“Oh, just admiring the hardware,” she grinned, shrugging her shoulders. A breeze shifted the scarf on the woman’s neck, revealing the telltale ports of a TRTV pilot. They looked older and scarred, but they glowed with the same intensity as Evangeline’s. Evangeline lit up, curious yet cautious.
“You were a TRTV pilot? When did you retire?”
The woman tugged at her scarf, securing it against the breeze. An embarrassed smile escaped her lips.
“I don’t like to talk about it, if you don’t mind,” she said, averting her eyes. She walked toward the strange man, who had started chatting with Daryl next to the other TRTV. Taking his arm, they walked away without another word and disappeared into the crowd.
Daryl came over and stood behind Evangeline as her eyes scanned the area for the strange couple. “People are so weird out here, Captain, don’t you think?” he asked. Evangeline turned to face him.
“What did that man want?”
“He wouldn’t leave me alone when I tried reconnecting to my TRTV. He insisted on sharing a drink with me to show gratitude for helping with the wreckage.” Daryl shook his head. “I told him I was on duty, but he insisted it was just water. Some strange LTZ tradition.” Daryl turned toward his TRTV, and reconnected to his chair before ascending up into the cockpit.
Something about the two strangers unsettled Evangeline. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the short encounter with them made her wary. She puzzled why the man would only offer a drink to Daryl when all four pilots assisted in the rescue and clean-up efforts. Jack was from the LTZ - she never recalled him mentioning a tradition of sharing water as an expression of gratitude. She fastened her helmet. None of the events of the day since they happened upon the accident made any sense to Evangeline.
Evangeline mulled over the bizarre events of the afternoon as she sat down in her chair. Her fingers danced over the control pad as she activated the connection protocols. She felt the ports reconnect, and she ascended back up into her cockpit. Sirens and strobe lights began to flash and blare on the TRTV’s exterior, alerting the spectators to avoid the assault of dust and debris from the take-off. A voice cut through the silence, and she recognized Daryl’s boyish candor.
“Didn’t they all seem awfully strange to you, Captain?”
“You already said that, Simmonds,” she chuckled. “Maybe they are weird as you say, but I think most people are weird.”
They pair of TRTVs soared into the atmosphere. “And I kind of like it that way.”
Daryl followed her back up to cruising altitude. Evangeline noticed the time. “Okay, greenie, it looks like our patrol is just about over. Let’s head back to base. You take the lead.”
Evangeline could not help but smile when she heard the excitement in Daryl’s voice. “Roger that, Captain; engaging auto-return navigation. Try and keep up, will you?”
Evangeline’s eyebrows rose as she turned her head to look at Daryl through her cockpit shielding. “So, that’s how you want to play it, huh?” she smirked. Her engines howled as she accelerated to catch up to Daryl sprinting away like a puppy chasing a ball.
The return trip to the base was uneventful, aside from Daryl chatting away for most of the flight about the girls he had met. Evangeline could not believe in the short time he had flirted with those girls he managed to arrange a date with the one with light brown hair and almond eyes in Olympus during his next off-duty period. Suddenly he lost all interest in talking, flying quiet for the last leg of the return flight. Evangeline was still getting to know him, so she was not sure if the abrupt end to his chattiness was normal or not for. The silence was eerie, though refreshing at the same time. Ten minutes away from the base, the control tower made contact for approach procedures.
“Tower One-Seven to patrol Alpha One and Two; you are cleared to landing pads G-Two-Five and G-Two-Six.”
Daryl did not respond, so Evangeline took the lead. “Roger that, tower. Heading to landing pads G-Two-Five and G-Two-Six. Simmonds, you’re in the lead so you proceed to G-Two-Five, got it?”
Evangeline heard nothing but silence in her headset.
“Simmonds!” she barked. “Pad G-Two-Five! Do you copy?”
More silence and then Evangeline got a visual of Daryl’s TRTV speeding up toward the base, veering off course to the left.
“Simmonds, your velocity is too great. You’ve got to straighten up and slow down.” What appeared to be a hotshot flyboy stunt would land him in some very hot water.
