Sentinels: Children of Valhalla (Sentinels Saga Book 1)

by Linn Schwab

  “Now, let’s begin our studies by reviewing the basics of command protocol. All commands should be issued in a structure consistent with accepted phraseology. Proper responses to commands follow the same guidelines. Adherence to these rules is of the utmost importance to avoid confusion in crisis situations.”

  The commander went on to speak for several hours. When the lecture finally ended, the girls trudged back to the fitness room. Major Richards was waiting for them there, along with two more grueling battleship laps. After they completed their marathon workout, the major mercifully released them for lunch. “You should be thankful you weren’t selected for battleship duty,” she said, watching the girls limp out of the room, “…or your whole day would be like this. Every day. That’s why we call them battleship laps.”

  Nancy had to squint to see it, but it was definitely the outline of a space station. “There it is, Jenny!” she said. Volaris was finally coming into view.

  Jenny sighed. “Whew! It’s about time!”

  “You can say that again,” Suzanne said, eyeing the warning lights on her console. For more than fourteen hours now, they had relentlessly continued to remind her that one of her engines was completely offline.

  Jenny glanced back over her shoulder. “Hey Charlie,” she said, “you girls still with us?”

  “We’re right behind you, Jenny,” Charlie answered. “Call ahead and tell them to open the doors, will ya. I can’t wait to get out of this thing!”

  “Yeah,” Zoe complained, “my butt hurts!”

  Jenny chuckled. “Roger that. I’m not gonna want to sit down again for days!”

  “So, what do you think?” Major Richards asked. She handed a report to Commander Jeffries as the two of them stepped into the station’s control room.

  The commander frowned when she saw the numbers. “Let’s continue the normal fitness drill for now. If they keep having trouble, we’ll back off a little. The academies should really stress fitness more seriously. It seems like we always have to go through this.” She looked across the room. One of her controllers was trying to get her attention.

  “Commander,” Veronica said, looking surprised, “two fighter squadrons are approaching the hangar.” In addition to Veronica, two other controllers were currently on duty. Both of them also looked up from their consoles, curious to see the commander’s reaction.

  “It’s alright,” she assured them. “Command notified me earlier that they’d be arriving. They’re going to be stationed here until the Fourth Fleet arrives. Major, would you go down and greet them for me, and set them up with some living quarters.”

  “Certainly, Commander,” the major replied. She turned around and quickly walked out of the room.

  As Commander Jeffries studied the report in her hands, Veronica sat back in her chair and kept an eye on the hangar’s monitors. It was nothing new to see fighters rolling into the hangar; Volaris had long been in use as a fighter base. But as the first of these planes emerged from the airlock, something about its appearance caught Veronica’s attention. For the most part, it looked like any other fighter — painted dark gray like all Sentinel planes. But as the tail section came into view, three distinctive yellow bands appeared on the fuselage.

  “Oh my god!” Veronica gasped, suddenly sitting up straight in her chair. “They’re Hornets!” All three controllers glanced at each other, then turned to look at Commander Jeffries. They could tell by the expression on her face that she was just as surprised as they were. Veronica changed the feed on an overhead monitor to show a closeup view of the inner lock doors. One by one, as the planes rolled out of the airlock, each of them displayed three bright yellow bands.

  Major Richards stepped into the ready room and waited for the visiting pilots to enter. When Jenny and Charlie walked in through the door, she felt her heart rate suddenly quicken. The girls themselves looked like any other fighter pilots, but there was no mistaking the black flight suits.

  “Well,” the major said holding out her hand, “this is certainly an unexpected surprise. Major Maryanne Richards,” she introduced herself.

  Jenny nodded and shook the major’s hand. “Major Richards. I’m Captain Jenny McNeil, and this is Captain Charlie Sinclair.” Charlie stepped forward and shook the major’s hand.

  Major Richards stared at them in silence for a moment. “Uh, welcome to Volaris, Captains. Um…” she stammered, feeling unprepared, “would you like me to show you to your quarters right away?”

