“But you were just talking about Mom.”
“So?”
“So you didn’t just like her because of a response to stimuli?”
Serena laughed. “I barely liked her at all. She was always causing trouble for us.” When Aerie frowned, Serena shrugged. “I guess you don’t remember as much of it as I do. She allowed us to read books, you know—not the textbook kind, but novels, the kind with frivolous stories and imaginary people and places.”
“She got in trouble for that?” Aerie asked. She thought of Exton’s collection of books, the ones she’d found in his room.
“Of course. I got in trouble for it, too. The URS is dedicated to survival. There’s hardly any value in novels when it comes to survival.”
“If there’s no value, why did she get in trouble for it?”
“Because, Aerie, time is valuable. You could learn several more useful things in the amount of time it took to read a novel.”
“The General is the one who had the books,” Aerie said, remembering.
“For collector’s items.” Serena sighed. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it. Mom made our lives harder by her insistence on silly things. You did the same thing a lot, too, come to think of it. No matter what you say, there’s no novel we ever had that could tell you how to properly bandage a wound and interpret blood composition readings.” She gestured to the monitor at the side of the room, where her blood samples were going through several testing protocols.
Aerie glanced over at the monitor, her gaze listless. She wondered if part of the reason Serena didn’t seem to like her that much was because she reminded her of their mother.
“If I cause you so many problems, why are you here then?” Aerie asked. “Mom’s gone. What she said before shouldn’t sway you any.”
Serena frowned. “Brock asked for help. That’s why I’m here. You think I enjoy tagging after my little sister, particularly one who’s already cost our family so much?”
“I don’t see why my actions should bother you.”
“I don’t either.” Serena’s frown deepened.
“But they do.”
“They would bother anyone,” Serena snapped. “You’re an enemy of the United Revolutionary States, the most fair and equal country that’s left in the world.”
“Fair and equal aren’t the same things.”
“Doesn’t matter, as long as it’s the same results.”
Aerie said nothing as Serena continued to wipe off the bloodstains and bandage up her wounds. She had never been close with her sister. Serena was a few years older than her, and even though they came from the same unit, it was more like they came from different worlds. They never agreed much before their mother died, and it seemed that chasm had only grown as they got older.
Her brothers had teased her, but they never seemed to be malicious about it the way Serena had. Aerie saw that now, even if they’d hurt her with their taunting more than she would’ve admitted at the time.
Aerie thought about Exton and Emery, glad she was finally able to recall them without the headache. She remembered how at ease they were with each other, still able to disagree and fight, yet walk away friends. They looked out for each other.
Different worlds indeed, Aerie thought as she studied Serena’s face while she finished tying off the last of her bandages.
“There,” Serena said. “Now, stay here. You need to rest. Even though the electroshock was on a lower setting—”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Aerie grumbled.
“You’ll be fine. There aren’t likely to be any long-term effects, given your age and general health,” Serena told her. “I’m checking some of your blood for infections and the like, but I don’t expect to see anything out of the ordinary.”
“Thank you,” Aerie said quietly.
“It’s standard procedure.”
“It still kind of you.”
Serena bristled. “Fine,” she said. “I’m going to go back up to help Brock at the helm. You stay here and rest. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Okay.”
Aerie watched as Serena disappeared out the door. She sighed as she closed her eyes and leaned back, her body finally at its final limits.
AERIE DIDN’T KNOW HOW long she slept, only that when she awoke from her dreams, it was to the explosive fire and alarms blaring.
“What in the world is that?!”
Aerie smiled at the surprise in Serena’s voice. It was not very often that she was caught off guard. Her smile disappeared a moment later when the ship rocked, hit by a blast from the side.
“We’re hit!” Brock’s voice was infinitely more terrifying.
Aerie glanced around. She saw the blood composition monitor blinking, and her body was stiff and sore from sleeping in the medic chair. But her bandages were holding up, and the burned areas of her skin had dulled from a charred black to a smoky gray.
She made her choice and unbuckled herself. She stretched quickly, trying to ignore the queasiness of her stomach. The ship shuddered around her, as the battle continued around them.
Finally, Aerie made her way back to the cockpit. “What’s going on?” she asked, as she glanced out the front window. She gaped at the sight before her.
Directly in front of them was a large, gray ship. It was so large, it disappeared into the cloud cover and appeared to be almost a wall in the middle of the sky.
“What is that?” Aerie felt a new wave of fear as it crested inside of her.
“It’s got to be one of the Craftcarriers from the URS,” Brock said. “They don’t have a lot in commission, but they still use them.”
“What are they used for?” Aerie asked.
“They mostly monitor the lands around and outside of URS control,” Brock said. “They can also provide fuel for planes and other vehicles in mid-flight, even allowing them to land on it if there’s a need for repairs.”
“I’m guessing they can also attack,” Serena said grimly as she pulled up the comm station. “They’re not responding to our frequency.”
“They’ve already tried to shoot us down,” Brock said. “I doubt they’re worried about telling us what they’re going to do.”
Another shot fired out from the top of the carrier. Brock swerved to miss, but the lasers managed to cut across the bottom hull.
“Watch it,” Serena muttered.