“Private Simmonds! Confirm directive to reduce speed and proceed to landing pad G-Two-Five. Respond, that’s an order!” she shouted. Still no confirmation from Daryl.
“Tower,” Evangeline spoke into her headset. “This is Patrol Alpha One. I’ve got a problem with my greenie. He may have a damaged channel. Can you detect a problem with his channel on your end?”
“Negative, Alpha One. We’re detecting a clear, open channel with Alpha Two.” Evangeline became worried. If Daryl was not in control of his TRTV, they only had a few minutes before things were about to get ugly.
She activated her autopilot and opened her security override protocols. As the senior patrol officer, she had the authority to remote access the internal cameras of her trainee’s TRTV. She tapped into his on-board security feed. She could not see his face under the optical visor on his helmet but his head lolling about on his shoulder indicated he was unconscious. Something on his neck made Evangeline zoom in. Through the camera feed, she recoiled at a gash along his neck that was emitting pinkish ooze. From the stain on the front of his uniform, it looked like he had already suffered substantial blood-loss.
“Tower One-Seven, this is Alpha One. I’m declaring an emergency. My wingman appears to be unconscious, injured, and losing blood. I advise to clear the area and deploy the nets. We’re coming in hot.” Evangeline launched her TRTV forward to catch up with Daryl.
The sirens below began to wail. All across the landing zone, base personnel scrambled into TRTVs, ground service trucks, and emergency response vehicles. Safety nets at the far end of the landing area deployed toward the sky, but the nets would be of little use.
Evangeline’s nature instructed her HUD to calculate Daryl’s trajectory. Her eyes widened in horror, as she understood that Daryl’s trajectory would overshoot the nets, making the base’s medical facility his unfortunate target. Without warning, the rogue TRTV careened left, then jolted back to the right, lunging full throttle toward the edge of the nets. He was going to miss.
Evangeline knew there was only one thing to do. She activated her weapons pods, expanding them outward from the sides of her cockpit. An automated warning blared in her ears.
“Warning! Deactivate weapons! Weapons activation is not authorized in landing area!” The disembodied message repeated itself as Evangeline maneuvered closer to Daryl.
“Evans!” A robust voice yelled into her ear. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Evangeline needed no introduction to recognize Colonel Jacobs’ voice.
“It’s the only way to save him, sir!” she yelled back. She veered to the right, swinging out to flank Daryl on his right quarter. She obtained a target lock on his TRTV and fired.
An air-to-air missile erupted from her portside weapons array. A second shot erupted from her starboard array, firing a thin cable attached to a spike, which followed alongside the missile.
Just before the missile made impact with Daryl’s starboard engine pod, it leapfrogged over the top of the TRTV and exploded in mid-air, releasing a cloud of lightning. The nebulous fog of electrified vapor shorted the power supply in Daryl’s TRTV as he flew through it, stalling the massive airborne vehicle as it st plummeted toward the landing field. Milliseconds after the plasma ball shut down the power systems, the spike she had fired at Daryl’s TRTV penetrated the rear plating and began to drag Evangeline with it down to the ground like a millstone around her neck. Her engines rotated down and backward, screaming against the additional load. Daryl’s machine swung
like a pendulum into the safety nets, the momentum almost tearing clean through. Evangeline released the tow cable and a split second later she clipped the top edge of the net, wobbling through the sky above a group of new trainees performing simple maneuvers below.
She couldn’t believe she pulled it off, that she survived! “What was that all about?” she whispered to herself, watching the nets contort from Daryl’s meteoric impact. Her heart pounding, she took several deep breaths to steady her shaking hands.
The sirens of the emergency vehicles overpowered the base sirens as they closed in on the wreckage of Daryl’s TRTV on the ground. She could hear Jacobs’ slow, measured breathing in her headset. His growl penetrated the roar of blood pumping in her ears.
