by C. R. Daems
"What can we do?" a short, stocky man with a balding head shouted.
"Sit tight. The fighters will be back soon. They can get help to get us off before they destroy the cruiser." I crossed my fingers.
"Who are you?" asked the younger man who was peeking around the corner with the older man.
"I'm a Saker fighter pilot, so I know what is happening out there." I nodded to my right. "I know the fools on the Bridge, and I know how the pilots will act. I would like to return to Earth, but I know my odds with those fools are zero. Better alive on Anixia than dead in space." I laughed. "With those idiots, we will be more likely to starve to death lost in space."
"She is right," a woman's voice said. "What jackass steals a cruiser in the middle of a war? I heard the last group that stole an Anixia cruiser all died. Better Anixia, a bird in the hand, than Earth, two birds in a bush."
"Get rid of that fucking shooter, or we are all going to die. Get rid of him, and you will live to see Earth and be heroes," Doug shouted. For the next half hour, the group on the stairs debated the pros and cons. Eventually, I heard Bradley's voice.
"Kayla, where are you? What is going on?"
"Here, Wing Leader. Doug, Carl, and friends are attempting to hijack the Crowned Eagle and fly it back to Earth. As a Saker policewoman, I'm attempting to arrest them."
Chapter 19
Anixia Inquiry
"How?" Bradley asked as he approached me. He looked confused.
"When I attempted to return to the Crowned Eagle, I noticed it was moving away, so I gave chase," I said, planning to leave out the details. "When I caught up and entered the bay, I found several dead launch-crew members and Doug's and Carl's fighters. Since they are on the police watch list combined with the dead bodies, I suspected they were in the process of hijacking the cruiser. After I convinced the engine crew to stop the engines, I went to the Bridge, where I shot Carl to keep him from leaving to restart the engines. They locked the door, and you showed up."
Bradley shook his head in disgust. He lifted his Sleeve, pressed some icons, and spoke. "Simon, we need Joseph up here immediately, and tell him to bring help. We have a hijacking in progress." He looked back to me. "We thought you dead fighting the Tullizor. Then there was an explosion on the Tullizor's cruiser, and the Pitohui," he snorted, "flashed by overhead, and you were gone. We took the explosion as our opportunity. Ignoring the fighters, we rushed the cruiser and scored enough hits to set off a chain of explosions. I decided to join the Merlin fighters, but before we could get there, the Tullizor were in retreat. So we returned to the Crowned Eagle only to find it had moved." He paused and gave me an appraising look. "I knew you, Doug, and Carl didn't get along, but those two seemed to have settled down and were working hard. I thought everything was good," he concluded, but it was a question, what was going on?
"Based upon comments Doug had made to me, and some remarks I had overheard, I knew they were planning something evil. When I saw him making friends with the cruiser crew, I knew he was planning to hijack a cruiser. I told Joseph, and he put the six on a watch list. When I checked the recent assignments and saw Doug's cruiser friends were assigned to the Crowned Eagle, it all clicked in place."
Joseph showed before Bradley could ask any more questions. He nodded to Bradley before speaking. "Kayla, they said you believe Doug and Carl were in the process of hijacking the Crowned Eagle. Were the crew involved?"
"I don't think they were," I said. "My impression when I entered the Crowned Eagle was that no one was aware the cruiser had been hijacked. I have everything on the police camcorder. Right now, Doug, Carl, and his four friends on the watch list are on the Bridge." When I looked toward the Bridge, two men were affixing something to the door.
"Fire in the hole," one of the men shouted and ran down the hallway and into a room. Joseph pushed Bradley and me into the room I had been hiding in and closed the door. A minute later, there was a loud BOOM. When we exited, the door was lying inside the Bridge cabin, and everyone in there looked unconscious.
"Good catch, Kayla. By the way, my name is Larry, and that's Chris and Peter."
"Thanks, Larry, nice to be formally introduced to each of you," I said, obviously having seen each of them off and on in the training area. But I had been busy with fighter and police training and worrying about Doug and Carl and had done little socializing. "What will happen now?"
"We will secure them, take them back to the Saker compound, and hold them until the inquiry," Larry said as we watched them being secured with some kind of cloth. "Don't worry, although it's soft on the skin, Godzilla couldn't break that cloth. The inquiry will be presided over by one of the Anixian. Unlike many of Earth's courts, there is no presumption of innocence or guilt, nor are there any lawyers. Since you officially arrested them, you will present your reasons. The accused will present their side, and the presiding Anixia will announce a verdict. Nice and simple when there are no lawyers to object, no jury to convince, and no appeals."
I had mixed opinions, having watched a variety of television law movies and series, and listened to debates over the death penalty, sentencing variations across the states, and heard of people later found innocent after twenty years in jail. Of course, my opinion did not matter. This was Anixia, not Earth. For better or worse, at least the process was the same for everyone, which wasn't true on Earth.
The inquiry was delayed three days for war casualties to be treated and crews rested. On the day of the inquiry, I was led to a large office that had a desk, several chairs to the right and left of the desk and twenty chairs lining the back of the room for anyone identified by Doug, Carl, or his five friends and me as having information about the incident under inquiry.
