Atlantia Series 3: Aggressor

by Dean Crawford

  ***

  VII

  The scramble claxon burst through the field of Evelyn’s awareness like a hammer through glass, shattering the blissful oblivion of sleep as a bright, unwelcome light flickered into life above her head.

  A data panel mounted scant inches from her face revealed a scramble order, flashing red as a priority command from Atlantia’s bridge. Evelyn groaned and dragged one hand across her eyes in an attempt to wipe the sleep from them. She rolled over, and in the dim light she reached down and pulled from beneath her pillow a small cache of what looked like miniature stones wrapped in a clear gel. Carefully, she reached into the gel and broke the seal. A rich, thick fluid seeped out as Evelyn sucked it from the gel and let it settle under her tongue.

  For a moment nothing happened as the fluid was absorbed into her body, and then suddenly the lethargy and the weariness faded away like a dream interrupted. Evelyn flopped onto her back for a moment, staring up at the flashing red icon on the screen as she felt the drug hit her bloodstream and begin powering through her nervous system, and then she reached out without looking and hit a switch on the wall of her bed.

  The side of her bed slid automatically open to reveal a tiny living space. A pair of long, slender legs, the skin tinted a pale blue, landed alongside Evelyn’s bed as her room-mate Teera dropped from the bunk above and turned to look down at her, all bright eyes and excitement as she pointed at the small cabin’s data screen.

  ‘Scramble Alpha Flight, that’s us!’

  Evelyn ran a hand through her hair as she rolled out of the bunk and stood up, one hand reaching out without thought for the flight suit hanging ready on the wall.

  ‘I’m on it,’ she yawned.

  Evelyn hauled on her flight suit and caught the flask of energy-fluid that Teera tossed her as she quickly dressed, the two women moving about each other in the tiny cabin with well-practiced precision.

  ‘Didn’t you get any sleep?’ Teera asked.

  ‘Do I look that bad?’ Evelyn replied as she glanced in the steel mirror on the wall and saw her bleary-eyed countenance peering back at her. The effects of the Devlamine were starting to blow away the cobwebs of sleep, a distant supernova light glowing ever stronger somewhere deep in her tired eyes.

  ‘We always look good Eve,’ Teera soothed, ‘you’re just less good today than normal.’

  Evelyn zipped up her flight suit and yanked on her boots as she drained half of the energy-drink and tossed it back to Teera.

  ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  Teera led the way as they exited their cabin and jogged down the corridor outside, the usually bustling passageways more quiet than normal as the crew got their heads down during the long-range cruise. The captain’s brief had been that Atlantia had sufficient reserves for a four-day super-luminal leap, and with two days still remaining that meant something had come up.

  Even as they jogged, a tannoy broadcast an emergency alert claxon and the voice of the ship’s Executive Officer snapped and echoed through the ship.

  ‘All stations, alert-four, alert-four.’

  A minor alert level then, Evelyn recalled. Something in the path of the ship or an un-planned emergence into sub-luminal cruise.

  ‘Maybe the Veng’en cruiser’s stopped off somewhere?’ Teera called over her shoulder as she ran. ‘It’d be great to get some real fresh air!’

  ‘Don’t get your hopes up,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Pretty much every planet I’ve landed on so far has been more dangerous than staying aboard ship.’

  Teera laughed Evelyn’s warning off. Teera was younger than Evelyn by several years, with short-cropped blonde hair and bright blue eyes that matched her skin: the pale blue tint that mimicked the bloodless skin of Caneerians was a legacy of being the fifth generation of humans brought up on Oraz, a moon that orbited the blue star Rigelle in an outlying system. Despite Teera’s youth she had earned her wings and joined Reaper Squadron a short time before Evelyn, and had built up a small but impressive tally of combat victories.

  They jogged together out onto Atlantia’s flight deck, where two sleek Raython fighters were mounted side-by-side on powerful magnetic catapults that ran from the for’ard bay toward huge launch doors that were currently closed. Technicians swarmed over the two fighters, cables snaking from internal circuitry and the fighters’ ion engines glowing blue as their internals were kept spun-un for a swift emergency launch known as Quick Reaction Alert, or QRA.