“My office! Fifteen minutes!”
fIFTEEN
Evangeline’s rapid descent caused the legs of her ship to strain under the inertia. She received more than a few irritated comments from the ground personnel for blowing people over and scattering their equipment with the hurricane force winds created by her aggressive landing. She touched down a few yards from the throng of emergency vehicles crowded around the heap of mangled metal that had once been Daryl’s TRTV.
Disconnecting from her machine seemed to take hours instead of seconds. She tossed her helmet in her seat and covered the distance between herself and the smoking wreckage in a few heartbeats. Response teams on all sides of the crashed ship were working to extricate the pilot. She could not believe she was involved in her second rescue mission of that day, within two short hours. In the entire time she had been a patrol pilot on Earth, she had never been involved with anything more serious than a traffic jam.
As she sprinted toward the swarm of activity, she could not tell if they had yet freed Daryl from the wreckage. If anything happened to him… she could not finish the thought. She had only met Daryl for the first time a few days prior, but his actions and safety were her responsibility. A new fear stabbed her mind. What if the spike penetrated into the cockpit and impaled him? With a shudder, she realized how foolhardy her brash rescue attempt had been. In her attempt to save his life, and prevent his collision into the medical center, she had risked his safety. Evangeline feared she had killed Daryl trying to save him. The cruel irony pierced her soul.
She wove through the cluster of workers, pushing aside medics and emergency responders to cut a path to Daryl. She caught a clear view of the downed TRTV. The damage was extensive - her actions had destroyed it beyond repair. The ruined TRTV was lying on its port side, the weapons pod sprung open. Ordinance officers were attempting to dislodge the exposed rockets and missiles. It dawned on her how the accident could have ended in a horrible catastrophe. If any of the weapons had exploded in the impact, she alone would have been held accountable for even more damage and injuries. Such an outcome would have meant the immediate end of her career.
The responders removed the spike from the hull, the rear plating peeling away from the frame like a banana peel. The legs had crumpled under the weight of the fall; the joints bent and twisted in angles that made her cringe.
The responders were struggling to get the cockpit seat to disengage. After several minutes of prying at the hatch, the cockpit seal gave way and two ground crew members heaved Daryl’s seat from the TRTV. His body slumped toward the ground like a lifeless marionette. He was still unconscious and Evangeline watched the small pool of blood collect beneath his limp body.
The nearest medic shoved a handful of sterile gauze against Daryl’s neck and started checking his vital signs. He turned and gave a thumbs-up to the other medical crew. Evangeline suddenly exhaled - she had not noticed she had been holding her breath since she approached the crash scene. He was alive! She stood there, shocked and stunned that her insane rescue plan had worked.
More medics pushed past Evangeline and crowded around Daryl’s still form. The gauze at his neck was already soaked with blood. They replaced the dark stained bandages with fresh ones as they detached him from the harness. As there was no power left in his TRTV after the blast from her EMP, the rescuers had to disconnect his ports from the machine’s dead neural network by hand. Hours seemed to pass in the seconds it took before rescuers freed Daryl from his spinal tethers.
Evangeline followed the medics as they placed Daryl on a stretcher, and loaded him into the emergency medical vehicle that had the clearest path to the base hospital. She climbed into the medical transport and perched on the bench next to him. She held his limp hand for comfort and stared at his boyish face. He was young and brash. He had the potential to be an excellent pilot, and his life seemed to be ending in front of her. The three hundred yards between them and the hospital took an insufferable amount of time to cross. Simmonds was growing paler by the second.
The medical transport screeched to a stop at the hospital doors after the agonizing trek across the landing field. The medics leaped out and unloaded Daryl’s gurney, speeding him through the hospital entrance. Evangeline trotted to keep up, still gripping Daryl’s weak hand. The highest ranking medic began to rattle off Daryl’ vitals and injury report to the doctors and nurses that meet them on their way in.
The hospital personnel took the gurney and rushed Daryl into one of the examination rooms, forcing Evangeline to release her grip of Daryl’s hand. As Daryl and his medical entourage disappeared from her view, Evangeline stopped short at the sight of Colonel Mark Jacobs standing in the middle of the corridor. Evangeline came to full attention before him. She knew there we be no dodging the serious consequences for her actions.
