Power Games

by David Applegate

  “Stardust, this is Alcyone Space Traffic Control; please respond. Over,” the operator said.

  “Alcyone Station Seven, I found ‘Red One’. He is near my current location. But my sensors are damaged. Over,” Hiro said.

  “Stardust return immediately to Alcyone Station Seven. Over,” the operator said.

  “Alcyone Control. I request immediate support. Over,” Hiro said.

  “Negative Stardust,” Galen said, then there was static.

  “Alcyone Station Seven?” Hiro asked.

  The only reply was static.

  Hiro changed channels, but each time there was static.

  “Fuck,” Hiro cursed under his breath, and he activated his missiles. “Eat a couple of missiles.”

  Hiro set his missiles to seek and fired two of them. Desperate, he yanked on the joystick and pushed the pedal all the way. The craft turned hard to the left, and then to the right, followed by a loop with a twist.

  Hiro saw the Banshee Two on radar, it decelerated hard, and he shot past it, it accelerated and closed in on him.

  “Missile Alert, Missile Alert, Missile Alert, Missile Alert,” sounded in Hiro’s ear. He reached out and pressed the flashing button on the control panel. The alarm went silent. He launched decoys and pulled up hard, into a loop, then inverted into a dive.

  Both incoming missiles opened, and each fired ten small warheads. Each raced towards Hiro’s craft.

  Hiro tapped the decoy launcher again. Two small canisters propelled by compressed gas, each transmitted a broad range of electronic signals, raced out behind the Interceptor. Two warheads locked on the decoys and exploded near them.

  “Sensor’s gone. Incoming missiles. Launching decoys, and taking evasive action,” Hiro said as he launched four more decoys and rolled left.

  Hiro hit the reset button. The external view came on, and he saw that the contacts were inside the inner ring of his radar.

  Again, Hiro pulled hard to the left. More of the incoming warheads exploded near the decoys. He launched a couple more.

  Hiro saw the eight remaining warheads closing fast, and he saw the Banshee Two in front of him. He launched more decoy canisters and pulled up, but the incoming missiles did not change course.

  “Alcyone Station Seven, this is Stardust, I am ejecting,” Hiro said as he reached down. He pulled the eject handle hard, leant back, folded his arms over his chest and closed his eyes. At first, nothing happened, then a series of alarms sounded.

  A soft female voice said, “Warning Impact Alert.”

  “Hiro, are we having fun yet?” Galen asked.

  “Why are you doing this?” Hiro asked.

  “Tell me, Hiro, who is the better pilot?”

  “You don’t understand; in a few years, you could have been a starship captain,” Hiro said.

  “Wrong answer,” Galen shouted.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  No reply.

  The main body of Hiro’s craft was torn open, the two fuel tanks ripped open, plasma vented from his rear engines.

  As his spacecraft was torn apart by a series of explosions, a voice in his ear said, “Auto-ejection engaged”.

  The plane shuddered with violent force; all his screens went blank, then Hiro found himself tumbling and floating. Inside the hull, many explosions went off. Inside the cockpit, Hiro’s seat inflated and reclined while the straps holding him pulled tight on his spacesuit and forced him back into the chair.

  The first manoeuvring ring held the nose to the midsection. It exploded as small charges inside blew the nose off, exposing the cockpit. The rear manoeuvring ring held the engine section to the body. It was severely damaged, but the internal explosions were enough to detach the engines.

  As the various explosive charges blew the spacecraft apart, the cockpit umbilical cord detached, and its rocket motors fired. The armoured pod was shot out of the plane like a cannonball.

  On the underside of the hull, two little irises opened. Each ejected a small black ball at high speed, in different directions away from the craft.

  Hiro, now a prisoner of his acceleration chair, had no control over the pod. The rocket motors stopped burning, and the ball slowly tumbled in space. It was now moving slowly away from the wreckage and broadcasting a distress beacon.

  The twisted remains of the Interceptor drifted in space while various pieces raced out in all directions. Galen was caught off guard as debris pelted his craft.

