by Greg Dragon
“Ray, you’re my wingman, fall in,” she said as she stepped out to catch him flirting with a freckled, redheaded woman. “Ursula’s waiting and we need to get the Thundercat back onboard before we jump. We have some time, and it’s a bit of a walk, so fall in, will you? We have lizards incoming, so hop-to.”
Helga contacted the Ursula and informed Zan of the change in plans. She also told Dr. Rai’to about the five injured Vestalians. She didn’t like how exposed they were inside this satellite with multiple docking points, but rescue was the mission and Cilas had given her a direct order.
“Let’s hope this doesn’t take long,” she mumbled, looking out of a window as if she could see the incoming Geralos.
Raileo Lei fell in next to her, and she shoved him playfully into a crate. “That’s for the stunt earlier, you little schtill,” she said, shooting him an icy glare.
“You know what I’m realizing?” he said, so comfortable with his rocket boots that he was turned around facing her, gliding backwards as he spoke. “I’ve killed ten times the humans and allied species than I have Geralos, the enemy that has our planet. Who would’ve thought?”
“Yeah, who would have thought that a boy who made it out of a place like this would be complaining about killing thypes preying on little boys, just like him,” Helga said, surprised at herself for how serious she sounded. “You should be proud to be one of the few that has a chance at making a real dent, Ray. Even if that means killing greedy men who sell our people to the enemy for their consumption, or corrupt politicians who people like that little boy look to be somewhere fighting for them. It’s much bigger than the lizards, Ray, and in time you’ll be killing plenty. Now chin up, damn you. I chose you to come along ‘cause you’re my mate.”
“Ate, I don’t know whether to be offended, disappointed in myself, or motivated, but you made me feel something just now, and though it’s confusing, I’m ready to kill something,” he said, laughing.
5
Getting back to the maintenance hatch took a lot longer than Helga expected. It was bizarre; finding their way in and carrying out the rescue seemed to have happened so fast, yet the peaceful walk back was dragging on forever. When they finally reached the airlock, Helga looked back the way they came, caressing her pistol in case of anything. It was senseless paranoia, especially with Raileo Lei next to her, who was always ready for action.
“Is it me, or did this trip take a really long time?” she said, pulling on her helmet.
“Didn’t notice the length,” Raileo said, donning his helmet as well. “I’ve been thinking about those people and what you said about the war. We’re but five operators, in a war that affects billions. How many other Vestalians are out there right now, being held inside hubs forgotten by the Alliance? Not to mention the people who were here. How many have been killed or taken by the lizards? On Meluvia, I was convinced that we made a dent; but now I’m beginning to wonder if we’re just delaying the inevitable.”
“Meluvia was a dent. We destroyed deadly ordnance that could have harmed thousands of people. Sure, we can’t singlehandedly wipe out the lizards, but we can move up the timeline on intelligence, which I would argue that we have. The information we recovered led to action by the Meluvian military. We’re talking armed forces from multiple continents, stomping out every cell of the MLF. You may have seen it as us running and gunning through that jungle, but the aftermath of our actions is still going on.”
“I didn’t know,” he said. “That does make it count.”
She touched her mask and made a ready signal and when he acknowledged she pulled open the airlock. They stepped into the space beyond and she sealed them in and floated over to the exit hatch. “How are you looking on power?” she said, since he had been using his rockets their entire walk.
“Still near full, I’m good to go,” he said, and she nodded her approval.
Raileo turned and pulled the airlock shut, sealing them inside. Red lights began to flash, warning them that they were about to be exposed, and the emergency lock on the exit-hatch came off. Helga grabbed the handle and pushed the hatch open, floating out into space. She then bent her legs and straightened them quickly, triggering her rockets to come alive.
Together they made their way from the satellite, staying close to one another for extra security. Helga brought up her wrist-comms and took the Thundercat out of cloak, then together they flew below it, where she worked at the stubborn hatch until it accepted her identification.
