Minh-Chu’s missile racks were just about to pause to reload when Flex and her wingman moved in to position to help destroy the next set of gun emplacements. “Hot Chow, what are you doing?” he asked as he saw the pilot’s fighter speeding across the skin of the Glorious, about to move right into their path. Even worse, he was flying backwards.
“I’m fine, nothing to see here,” he said as he came into view. He was skimming the hull of the Glorious with barely two metres between him and the hull with his cockpit pointed backwards as he fired at the last enemy fighter. Minh-Chu couldn’t afford to slow down, he was targeting the next gun emplacement that would get Carnie in its sights, so he held his breath and kept his speed up.
Minh-Chu and Hot Chow’s fighters came so close to colliding that he swore he could see the pilot’s grinning face as he held down the triggers of his autocannons. The enemy fighter tried to adjust his trajectory, seeing the near collision and glanced off the hull of the Glorious, spinning into open space where Carnie tore his ship to shreds. “That’s team work!” Hot Chow said with a laugh. “Joining my wingman, sorry Ronin.”
“I don’t know whether that was genius, cocky dangerous flying, or what, but we’ll be watching the replay to find out,” Minh-Chu said as Flex and Fury took out the next set of anti-fighter guns for him with the help of their wingmen.
“Pure genius!” Hot Chow said.
Minh-Chu grinned as his scanners told him that the Glorious’ shields had failed. “Back to the Revenge! Emergency landings by the numbers.”
“The Glorious’ shields have failed, Sir,” Agameg announced.
“Helm, flip us over so Frost’s gunnery team can get to work,” Jake said. “Fire at will, watch for our returning fighters.”
“Priority, Sir?” Frost asked.
“Hit their power plants if you can, but failing that, take out their propulsion, I want this base ship stranded,” Jake said.
“Aye, aiming for the hottest section of that ship.” The Revenge turned so the main railgun turrets were facing the Glorious. The railguns fired several heavy rounds a second ahead of them, attempting to tear the vessel’s armour open. “Minimal damage so far, but I’ll keep trying,” Frost reported.
“The Triton reports that the wormhole gate will generate a transit point in forty three seconds. Make that forty-two, the Nafalli got it working.”
“Sorry, Frost you’ll have to take your shots later,” Jake said. “Are our fighters back?”
“Carnie’s about to touch down,” Stephanie replied. “He took some heavy damage.”
“Target and destroy every weapon they can point at us, Frost, we won’t make it away from that ship if we have to spend too much time in their firing arc.”
“Aye,” Frost replied.
“Carnie touched down, hangar armour is closing,” Stephanie announced.
“Sir, the wormhole is opening, Freeground Alpha is entering,” Kadri said.
The Lorander wormhole gate projected a wormhole opening that was much larger than itself, and Jake could see Freeground moving into it. “Full speed towards that wormhole, get ready to shore up the aft shields.”
The Revenge turned away from the Glorious and powered towards the wormhole and the rest of the fleet. Ahead of them, firing back at the enemy fleet, was the Triton. A gaping hole had been torn open across the dorsal side through the gunnery deck into the core of the ship. The inner armour of the Botanical Gallery was visible, but not punctured. It was a grim reminder that the Glorious and the fleet surrounding it could cause incredible damage.
When the Revenge was half a kilometre away, the Glorious began to pound on their shields with high powered cutting beams and a flurry of particle weapon fire. Their shields were able to convert some of the energy and recycle it, but the solid particles were taking their toll. “Can we jump?” Jake asked.
“No, the Glorious is sending gravity waves in all directions, not enough to disrupt the gate’s wormhole, but we can’t make one this close,” Agameg said.
Ashley engaged the emergency thrusters, adding solid fuel to the burn, and they were over five thousand kilometres away from the Glorious in seconds, turning to decelerate so they wouldn’t rush past the wormhole. A flash erupted from the Glorious, and Jake’s displays warned of a massive energy spike before the lights on the bridge turned off then on. “No shields! The Dimension Drive is not functioning. We have burnouts across our main energy storage array,” Agameg announced. “They hit us with a focused burst.”
The sound of hull plating ripping and main supports bending filled the ears of everyone on the bridge. “Breaches through our port side,” Frost announced.
“I’ve lost thrusters five and seven,” Ashley reported from the helm.
“Hangar three is open to space,” Stephanie said through Jake’s communicator.
“Are we going to decelerate in time?” Jake asked as his tactical display reset. They were about to join the fleet.
“No, not with two thrusters out,” Ashley’s co-pilot replied.
“Revenge, this is the Hoarta,” Jake heard through the ship intercom. “We will follow you and project a wormhole ahead. Hang on.”
A Nafalli heavy cruiser moved in beside them and extended their shields in time for the Glorious’ next volley. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as the one that took out their shields, but it was enough to make it through the extended protection a little. A little was enough, and Jake watched as three torpedoes struck the large hole the Glorious had torn through their ship. The wound was from the dorsal side through to the bottom of the ship, and the torpedoes detonated deep within, sending shrapnel in both directions.
