by Autumn Birt
“We’re too close. We need height and distance.”
“Well then, let’s give them some.”
The other two planes followed his, Arinna directing them to fire on the tracks as well as they swept away from Sofia.
“What is it?” Arinna asked, glancing over at him as he frowned at the screen.
“I keep looking for fuel,” he admitted.
Arinna leaned back in her seat and laughed. Jared grinned as well, relief replacing some of the disbelief. But not much. After everything, the years of war and loss, he could not fully believe that fate had been kind.
“Do you want to fly us back to base?” he asked her.
“No. I told you I can’t fly.”
This time, what she said sunk in. “You don’t know how to fly at all?” he asked. The fact that Michael had been Air Force just made that feel impossible to him.
“No, I never had to with Michael around. He flew enough for both of us.”
“What were you planning on doing with these things then?” he asked, wondering what her plan would have been if no one could have figured out how to fly the damn thing.
“I figured you would teach me,” Arinna said, matter of fact.
“I can’t believe you are still alive,” Jared replied with a shake of his head at her grin. “I’ll have a lot to teach you if you’re going to be joining us in the field.” He caught her quick glance from the corner of his eye.
“Not going to make me stay behind?”
“Nah, you proved useful enough. So if you are going to be joining us on missions, what should we call you? If you enlist, you won’t be in a position to command,” Jared teased.
Arinna’s glance was full of amusement. “I don’t think I’ll enlist. I’d have to leave my position as the Minister of the Armed Forces, which wouldn’t do any good. We’d be stuck listening to some other political jockey. The troops are yours, Captain.”
“Yes, well I seem to be taking orders from you and I’ll be damned if I call you MOTHER.”
That did earn a laugh. “Hah, I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
Changing Tide
October 2062
“Jared?” Arinna said, flipping on her comm line.
“Yes, my Lady?”
“Really. You don’t have to call me that,” she said with a sigh.
When she’d said she no longer wanted to be called Minister, she had never once fathomed that they would call her the Lady Grey. Admittedly, the Guard troops hadn’t come up with it. Parliament had begun honoring any who served in the war with a title, even if it were a small one like Lord or Lady for most. Higher command meant a grander title on retirement ... or death. Usually it was death.
The slang for the Guard was still the Greys or the Grey Guard due to their mishmash of specialties and units. They were the army, air force, navy, and special forces. And she was their leader even if not officially since she refused to enlist. Jared followed her, so the Guard followed her and had come to love their rebellious leader. So when a civilian dubbed her the Lady Grey, the Grey Guard latched to the name with fervor. And they wouldn’t call her anything else no matter how much she wished, ordered, or cursed.
“I just saw a horse and carriage. Why did I see a horse and carriage?” she asked.
“Because the remaining fuel distribution has been redirected to the Guard,” Jared answered matter-of-factly.
“All of it?” Arinna asked. She swore at his affirmative. “I didn’t think we were that low.”
“We need it to win this bloody war. It isn’t like any of the countries holding a truce with the damn FLF will sell us any,” Jared replied. “The little gasoline remaining for civilian use is getting scarce. So in the absence ...”
“Horses and bloody wagons. I feel like I’m living in the eighteenth century some days. Well make sure there is enough fuel for the tractors in the ag fields, at least. We need the food too.”
“You are flying in a plane running off of spent nuclear waste. Which part of that reminds you of the eighteenth century?”
“Shut up, Captain,” she said, grinning.
“Yes, my Lady.”
She’d have to reprimand him. As soon as she stopped laughing.
The pace of the war slowed. It had to. Not even the high tech planes could root out every FLF soldier. And there were only two in operation. One needed to be sacrificed to find a way to build more. Besides that, beyond the planes, they were pretty much out of equipment.