On board, Helga took a quick survey of the space, wondering at the likelihood of them fitting twenty bodies on a ship meant for eight. It was against everything she had been taught, and would mean death for many if they were attacked.
“Looks like we’ll be making two trips,” she said, shaking her head at the prospect. “I don’t like this.”
“Me either. We’re alone out here with no backup incoming, and all we have for eyes are my drones,” Raileo said.
“Anything there?”
“Nothing,” he said, expanding the holo image to appear above his wrist-comms. “What are your orders, Lieutenant?”
“Get strapped in. I’m going to dock and bring on the wounded and our pirate guest of honor. That’s us at capacity, but I want to take three more. They can sit in the center at your feet, I’m thinking we can hold twelve. I’ll jump us out, make the drop, and then you will remain behind to take the helm.”
“Me?” Raileo said, suddenly surprised.
“The commander wants a Nighthawk in place just in case this goes to schtill, and I don’t trust that pirate. I want him made into an ice cube until we’re all safely aboard.”
“And you think Zan wouldn’t pull him apart if she saw him break out of his stasis cuffs?” Raileo said.
“Oh, she would want to, but what could she do? Cel-tocs can’t hurt organics. It’s part of their core programming, Ray, you know that.” She powered on thrusters and turned them about, making the adjustments needed to line them up with the satellites dock.
“Part of their core programming, yes, but someone else on crew, organic or otherwise, would certainly pull their weight. Even Cleia has training, and she’s not too bad with a pistol,” Raileo said, forgetting for a moment who it was that he was speaking to. When Helga stayed quiet, he looked away.
“Raileo Lei, you and the good doctor? ‘Not too bad with a pistol,’ he says. Well, I just can’t see it, but I’ll take your word for it, lover boy,” she said, laughing out loud. “Earlier you made mention of wanting to shoot something. Was that a double entendre? And I recall that during our launch the two of you were nowhere to be found.”
She kept on digging, waiting for him to crack and protest his innocence, but he didn’t. She brought the dropship down to attach it to the exit tube, then locked in the brakes and took a breath.
“It’s not going to be a problem, Ate. She’s technically a civilian, and we’re on the Ursula together. The worse we can do is miss each other when I’m off on missions.”
Helga stopped him at the hatch, and turned him by his shoulders to face her.
“You know, all this time I was wondering why that cute new doctor looked so familiar,” she whispered, her hands holding him steadily in front of her. “I put it out of my mind, thinking that maybe it’s because I haven’t known many Traxians, but the way you responded to my joke makes me think that, yeah, I know her. She’s the woman you brought back to the Empyrean, and then lied to Quentin and me that she was a prostitute. Is she even a doctor, Ray? A real doctor?”
“Yes. The prostitute thing was a lie because I didn’t want you all in my business. You would make a big deal about it, and I just wasn’t in the mood. We were on Sanctuary, and I was happy, and even though it would be temporary, she represented something that was missing in my life.”
“So you figured out a way to get her on our ship.” Helga inhaled then dropped her hands. “I hate that I love this. It’s so romantic. I never thought that men like you existed. Thype, Ray, y
ou’re so foolish, and to think that you admitted it to me. I’m still your CO.” She punched his shoulder. “But you just knew I wouldn’t tell, didn’t you? Okay lover boy, but Cilas isn’t dumb, and you all aren’t hiding it too well. Play at some flirting, talk about her to the guys, ease them into it and pretend you just met. They’ll eat it up and it won’t be a problem. Now get your narrow butt out of my ship.”
As was planned, the wounded came first, along with a handful of others. They traveled back to the Ursula, where they helped the doctor retrieve her patients, then quickly converted the dock into a temporary camp for their guests.
The dock was part hangar, with shelves for storage, and eighteen recessed compartments meant for cargo, but Quentin and Raileo had converted some of them. One was now a gym, and there was a range, a miniature barracks, and a makeshift changing room.
