Star Angel: Dawn of War (Star Angel Book 3)

by David G. McDaniel

  “Mis pantalones huelen a queso,” Bianca over-enunciated the Spanish pronunciation, stretching her mouth wide with each syllable. Jess laughed.

  “What the hell?” she shook her head. “My pants what like cheese?” She and Bianca were slouched in comfy chairs in one of the Reaver’s staterooms, shoes off and lounging tiredly. They weren’t really tired, in fact Jess was quite awake, even a little keyed up, as they were finally expecting to get things rolling, but it felt good to totally flop the way they were.

  “Smell,” B explained. “My pants smell like cheese.”

  She finished saying this just as Zac walked in. He raised an eyebrow. “Your pants smell like cheese?”

  Bianca giggled and Jess straightened, pushing a few strands of hair out of her face. They’d all been going a little stir crazy aboard the Reaver, she and Bianca smack in the middle of what had degenerated into a goofy session of Spanish practice. By now it was mostly just Bianca cracking wise.

  Jess had to admit it was some much needed hilarity.

  “We were practicing Spanish,” she explained. “Bianca knows more than me. She’s in Spanish Four.”

  “Mis pantalones huelen a queso!” Bianca announced with a flourish and Jess laughed, a little too loudly. They were both pretty far gone.

  Zac’s next question, however, was along a different line.

  “Spanish?”

  And she was reminded, again, he was not of their world.

  “We’re going to Spain,” she explained, realizing they hadn’t really talked much about that aspect of the mission. “They speak Spanish. Bianca thought it might be a good idea to bone up.”

  “They speak a different language in Spain? Why?”

  Bianca scoffed. “There’s like, a hundred languages on Earth.”

  “A hundred!” Zac was incredulous. “Why so many? You guys communicate instantly according to Nani. Holy … You must spend all your time translating. Why?” He still couldn’t believe it. “A hundred? Really?”

  Bianca shrugged. Jess didn’t have a better answer.

  Zac tried to imagine it.

  “That’s why we’re practicing.” Bianca remained slouching in her seat, feet way up the wall, hair partly covering her face. Every now and then she would blow a few strands up, ineffectively, not really intending to make any change. The hair would fall stubbornly back across one eye.

  Zac looked at them both. “And so knowing how to announce that your pants smell like cheese is something I should know? Do I need to know this? Or should I just make sure to keep my pants smelling fresh?”

  Jess smiled and saw he was into it.

  Bianca ripped off another one: “Y su cabeza es una aceituna!” She waved her arms.

  “My head is an olive?” Jess was able to figure that one out.

  “Nice,” said Zac. “I can see you guys are really prepping.” There was no doubt they were both a little punchy. Bianca especially.

  “We should be able to get by with English,” Jess admitted. “We’ll be American tourists. But knowing a little Spanish won’t hurt.”

  Zac nodded. “Well, it’s time to put your Spanish to work. Nani sent me to get you guys. She’s got everything loaded and we’re ready. Next stop, Spain.”

  The target weekend was upon them and, after much planning and preparation—including Bianca’s impromptu Spanish lessons in these final hours—they were about to do this.

  “I’ll meet you at the bays,” said Zac, with a wry turn of his lips. “It looks like you need a few more minutes.” And with a wink he was gone and the door shut behind him.

  Jess felt her heart skip, getting nervous all over again, but she was ready and, truthfully, this last little bit with Bianca had helped bring a ton of perspective to what they were doing. This was going to be easy.

  “You know I’m kind of glad we’re doing this,” Jess said as she stood and stretched.

  “Why?” Bianca wanted to know. She stayed where she was.

  Jess shrugged. “It’s like this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I feel like I’m supposed to be here.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. Don’t you feel kind of like this was meant to be?”

  “No.”

  “Just get up. Come on. They’re waiting on us.”

  Bianca rose, reluctantly and with much theater, moaning in an effort to get her body up and in motion. They both put on their shoes and headed out of the room, back through the gloss-black, tracer-lit halls of the starship to the fighter bays. It was a short walk from the observation room.