A wormhole opened in front of them and they slipped inside with their Nafalli escort. “Stabilize our trajectory. We’re focusing the whole crew on rescuing everyone we can and damage control. Send the message to all departments; they have served well and bravely,” Captain Valent said. He desperately wanted to stand up and assist with damage control, but knew his place was to be secured on the bridge. He quietly checked on Minh-Chu and Samurai Squadron, and was relieved to see that they’d made their emergency landing in the main hangar.
Chapter 41
A Beautifully Broken Future
Suit week was over, and Alice hadn’t felt more free in as long as she could remember. She still wore a training uniform, but when she appeared for a special session of physical training, she did so after showering for as long as she could without being late, and she set her uniform to the shape of a small, high cut training suit.
“Yuck,” Iruuk said with a chuckle, covering his nose when he met her at the hatch to her bunk room.
“What? Did you catch a bad smell in that huge nose?” she asked.
“No, I’m just not used to seeing so much of a human at once. You’re so pink and hairless, it’s wrong somehow.”
“Not to me,” she said, slapping her hips. “We’re all doing it for this training session, Yawen actually wanted to turn up naked, but she can’t afford to lose the points.”
“You don’t feel overexposed? Especially after…”
“It’s just a body,” Alice said, waking past Iruuk down the hall. “Besides, I’m taking ownership. If I want to show off once in a while during physical training when the cadets aren’t around, then I should feel as free as anyone else to do so. Race ya!” She took off running down the empty hall towards the lift.
Iruuk beat her handily, dropping to his hands and loping forward in so little time that he was leaning against the door smiling at her when she managed to catch up. “We still racing?”
“Funny, Fur-face,” she said.
When they arrived at the training centre Alice couldn’t help but smile. The smallest version of the male uniform was allowed for physical training as well, and unlike the female version, they left the chest bare as well as the arms and legs, taking the form of short trunks. She couldn’t help but smile at all the Officers in her class showing up as bare as they could. “Oh, God, you’re all
naked. It’s like looking at a bunch of worm-people.”
“Titus has some hair,” Yawen teased, tugging on a blonde chest hair.
“That doesn’t count as fur, I can see right through it,” Iruuk said, shaking his head.
“It’s not so bad,” Ute said as she walked to Iruuk. Her uniform vacsuit was reduced in size as well, leaving her strangely folding arms and legs bare and revealing green and blue patches with gold lines running between them. Iruuk flinched as she absent mindedly licked her right eye, something her species did all the time but some people couldn’t get past.
“Oh, it’s fine,” he said, possibly seeing that he was reaching the limit of the amount of criticism the class could take. “I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”
Alaka entered the space and activated a chart on the wall. It revealed the mandatory course load for the next two weeks. “Welcome, I have the pleasure of showing you what you’ll be experiencing. Some of you are ahead in the academic side of this curriculum, and you’ll be thankful for that. The next phase of your training as officers is about to begin. You will work more closely with your cadets, learning advanced tactics, rescue procedures, and you will have damage control drills, enhanced physical training and team building unlike any of you have seen before. You will also be stressed past your limits, we want you to know what it feels like to be in the worst possible situations here so you won’t break down when it really matters, out there. I hope you enjoy being exposed now, because you’re going to want every kind of protection available after today. But today we’re taking it easy on you.”
The class of twenty seven Officers breathed a collective sigh of relief. “There’s a ‘but’ I’m sure of it,” Iruuk whispered.
“However!” Alaka said. “I’m going to have the pleasure of watching you try one of our more difficult exercises right now. Everyone reactivate your full suits, head to toe.” He ordered as the intimidating looking full chart of courses faded away and the wall started retracting into the ceiling. By the time everyone re-expanded their suits to cover their entire bodies, a large globe was revealed. A section of it was opened so they could step inside.
“You will step inside this globe in groups of seven and you will notice that sections of the floor will change colour. One section will turn red, and that means gravity is pointing away from that part of the globe. One section will turn green and that means that gravity is pointing towards that part of the globe. You will have to jump, step, run or whatever you do to stay on your feet. Individually, this is a challenge. As a group it is impossible unless you can work as a well-coordinated team. The team that stays on their feet the longest gets the rest of the day off. You will be transported to Ayan’s Landing, a newly tamed beach in Haven Shore and treated like Kings and Queens, buffet and drinks included.”
Alice looked to Yawen as Iruuk tapped her on the shoulder. “Yeah, you too Fur-face.” The group buzzed as they tried to put their teams together, but that was all cut short.
“You have been randomly assigned to your teams,” Alaka said.
Alice was grouped with Yawen, Titus, Ute and three other Officers she barely knew, but she was thankful that their group wasn’t first. Nivee glanced at her with a worried expression as she followed her team in. The hatch closed and everyone outside could see red and green colours flash half way up the globe. The shadows of the first group were clearly visible too, and they moved well enough to stay on their feet. They stood on the side of the globe until a section turned red at the bottom, then green at the top. Most of the group made it, but one of them got tripped up and fell into the rest. The globe turned so they were aligned with the ship’s gravity and the disappointed group left through the hatch. “Not as easy as it looks,” Nivee said with a shrug.
