glanced up to see that the remaining wing on Cares' craft had been ripped off by the force of his acceleration. He stopped bothering with the computer, their mass and therefore their acceleration was now constantly changing as Cares' craft began disintegrating. Any calculations could be out of date the moment they were completed.
Marack aimed his craft for the small speck of light that was Palisades hanger. Sikes was talking, babbling some vaguely encouraging words to him. He closed his eyes, and pushed the fighter to it's fullest acceleration. How much longer did Cares have? He'd heard that vacuum could kill in seconds. It could freeze you and boil your blood, make you burst like a balloon or just suffocate you. Marack didn't look up again as he closed on Palisade. The thought of seeing Cares' small form burst was just...
Something in the back of his mind, the years of experience of flying perhaps, told him he needed to start decelerating. He pulled his throttle back and pushed his fighter's engines into reverse. Marack found himself pushed forward by the deceleration, hoped desperately that like him Cares was still strapped into her seat, and suddenly Palisades hanger bay loomed out of the darkness. Emergency lighting guided him inside as the Sarmation, with all the extra mass, refused to respond the way it had done a thousand times before. Half a dozen meters away and he was still unable to get the craft perfectly lined up with the deck.
Briefly Marack considered calling for help, but he had just enough time to realize that it was pointless before he shot past the hanger bays doors. Marack, desperate to hit the hangers maglock, slammed the Sarmatain into the deck and felt the lock clicking into place. His acceleration ebbed away far too slowly and he covered half the hangerbays deck in less than three seconds.
Marack swore one last time as the hangers wall closed in. Uselessly he threw his hands up to protect his face and closed his eyes shut. He had just enough time to be pleased that he had at least given Cares a chance to survive. That was enough, wasn't it?
It was either a second or a eternity later that he opened his eyes to see the first three inches of his Sarmatian crumpled against the hangers wall. Somehow the emergency crews were already there, the bay doors were closed and the entire room pressurized again even before they'd stopped.
He watched in stunned disbelief as the medics, clambering over his craft to reach Cares' cut her loose from her seat and carried her carefully to a stretcher. She was in one piece, although whether she was alive or dead he couldn't tell.
Far to quickly, or slowly, he couldn't tell which, the medics and Cares were gone. Marack just sat there, not sure what he was waiting for, half expecting to wake up at any moment.