The Battle for the Ringed Planet

by Richard Edmond Johnson

  Keeping her eyes on him, she nodded while he pointed his thumb behind to the cockpit, “I’m going to be up there trying to find out what’s going on in orbit.”

  Chapter 3: Fireball

  Torian heard water running as he flicked on the cockpit screens and slipped on his helmet to read the HUD in his visor. Whatever was going on in space worried him. The Callisto could be engaging hostile forces, though the deadly battle cruiser was one of the advanced ‘Moon’ class series, and half the 4th fleet comprised of them. It boasted four triple gun plasma turrets, a squadron of fighters and the latest shielding technology. The enemy had similar cruisers, but not with the latest military advances. Still, in space nothing was ever certain.

  The 4th fleet consisted of 12 battle cruisers strung out over several star systems to guard civilian populations, supply conveys, and natural resources. Spread thin, the Confederation forces faced difficulty protecting all the colonies and earth, while the rebels could hit anywhere. One of their favorite tactics involved capturing supply vessels and loading them up with an obscene amount of nukes. When security forces realized the harmful intent, too late, entire space stations and ports paid the price. It was an old tactic from Earth’s water navy ships, made famous in space by a lethal attack years ago on the main station at Alpha Centauri. Dispatched to Selunia, the Callisto gathered intelligence from the mysterious dead colony.

  Glancing back at Siiri, vigorously brushing her teeth, he thought about the filthy girl for a moment. His briefing had not even considered the possibility of colony survivors on this planet. All he wanted to do was get back to Callisto, and if she wanted to come, perhaps it would make up for losing Chang’s body. Then he felt a little guilty. In her current state, subjecting her to interrogation by the intelligence agents on the Callisto would be mean.

  Sighing, Torian began to run the diagnostic programs that checked all the systems. Before Callisto would even consider sending a pick up, they would want to see if the R-26 Hawkeye could fly. Though not a trained systems technician, he knew enough to isolate most problems.

  All of the systems were fully functional except for the main thrusters, which would make lift off difficult. On the ground, with the engines off-line, the vessel gave off a low signature, which meant that a possible detection from enemy scanners was remote. However, firing the thrusters would be like announcing their location with a bright neon target. Torian ran repair programs, then glanced out the cockpit and watched the pack of wolves and wild dogs still milling about gnawing on a few bones. When he got a particular view of Chang’s femur, he grew angry, and fired up the shields. He was risking detection, but by extending the radius of vessel’s defenses a few meters beyond the main fuselage of the R-26 Hawkeye, the energy barrier became a weapon. He knew it had been successful in other scenarios similar to this one and would fry anything within ten meters from the hull. After entering the command, there was a low hum followed by yelps of startled wolves and dogs. There would be nothing left except blackened ash; at least Chang`s body would be cremated instead of wolf food.

  A slight cough almost made him jump and glancing back, he saw Siiri standing on the small steps up to the cockpit watching him manipulate holo fields of data and play with the colorful buttons.

  “Do you feel better?” he asked lifting his visor to get a better look, “I can actually see a girl’s face under all that dirt.”

  A tiny movement of her lips might have been the start of a smile, but she replied too quickly for it to form, “What happened outside?”

  “I cleared the area, it should be safe now.”

  “I wanted to thank you.”

  Torian removed his helmet and ran his hand through his thick chocolate hair, “So I’m not a Sky Demon?”

  “I don’t think so, but I didn’t believe the voices. Mostly I never do.”

  His brows lifted, “Voices?”

  “She said to run to you, or in your direction. No Sky Demon has ever entered the city and lived.” then she coughed deeply.

  “Maybe you should lie down for a while. The medicine should kick in soon…”

  Siiri pointed up through the transteel cockpit, “Stars, in the daylight?”

  In Selunia’s bright blue sky, there were four moons visible through light wispy cirrus clouds, and bright flashes between several shiny dots of light near the largest green moon. Battle cruisers were large enough to reflect the sunlight in the day sky.