“All right, next team,” Alaka announced.
Alice felt butterflies in her stomach as she realized that they were next. “We’ve got this,” Yawen whispered as they got into the globe. “Everyone hold hands, stay close, we move together.”
“I’ll call out directions,” Titus said.
“Good, that’ll help,” Yawen said, her voice echoing strangely as the door to the globe closed. “Okay, relax and –”
The top of the globe turned green, the bottom turned red, and Titus shouted; “Right! Wait, straight ahead!”
The group nearly pulled itself apart, a quiet beep sounded, and gravity turned upside down, dumping the whole group into a pile at the top of the globe. Their suits protected them for bruising, twisting or crushing anything, and Alice knew that they had completely botched their attempt, but she couldn’t help but snicker from under the pile of bodies.
“Not funny!” Yawen retorted. “I wanted to go to the beach.”
Ute’s little voice drifted up through the pile, her child like laughter coming in barely contained bursts. Titus broke down into a fit of laughter, and by the time the globe turned so they could get disentangled and leave safely, they were all laughing hysterically. “Right! Wait! Up! Down!” Yawen said, doing her best imitation of Titus then giggling uncontrollably.
The rest of the teams took their turns, and everyone else had the pleasure of laughing at them, Alaka was laughing hardest after his son took his turn. His team managed to last the longest, but several of his class mates booed him because he managed to pick one of his team mates up and move them before they fell.
“All right, we have a winner, team four,” Alaka announced. “You have half an hour to get ready, then you will take a shuttle to Tamber. The rest of you will go to the Officer’s Mess where your first meal since Suit Week will be waiting. Enjoy. Oh, wait, one more thing. You probably won’t take this obstacle with each other again unless you do it in your off time. Instead, you will be doing it with your cadets as a training exercise later this week. You will master the Gravity Globe with at least one team of cadets before the end of the week or you will lose points. Enjoy the rest of the day.”
“Have fun, Fur-face,” Alice told Iruuk. “I mean it, you work hard.”
“Thank you, Alice. I’d take you with me if I could.”
“I know.” She was just pulling the hood on her uniform down when she spotted Ayan in the broad training room doorway. She was in a casual fleet uniform with the bars of a Captain on her wrists and held a white rose in her hand. Her nervous smile and fidgeting with the rose stem told her that Ayan may be as nervous as she was, but she doubted it.
Yawen noticed and smiled at her. “Just breathe, okay? See you later.”
Every classmate saluted Ayan as they passed, and she returned the gesture, saying their names as she did so. Alice let the class go ahead, trying to find the best words for her biological mother. She knew her, liked her, it wasn’t their first meeting, but it felt special somehow. Precious enough for her to come up with only the right words.
“Maybe I should have come out of uniform,” Ayan whispered to Alice as she came closer, letting the class pass ahead of her.
“I don’t know what to…” Alice said, finding unexpected tears in her eyes. “Dunno what to say.” Her lip quivered.
Ayan took her into her arms without saying a word. Her embrace was firm and warm. When Alice finally looked up, she saw that Ayan was crying too. “Oh, God, I’m sorry,” she said.
Ayan laughed and wiped her tears away then her own. “I think this is proof enough, we’re both cursed with the overactive tear duct gene.”
Alice laughed and nodded. “Maybe.”
“I can’t believe you chose me as your Mother,” Ayan said. “And I’m so proud of you, what you’re doing for yourself is amazing. You’re an impressive, beautiful young woman.”
Alice was surprised and deeply touched by the compliments, and she was overwhelmed by relief. “I still don’t know what to say,” she managed through a tear filled chuckle.
Ayan laughed and embraced her again. “That might be genetic too.” They both calmed after a while, and they walked around the empty training space beneath the large globe. “I don’t want t
o assume anything, but if you’re looking for an advisor, I’ll be in range for the foreseeable future. Maybe someday, if you’re in the market for a mother, I would be proud to call you my daughter.”
“I’m definitely not in the market,” Alice said.
“Oh,” Ayan replied, her face flushing.
“I mean because I’ve found her,” Alice said, squeezing Ayan’s hand.
“Thank you, Alice. You don’t know what that means to me,” she said, offering the white rose. “This is for you, it got a little crushed a minute ago, but it should spring back.”
“Thank you,” Alice said, smelling the sweetly fragranced bud. “I think I have room for one vase and exactly one rose.”
“I remember what that was like from the Freeground Academy,” Ayan said. She looked up at the Gravity Globe. “I don’t remember anything like this monstrosity though. I’ll have to try it sometime when no one’s looking.”
“Mom?” Alice asked, feeling a little strange but very glad that she could call someone, especially the woman at her side by that title.
Ayan looked pleasantly surprised. “Yes?”
“Can you still be my advisor?” she asked.
“Definitely,” Ayan replied with a warm smile.
Thank you for reading Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground and for supporting me by purchasing this book. This cast of characters will return in Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11, available for pre-order now and scheduled to be released in the first half of 2017.
If you’d like to keep up with news about Randolph Lalonde’s books, please visit:
www.RandolphLalonde.com
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Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10 Page 36