"I am Speckled Owl from the House of Law. You may begin, Kayla from the Saker House of War," the black-robed Anixian said. "Present only facts that relate to this inquiry and that you can prove directly or indirectly."
I gave that some thought. I couldn't prove I overheard them say something, and them trying to kill me was not relevant to the hijacking. Those were the sort of things an Earth's prosecutor would use to establish the person's character, which if you thought about it wasn't relevant to the crime in most cases.
"Sir, after expending my Vulture missiles against the Tullizor cruiser, I headed back to the Crowned Eagle to get restocked. I found the Crowned Eagle had moved and was heading away from the battle. The cruiser's black box will confirm that. When I arrived, I found the fighter launch crew had been killed, and the only fighters in the bay belonged to Doug and Carl of the Saker House of War. As the cruiser was leaving the area, I went first to the power unit and convinced them to stop the cruiser while I investigated. I next made my way to the Bridge, where Carl was exiting the Bridge. I fired at him to stop him from leaving. They closed the door and locked it, preventing me from entering. They then announced over the cruiser's speakers that they had hijacked the cruiser and were going back to Earth. They tried to get the crew to subdue me but failed."
"That's all a lie," Doug stood and shouted. She killed the launch team and almost killed us. We fled to the Bridge for protection."
"Sir, everything I said can be verified on my police camcorder, which will be on file with records."
Speckled Owl said nothing but spent the next twenty minutes looking at a small tablet. Eventually, he looked up. "Thank you, Kayla. That was well presented. I find Doug and Carl guilty of treason. They can no longer claim membership to any of the Anixian houses."
Translation: they were free to wander Anixia, a toxic wasteland, but would get no help from the people of Anixia or Phoenix.
Thankfully, Joseph presented the case against Acker, Daley, Tillman, and Peterson since it involved the Police Watch List and was his area of responsibility. They received the same verdict, but it took several hours of reviewing records. On Earth, a trial of that sort would have taken years given the lawyers time to prepare, along with a lengthy trial and years of appeals. When, in reality, the facts were si
mple.
Chapter 20
Escalating War
When I reported for fighter training the next day, Bradley waved me over. "Kayla, I reviewed your black box, and you must have had a malfunction. The information kept cutting in and out. No wonder your Vulture missiles were so effective. You were close enough to throw rocks at their cruiser when you released them."
I laughed. "You estimate the distance you will be from the cruiser, then subtract the distance you want to be when you release your missiles, and divide that by the distance you are traveling per second. That gives you a number. When you reach your estimated distance from the cruiser, you cut your power, count to the number you calculated, open your eyes, start your engine, hit the Vulture release button, and run like there are missiles chasing you, which there will be. Then cut your engine to lose the missiles chasing you."
"Kayla, you are crazy. What if you miscalculated or your engine didn't start immediately?" Calum said, who had been listening to me describe the procedure.
"That's option two," I said. "It probably works better than option one, but you only get to do it once. Maybe we could talk the Anixia researchers into creating a pad to do the calculations and restart the engine. Of course, that will take some of the fun out of it."
"I like it," Calum said. "It not only makes the approach safer, but it also gets you closer, and the fighter's speed boosts the Vulture missiles' speed at impact."
"I suspect we are going to need all the advances we can come up with," Bradley said almost to himself. "The Tullizor are not going to take this defeat lightly. They will send three or four cruisers next time and plan a massive missile raid on the planet. We could possibly win the battle but lose the war." He stood silent for several minutes. "Kayla, stay available. I will get permission to talk with the House of Crows; that's the Anixians' electronics research unit." He turned and walked off.
He returned an hour later. "Kayla, come with me. I have an appointment with the House of Crows to discuss your new…gadget." He snorted. "If I let each pilot calculate the exact time to stop and start their engine, we could lose a couple of pilots each encounter with the Tullizor. They aren’t stupid, but in the heat of battle with their adrenalin at max levels and having to concentrate on enemy fighters and missiles, a mistake would be easy to make."
I nodded. I had been fortunate to be away from the main action when I decided to try my experiment. When we entered the rail car tunnel, Bradley handed the woman a card which she inserted into a panel on the wall, and the top of a six-person rail-car opened. We got in, and as soon as we had secured the safety harnesses, the top closed, and the rail-car began to accelerate. Fifteen minutes later, indicating the compounds were many kilometers apart, the rail-car began to slow and a half minute later stopped and the top opened. The Tunnel looked exactly the same, but the person on duty was an elderly man. A large life-size crow with a white-colored area around its neck hung on the wall, and the sign read: House of Crows.
"That's a Pied Crow," Bradley said as he exited the rail-car. He bowed to a man in a blue robe with slits on the sides to allow his or her black wings to be exposed.
"Welcome, Wing Fighter Pilot Bradley," his voice box said. "I am Flores Crow. I understand you have a need best addressed by the House of Crows." He waved for us to follow and led us to a large cavern with machines of every size and shape and Anixians working at the tables scattered around the area.