  “Damn!” Torian grimaced, above them was the evidence he had feared, “There is a space battle going on, my ship is under attack.”

  “Sky ships? Like this one?”

  “Bigger, battle cruisers. They’re in the atmosphere …” then the bright spots began to vanish, “…wait, moving out. I can’t risk trying to scan them because they’ll spot us, we’d be like a beacon in the city, so I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “You belong to a bigger sky ship?”

  “Yeah, a ship with a crew of about 500, the C.S.S Callisto.”

  “Can you go back to it?”

  Glancing at a holo column of words and numbers on his right, checking the status of the repair programs, he frowned, “Probably, this vessel needs some time to repair, but I think it can fly. Hopefully the Callisto can take out whatever is up there, then I can fly you to your home if you’d like.”

  Siiri genuinely laughed, and then coughed, “Oh, they would love that.”

  “Why? Haven’t they seen a vessel like this?”

  “Several at the space port left behind after the Sky Demons died entering the city.”

  “We were supposed to land at the space port.”

  “The last time a Sky Demon came was when I was a little girl. After they walked into the city, they all died. Then my father and some others brought everything back from their sky ship including guns like yours and the latest holo libraries.” Siiri coughed again, this time harder.

  “Siiri, how many of you are there?”

  “In the village?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think a 1000, maybe more.”

  “And you live in the valley? I saw no structures when I scanned there.”

  “In tunnels…” then Siiri glanced away, “…maybe I shouldn’t be telling you that …”

  “Well, if I can make lift off I can land in the valley …”

  “No…” she wiped her eye and stepped down to sit back on Chang’s bunk.

  Placing his helmet in the cockpit seat Torian stepped down and crouched next to the girl who sniffed and hid her face, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  “I told you I was cast out. I can’t go back.”

  “By your own family?”

  “The priest said I was a demon. There were others like me before, so they cast me out to the city to die. I saw their bones …”

  “Because of the voices?”

  Nodding she wiped away more tears and coughed.

  Torian pulled on the bed cover revealing a soft fur material underneath, “Siiri…” he spoke warmly, “why don’t you rest a bit. You’re safe here for now, and the bed is fresh.”

  Hesitant, she folded her dirty bruised legs close to her body and turned away from him, “Come on,” he pleaded. “You’ve had a rough time, and I’ve got things to do, so I won’t disturb you.”

  Peering at him still with suspicion, she slowly reached for the bed cover, “You’re not trying to trick me?”

  “No, I promise.”

  He noticed her long bare legs, scratched and bruised, as she slowly pulled off her sandals and her dress down over her knees, sliding under the single thick cover. When she moved the pillow, however, she noticed a small black disk.

  “What is that?”

  “That’s a player. It has thousands of holos stored.”

  “Oh, I’ve never seen one so small.” She peered up at Torian and then picked it up. As soon as she touched it, particularly on the side, a three-dimensional video of a naked man and woman engaged in a sex act appeared. Swiftly Torian snatched it fr
om the girl and switched off the display.

  “Your porn?” she sighed with disgust, “All the boys watch those.”

  “Not mine, Chang’s. I like the real thing …” then he swallowed, “I mean, not now …” he quickly changed the subject, “So you watch holos?”

  “Mostly at school, I don’t have a player.” She slid into the bed and moved close to the wall and away from him.

  “What kind of school?”

  “Regular … math, science, astrophysics, literature; I was an ‘A’ student. Didn’t you have school where you’re from?”

  “Yeah, but I slept through most of it ...”

  Yawning, she curled up under the blanket and turned away, “Are you going to let me rest?”

