“Ten minutes to ship separation,” said the Cazadora’s
cool, inhuman voice as Rangers buzzed around the bridge,
preparing for the imminent procedure. Up held the receiver
closer to his ear.
“Taz, that’s insane. Even if they can unscramble the
shield frequency we have no way of controlling when that
core’s going to go.” It could happen any minute – why are
you still down there?
“No, but we can, listen, Up! Pedro can rig up a wireless
trigger – something to do with chemicals and reactions and
some mierda, I don’t understand it – and we can blow the
core ourselves once we’ve separated it from the Cazadora!”
Up looked up at the sinister line of robot ships. If there
was even a chance it could work... “Tell Pedro to do it. I’ll
get Li on the line and see if she’s made any progress on the
shields.”
Commander Li sounded tense, but when she
acknowledged that her team on the Brighteye had in fact
just managed to unravel the scrambled frequency, Up felt a
short stab of hope.
Maybe they could save what was left of the fleet after
all.
“Prepare to disable their shields,” he said, and explained
the plan.
The bridge rocked once more.
“Our shields are down, Commander! Repeat, shields are
down!”
The best plan in the world wasn’t going to save them if
the robots’ cannons got to them first. Up turned back to the
radio.
“Li? We need some help over here.”
“¡Mierda!” yelled Pedro, as the Cazadora shuddered. He