  ✽✽✽

  Galen saw the cockpit pod soar past him. He turned on the LIDAR and spun his spacecraft to face the pod. He turned on the high-intensity lamp in the sensor ball under the nose of the Banshee Two.

  Galen grinned at the tumbling pod on screen as he flipped the missiles off and flipped the guns on.

  Under the nose, a bay behind the sensor ball opened and a massive railgun, on a gimbal mount, popped out. Galen lined up with the top of the pod, fired the gun repeatedly making Hiro’s pod spin faster. He laughed.

  Galen manoeuvred his craft closer. His engines did not fire a bright yellow, but a dull blue. Like most Elven spacecraft, this one had two sets of manoeuvring rings that divided the craft into three. These housed the manoeuvring and braking engines. Each engine was smaller than those on the Banshee Interceptor. Also, the Banshee Two had two smaller engines around the ring, a total of sixteen to the Banshee Interceptor’s eight engines. The sleek craft danced in darkness as Galen moved around the pod, with no bright flashes to alert those searching for him.

  Galen heard, Danger.

  Where?

  Leave!

  “Relax,” Galen murmured. He turned the lamp off and retracted the gun. The craft shuddered, and “Impact Alert” sounded in his ear. Galen hit a flashing button on the control, and the secondary computer screen displayed a wireframe, on which multiple flashing red dots appeared on the primary hull.

  Galen gritted his teeth and growled, “Goodbye, Hiro.”

  The Banshee Two resumed course for a destination inside the asteroid field. Galen flew the craft slowly. The collision avoidance system showed him a path through the asteroids and highlighted any rocks that were on a collision course with him.

  ✽✽✽

  Inside the tumbling cockpit, Hiro was tossed about inside his suit. His nose hit his suit’s faceplate hard, and he exclaimed loudly. Blood gushed from his broken nose, blood splattered all over the inside of his faceplate, and a single drop of blood hung near his left eye.

  All Hiro could do was look at this single drop floating near his eye. It was the centre of the universe, and he was slowly spinning around this single drop of blood.

  Hiro closed his eyes, gripped with intense fear, his body shivered, and he cried. Hiro tried to release the harness, holding him to his seat. It pulled on his suit tightly, and he couldn’t reach the release.

  Hiro heard metallic pinging and then felt a sharp pain, he screamed in agony and opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see. He wanted to reach out.

  As the light faded, Hiro saw Kaede and Sora holding hands, running away from him over a field of long grass. Then darkness. He gasped for air, and his body convulsed, air leaked from bloodstained holes in his spacesuit.

  Hiro froze as air leaked from the severely damaged pod.

  Chapter 33

  August 20, 11,574. The rim of Alcyone Proxima.

  In the operations room of Alcyone Station Seven, dozens of console operators were busy at their consoles. The sound of many talking at the same time filled the room with a loud buzz. Everyone wore headsets with a microphone connected by wire to the phone on their belt. The operators had their phones inserted into a slot on their console.

  The station’s executive officer’s desk was at the top of a spiral staircase in the middle of a grated catwalk over the middle of the operations room. It was able to rotate to face one of the eight large screens on the wall.

  Some operators spoke with fighters on patrol, examined radar contacts, or directed traffic, while others were read
y to activate the station’s weapons and electronic warfare systems.

  “Stardust, this is Alcyone Station Seven, do you read? Over,” a console operator said. She waited thirty seconds, then repeated her message on channels B and C and received static.

  Lady Commander Nadia Dvorkin, a Field Elf with blonde hair and blue eyes, in an Imperial Navy uniform, with four stars on her collar, sat at a console on a rotating platform top of a gantry in the middle of the operations room. Her screen displayed a view of a transport ship closing the large hanger bay hatch.

  The console operator for Stardust changed the channel on her console to the intercom.

  “Commander, I have no response from Stardust. I have both data links showing as green; I am receiving a data stream, but not video,” the console operator said.

  “Standby. I will test the data link to Stardust,” Nadia replied.