"Flores Crow, this is Saker Fighter Pilot Kayla. She has created a new technique for attacking the Tullizor cruisers, which proved effective. However, it requires precise mathematical calculations to achieve the best results. Unfortunately, they have to be made in the heat of battle, and mistakes could prove fatal. We hoped the House of Crows could develop something to make it easier for the pilots to quickly and accurately make those calculations." Bradley nodded to me.
"Sir, I need to shut off my fighter's engine to avoid the Tullizor's heat-seeking missiles as I approach the cruiser. That depends on how fast I'm accelerating and how close I want to get before restarting the engine and releasing the missiles." I then went on to describe in detail my attack on the Tullizor cruiser.
He made several clicking noises I took for laughing. "You are lucky to be alive, Pilot Kayla. Your calculation was wrong. Fortunately, your error was several seconds in your favor. A good example as it proves the need for a reliable device."
"Sir, it would also be helpful if the hologram could stay on while the engine is shut down. That would give a visual warning of any potential problems." I crossed my fingers unconsciously.
More clicking. "In my experience, that doesn't help, but in this case, that is possible, so you will get the device and the active hologram."
We spent the next hour discussing the ergonomics of the device, shape, size, location, etc.
Chapter 21
The K-Box
When I arrived for fighter training a week later, there was a large red bow on the top of the Pitohui, and everyone was looking at me and smiling.
"Three men were here last night," Bradley said. "They modified the Pitohui with your new equipment. Flores Crow said the user's manual is accessible from your Sleeve."
I hurriedly tapped on my Sleeve, found the manual, sat down right where I was standing, and began reading. Five minutes later, after multiple Wows! Yeas! Hoots, and whistles, I looked up to find everyone staring down at me.
"We now know what it takes to turn Kayla on. A user manual," Todd said, to sounds of clapping and laughing.
I ignored them and ran over to the Pitohui, opened the hatch, and jumped in. The unit was activated and popped up by pressing a button next to the speed control. The screen had four columns:
* Distance to target: you could load it with a preset value, change that value by pulling or pushing with your finger, or tapping the box which would insert your current speed.
* Distance to release Vulture missiles: preset or adjust.
* Speed: preset, adjust, or tap for current.
* Start: press start to begin the countdown, which would automatically start the engine and release the missiles when the parameters were met.
* Abort: switches the device from automatic to manual.
I left the pilot's cockpit sometime later, alternating between chuckling, laughing, and grinning.
"Can we do something to hurry the Tullizor's return?" I asked, only partly joking.
"Can we wait until we are trained?" Jesso shouted, which caused more comments and laughing. I let everyone enter to have a look at the new equipment. Two hours later, the Pitohui took its maiden flight with the new equipment, dubbed the K-box.
I spent three hours testing the various scenarios. In the end, I decided there were too many options. When I exited, I wrote up my recommended changes and handed them to Bradley:
** Distance to target: system sets automatically.
* Distance to release Vulture missiles: preset or adjust.
** Speed: system sets automatically.
* Start: you could load the number of seconds with a preset value, change that value by pulling or pushing with your finger. Pressing Start would begin the countdown as soon as that value was reached, and automatically stop the engine and restart the engine when the parameters were met and release the missiles.
* Abort: switches the device from automatic to manual and restarts engine.
He spent several minutes reading my changes before commenting. "You have significantly reduced the pilot's flexibility," he said, appraising me.
"I think, in the madness of an encounter, there will be too much going on to be fiddling with all those options. With these changes, all I have to do is set the timer for five seconds and press start. The system will automatically determine the current acceleration and the distance to the target in five seconds and the time to reach the preset release distance, then shut off the engine for the computed time. When the time has expired, it will start the engine and release the Vulture missiles. The pilot will be free to
monitor the hologram because of the backup battery while the engine is off and be ready to maneuver when the engine starts and the missiles are away." I smiled my best evil smile. "It will be like space is raining Anixia lightning bolts."
"Kayla, that's an inspiring image," Bradley said with reverence.
Three days later, Flores Crow had the updated software and panel interface installed. I spent four hours testing a wide range of hypothetical situations. It seemed to work flawlessly. Of course, the real test would come when the K-box met the Tullizor.
Chapter 22
Living In The Fast Lane
"That was good work, Kayla," Joseph said when I reported to the police training area. I hadn't been back since the inquiry because of the work on the K-box. "You were spot on about Doug and Carl. At the time, I was concerned that your dislike of the two might be driving your suspicions. I think the two had everyone fooled into thinking they had reformed." He gave a short laugh. "A good concept but very difficult to achieve, like making an adult tiger into a pet. It works while it's kept fed and content, but the hunter instinct is always present. Speckled Owl thought your presentation at the inquiry was excellent. None of the fluff, the people of Earth think necessary when prosecuting someone, the person's previous actions, their character, their associates, and on and on. When you think of it, those things have nothing to do with the crime they are accused of. Limiting the evidence to what you can prove eliminates the need to assume innocence or guilt. You have justified my faith in you. That was good detective work, an excellent response to the hijacking incident, and loyalty to the Anixias. Everyone made an agreement with the Anixians, but most would break it in a heartbeat if they had a chance. You had the chance and didn't." Joseph said as a fact, but it was a question.
