fire. Alex had to bring them in so close that the cannons couldn't shoot the torpedo down.
A blue highlight appeared on the HUD surrounding a portion of the station's central hub. The highlighted portion expanded into a smaller subscreen. Holden could make out the dishes and antennas that made up the comm and targeting array.
"One away," Alex said, and the Roci vibrated as her second torpedo was fired.
Holden shook violently in his restraints and then slapped back into his chair as Alex took the Roci through a series of sudden maneuvers and then slammed down the throttle to evade the last of the PDC fire. Holden watched his screen as the red dot of their missile streaked toward the station and struck the comm array. A flash blanked out his screen for a second and then faded. Almost immediately the PDC fire stopped.
"Good sh - " Holden was cut off by Naomi yelling, "Bogey one has fired! Two fast movers!"
Holden flipped back to her screen and saw the threat system tracking both fighters and two smaller and much faster objects moving toward the Roci on an intercept course.
"Alex!" Holden said.
"Got it, Chief. Going defensive."
Holden slammed back into his chair again as Alex poured on the speed. The steady rumble of the engine seemed to stutter, and Holden realized he was feeling the constant fire of their own PDCs as they tried to shoot down the pursuing missiles.
"Well, fuck," Amos said almost conversationally.
"Where are you?" Holden asked, then flipped his screen to Amos' suit camera. The mechanic was in a dimly illuminated crawl space filled with conduit and piping. That meant he was between the inner and outer hulls. In front of him, a section of damaged pipe looked like snapped bones. A cutting torch floated nearby. The ship bounced violently, banging the mechanic around in the tight space. Alex whooped over the comm.
"Missiles did not impact!" he said.
"Tell Alex to stop jerking her around," Amos said. "Makes it hard to hang on to my tools."
"Amos, get back to your crash couch!" Naomi said.
"Sorry, Boss," Amos replied with a grunt as he yanked one end of the broken pipe free. "If I don't fix this and we lose pressure, Alex won't be able to turn to starboard anymore. Bet that'll fuck us up good."
"Keep working, Amos," Holden said over Naomi's protests. "But hang on. This is going to get worse."
Amos said, "Roger that."
Holden switched back to Alex's HUD display.
"Holden," Naomi said. There was fear in her voice. "Amos is going to get - "
"He's doing his job. Do yours. Alex, we have to take these two out before the Molinari gets here. Get me an intercept on one of them and let's kick its ass."
"Roger that, Cap," Alex said. "Going after bogey two. Could use some help with bogey one."
"Bogey one is Naomi's priority," Holden said. "Do what you can to keep it off of our backside while we kill his friend."
"Roger," Naomi said in a tight voice.
Holden switched back to Amos' helmet camera, but the mechanic seemed to be doing fine. He was cutting the damaged pipe free with his torch, and a length of replacement pipe floated nearby.
"Strap that pipe down, Amos," Holden said.
"All respect, Captain," Amos said, "but safety standards can kiss my ass. I'm getting this done fast and getting outta here."
Holden hesitated. If Alex had to make a course correction, the floating pipe could turn into a projectile massive enough to kill Amos or break the Roci. It's Amos, he told himself. He knows what he's doing.
Holden flipped to Naomi's screen as she poured everything the comm system had at the small interceptor, trying to blind it with light and radio static. Then he went back to his tactical display. The Roci and bogey two flew toward each other at suicidal speeds. As soon as they passed the point where incoming torpedo fire couldn't be avoided, bogey two launched both his missiles. Alex flagged the two fast movers for the PDCs and kept up his intercept course but didn't launch missiles.
"Alex, why aren't we shooting?" Holden said.
"Gonna shoot his torpedoes down, then get in close and let the PDCs chew him up," the pilot replied.
"Why?"
"We've only got so many torpedoes and no resupply. No call to waste 'em on these munchkins."
The incoming torpedoes arced forward on Holden's display, and he felt the Roci's PDCs firing to shoot them down.
"Alex," he said. "We didn't pay for this ship. Feel free to use it up. If I get