“At ease,” Jacobs said, but Evangeline was unable to relax. She was playing a mental game of if/then in her head, analyzing over and over what might happen next to Daryl and herself due to the day’s risky events. She knew Jacobs well enough; he would might have ripped her up one side and down the other in the tower, but he would get all the facts before dressing down a subordinate in public.
Jacobs walked past Evangeline and away from the clinic. She spun on her heel and followed in step beside him. Without slowing his pace or looking in her direction, he spoke a single, terse phrase.
“Tell me what happened out there.”
As they entered Jacobs’ office, Evangeline had just finished her verbal report at the point where she walked through the emergency room doors and found him waiting there for her.
Jacobs massaged his forehead. “There’s going to have to be an inquiry. There’s nothing I can do to prevent that,” he said, straining to maintain his self-control. “Even though it resulted in you saving the life of your trainee, you violated multiple safety protocols. That very expensive piece of technology is is now worth no more than scrap,” he growled, pointing out the window in the direction of the wreckage. He plopped himself down behind his desk and Evangeline stood at ease in front of it.
“Yes, sir,” she said, eyes focused on the floor.
“That being said,” he paused with a deep breath, staring at her until she met his gaze. “On a personal note,” he continued, “I’m very proud of you for what you did out there. You handled it better than any other officer on this base would have under such pressure. You saved Simmonds’ life. In addition, your efforts at the collision today were exemplary. I think they’ll go a long way towards easing the tension between Olympus and the LTZ.” He stood up and walked around his desk to face her.
“I’d give you a medal if I could. All I can offer you is this.” He raised his hand to his forehead and gave her a sharp salute. She returned the gesture.
“Thank you, sir.” Evangeline held her position, waiting for Jacobs to be the first to finish, but he maintained his salute. He was showing her the same level of respect that he reserved for his superior officers. She lowered her salute and Jacobs followed suit before he returned to his chair behind his desk.
He crossed his legs and rested his elbows on the arms of his chair, interlocking his fingers on his lap. “I’m going to have to put you on administrative leave while the investigation proceeds.
It should only be for a day or two,” he said.
Evangeline had expected as much, but the news still wounded her pride. “Yes, sir, I understand.” She waited a moment, and then spoke again. “Permission to be dismissed, sir. I’d like to go see how Simmonds is doing.”
“Permission granted,” Jacobs answered with a brief nod of his head. As Evangeline moved toward the door, Jacobs spoke up, shuffling a stack of on his desk. “Just one more thing, Captain.”
Evangeline turned her head around, wary of a further reprimand for her actions that day.
“Yes, sir?” she asked.
He gave her a gentle smile. “Let me know if you need anything,” he said. “As a family friend, I’m here to help if you need it.”
A gentle warmth burned in her chest as a small tear welled on her eyelashes. “Thank you, sir. I will.” With that, she gave him another quick salute and closed the door behind her, making her way to the clinic on winged feet. She understood why her mother had held Mark Jacobs in high regards, grateful for the friendship her parents fostered with him before vanishing from her life. At least they had left him behind to watch over her when they could not.
SIXTEEN
Dr. Nathan Park sat in the small clinic break room, reviewing Mr. Roster’s chart for the third time. His unfinished dinner had grown cold while he was engrossed in studying the mystery disease. It had become the most unsolvable puzzle of his career. He was just about to finish his energy drink when he heard his name paged over the PA system.
“Dr. Park. Dr. Nathan Park. Emergency in examination room seven.” The message repeated several times as Nathan cleared the display of his tablet and snatched his white coat from the back of his chair. Shoving his arms through the flapping sleeves of his coat, he jogged down the corridor toward the exam room.
The nurses were clustered about the gurney when Nathan entered. The medics scrambled to get out of his way when they heard his shuffling step behind them. He noted the ashen looks on their faces as he pulled on his sterile gloves. He then turned and stepped up to the gurney to find a young male dressed in a pilot’s flight suit.
Avenging Angels (The Seraphim Chronicles Book 1) Page 9
