by S. H. Jucha
What scared Ellie the most as her sub-wing flew toward the enormous battleship was the frequency with which she readjusted her helmet’s display. In practice encounters with her compatriots, her adversaries remained no more than a blip on her helmet’s scan, but as she closed on the UE battleship it filled her screen, and Ellie adjusted the display to back out her view, again and again. Black space, that thing’s big, Ellie thought, realizing she was repeating one of Sheila’s favorite expressions.
Ellie contacted her flight commanders.
The fifteen commanders focused on their wing commander’s next thoughts. At this point, any information about the enemy battleship was good, but information from the SADEs would be invaluable.
Ellie added a third set of circles in another color.
Strapped in their pilot chairs, the flight commanders examined Ellie’s image of the battleship and her overlay of colored circles. Of the Haraken pilots, most were Méridiens and only eight were New Terrans. Ellie had packed Deirdre’s pilot roster with all the veterans available. All other Haraken veterans were aboard the Money Maker. Ellie flew with sixty-three untested pilots, who couldn’t help but be frightened by what they faced. Lead with strength played again in her thoughts.
Ellie gave her commanders sufficient time to communicate to their wings. Now she had an important duty to perform.
The comms of the pilots echoed Ellie’s cry, and tears threatened to blur her eyesight. She spared a brief thought for Étienne.
Then as each flight commander had done, Ellie linked her controller to those of her three wing pilots, locking their travelers in formation as they flew together against the massive battleship.
* * *
Captain Chofsky released his short-range defensive crews to independent fire, directing his pilot to orient the battleship at the approaching swarm of fighters. Odd things, these fighters, Chofsky thought, saddened that he probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn how they worked, at least not today. Today, only one side would survive.
As the Hand of Justice defense crews opened fire, throwing slugs at the enemy fighters that detonated into hundreds of small balls, Chofsky watched the attacking force separate into sixteen different squadrons that flew up, under, and around his wings, and fear struck his heart. Looks as if I found a commander as dangerous as I am, Dimitri thought.
All battleship personnel were already strapped into their chairs or bunks, and Chofsky began shouting orders at his pilot to keep the battleship moving and turning in an attempt to bring his massive front-wing defensive guns to bear on the squadrons of fast and acrobatic fighters.
Soon the emergency reports began flowing in, and Chofsky cut them off from his chair’s communications panel, leaving his bridge officers to manage the damage. Try as hard as the captain might to protect the ship, the enemy fighters continued to swarm over and around the wings, striking at the battleship from all directions. The enemy fighters had yet to score a significant strike, and as time wore on the defensive armament started to dwindle their numbers. Chofsky began to hope as his pilot executed a turn that caught one of the enemy squadrons off guard, and his gunners eliminated two of the four fighters.
* * *
Who are you? Ellie thought, fighting to bring her flight to bear on one of the battleship’s critical targets. Despite the vessels great size, the captain kept his ship turning and twisting, successfully orienting his front wings toward squadrons of the Haraken travelers, and although Ellie’s fighters were scoring hits with every beam shot, the damage was insufficient — such was the immenseness of the ship.
By now, Ellie’s squadron was down to herself and a single pilot. Deciding it was time for a desperate action on her part, she ordered her remaining wing to break off. The lieutenant, shaken by the order, nonetheless obeyed and vectored off to hunt his own targets.
From behind the battleship, where Ellie just missed a shot at the engines, she swung her traveler up and over in a wide arc to attack the enemy from the front. Her target was one of the killer missiles buried deep in its protective sleeve. Ellie’s implant replayed recent images of the front wings as recorded by her compatriots, searching for a missile port that might have had its nearby defensive guns destroyed. When her search discovered no such opportunity, she let out a sigh and settled back into her chair.
Ellie’s traveler reached the top of its arc, and she calculated where the battleship might turn next, intending to come down into the face of oblivion. Whether she would be able to successfully fire her beam down the missile sleeve’s throat or not, odds were great that this would be her last flight aboard her beloved traveler.
Apologies, my love, I meant to come home, Ellie thought and blocked her flight commanders’ comms. Her attack angle was detected, and the remainder of the wing was hurriedly messaging her. She pushed her traveler over in the final leg of the arc as the battleship’s face twisted her way. Suddenly, a priority signal overrode her comm, and Ellie heard Deirdre’s urgent message,
Ellie snapped out of her reverie and twisted her traveler out of the path of Deirdre’s and Svetlana’s wings as they flew into the face of battleship, overwhelming the gunnery stations and shooting past the battleship before its defensive forces could target them.
Overwhelmed by the mass attack, the battleship’s pilot hesitated before inputting the next command sequence. It gave two of Ellie’s pilots their opportunity. A lieutenant targeted a missile sleeve halfway out on the port wing, and a captain targeted another missile port near the center fuselage. Both pilots scored hits and huge explosions rocked the battleship.
Ellie ordered her pilots to track the large debris chunks and eliminate them, ensuring they would not become a da
nger to ships, planets, and moon bases. As the Haraken pilots rendered the sections into dust, she was reminded of the Swei Swee destroying the vestiges of the Nua’ll world traveler, which the aliens referred to as their prison ship. Neither of us wants a reminder of our adversaries, Ellie thought.
-30-
Maria ordered the recall of a traveler to Prima to transport her, Ambassador Stroheim, and Ministers Drake and Jaya to the Last Stand, which had collected its fighters and was inbound to New Terra. “Ordered” would be the polite term. What the ex-TSF general actually said to her office administrator was, “I’m headed to the Prima shuttle terminal. There better be a traveler waiting for me when I get there!”