  Zac, Nani, Satori and Willet were waiting.

  “Here it is,” Nani held out a small device as the girls walked up. She stood with Zac and the others, eager. “Should be ready to go. Everything is set in English, the interface is like I showed you. It’s a computer and a communicator.”

  Jess took it. In size and shape it was like a tablet from Earth, scarily so; a small one, or even an overlarge smart phone. Its function was the same, though she imagined the Kel technology was far beyond any Earth device. Apple would probably love to get their hands on this. She turned it over in her hands. Matte black and smooth, dark screen, no visible lines or buttons. Bianca leaned in for a look.

  “I’ve put all the relevant info on it,” Nani informed them. “It can tap most Earth networks and has direct frequency communication with us and with the fighter.”

  Jess nodded. The device felt rugged. She wondered if it was made of the same composites as the armor of the Kel ship. It kind of felt like it. Like it would take a lot to break it.

  “It’s very durable,” Nani confirmed. Then: “I’ve considered other precautions we might take, but any more than this will just be too hard to conceal. Honestly, with Zac, you don’t need anything more.”

  Bianca nodded her head knowingly. “Damn straight,” she said, an “ah yeah” tone in her voice. “Jess and her OP boyfriend.”

  Nani pointed to the tablet—even as Jess tried not to react to her friend’s comment. “If anything else is needed we can link and load it directly. This will be your intelligence on the ground. I’ve tested it. From what I know about your culture it should conceal easily as one of your own personal devices. At least at first glance. It works the same, keyed to your biometrics and Zac’s. It should fit easily in a purse.”

  Jess nodded.

  And that was their first stop after landing; picking up—stealing was the right word—a bag and some local clothes. They were dropping over the target in the middle of the morning, and with Bianca’s help Nani had identified a boutique where Zac would break them in and they would get a purse and the clothes they’d need to fit in at the club—critical to the success of the mission—along with clothes for the day in the city. Zac still had no shirt. Jess had on the basic Anitran garb she’d worn out to the field of battle. At the boutique they’d clothe themselves as inconspicuously as possible, get the things they needed for the club, spend the day in town then don the club garb and execute their mission.

  Jess remained nervous about much of it, but she had to admit she was a little excited about spending a day in Spain with Zac. Though she’d been to another world, flown on a starship and otherwise traveled beyond the experience of any other person on Earth, there was yet something romantic and quite appealing about hanging out in Europe with the boy she loved.

  The small group stood looking at each other.

  This is it.

  Satori and Willet had gone through a battery of drills with Nani leading up to now, and even when Nani thought they were done Satori demanded more, practicing simulated flights of the fighter until Jess wondered if she was just doing it to keep her mind off the impending thing they were about to do. The upshot, however, was that she now knew the Kel fighter inside and out.

  “All right,” she said, and for an odd moment, as Jess looked at her and her bright red hair, she found herself wondering what kinds of hair dye they had on Anitra. Better than any on Earth, that’s for sure.
Even Satori’s roots were still the same flaming copper-red they were way back when they went to deliver the Icon to Zac in the field fighting Kang. “Everyone double-check. Make sure we’re ready to drop.”

  Jess was actually glad for her thorough preparations. Satori’s experience as a military commander—and Willet’s—would be huge on this mission. The two of them would get the fighter safely to the ground, then back to orbit once Jess and Zac accomplished their objective. They would also be on hand if anything went wrong.

  Jess made a show of checking over the few items she would bring. Zac carried nothing extra. Satori and Nani had stowed what they thought would be needed aboard the fighter.

  Only part of the craft was visible in the hold. Like boarding an airplane, you could see the skin of its hull around the door and a little bit of the nose; more shiny, gloss-black metal with a few of the violet Kel markings, but otherwise the rest was hidden, nestled into its recessed hold aboard the Reaver. Around a corner on the other side, out of sight, was the second craft. The Reaver had two, for escort or to deploy for special operations, extra defense or attack, etc. The fighters were about the size of a bus, sleek, and sported large powerplants, proportionately overpowered guns and an array of fighting electronics. The small craft were designed primarily with that purpose in mind—fighting—but there was room aboard for a small contingent of warriors.