  Nadia tapped at her keyboard and looked at her. It displayed a communications panel and selected Stardust. On channel A, she heard a loud static in her headset. She ran electronic warfare on a second window and chose ‘Stardust’. A short time later, the message, “Interference Pattern Detected,” appeared on the screen.

  Nadia clicked on communications and opened a new window and selected Admiral Fukuhina, who answered after a few rings.

  “Admiral, Stardust is being jammed,” Nadia said.

  Lady Fukuhina wore an Imperial Navy Uniform with a gold star on her collar. “Did Hiro give up the chase?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. We lost communications. The signal is being jammed.”

  “Send a squadron to the last known position of Stardust.”

  “Aye.”

  “I cannot wait to get back into my proper uniform.”

  “I am in no hurry. When this is over, I will have to sit through the entire Inquiry.”

  “I know how you feel. I did that once. You have my sympathy. Bye for now.”

  Fukuhina ended the call.

  The console connected to “Stardust,” message box filled fast with “Missile Warning,”, “Hull Breached,” “Engine Failure,” “Fuel Tank Rupture,” “Auto Ejection Engaged,” and the last message was “Self-Destruct Engaged.”

  The console operator pressed the alarm and stood up. She faced the commander. Nadia, talking to an officer on screen, said, “Launch all fighters.”

  Nadia ended the call, then clicked respond on the alarm on her message panel. “What is the situation?”

  “Commander, Stardust has been destroyed.”

  Nadia flipped open the cover off the alarm button and pressed it. The room’s lights turned red. She set communications to broadcast, “Condition Red, I repeat, Condition Red. This is not a drill. Activate the anti-missile systems. Launch all fighters.”

  Lady Fukuhina removed her phone from its slot in her desk and left her office. She ran the short distance from her office to the executive officer’s desk. When she stopped to adjust her microphone, she noticed one of the wall screens displayed the Night Owl. Its hangar was opening. Fukuhina tapped Nadia on the shoulder.

  Nadia turned around in her chair. Fukuhina pointed at screen five and made the scissor cutting gesture with her fingers and pointed at the screen. Nadia looked over, nodded, and turned the camera on dock five to the walkway.

  Fukuhina said, “Nadia, clear the area of civilian ships and send the Unicorn to investigate.”

  “Aye,” Nadia replied.

  “Begin transferring all data to the Night Owl. I have a feeling it is going to be a long day.”

  “Aye, Admiral.”

  “I don’t know how someone spends hundreds of years on the desk of a starship only to sit in an office and decide which ships to search for contraband.”

  “If it were up to me, I would search every Goblin ship.”

  “Are all Inquisition agents paranoid about Goblins?”

  “Experience. The vast majority of smugglers are Goblins.”

  “I will be in my office preparing a report for the Inquiry.”

  “You have it easy; you only have to face my father for a few hours.”

  “I better go.”

  Various console operators stopped to look when the door to the Operations Room opened. An officer in a black Inquisition uniform entered followed by two armed Knights in armoured suits. Lady Naru Inoue was a Flower Elf with light purple hair and violet eyes.

  Commander Nadia left her desk and came down the spiral stair to Lady Naru. “Hello, Lady Naru,” Nadia said.

  “What happened?” Naru asked.

  “We lost the signal for ‘Red One’, and ‘Stardust’ appears to have ejected. We detected jamming a short time ago,” Nadia said.

  “I will need your report, but first show me to the console for Stardust, Commander.”

  “This way.”

  Nadia led Naru over to the console “Stardust,” while the two Knights stood guard in front of the door.

  Naru looked at the console operator’s identification and chose her on the chat application.

  “Touch nothing, leave your identification card and phone in their slots, and go with them,” Naru said. She extended her black-gloved hand to the phone in the console and pulled the Console operator’s phone out, unplugged the headset and put the plug in the Console operator’s hand.

  ✽✽✽

  A Knight escorted the nervous console operator from the station’s Operations Room down the hall and to the airlock. In silence, they walked down the docking arm. Once aboard the Night Owl, she was taken to its brig.

  Inside a cell, another console operator sat. She stood when the light came on. The Knight put the worried Stardust Console operator in a cell facing the other one.