Arinna locked down Europe. Every supply sent to help the FLF was destroyed or confiscated. She ordered Kehm to figure out how the FLF communicated and laughed to hear it was through old ham radio networks and equipment. It was so low tech, she never would have thought of it. But like much of the FLF armaments, though mothballed, stockpiled, and forgotten by most of the world, they worked. The transmissions were hackable, but untraceable. Worse, they could not be altered. In the end, Arinna ordered Guard soldiers to destroy any relay and radio tower they located. The FLF communication network crumbled just as they had taken down much of Europe’s.
She ran the war much the way she and Michael had once wished to see it when they were just small pieces of Europe’s army. Now, she ordered what she wanted done, and no one stopped her. Not even MOTHER.
They weren’t happy about her control of the Guard, but the win in Sofia and continuing gains won her popularity. MOTHER would not touch her while she won back Europe, and while the soldiers and people MOTHER claimed to represent supported her. She lived on borrowed time, so she made the most of it.
“I’m coming in on the target. You see any movement in the area?” Arinna asked.
“Negative,” Terri answered.
“I still don’t like it,” Jared chimed in. “We have two planes. You shouldn’t be out there without backup.”
Knowing he couldn’t see her, Arinna rolled her eyes. Jared was even more protective of her than he had been of Michael. At least it felt that way. “We are running out of more than fuel and equipment. Need I remind you? This is just a simple recon. I don’t need a babysitter and we don’t have the soldiers to spare.”
Jared didn’t answer. Which meant he was pissed but couldn’t argue. Arinna laughed to herself as she gently set the dactyl down. When they’d first found the planes in Sofia, Arinna had not known how to fly. She’d considered not learning, regulating herself to only fly with Jared and assigning the remaining plane to other, more capable pilots. Jared accepted no excuse. He drilled her until she could maneuver the high tech bird blindfolded with the computer squelching airspeed, elevations, and obstacles. She wouldn’t admit that she loved flying and the challenge of it. Now being able to take the plane, she appreciated that she could fly alone.
“Dactyl One down. Leaving it in defense mode while I check out the center,” Arinna said, eyeing the plain building whose parking lot she’d just landed in.
“Are you sure about this?” Jared asked. She cut off the plane’s comm without answering. He needed to worry less.
The dactyl swiveled after she cleared its tucked wings. Defense mode meant it would evaluate anything nearby for potential threat. It was like having a massive and deadly robotic backup. Darn it, she was getting fond of the thing. Which is why she wanted more and what led her to Trier, Germany.
Lewin had taken her command of the Guard the best out of those on the old Defense Council. He, too, had recognized the planes brought back from Sofia, quickly dubbed dactyls for their shape. When asked, he scanned pages of old information, looking for how the planes had been made, where, designs, anything that would help them reproduce the amazing machines. He’d sent her to Trier near the old US air base of Spangdahlem. There, he promised, she would find plans on how to make more.
The area appeared clear of FLF. Really, today her biggest worry was if Lewin had told MOTHER. Well, of course, he’d told Eldridge. She just wasn’t sure how much Eldridge wanted her dead or what resources he could scrounge to send after her. It was going to be
an interesting day.
Inside the old style brick building, Arinna was surprised to see a light down the hallway. “There’s power on here. Generators?” she asked into the comm.
“Not known, but Trier is on a direct line to Luxemburg, which still has power. Could be feeding from that,” Terri replied.
“Well, that will make today a bit easier.”
—
The screen remained blank. Well, not blank. The cursor blinked. A few hard drive based programs ran, which demonstrated the salvaged parts she’d wired together did work. But there was no information hub and certainly no internet connection to direct the computer to search.
“Dammit,” she swore.
“You knew the chances of finding anything were slim,” Jared said conversationally.
“But designs would have been nice. Especially of the bloody batteries ... and laser weapons. By the time we reverse engineer those, the war will be over and your kids will be running the planet.”
“Don’t scare me like that.”
Despite her frustration, she grinned at his deadpanned tone. She had guessed the mission verged on foolishness. The USA was gone. Any information and data systems the old air base had been connected to did not exist. That was why she’d come alone, so as to not waste anyone else’s time. The power in the building had supplied optimism that shouldn’t have existed. But she should be grateful. It had made failure come in record time.