Nine of these, they assigned as temporary berthing, housing two refugees per compartment, with access to the head in the stern. The tenth was made into a cell, occupied with a stasis pod in which they shoved the prisoner and froze him. He already looked dead, but Helga had taken Quentin at his word that the man was unconscious. With him out of the way, they focused on their guests, and Raileo stocked their new berthing with crates and foam to serve as beds.
Helga left him and took the Thundercat back, feeling more alone than she had felt in ages. There was something about this space on the edge of the galaxy and knowing that no other Alliance ships would be in the vicinity. She wanted this over fast so that they could return to Rendron, or at the very least somewhere close.
Coming out of max thrust, she saw three vessels on her radar headed towards the satellite. These were ships whose signatures she couldn’t recognize, so she immediately assumed them to be Geralos.
“Commander, we have three incoming,” she said, “.3 light-seconds out. We need to hurry. This is going to be tight, and so everyone needs to get to that hatch. Do you copy, Nighthawks, we’re going to have a hot evac?”
“We copy, Ate, bring her around, and we’ll make sure everyone gets on immediately,” Cilas said. “How long do we have for contact?”
“I’m hoping an hour, but if I’m seeing them then they are seeing me. They could ramp-up to supercruise speed, and I doubt we’ll have time to outrun them,” Helga said. “We may have a fight on our hands, and it won’t be easy. It all depends on how fast we can do this.”
“We’re not to be discovered, so let’s get this done,” Cilas said, but Helga wasn’t so sure it was up to them.
She docked the way she’d done before, unlocked the hatch, and waited until the tube was attached and sealed to the dropship. As soon as she was settled, the airlock came open, and Sundown was ushering several of the nobles through the tube. They floated in slowly, clumsily righting themselves from the gravity when they got aboard the ship. Bringing up the rear were Cilas and Quentin, and they did a headcount before giving her the approval to detach from the hub.
It was during the countdown for her jump to light speed that the first barrage of bullets found their shields. Alarms went off, and the people in the back began to panic and scream, but Helga couldn’t hear them; she was too focused. She disengaged the computer-assisted navigation, turned on hardpoints, and gripped the controls. This wasn’t a fighter, but she had fought with a dropship on multiple occasions, so she was used to its sluggish movement and limited arsenal.
“Sunny, up here, I need you on the guns,” she said into the comms, and the darkly clad Jumper made his way up to the front.
“Are we positive they aren’t ours?” Cilas said, which didn’t surprise Helga, who had already confirmed it.
“That is a Geralos assault ship, with two cruisers in tow,” she said. “Q, there’s a manual energy cannon mounted above deck. Get up there and hit anything that comes across your sights.”
“On it, Lieutenant,” he said, and Helga brought the Thundercat around to the far side of the satellite, putting it between them and their attackers, staying tight to the hull in order to confuse the enemy’s radar. The Geralos assault ship dared not come that close, but fired after them with little care for hitting the satellite.
For five long minutes this continued, her flying a tight circle while the Geralos followed, trying in vain to destroy them. Helga wanted to pull out and take her chances in open space, but the only way out now was for her to disable that assault ship.
“It’s getting kind of hot up here, Tutt. What are you doing?” she shouted, pulling off her PAS helmet and clipping it to her chair. She could see that he was trying; there had been concentrated fire on the assault ship, but it wasn’t doing anything. “If we aren’t jumping in the next ten minutes, then those cruisers will be joining the fight,” she said.
As if on cue, one of the Vestalians in the back began to sing at the top of his lungs. The rest picked it up, and it became a chorus, altos complemented by sopranos, with a bass chiming in once in a while. It was a song Helga knew, the anthem of a nation now lost due to the Geralos occupation. The words were for victory, and it hit her right where it counted, and she too began to sing, causing Sundown to stop his firing and look over at her to make sure he wasn’t imagining it.
Helga took them away from the satellite, rolling to avoid as many of the shots as she could manage. She brought them about at a dangerous angle, nearly clipping one of the silos that extended from the satellite’s core. The sudden change in direction took the assault ship by surprise, and while the Thundercat was considered slow, the enemy ship was much slower.