  “Well then,” Satori deemed them ready. “Let’s get going.”

  And, to Jessica’s surprise, Bianca teared up. They weren’t leaving for long, but the circumstances of the moment were, suddenly, overwhelming. Jess couldn’t blame her. As hard as they’d worked each second to hold it together in the face of all that had happened, not to mention the hopelessness of their future as a continuation of the lives they once knew … it was a wonder they weren’t both permanently curled up in a ball on the floor weeping. And so, after just having engaged in such a ridiculous session of goofiness, “learning” Spanish, Bianca was suddenly serious and looking sad.

  “I’ll be fine,” Jess assured her. “Zac will take care of me.”

  “I know.” Bianca sniffed. Then she turned to Zac: “You better.”

  “I will.”

  Bianca smiled through the welling tears. She looked to Jess. “Guess you’ll kind of get to go to prom after all. The club is like a dance. You can pretend it’s prom.”

  Jess gave her a long hug.

  She loved her friend.

  Without further ado Satori stepped through the hatch, followed by Willet, Zac and, slowly, Jessica. They each filed in and Satori went to the controls, arming systems and wasting no time as the heavy door began notching closed. From inside the fighter Jess waved to Bianca and, just as her friend started crying openly—Whunk, the door locked into place.

  They were now solidly aboard.

  “Will we heat up on entry?” Jess asked. Not that she cared, or that Nani wouldn’t already have it figured it out, but all at once she needed to speak, to turn her mind from the panic suddenly closing in. It was the same as when the door first closed on the Reaver, all that time ago. By now she was used to being aboard the Reaver, but here she was being locked inside an even smaller tin can and it was freaking her out. Just a little.

  “Heat up?” Satori was bringing up more systems, prepping for flight. Zac took a seat and motioned Jess over beside him. Jess looked around nervously. The interior of the fighter was more of the Kel design, a smaller version of the black surfaces and purple neon trace lighting of the mother craft.

  Forcing herself to move she went over and sat by him. “When we go through re-entry,” she explained for Satori. “If we heat up and make flames it will make us visible.”

  Satori continued the launch process. “We’re not doing a ballistic entry,” she said. “This will be a controlled descent with maximum countermeasures. There won’t be any heating.” She pointed out a few things to Willet at the co-pilot position beside her, then, before Jess could ask any more said:

  “Here we go.”

  Jess braced herself; took hold of Zac’s hand and … the fighter slid from its notched recess and away from the Reaver. No jarring, nothing abrupt. Totally smooth. As they separated the view screens popped and came alive, long screens on each side, just like windows, at the front and overhead. For a moment, in the face of the staggering view, all her fear melted away. Overhead the belly of the massive Reaver flew gently away, seeming to rise even as they fell. To the sides and below the horizon-spanning, hazy blue-white curve of Earth came into view. Their trajectory was so mild she was again impressed with the advancement of the Kel. Like the Reaver itself, the screens on the fighter were not actual windows but created the visual perception of clear glass. Almost as if the big, rectangular screens were actual holes in the hull.

  Slowly they began to turn, continuing their drop. Jess watched Satori as she tapped controls and checked readings. Willet followed along, watching, ready to assist but clearly not needed. They maneuvered what seemed to be slowly but was likely quite fast, heading from the daylight side into the band of night. Jess looked back up and the Reaver was gone. They were angling down now, bit by bit, the continent of Europe coming into view. Soon she could make out the dark mass of the Iberian peninsula—Spain—dotted with scattered concentrations of lights in the night. It was about 3 a.m. local, the best time for their approach, it had been decided, and as they drew ever closer she found and focused on the blob of city lights that was Madrid. Segovia was just to the northwest of that brilliant cluster.

  After a few minutes of trying and failing to pick out details she had a thought and took out the small Kel tablet.

  “I’m going to test the comm,” she announced.