Arinna stood, stretching so that her back popped. Wind whistled through broken windows. Besides that, the world remained silent. Despite the classic outside structure of brick, inside the building looked like any government, at least US government, military office. Bland walls, rows of computer interfaces, and a few pictures of famous planes on the wall denoting this had been an air base. Arinna froze.
“I’m going to take a better look around before heading back.”
Jared groaned.
Instinct wouldn’t let her leave. Not yet. Every military base she’d ever worked in looked like this office. All of them kept secure spaces for files, especially ones that were active projects or ones of which staff were very proud. Lewin had said the design for the dactyls had been refined here. They would have kept a copy somewhere.
She tried the upper floors first, but they looked more administrative than technical. She needed a level with bigger monitors, testing equipment, and space for problem solving that took place off of a computer.
“Can you still read me?” Arinna asked. As she progressed downward, the comm spat static in her ear.
“You’re breaking up. Where are you?” Jared answered, none-too-pleased.
“Below ground. I think there is still a level or two to go.” She paused as the comm whined. “Are things still clear topside?”
“Affirmative,” Kehm answered.
“I’m going down. Captain, you can worry if I don’t report in an hour. Till then, you’re in charge.”
“Grand,” Jared drawled. “I thought I was in charge normally.”
Arinna snorted as she edged forward. Without windows, the poor lighting barely illuminated the floor. The hallways stretched longer than the building. Rooms were locked behind keypads, adding to the headache and the time. Arinna kept track of the minutes as she short circuited old electronics to check each room. The process was agonizing, making her wish she’d brought help. But the search was worth it when she opened a door onto a wind tunnel.
In front of her, a hybrid window-vid screen looked into a pristine, metal room that held platforms with rings to lock models into. The room she stood in was dim, holding enough computers and video displays to make Guard Command look barren. Despite all the technology, rolls of paper peeped out below crammed desks, a lot of rolls. Arinna’s heart thumped.
She could grab all the designs and wade through them later. But her eyes slid past the jumble of cluttered paper to a flat door. With all the tech in the room and the highly exacting testing and calculations done there, Arinna guessed what would be on the other side. When she found the light switch behind the door, her breath caught in her throat. It was wall to wall with servers.
Arinna checked her watch. Twenty minutes until she needed to report. Of course. She swore. This was just not going to be easy.
It took half an hour, but only because she searched for something to carry the equipment in, locating a wheeled table in an adjacent room. Jared was never going to forgive her for being late to report in. To speed things up, she risked the elevator she’d ignored on the way down, laughing at the thought she’d be trapped and need rescuing. Oh, she’d never hear the end of that. But it slid her to the surface, the power holding and old gears grinding away. When the door opened to ground level, the comm buzzed to life. Jared was yelling.
“I’m here. I’m fine,” Arinna said, rolling the cart toward the front door. She hesitated as she glanced into the afternoon sunlight. “Is everything clear?”
“No! Where the ... what the heck do you think ... get the friggen hell out of there!”
Arinna pushed the cart to the side of the room, glancing out to where her dactyl hummed. Nothing moved. It hadn’t fired.
“What is the situation?” she asked.
“We have ten inter-ballistic missiles coming in from northern Africa, eight more across the former Russian border.”
“Missiles?” It was the last thing she’d been expecting.
“My lady, we have one coming in on a trajectory that is either your location or Luxemburg,” Kehm said.
For some reason, all Arinna could focus on was it was the first time Kehm had called her “my Lady.” Then the words sunk in. That was why Jared sounded so bad. “How long?” she asked.
“Fifteen minutes,” Kehm said calmly.
Damn, that was cutting it close. “Captain, you did the right thing,” Arinna said, pushing the cart out the door while trying not to lose any bits. “The other targets? Any chance of scrambling interception?”