There was a moment of sensitive confrontation when Sheila explained to Maria that she was ordered to return to Haraken as quickly as possible and couldn’t afford the time to meet with her. But Maria calmly played a presidential card, reminding Sheila of New Terra’s close ties with Haraken and her personal relationship with Alex.
Maria, Eric, Will, and Darryl met with Sheila, Edouard, Ellie, and Deirdre in the captain’s cabin. If truth be told, Maria’s ministers, Will and Darryl, didn’t have a formal role in the meeting, but they refused to be left behind, grabbing coats and racing to catch Maria’s aero-car before she left Government House. It was going to be the ministers’ first opportunity to get a peek inside a Haraken carrier.
On introduction, Maria hugged the two wing commanders, Ellie and Deirdre, thanking them for their bravery and commitment to the people of New Terra.
“We are only returning a favor long owed, Ser President,” Ellie said, touching hand to heart and nodding her head.
“Yes, Commander … well, we might all spend a lifetime trying to repay that one what we owe,” Maria said. “But to business, Commodore, Captain, I’m loath to see you leave Oistos and take your fighters with you.”
Sheila ducked her head for a moment before she expressed her own needs. “Madam President, my apologies, but I thought to ask you for some of your travelers to replace our losses.”
“Well, then we do have a conundrum, don’t we, Commodore,” said Maria, leaning back in her chair and forcing the nanites to conform to her new position. When life gives us a respite, I must request one of these chairs for my office, Maria thought.
“Wait, Commodore, if you want our travelers, then that must mean you can convert them from a shuttle to a fighter,” Jaya said, and just like that Maria smiled and praised herself for allowing her two favorite ministers to accompany her. The three New Terrans leaned forward expectantly, eager expressions plastered on their faces.
“Mickey has always said that our travelers are exact replicas of the original dark travelers except for the shell, our controller, our interior amenities, and our hatches,” Sheila replied. “It should mean there is the possibility of turning the beams on, but it would require transporting them to Haraken for Mickey’s people to make the alterations. Madam President, I have a nagging feeling that we’ve made a powerful enemy, who will come again to our space soon without any diplomatic intentions. I believe we’ll need every fighter we can get.”
“One moment, Sers, let’s ask an expert, or at least the closest thing we have to one, about this question,” Ellie said, comming Mutter, and passing her link through the captain’s vid screen.
“Mutter, we would like to convert the New Terran shuttles to fighters,” Ellie said, then hesitated when Mutter froze in place. Ellie looked in confusion at Sheila, wondering what prompted the SADE’s fugue.
Moments later, Mutter focused on the vid pickup, sending,
“Possible?” Ellie asked. “As in it’s easy to do … as we, or you, can do it here in New Terra?”
“Mutter, why wasn’t this information volunteered earlier?” Eric Stroheim asked.
“Mutter, please clarify. Why has the information only come available now?” Sheila asked.
Around the table, there was a mix of joy and disappointment. The technically minded were thrilled with the aspect of converting shuttles to fighters, but the political and military leaders were crestfallen, imagining only Alex or Julien possessed the authority to approve the conversion, and those two were light-years away.
However, Sheila was unwilling to give up so easily. “Mutter, does anyone in the Oistos system have authorization?”
Heads turned from the vid screen to eye Eric, who raised his hands in confusion. “Mutter, when did you receive this program from Julien?” Eric asked.
“But that … that was years ago, Mutter,” Eric stuttered.
Edouard hazarded a guess. “Mutter, what is the complete list of individuals who have authorization and are in this system?”
In the stunned silence, they heard Will Drake quietly say, “Catch him if you can.”
“Could we have made use of these converted shuttles in the battle?” Minister Jaya asked, focusing on Ellie for the answer.
“Unfortunately, no, Minister,” Ellie replied. “While we might have accomplished the conversions in time, we had no time to train the pilots.”
“But we have Dagger pilots,” Jaya ventured.
“It would have taken months to train your Dagger pilots, Minister,” Ellie replied. “Not only would your pilots have to be trained on new craft and beam tactics, they would have needed to learn to fly these quick and fast craft in squadron and wing formations. And my apologies if I’m bringing up a sensitive subject, but our fighter pilots make extended use of their implants to coordinate with their controllers and one another.”
When the New Terrans did not appear convinced, Sheila said, “Without trained military pilots in those travelers, Sers, they might just have easily turned one another or our fighters into space dust.”
“Mutter, I have a question,” Maria said. “Do you have any thoughts as to why this information was secreted in this manner?”
Maria thought to herself for a moment and then began nodding in understanding. “Yes, Mutter, unique circumstances … such as in a time of dire emergency.”
Mutter replied.
Eric, staring with resolve at Maria, said,
While the humans pondered, Mutter considered several options, discarding all but one, before those at the conference table took their third breath. She queried Captain Durak and Commander Valenko on her plan and received their approval.
Mutter requested the two humans come to her side, and she addressed the conference group.
Mutter’s statement caused Maria to consider her Dagger pilots. New Terra’s Daggers were kept planetside as a line of last defense against the Earthers if they attempted to land shuttles on the planet. Training the Dagger pilots, in concert with the shuttle pilots, would expedite readiness. One group knew fighter tactics, and the other group knew the travelers. They can learn together, Maria thought.
“Any issues with this plan, Captain Durak, Commander Valenko?” Sheila asked.
