The mothership's engines flared bright in the distance, climbing slow through the thinning clouds, and Noah watched it go without moving from where he knelt.
He could still catch it. Gail was fresh, rested. Mount up right now, close the gap before it cleared atmosphere, take the fight straight to whatever was left aboard.
He didn't move.
'Storm's already in the domain,' he thought. 'Hurt bad enough he needed it. And even if I go, even if I actually catch that thing mid-flight, then what. Board it? Clear it room by room? That's not a five-minute detour, that's days, easily, and I don't have days to spend proving a point to a ship full of things I already beat the ground troops of.'
He thought of Lucas. Frozen. Running out of whatever time he had left while everyone back home scrambled for something that might not even exist.
'And Gail's not a scout drone,' he thought. 'I need her rested for when it actually matters. Not burned out chasing something that already ran.'