  Jenny looked back toward the room’s entrance. Her pilots were still trickling in from the hangar. “That’s alright, Major,” she said, “give us a few minutes to unwind first. We just came off a fourteen hour flight.”

  Robin made her way through the cafeteria, following right behind Sheri and Katrina. Each of them grabbed a meal tray from the serving counter and staggered to the nearest empty table. As she lowered herself onto her seat, Robin stared ravenously at the food on her tray.

  “God am I hungry!” she said.

  “I’m starving!” Katrina complained.

  Sheri sat down and placed her hands on her stomach. “How long’s it been since the last time we ate?”

  Robin looked up at a clock on the wall and started adding things up in her head. They had missed breakfast. They had skipped both of their previous meals after learning that they would be leaving Valhalla. So their last meal had been the previous day’s breakfast. “Thirty–‌one hours,” she finally concluded.

  Katrina picked her tray up and held it directly in front of her mouth. “I’m so hungry I’m gonna eat this tray when I’m done.”

  Mindy joined them at the table and positioned herself to sit down with the others. As she set her meal on the tabletop, her spoon slid over the edge of her tray and clattered off the side of her seat. “Ohh, come back here, you!” she whined, chasing her spoon across the floor. It bounced a few times then finally came to rest at the base of a wall that was comprised mostly of windows. As Mindy stooped down to pick up her spoon, she caught a quick glimpse of the ready room below. She was just beginning to turn back toward the table when she suddenly realized what she’d just seen. She gasped and plastered herself against the window, straining to get a better look down below. “Hornets!” she yelled out loud in astonishment. The room behind her fell silent and still. When she glanced back over her shoulder, everyone in the cafeteria was staring at her. “Hornets are here!” she cried out to them, her eyes glistening with tears of excitement. A sudden explosion of activity erupted as everyone in the room raced for a spot at the windows.

  “Oh my god!” Robin mumbled, gazing in awe at the pilots in black.

  Caroline squeezed in beside Robin. She watched in quiet fascination as the pilots stretched and began to primp their hair. “Aren’t they beautiful!” she mused.

  “They do look invincible!” Sheri declared, then glanced beside her at Christy in wonder. Christy smiled at her and flashed a thumbs up. Both of them then focused on the Hornets again.

  Nancy sighed and walked over to Jenny. “Being here really brings back memories,” she said. She looked around the room, taking in familiar details.

  “It sure does,” Jenny agreed. She suddenly felt a hint of nostalgia setting in.

  “Jenny, look!” Nancy insisted, directing her attention toward the top of the room. Jenny looked up and gasped in delight when she noticed the girls looking down from above. When the younger girls saw them look up, they squealed and began to wave in excitement. Nancy and Jenny smiled at each other, and waved affectionately back at them.

  “I remember when I was their age,” Nancy said. “How I used to dream about becoming a Hornet.”

  “Didn’t we all,” Zoe remarked, resting her chin on Nancy’s shoulder. For a moment, the three of them stood together in silence, gazing dreamily up at the girls in the window. As they reminisced about their own training days, they found themselves wishing they could relive them.

  “Hey, Jenny,” Charlie exclaimed, “Major Richards just invi
ted us to be sister squadrons! What do you think?”

  Nancy and Zoe gasped in delight and threw their arms around each other.

  “I dunno, Charlie…” Jenny said with hesitation. The others could see she was troubled by the offer.

  “Aw, come on, Jenny!” Zoe pleaded. “It’ll be fun!”

  “Yeah,” Nancy argued, “besides, we’ll probably never get this chance again.”

  “Well, Captain?” Major Richards asked. “What do you say? Your arrival here is perfect timing.”

  Jenny took a deep breath and considered her offer, then relented and signaled her approval with a nod. “Alright, Major,” she reluctantly agreed. “Throw our numbers into the hat.”

  “Alright, ladies,” Commander Jeffries called out as she stepped inside the cafeteria. “This is supposed to be a nourishment period.” The girls peeled themselves away from the windows, spun around and quickly stood at attention. “Finish your meals now,” she continued, “and…” she tried not to smile, “I’ll make sure you get a chance to meet the Hornets later on.”