  ‘Evelyn.’

  Evelyn turned and saw the CAG walking toward her through the throng. Teera nudged Evelyn in the ribs and whispered to her.

  ‘Your beau’s here!’

  ‘He’s not my beau!’ Evelyn snapped back, but Teera was already making her way toward her fighter.

  ‘You’re up,’ Andaim said as he reached her side. ‘Two alert Raythons will be ready on the cats once you’re launched.’

  Evelyn knew the drill. In fact all pilots did, so there was no need for Andaim to brief her.

  ‘Shouldn’t you be on the bridge overseeing tactical?’ she enquired demurely.

  ‘You know I like to be down here among the Raythons,’ Andaim replied. ‘The bridge always feels detatched from the action.’

  An awkward silence filled the space between them despite the noise of the engineers and the whining ion engines. Andaim opened his mouth to say something, and then he hesitated as though he’d already forgotten what it was.

  ‘I’ve got to go,’ Evelyn said. ‘They call it a scramble for a reason, y’know?’

  Andaim blinked and nodded.

  ‘Of course, get going. I’ll be in touch from tactical, okay?’

  Evelyn briefly felt as though she were being mothered, but a tingle of warmth filled the pit of her belly. She turned and jogged away from the CAG so that she could better conceal the smile on her face, and then climbed the steps to the cockpit of her Raython. Her name was emblazoned in stencilled letters beneath it and a gold diamond painted just after: her designation as a section leader, awarded for meritous combat performance and leadership. She levered herself into the cockpit as the aircraft’s crew-chief helped her with her harnesses, other maintenance crew hurriedly unplugging power lines as they swarmed around the fighter.

  ‘Reaper One, radio check.’

  ‘Five by five,’ Teera replied as she closed her canopy.

  Just before her cockpit closed Evelyn heard the tannoys announcing the drop out of super-luminal cruise, and wondered what was awaiting them outside in the cold vacuum of space beyond the huge bay doors barely two hundred cubits ahead. With no time for a briefing, she and Teera would be updated seconds after launch.

  Her cockpit came alive as she activated the avionics and started the engines as the ground crews rushed away and huddled down in sealed bunkers close by. The Raython hummed with restrained energy as her ion engines came fully on-line and Evelyn completed her pre-take off checks. She made sure her plasma cannons were charged but not activated and ran her throttles up to launch power, then settled back and glanced at a series of warning lights high up on the launch bay walls as the voice of Atlantia’s communications officer buzzed in her earphone.

  ‘Sub-luminal cruise in three, two, one… disengaging!’

  The huge bay seemed to shudder and the light became briefly polarised as the Atlantia surged out of faster-than-light travel and decelerated in the blink of an eye as the mass-drive disengaged. In a flash the lights on the bay wall turned from green to red and ahead a sudden billowing mist of escaping air was sucked into oblivion as the launch bay doors lifted.

  Evelyn’s Raython surged forward as the magnetic catapults threw the fighter down the launch bay, her body slammed back into her seat under the tremendous acceleration as she threw the throttles wide open. Running lights flashed past her in a blur and the huge launch bay doors whipped past scant cubits above her head as her Raython hurtled beneath them and was flung out into the blackness of space.

  Evelyn flicked a switch on her instrument console to
activate her weapons as her eyes took in a spectacular panorama. The vast starfields vanished ahead into a brilliant, rainbow nebula of billowing gases cast off in a tremendous halo by a yellow star in the distance. Photoreceptive shielding in her canopy protected her eyesight from the blinding glare of the star, revealing the beautiful colours spanning the inky black heavens.

  ‘Reaper Two, weapons hot.’

  ‘Copy, Reaper One,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Battle flight, go.’

  Evelyn broke hard left and the two Raythons separated as they raced away from Atlantia, Commander Ry’ere’s voice reaching Evelyn from Atlantia’s bridge as she manoeuvered.

  ‘Reaper Flight, stay sharp, system may be populated, unknown numbers, unknown allegiances. Form CAP at twenty thousand cubits.’

  ‘Copy, Reaper Flight, Combat Air Patrol at twenty, Reaper One.’

