Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2) by Jeffrey Burger

members of the bridge crew fighting the same urge.
    “Red Flight will be returning to refuel, Blue Flight and Zulu Two will continue on patrol.”
    “ Understood, Red Leader.” Walt was eager to talk to Paul in person to get more details, he was having a difficult time wrapping his mind around two ships the size of destroyers, vanishing in space within visual striking distance. “Mr. Ragnarr, Ms. Raulya, have you ever heard of any ship having this ability before...?” Both of them agreed this was something entirely new and unheard of. “Ms. Raulya, please send a secure message to Admiral Kelarez and inform him of this development, maybe he'll have some insight into this...”
    “ Yes sir... wait, Commander , we've lost all contact with the shuttle and the boarding party!”
    Walt quickly pulled up the video feed from the shuttle relay and found three blank frames... “I don't have a good feeling about this...”
     
    ■ ■ ■
     
    Corporal Draza Mac looked up from the engineering console, “Thrusters and jets are up,” his fingers plugging away at the keypad, “main warmers next.”
    Steele nodded inside his helmet, “Lieutenant, you've got thrusters and jets. Activate our running lights and get us away from the gate...” he waited but there was no response. “Lieutenant...” he looked around at the other Marines in the engineering section, “can you guys hear me?” He got a round of affirmative responses.
    The Sergeant tried as well, calling each member of the bridge team by name with no response.
    “Shuttle, this is Steele, can you hear me...?” Nothing but silence. He looked around at the Marines, “Pack it up, we're outta here.”
    The Corporal looked up from the engineering console, “I haven’t finished setting up the warmup routine for the mains yet...”
    “Don't care, we're done here. The thrusters are enough to get us off the gate, that's all I care about, let's go...” he turned and headed toward the front of engineering, weaving his way through the generators and equipment, the Marines filed in behind him. They stopped dead in their tracks as the lights flickered and went out, throwing them back into darkness, before the emergency lighting winked on, section by section, bathing everything in an eerie red glow. “Oh... what the fuck...”
    “ Shouldn't be happening Captain, the gennys are running, the batteries are charging, the thrusters and jets are on line...”
    “ Doesn't matter Marines, let's go,” he switched his wrist and helmet lights back on as he moved through the engineering bay headed for the blast doors leading to the spine of the ship and the air-car system. “We're done with this pile of shit... we ought to point it into the nearest planet and let it burn up.” As they neared the blast doors they began to open, slowly, grinding and squealing in protest, stopping about halfway open. Steele eyed the door, “Why don't I trust this door...” He knew he said it out loud but he wasn't expecting an answer, it was more of a rhetorical question. He jumped through, half expecting it to move, to try to block him or crush him. But it didn't. Whether it was what he said, or that the others were thinking along the same lines, each man made the same hesitant jump through the half open door, which sat there, seemingly stuck in place.
    The first laser shot sizzled past, an angry red slash between them, reaching through the open blast doors, sending the men diving sideways to the left and right on the platform where it was wider than the tunnel. Another shot splashed into the door behind them. The Sergeant turned off his lights and peered around the corner, “Anybody see where it's coming from?”
    Steele turned off his lights and peeked around the corner, up the tunnel, “High I think, like on the ceiling...”
    “ Defense turrets...” someone commented, “terrific.”
    It prompted Jack to look up above them and realize there was a turret above them in front of the blast door,