  Her announcement drew broad smiles from the girls, and several scattered gasps of delight. As she spun around and walked away from the room, she could feel the excitement building behind her. Any second now, she realized with intense satisfaction, there are going to be screams of joy echoing through Volaris.

  After an exhausting afternoon class period, the squads raced through their evening meals. There was only one more activity on the day’s schedule for them — the selection of their sister squadrons. After that, if everything went according to plan, they would finally get their opportunity to meet the Hornets.

  When Commander Jeffries stepped into the assembly room, the girls were already lined up in formation. All of them appeared to be beaming with excitement and struggling to keep the smiles off their faces.

  “Well,” she observed, “you girls seem to have a little energy left. Normally, the first full day on Volaris produces a lot of tired bodies.” She watched the girls’ reactions with amusement as they looked around at each other and grinned. “Perhaps we should have special visitors more often. Anyway,” she continued, “it’s time for you to select your sister squadrons now.

  “This is Lieutenant Marlowe,” she said, gesturing toward a girl who was just entering the room. She was wearing a green uniform dress and carrying some sort of helmet in her hands. “The lieutenant is one of our communications officers. You’ll normally find her in the control room, but for the moment, she’s going to be giving us a little assistance here.

  “Inside the helmet Lieutenant Marlowe is carrying are several small pieces of paper.” The lieutenant held the helmet up in front of her with the open end facing up toward the ceiling. “Each piece of paper bears the unit designation of one of the fighter squadrons currently stationed in this sector. We’ll have each squad captain reach into the helmet and draw one squadron number out at random. Veronica,” she called the lieutenant by name, “let’s start at that end of the line, shall we.”

  Veronica walked over to ECHO 8 and stood directly in front of Trina.

  “Now, Trina,” Commander Jeffries explained, “after you pull out a number, I want you to read it back to me so I can make a note of it.”

  “Okay,” Trina said, grinning with excitement. Veronica held the helmet up for her. She reached in and fished out one of the numbers, then nervously unfolded it and read the inscription. “Our sister squadron is … the Seventy–‌Seventh fighter squadron.” Trina’s squad members squealed and applauded. They had no idea who any of their sisters would be, but it was an exciting moment for them nonetheless.

  “Okay,” Commander Jeffries said, “the Seventy–‌Seventh.” In her hands, she held an electronic tablet, known as a Portable Archive Interface. She entered some keystrokes into the device, then turned her attention to ECHO 7. “Christy?”

  Veronica stepped over to Christy now and held the helmet up again. Christy bit her lip and reached inside. Her hand trembled as she pulled out a scrap of paper. “Our sister squadron is … the Eighty–‌Second fighter squadron.” She smiled and let out a sigh of relief. The rest of her squad squealed in delight.

  “The Eighty–‌Second,” Commander Jeffries repeated as she entered the number in her device. Robin leaned back and looked to her right. Christy was there looking back at her as usual. Both of them smiled and waved at each other, then quickly snapped back to attention again.

  The commander looked to the next girl in line. “Judy, it’s your turn now.”

  Veronica stepped over to ECHO 6 and presented the upturned helmet to Judy. Taking a deep breath, Judy reached in and retrieved a scrap of paper. “Our sister squadron is … the Hundred and Thirty–‌First fighter squadron.” The girls of ECHO 6 cheered excitedly. Robin trembled with anticipation. Only ECHO 5 remained.

  “Alright,” Commander Jeffries said, “Hundred and Thirty–‌First. And, Robin?”

  Robin felt herself shaking now. She would never have guessed this could be so exciting. Veronica approached her and held out the helmet. Robin took a deep breath and slipped her hand inside. There seemed to be only one piece of paper remaining, which left her feeling mildly disappointed. It was hardly as if she had much of a choice. Oh well, she shrugged, pulling the slip from the helmet. At least they hadn’t run out of numbers. Her hands trembled as she peeled the paper open.