  Evelyn levelled out into position a thousand cubits away from Reaper Two and on a parallel course. She glanced down at her displays.

  ‘Chiron system,’ she said over the intercom to Teera. ‘That’s a frontier post isn’t it?’

  ‘Bunch of moons and smuggler hideouts, way out from the core systems,’ Teera confirmed. ‘Nothing much here as far as I know.’

  Evelyn scanned the vista ahead and figured it out.

  ‘Resources,’ she replied as she looked at the immense billowing clouds of ejecta. ‘That stellar nebula will contain billions of tonnes of hydrogen, oxygen, helium and metals.’

  ‘I’ve got a planetary body, dead ahead.’

  Evelyn squinted ahead but could see nothing against the terminal halo ejected by the dying star. She glanced down at a tactical display and she spotted a planet, its orbit marked around the parent star and a brief data list scrolling alongside it.

  ‘Chiron IV, habitable surface and atmosphere, undocumented life-forms,’ she murmured as she read the list. ‘Second of two habitable worlds in the system.’

  ‘The first is already burned out,’ Teera confirmed. ‘Too close to the parent star when it started to swell.’

  Chiron’s parent star had exhausted its fuel of hydrogen and begun burning helium in its core, in doing so producing more heat than the star’s mass could contain and thus casting off its atmosphere into space in gigantic outbursts. The once–stable star had thus swelled to many times its original size, consuming those worlds in close orbit around it.

  ‘Looks like Chiron IV’s days are numbered,’ Evelyn said. ‘Instruments are recording violent climatological change. The oceans are evaporating and the atmosphere’s already breaking down under the cosmic rays from the parent star.’

  ‘Lot of storms too,’ Teera reported.

  Evelyn spotted the planet ahead, a tiny speck of black against the brilliant sunset hues of the dying star. She glanced at her instruments and called out to Teera.

  ‘We’re at twenty thou’, start CAP orbit.’

  ‘Roger that.’

  CAP, or Combat Air Patrol, was their assigned role. Both aircraft set up a mutually supporting racetrack orbit between the Atlantia far behind and Chiron IV, ready to intercept any foreign craft while the rest of the air wing was prepped for patrol.

  ‘I’m not seeing any sign of the Veng’en cruiser,’ Teera reported.

  ‘Me either,’ Evelyn replied.

  It wasn’t her job to question policy, but privately Evelyn and a lot of the other pilots were concerned about the captain’s decision to attempt to recruit the Veng’en to their cause. A violent and untrustworthy race who had despised humanity even before the emergence of the Word and its Legion, the Veng’en had actively pursued and destroyed human vessels fleeing Ethera in the wake of the apocalypse in the hope of containing the Word’s spread. Nobody knew how many men, woman and children had died at the hands of Veng’en commanders keen to slake their bloodlust.

  There were many other races, further flung and likely still free of the Word, to whom the Atlantia could implore for help. Captain Sansin’s ploy of turning enemies into friends risked even greater losses than had already occurred should the Veng’en’s War Council reject any form of alliance with humanity.

  ‘I’ve got something,’ Teera reported.

  Evelyn glanced at her holographic tactical display and spotted a small target moving away from Chiron IV. The track was accelerating with almost fighter-like rapidity away from the planet Chiron, but was still close enough that it would be fighting against the planet’s gravity and unable to make the jump to super-luminal velocity.

  ‘Looks like a freighter climbing out of orbit,’ Evelyn replied. ‘No transponder code.’

  ‘Unlicensed, two hundred fifty tonnes,’ Teera confirmed.

  ‘And she’s fast,’ Evelyn noted as she checked the vessel’s course and velocity. ‘Looks like she’s spotted us and doesn’t want to play.’

  ‘Let’s give her a run for her money, shall we?’ Teera suggested.

  ‘Roger that,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Reaper flight, buster buster!’

  The Raythons rocketed at full power toward the target, the merchant vessel turning away from them and making a desperate attempt to escape the two fighters.

  ***

  VIII

  ‘Damn she’s quick,’ Evelyn replied as she glanced at her instruments and noted that the fighters were already nearing their maximum velocity.