  “Right...” He stood up and sat on the chair by the consul, and when he glanced back a few moments later, she was out. The lanky soldier went to work studying the holos and flat panel screens, worried about what was going on with the Callisto in orbit. With his fingers, he moved floating holo screens and touched flat panel buttons bringing up schematics of the Hawkeye’s internal systems. Running diagnostics on all of the thrusters brought green results and that was puzzling. Why were they not working? The thruster command node probably suffered damage when they lost power on descent; still he climbed into the cockpit and tried to fire them up to no avail. Every other system worked except for the one they needed to leave the planet. He glanced apprehensively up at the sky, but saw no bright lights, moving objects or any signs of space battles. Hoping that Callisto had been victorious and that the cruiser had not left the system, he debated risking a long-range scan. In the end, the fear of a salvo of plasma bolts fired from an enemy cruiser’s guns convinced him otherwise.

  The sun on Selunia was high in the sky, and according to his Con, it was 11:30 hours, planet side time (PST). On this planet, a day was roughly 30 earth hours, and a year was about three earth years. Torian could not remember the month cycle and did not even try. In space, everyone went by earth standard time (EST), while colonies went by their own systems, which were generally similar to earth’s conventions, but sometimes with longer months, days, or years.

  Since it was near lunch, he climbed back down to the crew section and went to the back cupboards, pulling out two small brown cubes with bold letters on the outside, ‘Chicken Vegetable Stew’. All their rations were condensed cubes about 2 centimeters square. Torian placed the cubes each into two bowls and put them inside the food processor, a small windowed compartment that would instantly process them into steaming chunks of chicken, green peas, and lumpy potatoes in gravy. Then he repeated the exercise with two other cubes labeled ‘Apple Juice’, this time putting the cubes into mugs.

  Peering over at the sleeping girl, watching her for a moment, though her long blonde hair was still stringy and kinked, she did not look so bad after washing her face and cleaning up. Taking a seat back on the chair next to the consul, he took a bite of stew that actually tasted quite good, despite the fact it was rations. As he swallowed more food, she began to stir and her wide blue eyes blinked open as the aroma of chicken filled the cramped cabin.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Hungry and tired,” she groaned as she sat up, and then eyed his bowl of stew.

  “There is one for you.” He handed her a tray with the bowl and a spoon and cup.

  “Is that chicken?”

  “Sky Demon chicken; want me to taste it first in case I poisoned it?”

  The girl did not reply, eagerly scooping up the food and gulping down the juice in the blue and white mug.

  “How long were you out there?” Torian finished his meal and put his bowl aside.

  “I don’t know it’s all a blur. Two or three days, maybe. It was terrifying. They were supposed to drug me, but maybe it’s good they didn’t.”

  He studied her again and she eyed him back. Her village cast her out for a reason, something that frightened them enough to have her killed. Torian wondered if she posed any danger to him right now. Thinking back, though, she had seemed helpless against the wolf pack.

  Suddenly a red glow bathed the entire cabin and cockpit and they both glanced with surprise at each other. Torian hopped out of the console chair and stared out of the transteel cockpit, followed quickly by Siiri who leaned close behind him.

  “What is it?” She exclaimed with fright.

  “A fireball…” Torian’s voice was tense. A tumbling burning object shot through air directly above the Hawkeye leaving a trail of smoke streaking across the sky. It descended rapidly in a brilliant ball of flames, with pieces breaking off in smaller red flashes. It reminded Torian of the fire works over the river at home on Founding Day when the mini explosions sent bright orange and yellow glowing fragments over Kaarina.

  Whispering next to the tall military specialist, Siiri clutched his upper arm with her right hand, “Is it a sky ship?”

  Torian turned back to the girl, “I think it’s a battle cruiser from low orbit,” he pulled her close to his side, “hold tight, it’s going to impact!”

  The fiery ball struck down somewhere on the outskirts of the city and shook the ground with a violent tremor. Siiri lost her footing on the steps up to the cockpit, but the soldier held her firmly while he gripped the metal rod behind his cockpit chair. The Hawkeye rocked, but sustained no damage; designed for far worse punishment.

  Glancing quickly into her eyes, he loosened his grip, “Ok?”

  The girl rubbed her arm and nodded.

  “Sorry, did I bruise you?”

