Angel Flight

Eclipse

They say that every thing that does not kill you makes you stronger. If that is true, than I must be Hercules by now, considering all the things that have failed to kill me. The Shang tried real hard, but I got away. A lot of other people didn't, many of them far better people than me. I try to remember them all, but there are so many. So I toast to absent friends and go on with life. It's the ultimate way to cheat death. Live.

Eclipse

Hyperspace swirled around Jack's Avenger, rainbow currents of gravity bringing every color under the stars to his eyes in one crazy kaleidoscope of chaos. The fighter's gravity generator held the chaos at bay, forcing a bubble of calm around them. But outside that sphere of serenity, hyperspace pooled and eddied, flowing around dozens of surviving fighters. Frigates and destroyers created larger pools of calm, though more than one hung dead in space, the currents of hyperspace already beginning to pull them away from the rest of the task force. They were going to have to get their gravitics back up if they planned to move under power. Of the nine cruisers that left the wall of battle, only Los Angeles remained, proudly proclaiming her lordship over hyperspace with a vast calm sphere around her.

The British destroyer Eclipse appeared before him, flowing down a rainbow stream. She was heavily wounded, her starboard broadside ravaged by the final Shang missiles. Jack could see through her armor, and air continued to leak out of the deep wounds reaching into her central spine. But she lived, and a half-dozen sturdy Harriers maneuvered around her in a defensive formation, obviously intending to keep her that way.

Gabrielle flickered back into his cockpit and let out a long sigh of relief. "We made it," she whispered.

"I never doubted it," Jack returned with all the sincerity he could muster.

"That's sweet of you," Gabrielle said, shaking her head the whole time. "But you know how dicey that was. Thank you," she finished, holding his gaze until he nodded in acceptance. "Good. Now, we need to form up so we can get out of here."

Jack glanced at the displays showing the names of the disabled ships. "What about Harrington, Clark, and Vargas?" he asked, waving a hand towards the destroyer and frigates.

"That's where I come in," Gabrielle answered with a smile. In time with her smile, Los Angeles moved out of her gravitic stream, gravity generator expanding her control over hyperspace. She swooped down on Harrington, engulfing the smaller destroyer with her field, and then tractor beams lanced out to lock her into place. The cruiser's engines burned blue, and she pulled the destroyer over to first one frigate, and then the other. In less than a minute, Clark and Vargas hung off Los Angeles' flank, anchored in place by more tractor beams.

"Are you sure you can handle that much dead weight?" Jack asked.

"Oh, don't be silly," Gabrielle returned. "They're not dead. Their engines can help me out, and I can hold the field around them for as long as I need to."

"If you say so," Jack noted in a doubtful tone.

"I do say so," Gabrielle said, her voice hard and determined. The edge of desperation tinged it, and Jack winced.

"Yes, Ma'am," Jack answered very quickly, not wanting to worry the warship any further.

"Better," she growled, then looked up to examine the entire surviving task force. "All ships, form on Los Angeles, match course and speed, and follow me," she said in her command voice.

The fusion engines of Los Angeles, Harrington, Clark and Vargas came to life at once, filling hyperspace with their blue flames. Their gravitic bow wave crashed through the hyperspatial currents, creating a wake that expanded behind her. The rest of the surviving fleet, starships and fighters alike, moved into the slipstream the cruiser created, and Jack felt them diving deeper into hyperspace, leaving Epsilon Reticuli and normalspace behind them.