“Negative. They are coming in hot and not responding to any commands we send.”
“Try older commands. Think tech from the turn of the century,” Arinna directed. “Everything the FLF has thrown at us has been—”
“Obsolete,” Kehm finished. “Shit. I’m on it. That might save a few cities.”
“Direct away from cities and ag. Do you think they are nuclear?”
“Unknown,” Jared answered. He continued with a snarl, “Why aren’t you out of there? You have less than ten minutes!”
“I’m stealing a server and talking to you,” she snapped, fighting a nervous sweat. Panicking would not help. “What are the other targets?” she asked as the line fell silent.
“Don’t worry about it. Just get out of there.”
Jared’s reasonable tone ran chills up her spine. Arinna pushed the rolling table up the ramp of the back hatch and vaulted into her seat. She shut the cargo doors while powering up the idling engines.
“Time?”
“Seven minutes. Target is narrowing to the Air Force base,” Kehm answered.
“Focus on the other missiles. I’ll see if I can intercept this one,” Arinna said, launching the plane vertical.
Jared spat curse words into her comm, but she wasn’t listening. The dactyl’s computers locked onto the incoming missile. It was really close, approaching swiftly to her southwest. Seeing it spawned an urge to race away. What kept her was that there was no safe place to run. If it was nuclear, she couldn’t escape its blast zone. Even something less would wreak havoc on the dactyl’s instruments. Best case was that she’d escape this missile’s destructive range and fly into one of the others that were popping up on screen.
Making a decision calmed her twitching nerves. The dactyl swiveled as she commanded the lasers to track and annihilate the closest missile.
“Please don’t be nuclear,” she whispered as the dactyl fired. The world dissolved in a white flash.
The dactyl bucked under her, riding up the strong shock wave before slamming toward the
ground. Emergency alarms cascaded around her, but Arinna remained blind from the blast. Auto thrusters engaged, dropping the plane none-too-gently to earth.
“They’re not nuclear,” Arinna said, voice shaking.
“Are you certain?” Kehm answered cautiously.
“I wouldn’t be talking to you if they were. The EMP would have knocked out the dactyl’s systems.”
Arinna watched two more missiles strike and obliterate Brussels and Frankfort. Zooming out to see what other cities were targeted, Arinna witnessed new blips emerge on the radar.
“Captain, there are new incoming,” Arinna said. “Do you have visual?”
“Not missiles. Planes,” Kehm replied.
“What is your status, my Lady,” Jared asked.
Arinna swept her gaze over the controls and out to the view beyond the dactyl’s front window. Tangled power lines arced bolts several hundred yards in front of her. Chimes continued sounding in the dactyl, matching the blinking of damaged systems on the vid screen.
“Weapons systems are compromised, probably blown circuitry between the fuel cells and the lasers as they aren’t registering power. I can fly, but stabilizers were damaged in the ... landing. I can limp back, but should probably stay put as I don’t think I’ll be out-flying much.” Before Jared could formulate a rescue strategy, Arinna continued. “Captain, scramble the other dactyl and remaining planes. Intercept the FLF and see what they are flying. Kehm, make certain Parliament is ready with relief efforts to the affected cities, and someone make damn sure every civilian knows to stay in shelters until this is over.”
Arinna sat back, crossing her arms. The worst part was that she couldn’t do anything but watch. Unless she got some systems back online. But to do that, she needed to know how the systems operated and it wasn’t like the dactyl had come with a maintenance manual. Her eyes fell on one of the hastily stowed servers. Arinna scrambled out of her harness, wondering if there was a way to plug the servers into the plane.
In the end, she found a way to draw juice from the feed running to the dactyl’s computing systems. The dactyls were experimental enough that they contained numerous connections for diagnostic analysis. Accessing the servers through the main monitors ended up being fairly easy. All the way down to the dactyl and the server recognizing each other and allowing access. Hundreds of numbered files appeared across the displays.