“This ship is bigger than the fighters I’ve trained on,” Brock reminded her.
Static came pouring over the comm.
“Hey, are you guys alright?”
Aerie was relieved to hear Cal’s voice over the comm. “Cal,” she called, before either Brock or Serena could answer him. “We’re fine. How are you?”
“Good to hear you’re alright, Aerie,” Cal called back. “No doubt a bit worse for the wear, though, right?”
“No time to tease,” Brock interrupted, for which Aerie was glad. She gave him a warm smile as he asked Cal for updates.
“We’ve been followed,” Cal said. “Captain Chainsword’s ghost is right behind us.”
“Don’t worry about him!” Aerie insisted. “What about the Craftcarrier?”
“Well, as you can see,” Cal said as he grunted, no doubt dodging another blast, “they’re not happy to see us.”
Another line beeped in, increasing the stream of static.
“Understatement of the year, Cal,” Dorian chimed in, his voice more serious. “They must’ve been notified we’re on the run.”
“Not to mention we’re in stolen fighters,” Cal said cheerfully.
“I wonder what kind of comm tech they’re using,” Aerie said. She glanced at the readout. “The interference is terrible.”
“If it makes you feel better, I’ve dismantled my NETech,” Cal told her. “That seems to have helped.”
“Let me see if I can make the connection stronger,” she said. Aerie reached out and tried to widen the frequencies, trying to bypass some of the cloud interference. The cloud cover mad
e it difficult; the air seemed to crackle with energy the more she tried to reroute the system.
“Just be careful,” Brock told her. “I don’t want you overexerting yourself.”
“If there’s ever been a time to work through overexertion, it’s now,” Aerie retorted. She took over the controls as Brock managed to dodge another round of attacks.
Serena settled into the small gunnery. “Let’s see if we can take out some of their towers,” she said as she began working with the targeting display.
Brock grimaced. “I think I can fly well enough to get past them,” he said as he shot upward. “There’s no need to make the URS even more angry at us.”
“It’s not like we’re going to get caught,” Aerie said. “Go ahead and take them out, Serena.”
“I’m in charge, Aerie,” Brock said as he began to spiral, turning the ship over to avoid the remaining fire. “Not you.”
Aerie heard a small beeping noise coming up from the console. “You just keep flying,” Aerie told Brock. “Serena can handle the weapons. I’ll take care of the comms.”
“I said I’m the one in charge,” Brock said.
Aerie smiled coyishly. “Then do your job,” she said, already expanding the comm frequencies.
She felt her heart jump as she was able to catch Exton’s frequency. As the ship lurched to the left, she was able to key in a response request.
Static came in reply, and she was just about to transmit a message when a large explosion rocked their ship, blowing it off course and sending it into an unexpected course.
“What was that?” Aerie yelled, gripping onto the console as the turbulence sent them reeling around the cockpit.
Aerie turned to face Serena, whose face was suddenly white with fear. “What happened?” Aerie asked again. She felt her own hands go numb as she realized she wasn’t able to hear the static from Exton’s ship anymore.
“They got a direct hit on his ship,” Serena said slowly. “I can’t believe it ... ”
“Who?” Aerie demanded to know. Exton!
“I see him!” Brock cheered a second later. “Cal managed to eject himself.”
“That’s a relief,” Serena murmured.
Aerie glanced over at the screen. She saw Cal’s fighter as its fiery remnants fell into the clouds below. She could just make out a small pilot with his parachute as he flew up from the heart of the explosion.
She heaved a sigh of relief.
“Why isn’t he signaling us?” Brock asked.
Aerie glanced down at the comms. “We’re flying silent,” she realized. “The comms must have been compromised in the blast.”
“Great,” Brock muttered. “Now how will we know when he lands?”
“I’ll try to fix it.”
“Go low, Brock,” Serena said. “I can hold them off from here. We can track him with the monitor.”
“We’ll be sitting ducks to the Craftcarrier.”
“Go down steep then, and use what you have of those flying skills to get us fully past the ship.”
Brock said nothing but angled the ship downward as he avoided fire. Serena shot several rounds at the craft as Brock headed down after Cal, while Aerie tried to open the comm frequencies again.
She sighed, angry with herself as she hailed Dorian’s fighter. There was no way to send a message, and she wasn’t receiving any either.
“Captain Chainsword’s below,” Serena called out. “Huh. That’s weird.”
“What’s going on?” Brock asked.
“It looks like he’s got Cal.”
“What?” Brock and Aerie turned to see Serena was right. Cal’s parachute blossomed out from behind Exton’s shuttle as the side door closed.
“He managed to pull him into his shuttle,” Serena said, a hint of reluctant admiration in her voice.
“He has him,” Aerie said excitedly. “He saved him!”
“That’s not good news,” Brock asserted. “He’s our enemy.”
“No he’s not,” Aerie insisted. “I mean, we’re all technically the enemies of the URS now.”
“That doesn’t make him our friend,” Brock argued. “The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy, no matter what people say. That’s how some of the greatest betrayals in history have happened—false assumptions.”
“Brock,” Serena called, “pay attention!”
Another blast rocked the ship. Aerie could feel the heat of the flames.
