Exiles

by Richard Alonzo

  * * * *

  “Looks like we’ve been rumbled.” said Bryson turning to the guard nearest him. “I hope you remembered to lock them out of the lift controls.”

  Carol rolled her helmet back into her collar to reveal a shock of curly red hair, her hazel eyes sparking with laughter as a mischievous grin spread across her face. “I jury rigged the alarm circuits, so right now ours is the only lift in the complex that isn’t locked down.”

  Ford just shook his head and laughed, as the lift slid smoothly to halt on the access level for the spaceports outer landing pads.

  “Time to move out.” said Bryson as Carol brought her helmet back up over her face and they marched purposefully out of the lift towards the nearest landing pad.

  “Sorry Chief, can’t let you or anyone else onto the pad were in lockdown.” said a stern faced guard stepping in front of him to block his path, his rifle held ready.

  Bryson held his hands up. “Easy solider, our job is to make sure Ford gets off this planet alive. We have reason to believe a Talmari assassin has infiltrated the complex and they intend kill him before we can extradite him.”

  “I’ll have to clear it with control first...” his voice trailed away as he slipped to the floor in an unconscious heap as another of Ford's escort fired a concealed nanoinjector into his neck.

  Catching him, as he slumped to the floor, she gently lowered him into the recover position and checked his pulse before disarming him. Anna flicked her visor up to reveal her face. Every line of it etched with the professional concern of a doctor for their patient as she monitored his vitals and studied his shallow breathing with her sharp grey eyes. Her silver hair swept nearly back and tied in place.

  “He’ll wake up in few hours with one hell of a headache, other than that he’ll be fine.” she said standing up and slipping her visor back into place.

  There was a slight rumble followed by the whirr of machinery behind them.

  “Looks like they got the lifts back on line, lets secure the landing pad.” said Bryson stepping over the unconscious guard and shepherding them through the doors and out onto the empty landing pad beyond. “Okay let's seal the doors people, our ride out of here is inbound.”

  David retracted his helmet to reveal an untidy mass of auburn hair. Despite spending the last four years overseeing the reconstruction of the planet he lost none of his baby faced blue-eyed good looks. “Don’t worry no one’s going to becoming through these doors for a while.” he said as he knelt down in front of them deftly dismantling the muzzle of his modified rifle to reveal a concealed plasma welder. “You might want to look away for a minute or two.” he added sliding his helmet back into place and deepening the tint of his visor, before he began welding the doors shut.

  Ford turned to the fourth guard. “I’m guessing by a process of elimination that makes you Bryn?”

  Bryn flicked his visor up, laughed and winked at him with his green eye. “I guess it’s just like the good old days, one big, happy family, on the run. Beats prospecting for minerals any day of the week. Just don’t leave me in any mines this time.” The heterochromic geophysicist had hardly changed at all in the last few years, despite the hardships and the losses he‘d suffered during Malstrom’s reign of terror. It was true the hardships had added several years onto the mild manner scientists clean shaven, craggy features. There were even hints of grey in his short brown hair, but somehow despite it all he managed to retain a sense of humour.

  The conversation was cut short by an open broadcast over all their comm channels. “That pad had better be clear, I’m coming in hard and fast.”

  Ford looked up to see the Phoenix, the first ship Gaia had built for them, a sleek multi-role assault craft. The sun glistening on its sleek, frictionless, ablative amour as it plummeted towards them. Its form shimmering and shifting in the haze generated by the interaction between its shields and the sunlight, as the roar of its engines grew louder.

  “Damn it Lucy your coming in to fast!” snapped Bryson.

  “The faster I fall the harder I am to hit. Now you take care of securing that landing pad and I’ll take care of the ship.” Lucy snapped back.

  Bryson sighed. “Okay everybody stand clear she’s coming in hot.”

  They watched in silence as the Phoenix thundered towards them nose first growing rapidly in size. The roar of its engines drowning out everything around them. Suddenly, at the last minute, Lucy pulled the nose back fired the reverse thrusters, atmospheric air breaks, and anything else she could think of to arrest the ships rapid descent. The ship groaned under the sudden stress of its harshly arrested fall and the inertial dampers, pushed beyond their design tolerances, struggled to contain the G forces she subjected the hull to. The landing skids hit the pad with a resounding thump, leaving five neat oblong dents in the reinforced alloy deck. The phoenix coming to an abrupt halt with it twin plasma cannons and missile mounts pointing ominously at the door David had just finished welding shut. They could feel the heat radiating from the three rear mounted engines. The two main engines mounted either side of the rear fuselage, the third atop it, on a short fin, which also housed the wormhole generator for jumping to hyperspace. The ships gun turrets, one above and one below fuselage twitched nervously as Lucy deactivated the shields and jumped out the cabin door on the left hand side of the ship.

  It was good to see her again thought Ford. The last four years had done nothing to dim the youthful enthusiasm of one of the best and perhaps most reckless pilots he’d ever known. Still barley twenty-seven years old her slight frame belied the steely will and determination of the blue-eyed brunette who’d grown up flying cargo haulers with her father. As many men had found to their cost, she could drink and brawl with the best of them. Not to mention cut through steel like a laser saw with her acerbic wit.