Quentin’s energy cannon flashed deadly beams of light, draining its shields, and the assault ship changed its course in an attempt to come about.
“Brace for impact,” Helga announced over comms.
“Why? Ate, what are you doing?” Cilas said.
“We’re toast if we don’t go on the offensive, Commander, and this lizard is stalling us until the cavalry arrives. Their shields are failing and ours are still at 60%, so I’m going to see how badly they want it.”
Helga engaged light thrust to bear down on the assault ship as it came out of its rotation, then maxed it suddenly, turning the Thundercat into a projectile. As expected, her target rolled to avoid the collision, and the Thundercat shot past without incident, coming so close that the hull vibrated, shaking the passengers violently.
Helga applied brakes and swung them about, flying around the satellite to come out at an angle that would have been in the assault ship’s blind spot. Now there was a small window of advantage, and she wanted to make it count.
“Charge a torpedo and lock on to that region above its thrusters,” she said to Sundown.
Once the assault ship’s pilot recognized the caliber of enemy he faced, he went from hunter to desperate prey, trying his best to survive. But Helga was now on his flank, depleting his shields and refusing to let up. In time his flight patterns became predictable, and Sundown was given the order to fire the torpedo.
He did as he was told, but a zip-ship, having launched from one of the cruisers, flew between them and took the impact, exploding dramatically and forcing her to veer off. The sudden bright light from the explosion blinded Helga temporarily, and it took everything within her not to panic. With the PAS helmet, the glass would have shielded her vision, but it was still hanging from her chair, and now she regretted having removed it.
“Sunny, prime a second one,” she said, looking over to see how he had managed through the light. He too had his helmet off, but it didn’t seem to faze him, and he nodded to show that he acknowledged. Scanning the radar as red and white spots danced about her vision, Helga analyzed how long they had before the cruisers would be in range.
“Twenty minutes.” She mouthed the words. They needed to hit the assault ship and fast. This cat-and-mouse chase had been going on for fifteen minutes, but it felt more like three hours, and they were down to a single energy torpedo.
She slowed them down and took another trip around the satellite, allowing the assault s
hip to assume that the torpedo missing its mark had rendered the Thundercat toothless. As expected, the Geralos took the bait and turned on them with all its force, letting loose gun batteries and a torpedo that missed, striking the satellite instead.
In a sequence of expert maneuvering, coupled with instincts learned from numerous dogfights, Helga used the extensions of the satellite as a shield, slipping beneath the communication disks, staying tight to the hulls and breaking off only when the assault ship was turning.
The Geralos pilot, recognizing this game, pulled away from the satellite to wait for backup, and Helga, seeing an opening, powered on cloak and maxed thrust, taking them out of the assault ship’s range. Cheers went up in the back as the civilians assumed that she was taking them to Ursula, but the Nighthawk wasn’t running; she only needed the time to reposition.
“Ready with that torpedo, Sunny?” she said, looking over at the Jumper.
“Just say the word, Lieutenant,” he said, giving her a mock salute.
She bit her lip and nodded at him knowingly. He had fought with her a handful of times, yet she trusted him implicitly.
Putting everything into thrust, she urged the dropship forward, flying towards the assault ship who could no longer see where she was. Coming out of cloak suddenly, she put most of the power into weapons, leaving just enough for the shields to survive the impact she anticipated.
“Sunny, now!” Helga shouted, as she held their position to increase the accuracy.
The torpedo flew out, a white line of wicked, shield-eating energy, and the assault ship became a tiny nova, forcing Helga to close her eyes. This time when the cheers returned she happily joined in, reveling in her victory. With her heart pounding and cold sweat trickling down her cheeks, Helga relished in the moment, happy to get the hostages out alive, and happy to have done it against the Geralos.
6
The thrill of battle is a unique sort of high, but it is brief and the aftermath typically involves the three R’s of reflection, regret, and repulsion. Reflection was the softest, since there were highs as well as lows that came with the memory, and regret was inevitable, especially when it came to the loss of life.