  “It’s all right.”

  Sighing with worry he remarked, “This can’t be good.” Climbing into his cockpit seat Torian fired up some holo screens. The likelihood of detection was too great to use the powerful long-range scanners, but he could risk a momentary low-level scan.

  “It came down north of the city; made a big crater,” he transferred the data to his Con and switched off the floating screen, “I’m going to shut everything down.” If Callisto was in orbit they could contact him on his Con, but he had a sinking feeling that he knew the exactly where it was.

  The military specialist hopped down the stairs past Siiri to another cabinet next to the one with the sink that stored combat utility suits, utility belts and other equipment.

  “Siiri,” he faced the girl, “if there are enemy cruisers in orbit, they may detect and target this vessel. I’m going to leave and check out the crater because I need to find out if it is the Callisto.” He pulled out a navy blue backpack from the closet. “You can either stay here and take the risk, or come with me.”

  She hesitated at first, “Do you have another pistol?”

  “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

  “I need to protect myself!”

  “I’m not even sure I believe your story. You could be a rebel stranded here like me.”

  “If I was, what would you do?”

  “I’d shoot you. Considering what they did to me, I wouldn’t hesitate.” He began to load food rations, water, and ammo magazines in the backpack.

  “You would shoot me in cold blood?”

  “Before you cut my throat, yes.”

  “You are a Sky Demon! I’m not a rebel!”

  Torian checked Chang’s pistol and packed the dead pilot’s utility belt with the Con, a couple of flashlights, binoculars, and a few of his personal items, then he looked over at her in her tattered dress and worn sandals, “You coming or staying?”

  Folding her arms she glared at him, “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Ok, but Hawkeyes blow up real good. I’ve seen a few.” He opened the hatch and ducked down the small ladder to the ground. Outside he wrinkled his nose at the stench of burnt flesh from the wolves and Chang’s body. Steam still rose from the ground in small patches where the force shield had touched and burned flesh. The drizzle had died off a bit, but he felt the moisture still in the air touch his face as he slung his pack and checked his Con.

  Then Tristan was standing there
with folded arms and a smirk on his face, leaning against a rusted light post. “So? You’re still alive!”

  “And probably not for long. Was that the Callisto that just crashed?”

  “How should I know, I’m with you.”

  “I could use your help to fix the thrusters.”

  “Dream on.” Then the man with blue skin in a navy flight suit stepped closer, “Who is your hot date?”

  “The pain in the ass?”

  “Sounds about right for you.”

  “I don’t have time for that sort of thing. I need to concentrate and I don’t need a phantom around that won’t troubleshoot.”

  “All work and no play.”

  “Oh, shut up.” Suddenly he heard a noise behind and turned to look back.

  “Fine, I’ll go with you.” Siiri marched up beside him with annoyance in her eyes, glancing around the exterior, “Who were you talking to?”

  “Nobody,” he replied quickly, “put this on.” He held up Chang’s dark blue utility belt with several pouches and components. “You can put rations in the pouches and you’ll need to use this,” pointing to a square device fastened permanently to the belt, “it’s a proximity shield, though a very basic one.”

  “What does it do?”

  “I’ll explain after … here, let me …”

  “Don’t touch me!”

  “Then you do it!” He started to hand over the belt, but she grabbed it from his hand and tried to snap it around her waist.

  “That’s upside down.”

  She huffed and tried it the other way, fumbling with the fastener, but got it after a few attempts.

  Torian grinned, “Good thing you’re about the same size as Chang.”

  “What does the shield do?”

  “It protects you from projectiles, mostly from fragmentation munitions. It switches on and off extremely fast, otherwise you would not be able to breathe. The prox shield is invisible and has a detection radius of about two meters so it will activate if something fast enters your space.”

  “Will it stop arrows?”

  “Yeah, but not plasma or …” he held up a survival knife, “this in close quarters. The shields the marines use are far better, but I’m hoping to avoid any fights.”