  “Our sister squadron is … the Hundred and Seventeenth fighter squadron.” Robin sighed in relief, as if a heavy burden had been removed from her shoulders. Her squad applauded and cheered as Commander Jeffries made a note of the number.

  “Very well,” the commander said. “Thank you, Veronica.” The lieutenant nodded and stepped out of the room. “We’ll send word out to the squadrons you’ve selected. They should all arrive here first thing tomorrow. You’ll still have group lectures to attend in the mornings, but your sister squadrons will take over your afternoon sessions.” She glanced toward the doorway and smiled. Major Richards was waiting just inside the door, with the two Hornet captains standing by her side.

  “And now,” Commander Jeffries announced, “Major Richards would like to introduce you to someone. Major?”

  Major Richards walked to the middle of the room, with Jenny and Charlie following close behind her. “Sentinels, I’d like you to meet Captain Jenny McNeil,” she said, gesturing toward Jenny, “and Captain Charlie Sinclair.”

  Jenny and Charlie both waved and said, “Hi.”

  “Hi!” the girls all responded at once.

  “Unfortunately,” Major Richards explained, “our visitors have just come off of a long flight, and they’re understandably very tired at the moment. So they’re just going to say hello for right now. But, they are going to be stationed here for a while, so you’ll have plenty of time to speak with them later on. Right now, let me just introduce the squad captains, and then our guests can go and get some well deserved rest. Captains?” she said, gesturing for the two pilots to follow her. She led them over to ECHO 8 and briefly introduced them to Trina. They then worked their way down the line toward Robin.

  Robin could hardly contain her excitement. She felt like her knees were going to give out on her. She glanced around at the other girls in her squad. They all flashed looks of assurance at her and tried to offer some words of encouragement.

  “Stand up straight,” Mindy urged. “Try to relax.”

  “Keep breathing, Robin,” Michelle insisted. “Your face is getting a little pale.”

  Robin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could hear the pilots talking to Judy, but she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. After a few more seconds had passed, she heard them walking in her direction. She straightened herself and stood at attention as the first of the pilots stepped in front of her.

  “This is Captain Robin Starling,” Major Richards said.

  Charlie held her hand out to Robin. “Nice to meet you, Robin,” she said.

  Robin swallowed and shook Charlie’s han
d. “Hi,” she somehow managed to respond. Charlie smiled and stepped aside, then Jenny moved over and took Robin’s hand.

  “Robin,” Jenny said, “nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Robin replied. For an instant, Jenny looked straight into her eyes, but then she seemed to be distracted by something. Robin felt her heart pounding wildly as Jenny’s hand moved up toward her neck. There, on the left part of Robin’s collar, were the two shiny stars she had earned at the academy.

  The look in Jenny’s eyes seemed to indicate surprise. “Two academic stars,” she said with admiration. “Very impressive!”

  “Thank you,” Robin responded sheepishly.

  “We’ll have to get together and talk later on,” Jenny suggested. She then turned and started to move away. Robin swallowed and exhaled slowly. She felt an uncontrollable smile take over her face. Just before Jenny stepped away from her, Robin’s eyes caught a glimpse of the emblem on her flight suit — a gold circle with outstretched wings, and the identification:

  CAPTAIN JENNY MCNEIL

  117th FIGHTER SQUADRON

  Robin’s eyes shot open in disbelief. Wasn’t that the number of her sister squadron! She was still holding onto the slip of paper, clenching it tightly now in her left hand. The instant Jenny and the others stepped away, she held the paper up and stared at it in awe. Very clearly, the writing on it said:

  117th fighter squadron

  “Oh my god!” Robin whispered, feeling her skin suddenly start to flush. She immediately began fanning her face with her hands, but it only took an instant for unconsciousness to claim her.

  Commander Jeffries shook her head in bewilderment as she led Major Richards into her office. “You never cease to amaze me, Maryanne,” she said. “I never would have expected them to go along with this. How did you manage to pull this off?”