  “No talking, I remind you that a camera is recording. You will be transported to Alcyone Three and handed over to the Inquisition,” the Knight said.

  “I haven’t done anything,” the young girl protested.

  “You’re in protective custody,” the Knights replied.

  The Knight closed the clear plastic cell door, and the light went off when the Knight left. She stopped to check that both of the prisoners were on camera.

  ✽✽✽

  Naru, Nadia and Fukuhina were on a conference call. Naru sat at the Stardust console, Nadia at her desk, and Fukuhina sat at her desk in her office.

  “Has the data transfer from this console completed?” Naru asked.

  “Yes. I have disconnected it from the station’s network,” Nadia replied.

  “I would like the data nodes from both consoles to be removed and sealed in evidence bags. They are to be transferred to the Night Owl,” Naru said, “Will the Navy be in command of the recovery operation?”

  “No, I will remain aboard the station until the operation is over,” Fukuhina replied.

  “You have my full cooperation, and I will make sure all my crew give you, and other members of the Inquisition, their full cooperation. However, Lady Naru, Commander Nadia, please join me in my office,” the admiral said.

  “Yes, Admiral.”

  The Admiral was in her office, typing fast on the wireless keyboard on her lap as she talked. Her desk was a computer, and the desktop was the screen. The display was four windows. The active system displayed a report addressed to command.

  Two comfortable chairs with padded armrests, not as big as her own, stood on the other side of the desk. They were superior to the work chairs in the control room, though. A small square tea table with cushion seating for four to the left had a Japanese tea set on the table. A tiny terrarium on a stand beside her contained a pink orchid. On the wall, a picture of Fukuhina with the Emperor handing her the Star of the Empire medal.

  As Nadia walked down the gantry, she felt the gantry shake. She grabbed the rails and looked about; One of the six large screens on the walls showed a freighter lifting from the docking arm. No one else reacted. Naru was not far behind her on the spiral stairs to the gantry. Nadia came to the door of the admiral’s office and knocked, then waited with Naru
.

  Fukuhina pressed a button on her desk, and the door opened. The ladies entered and sat.

  “I received new orders. First, Lady Naru, you are to document your investigations and escort the data to the Inquisition Command in Imperial City aboard the Night Owl,” Fukuhina said.

  “What of my investigation?” Naru asked.

  “The other Inquisition officers will take over,” Fukuhina replied.

  “You need authorisation from the Inquisition to give me orders that affect my duties,” Naru stated.

  “They come from Emperor Takahiro aboard the Night Owl. I will show the orders soon,” Fukuhina said.

  “Oh,” Naru said.

  “Stardust was Prince Hiro Hashimoto. We are ordered to recover the body and hand it over to three Blood-Witches from the Night Owl. Naru, you will go with Nadia to the Unicorn. If they recover the flight data recorders, take possession of them.”

  “Anything else I need to know before I go?” Naru asked.

  “You should know this, but as a reminder, Blood-Witches refuse to space transfer between ships. They will travel by shuttle only so you will depart from the Night Owl. A shuttle will take you both with the Blood-Witches and their equipment to the Unicorn, and a second shuttle will follow you with Knights and containers to secure the two data nodes.”

  ✽✽✽

  The main body of the station was a hexagon structure with six docking arms, each over a kilometre in length. There was a large flat-topped dome on the top of the main body and another on the bottom. Each housed a large hangar with a large landing bay under six launch tubes.

  In the control room, a navy officer wearing a headset said, “This is not a drill; This is a red alert. I want all combat craft launched. All repair crews don spacesuits and stand by airlocks. Engineering, check the fire suppression system and security, unlock all weapons lockers.”

  Pilots rushed from the ready rooms to their waiting Banshee fighters. Each sat upon cradles on prongs waiting to be lifted inside the launch tube.

  Pilots entered the craft, and while they strapped themselves in, ground crews sealed the hatch and removed the stairs. The prongs supporting the spaceplane rotated until upright in the launch tube, which then sealed.