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Hainey swung himself into the captain’s chair and snarled when a hail of bullets struck the windshield--chipping it here and nicking it there, but barely scratching the foot-thick swath of polished glass He found the thruster pedal and puical spots for a starter switch His fingers fu into the nooks and slots where such switches tended to be located, and finally he found a red lever so he pulled it, and the burners fired at top power, and top volu too close to the engine mounts screamed and probably died as the craft howled violently to life

Simeon adjusted himself in the firstand undocking levers; he tested the former and yanked hard on the latter, and so a hydraulic clasp unfastened and began to retreat into the body of the ship

La back and forth between two secondary crew dials, and the captain asked hiineer said, "As ready as we’re going to get" And he cast Maria Boyd an anxious glance

She held her position by the crew quarters door, but her gun was at her side now and she caught hi at her, she met his stare without a waver But no one had time to stare, really On the Valkyrie’s underbellyto find a place to cut where the e And the ha else hard and reckless, and the sound against the hull was like hail

Maria said, "They really will kill us all, won’t they?"

And Hainey replied without taking his eyes off the console, "Sure enough They’ll never give you the five minutes you’d need to explain yourself; they’ll pull you out of the bird and pound you flat, just for being inside it in the first place Now take yourself a seat"

"Is that an order, Captain?"

He said, "It’s a suggestion you’d be wise to heed We’ve never flown a bird this big before, and it h to quit holding you at gunpoint"

Before Lamar had time to point out that she’d already lowered her weapon, the captain said, "No, I’ you to trust that we’re too busy to pay you any attention"

With the back of his hand, he swiped at three parallel switches and the howling huo," he announced

Behind hiun turret and reached over her head, pulling the safety straps across her chest "I hope you knohat you’re doing," she said

"Don’t worry about us," Siainst the top of his thigh and reached with his good one for a row of buttons "And don’t interfere with anything we’re doing, you understand?" he demanded, and in his haste, pain, or excitement, his island accent was more pronounced than it often sounded

"I’ll stay out of the way," she swore

"And be quiet," the firstchecks out"

Laines are at full power Throw the aroes the arm," Hainey declared as he pulled on a floor- it towards his chest with all the smoothness he could muster and all the speed the ship could handle Fuel coursed to the engines and the thrusters beneath the ship rotated in their slots, ai the Union warbird into the air with a hop that was cleaner than anyone had expected

"Nice," Si paddles are holding"

"Holding fine You going to turn her on the way up?"

"Hard to port," the captain told theet our backside to the south end of the service docks; the security detail launches from the north end," he explained, and as the ship rose it crested the last of the other dirigibles until it alone had a clear view of the clouds "Keep us steady," the captain said as he an a rotation that could’ve too easily toppled into a spin; but Si and the ship stopped where the crewnew trouble into the windscreen

Lamar called it "Two security detail flyers Eleven and one o’clock Sir, I think they’re--"