putting his two cents in.
"But he always seems to come out of it okay. None of his crashes have ever been his fault, and he's had more than his share of them."
"Let's hope he knows what he's doing with that thing."
The deck was only a few feet below now. Harm's jaw was clenched tight, his eyes not moving from the screen that showed him what was going on beneath him. He took a deep breath in through his nose, then fired the thrusters that would, hopefully, balance out the pull gravity had on the ship at the moment it touched the deck, no sooner and no later.
Those last couple of seconds were the worst. If he had timed that last thrust wrong, he wouldn't know until it was too late to do more than hit the controls and pray.
Both on the cargo ship and on the bridge of the Henry, people waited for the impact with baited breath.
There was a screech of metal as deck met hull. Then silence.