“We’ve been hit!” Brock yelled, as smoke began to fill the cabin.
“Can you stabilize it?” Serena asked as she shuffled out of the gunnery. She pushed Aerie out of the way as she hurried over to the copilot chair.
“I think so,” he said. “But we’re going to need to get out of here, and fast.”
“I’m putting on the boosters,” Serena said.
“Aerie, buckle up.” Brock reached up and clicked on several notches. “We’re about to go up a few G’s, and the ship’s stasis shielding might not protect us.”
Aerie fumbled her way into a seat and strapped herself down, as Brock maneuvered the ship through an opening underneath the Craftcarrier’s main hull.
“What ... about ... Cal?” Serena asked, her voice reverberating as she tried managed to force the words out of her mouth.
“We’ll have to get him and Dorian later,” Brock replied, grunting at the pressure.
Aerie heard the pulsating power of her blood as it throbbed through her body. She felt her whole body push into her chair, while a wave of nausea churned up inside of her.
She focused her gaze on the window, watching as the gray cloud cover gradually dissipated, allowing the world and all its color to come through. The ship began to slow down, but there was no way for Aerie to tell how far they’d flown.
“We’re going to burn out the last of our fuel, and the landing will be a little bumpy,” Brock said. He cracked his knuckles loudly. “But we’re safe for now.”
Serena groaned. “I knew I shouldn’t have come.”
Aerie said nothing. She watched as the mountains and hills seemed to rise out of the ground, with ice at the top, and waterfalls crying down their depths. There were areas of rugged terrain patchworked together with trees and hills. Aerie noticed the sunlight was shining through in a way she’d never seen before, giving a brightness to the area clouds had robbed other places of.
“It’s beautiful here,” Aerie said.
“Hold on,” Brock called. “We’re about to land.”
The ship scraped against the rocky ground. Aerie squeezed her eyes as the metal scratched open. She could feel the heat from the compartment below, as she collapsed.
A moment later, it was over. The ship bounced and jostled and twisted into the ground, finally coming to stop.
She opened her eyes tentatively. “Thank God. We’re okay.”
“We’ll have to go out the back,” Brock said as he glanced over at the readings from the main console. “This isn’t good.”
“It’ll be alright,” Aerie said as she unbuckled and stood up, carefully finding her balance. She held still while the last of her nausea left her, and then proceeded to make her way out of the ship.
She coughed as she came to the cargo bay; there were several small fires still burning as she made her way through the room.
“Aerie, wait for us,” Serena yelled. “I need help with the med tech and my supplies. And we could use another hand with raiding the weapons closet. We don’t know who’s going to come and get us while we’re here. Hello? Did you hear me?”
Aerie didn’t listen. As she stepped outside, a twinkle of light caught her attention from the sky. She recognized the shuttle, and the signature weapon painted on its side, as it swept past her and began to land.
“Aerie, get back here!” Brock yelled. “It’s dangerous!”
Aerie jumped down the walkway and started running over, barely noticing the chill in the air. “Exton!” she cried.
♦16♦
“So, you’re Captain
Chainsword, then?”
Exton grumbled an inaudible response back, choosing to mostly ignore the pilot he’d barely managed to pluck out of the sky.
Emery shot him a sympathetic smirk, and he almost hated her for it. She had warned him of the risk in rescuing the pilot who came dangerously close to dying, even though she moved quickly in agreement.
The Craftcarrier, rising up out of the cloud cover, was the first surprise they came across in hours, but it was far from the most shocking. Between the unexpected prompt to save the pilot parachuting to what could only be loosely termed safety, and finding out the pilot in question was clearly another one of St. Cloud’s offspring, Exton was getting tired of being surprised. He was just glad Emery had managed to expertly pilot the ship at a steep enough angle to catch him.
At the sharp display of her skill, Exton was more than willing to admit she was the better pilot between them.
“You don’t seem so tough to me,” the pilot called out again.
“You’re awfully confident for someone who’s strapped down to a chair,” Exton pointed out.
The pilot frowned at him, twisting the bruise on his face, one he said he received as he pulled out of his fighter jet. “I’ll get out of here soon enough, or I’ll die here with the rest of you. I’m not afraid of death.”
“By the sound of it, you seem to be afraid to stop talking,” Exton said. “It was a miracle we were able to catch you from your plane without damaging our own shuttle. The least you could do is let us concentrate on getting out of here.”
“You’ll never escape the URS,” the pilot retorted.
“I’ve managed to avoid them so far.”
“You’ll be sorry for all the trouble you’ve caused.”
As Emery whipped the ship around, dodging fire, Exton shot the pilot a grim look. “You’ll be sorry, too, if you keep bothering us, especially if we end up dying due to your distracting comments.”
“We won’t end up dying,” Emery said coolly. “I’m the one who’s flying this ship.”
“Your skills are nothing comparing to the power of the Craftcarrier,” the pilot asserted.
“Well,” Exton said, finally standing up, “we have an advantage in dealing with them.” He glanced over at Emery, who pushed a few buttons and pulled on a few switches, getting ready to target the Craftcarrier’s stabilizers.
The Breadth of Creation Page 15