  “Well don’t just stand there, like you’ve got somewhere else to go, get aboard.” she yelled hands on the hips of her light grey flight suit.

  “Let’s move.” yelled Bryson spurred into action by banging and shouting from the other side of the door they’d welded shut.

  They were barely aboard before there was a large explosion and the twisted remains of the doors bounced harmlessly off the phoenix’s ablative armour.

  Lucy fired all the thrusters forcing the guards, who’d run out onto the pad, to dive for cover. They rose effortlessly into the air, as she swung the ship through a 180 degrees, before hitting the throttle and climbing steeply into the upper levels of the atmosphere. Ford slipped into the co-pilots seat beside her, her lucky rabbit’s foot swinging silently in the space between them.

  “So I guess the new job didn’t work out then?”

  “Training new pilots? Have you any idea how frustrating that can be?”

  “Well I hope you didn’t train them to well, because we’ve got three on our tail.”

  “Buckle up back there, it’s going to get bumpy.” Lucy yelled back down the cabin. “Say hello to my old friend Crazy Ivan boys.” she added under her breath as they pitched and jinked wildly to shake off their pursuers.

  “Looks like we’ve lost two of them.” said Ford as they cart-wheeled through the clouds and into the outer reaches of the stratosphere.

  “And it looks David’s about to lose his lunch.” Carol called from the back of the cabin.

  “Not on my ship yelled Lucy.” as pulled the joystick violently to the left. “Can’t you inject him with something Anna?”

  “This one’s good.” said Ford as they pitched sharply back to the right.

  “That’s Jay.” said Lucy as she pushed the throttles straining every last ounce of thrust from the engines. “Taught by the best, he never did know when to quit.” she added as both ships bucked and wheeled toward space.

  “I think we may have a bigger problem.” said Ford as they broke free of the outer reaches of the atmosphere into the inky blackness of space. “The planetary defence grid is hot and I’m picking up multiple weapon locks, we’ve got missile
s inbound.”

  “They really don’t want us to leave do they?” quipped Lucy. “Deploying counter measures and bringing the cloaking field on line, it’ll take time to fully activate though.”

  “Times the one thing we don’t have, two missiles have got past the countermeasures and are closing fast can we jump?”

  “Negative, don’t have enough juice to run the cloak and generate a wormhole, those bad boys will hit before we can jump.” Said Lucy as she jinked the ship wildly trying to shake them.

  “Hold tight Phoenix, I’ve got them.”

  “Jay is that you?”

  The sleek finned fighter that had been pursuing them accelerated hard, red lining its engines, pushing the inertial dampers and just about every other nut and bolt to its design limits and beyond to catch the missiles. It came screaming across their stern cannons blazing yellow tracers ripping the nearest missiles to shreds as they were buffeted from the shockwave of the detonation. The fighter rolled its underbelly toward them as it passed through the wake from their engines coming so close that it scorched the paintwork of its cold metal underside before hammering away from them again taking the second missile with it.

  “That crazy son of a...” cried Lucky.

  “Weapons free.” Said Ford taking control of their weapons. “We need to get that missile off his tail.”

  “You’ll never take it out with hitting him.” said Lucky swinging the Phoenix around trying to give him an angle that would allow him to shoot down the missile without taking Jay out.

  Suddenly the fighter braking hard pushed it nose down and dropped like a stone, the missile unable to compensate in time overshot its target. Ford squeezed the trigger seizing the opportunity to frag the missile in a deadly crossfire from the ships twin turrets before it could adjust it trajectory.

  “Thanks Phoenix, I guess we’re even, need an escort?”

  Ford powered down the weapons and turned to Lucy. “Anything valuable in the cargo hold?”

  She shook her head.” No and no we don’t need an escort.”

  Ford smiled at her and opened the comms. “Good work Jay, bring her in close if you want to come along for the ride and we’ll extend our cloaking field around you. I’m going to decompress the cargo hold, vent some fuel and chuck out a few counter measures, create enough debris and confusion to make it look like the missiles got us. You might want to follow suit.”

  “Roger that Phoenix, haven’t had this much fun in ages, is it always going to be like this?”

  “After that reckless piece of flying mister, you’re going to be spending a very long time in the brig. As soon as I find one to throw you in. Do you have any idea of how many protocols, rules and regs your little stunt broke?” snapped Lucy. “Believe me when I say that was one of the most reckless and arrogant pieces of flying I’ve ever seen and I know a thing or two about that.”

  “Just as well I resigned my commission shortly after take-off then and thanks for the compliment by the way.” you could almost hear him smirking.

  Lucy rolled her eyes and turned to Ford. “Are you serious? Do you really want this joker along for the ride? Wherever it is we’re going. He’s going to be one hell of a liability.”

  Ford placed his hand gently on her shoulder “I need someone to keep you in hand and I think I’ve just found my man, don’t worry I’m sure you’ll grow on each other over time. So set a course for the far side of the moon and let’s get this party started.” he paused and glanced down at the console in front of him “Oh and if anybody’s interested it looks like they bought our little ruse by the way, they’ve powered down the defence grid.”