  “Go right ahead.” Satori was concentrating. This was her first real flight, unsimulated, and while Nani had assured her the simulations were exactly like the real thing it must no doubt feel very different to be at the helm of a few hundred tons of metal on a controlled fall miles above the ground. Everything right then was up to Satori. Their lives depended on her.

  Of course, Jess imagined, the Kel technology was so advanced she couldn’t believe the fighter would simply fall out of the sky. It wasn’t like flying an old bi-plane. Satori would likely have to fly it into the ground on purpose. In fact if she got up and walked away from the controls Jess doubted it would crash. It would probably just hover or something.

  She activated the tablet. It was, indeed, similar to the tablets and touch interactions she was used to on Earth. Eerily so. The interface came up. She tapped the ‘call’ button and a second later Bianca answered, face searching her out on the screen.

  “Jessica?”

  At first Jess thought to make a joke. To say something like, “No, it’s your mom,” or something of the sort—Duh! Who else would it be? —but stopped herself short.

  It just wouldn’t be funny.

  “Thought I’d check this out,” she said. “Can you see me? I see you perfect.”

  “Yeah, I see you.”

  “How’s everything?”

  “We’re watching you. It’s like watching a UFO from above or something. Creepy. Only this UFO is you. You’re inside.” She almost teared up again but firmed her expression. The tracks of her tearfall from moments ago were still evident.

  She sniffed. “Be careful down there, ok?”

  “I will.”

  For a long moment they stared awkwardly at each other on the small screen.

  Then Zac, sitting to Jessica’s left, leaned over.

  “Mis,” he felt his way through the pronunciation, “pantalones?”

  Bianca’s expression broke. She giggled and Zac grinned.

  “Good, eh?”

  “Perfect,” she agreed.

  Jess looked admiringly at him. Taken with his effort to lift their spirits.

  “How does the rest go?” he asked. “Mis pantalones smell like cheese?”

  “Mis pantalones huelen a queso.”

  “Got it,” Zac nodded and repeat
ed: “Mis pantalones huelen a queso.”

  “Good!”

  He turned to Jess. “Do they?”

  She shoved him. “Get out of here.”

  He allowed himself to be pushed, announcing as he leaned: “Mis cabeza huelen a queso!”

  Evidently he’d been paying closer attention than she thought.

  “Yes!” Bianca enthused from the small screen.

  “See?” said Zac. “Mix and match. You see the way I did that?”

  Jess shook her head.

  “Queso pantalones!” he said. “Cheese pants!”

  “That’s not exactly the way—”

  “Mis queso pantalones huelen a mis cabeza! My cheese pants smell like my head!” He looked at Jess directly, eyes wide and feigning great amazement with this new language skill.

  Declared: “I am so ready for this.”

  She laughed and shoved him again. “Shut up.”

  “You two having fun?” Satori asked from the pilot’s seat. She sounded annoyed.

  Jess looked down to Bianca on the tablet screen. “Call you later.”

  “Okay. Bye.”

  And they hung up.

  She giggled a little more with Zac, under her breath, thoroughly enjoying the back and forth, then the terrain below had moved close enough to command their full attention. Dark, empty patches were visible, areas with no signs of habitation, some quite large, there in the foothills of the mountains. Satori brought up scanning and telemetry info which played across the screen, set to display in English. It was a recent feature Nani figured out in order to make the Kel technology easier to use: having the alien glyphs display in English letters with full translations. That action alone seemed to have turned the Reaver all at once into an advanced American starship, rather then a purely alien craft.

  They headed lower, toward the area Nani picked, so far no need to make any changes, no need for correction. By the time they were directly overhead the lights of the closest civilization were far enough away that, in the final stages of their descent, Jess could only vaguely discern details that told her this or that light in the distance was a car, or a house, or a green or red traffic light and so on. Unless someone was on the ground camping near the vertical column down which they approached it was likely they went entirely unseen. Nani assured them the craft itself would not be picked up by any electronic means such as radar. There were no outside lights. And the only sound the fighter gave off was, apparently, little more than a low-frequency hum.