  She spotted the freighter visually against the brilliant sky as a tiny black speck and a small aiming reticule appeared on Evelyn’s canopy, projected over the target with range, velocity and trajectory information.

  ‘She’s building up to super-luminal,’ Teera guessed. ‘I’m detecting a mass-drive spinning up.’

  Evelyn gauged the distance between them and the freighter, and made her decision. ‘Transfer all power to engines, give them all we’ve got. Let’s catch her up before she leaps.’

  ‘That’s risky!’ Teera called. ‘We’re at thirty thousand cubits already!’

  ‘Atlantia can still see us,’ Evelyn replied, ‘and I don’t want this one getting away.’

  Evelyn deactivated her weapons, shields and all non-essential devices, including her radar, and re-routed the power to her engines. The Raython accelerated further, now travelling at over a thousand cubits per second as it raced in pursuit of the merchant vessel. Although accelerating ever faster in the vacuum of space, all craft had a natural maximum velocity and range based upon how much fuel they had remaining in order to be used to slow down again. Faster than the Atlantia, if a Raython exhausted its fuel at maximum velocity, at a distant enough range, there were no other craft that could ever catch up with it again. The pilot would be forced to eject on a trajectory that would slow them down enough to be rescued, thus losing the valuable fighter to the void of space.

  ‘Almost there,’ she said, looking briefly over her shoulder to see Teera’s Raython keeping pace, a tiny silvery speck against the star fields.

  ‘Reaper Flight, Atlantia, pu.. b… ne.. cont…’

  The communication from Atlantia crackled with bursts of static interference caused by Chiron’s massive stellar storms.

  ‘We’re losing Atlantia,’ Teera warned. ‘Tactical orders are to always remain within comms range!’

  ‘Stay on target, I’ve almost got her,’ Evelyn replied, the Devlamine coursing through her veins shielding her from hubris or doubt and super-charging her determination.

  The freighter’s hull glinted in the light, and Evelyn saw her powerful engines glowing white hot as they propelled her toward a velocity high enough for her mass-drive to engage. Long, slender and sleek, the freighter was perfect for high-speed trade.

  ‘Why is she running?’ Teera asked.

  ‘Probbaly thinks we’re infected with the Word,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Don’t activate weapons, we’ll just pull in alongside and signal that we’re not infected.’

  ‘I’ll go wide,’ she reported. ‘Get out in front of them.’

  It was a simple fact that most of the human race had been infected by the Word, which was now hunting dow
n any survivors with extreme prejudice. Any survivors were thus extremely wary of anybody they encountered, and would likely flee a heavily armed frigate upon first sight and...

  ‘It’s turning toward us!’

  Evelyn looked up in surprise to see the digitised track on her viewing screen veer suddenly onto an intercept course.

  ‘It’s doing what?’

  ‘They’re engaging us!’

  Evelyn barely had time to think when the onrushing ship zoomed toward them and a burst of plasma fire rocketed toward her Raython. Evelyn hauled her fighter over and yanked hard on the control column as she rolled around the salvo, the plasma shots zipping past outside as she glimpsed the ship flash by and terrific speed.

  ‘Defensive break!’ Evelyn yelled.

  She hauled the Raython around a tight turn as she saw Teera’s Raython flash by in the opposite direction, each covering the other’s tail as they reversed course to engage or pursue the unknown ship.

  ‘She’s out of range!’ Teera called as they levelled out on a pursuit course.

  The craft was now drawing away from them, already out of effective weapons range.

  ‘Damn,’ Evelyn cursed.

  The pilot, whoever they were, was good and didn’t lack courage. Charging two Raythons head-on was the last thing they would have expected the unknown craft to do.

  ‘Maintain a pursuit course,’ Evelyn ordered as she glanced at her instruments and noted that the fighters were already again nearing their maximum velocity.

  ‘Where’s Atlantia?’

  Evelyn glanced at her displays and grinned to herself. The frigate was nowhere to be seen, and she realised that the captain must have reacted to what was happening.

  ‘She’s deploying countermeasures, hiding herself,’ she replied. ‘They’re going to sneak up on this guy and intercept him. Stay on his tail.’