Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1)

by Burger, Jeffrey

  "Hey!" yelled Jack. "Where are you going?"

  "Woak!" answered the Shepherd.

  Jack shrugged and got to his feet. "Sure, we'll walk," he muttered. He walked down the hall behind the dog talking to himself. "What the hell, flying saucers exist, aliens are real, there's pirates in space, I know talking cat women, there's even a guy wearing a cloak who drinks brandy and walks through walls... so why not a talking dog?" He followed Fritz into the garden and sat down. "Geez, what a freaking weird universe."

  ■ ■ ■

  "Well," said CABL M7, after examining Fritz, "it may not have been expected, but it was surely predictable to a certain extent." He rolled the sleeves of his tunic back down. He was one of only two members of the crew with a green uniform tunic, signifying he was on the ship's medical staff.

  "But he talks!" insisted Jack. "Dogs aren't supposed to talk... at least not where I come from."

  "It's a side effect from the installation of his CABL network. Did the surgeons not explain all the possible side effects?"

  "Not really," said Jack apprehensively, "why, what else is there?"

  "Sit down, Captain."

  Jack was sure he didn't like the sound of that. CABL M7 turned to the dog, "You're all done Fritz, you can go if you wish." He nodded and gracefully jumped off of the exam table. "I will send the Captain to the galley when we're done. Ok?" The Shepherd nodded once again and trotted through the sliding infirmary doors. Jack stared in disbelief. "Now," began CABL M7, "there are many possibilities." He leaned back casually against the exam table, arms comfortably folded against his chest. "But the probabilities are more what we're concerned with. First of all, you must stop looking at him as merely a dog. The moment his body took to the CABL insertion, he stopped being a dog, he will never be merely a dog again."

  He walked over to the small refrigerator used to preserve drugs and specimens. Jack watched him go. He pulled out a jug of ice water and held it up. Jack nodded, his mouth was dry. CABL M7 poured two glasses, placed the jug back and returned with the glasses, handing one to Jack.

  "There are many different types and sizes of implants. Fritz's is fairly sizable, it will affect everything about him. Mine, for instance, is more specialized. I was already a surgeon when I developed Garginson's Disease, a debilitating illness which attacks the nervous system of my species. It crippled me. The CABL installation cured me. I decided to replace my right eye with this special optical, about a year later because it enhances my microsurgery abilities. No matter how extensive or how small a system, once inserted, it's permanent." He drank some of his water as did Jack.

  Jack found it both disturbing and fascinating. "So what are some of the things I should expect?"

  "I'm getting to that," said CABL M7. "A CABL system develops on its own... learns, if you will, and eventually develops and improves other things. For me, my reflexes doubled in speed, my motor control is beyond my original norm, I'm physically stronger..." He hopped up onto the exam table and crossed his legs, sitting like an Indian. "For Fritz, it will mean a much increased intelligence, the ability to reason, an enhancement of all his natural abilities, hearing, smell, intuition, reflexes, speed, agility, even strength. He may even learn to talk..." Jack cracked a smile. "I thought that might amuse you," added CABL M7, grinning. "The more extensive a unit that's installed, the further-reaching its effects on the recipient."

  Shaking his head, the new Captain rose from the chair. "Amazing... simply amazing. I wish someone had told me all this earlier though, it would have freaked me out a lot less..."

  "Freaked you out?"

  "Um, surprised and confused..." explained Jack. CABL M7 nodded his understanding. "Well I better get going, he'll be waiting for me." They shook hands. "Thanks for your time, Doc, I appreciate it."

  "It was my pleasure, Captain. One other thing, there's no accurate prediction on how sizable his spoken vocabulary will become, but it will definitely be smaller than his mental vocabulary. Simply because he was not physically designed to speak. This will be frustrating for him at times, so be patient with him."

  "I'll do my best, Doc. Thanks again." He turned and walked through the infirmary's sliding double doors into the corridor.

  ■ ■ ■

  "You're not going to believe this Jack," shouted Maria as she ran down the corridor. "Fritz just came into the galley and ordered a hamburger! I thought I was hearing things, but then he said it again!"

  "I know," said Jack wearily.

  "You know? That he talks? You have a talking dog!?"

  Maria fell in alongside Jack as he continued down the hall towards the galley. "Yeah, you could've knocked me down with a feather. Doc says the CABL installation has expanded his intelligence." Jack continued on as they walked, recounting CABL M7's explanation.

  "Well how much can he say?" probed Maria.

  Jack shrugged, "Who knows? Evidently enough to order lunch!" When they entered the galley, they found Fritz occupying a seat at the head of an empty table. Two hamburger style sandwiches, one half eaten, sat before him on galley plates. He chewed happily and wagged his tail when he saw Jack. Sitting down on either side of him, Jack and Maria joined the dog. "You going to eat both of those?" asked Jack. The Shepherd shook his head and nosed the plate with the whole sandwich over to Jack, who felt thoroughly embarrassed about the dog's unselfishness.

  "I don't believe this..." muttered Maria.

  "Hubugerrr!" barked Fritz, over his shoulder. The porter brought another sandwich on a plate, and Fritz pushed it in front of Maria, not wanting her to feel slighted. He continued to munch on his own as neatly as he could.

  "Jack, I've never had a d-o-g order lunch for me before," whispered Maria.

  "Why are you whispering?" he asked, "he hears better than you and me... and stop spelling, he probably spells better than y-o-u." Jack took a bite of his sandwich. "Mmm, it's good," he commented, wiping the meat juice off his chin, "juicy too... try it." Maria gave in and sampled the sandwich and admitted he was right.

  "So what do we do now?" asked Maria.

  "About what?" responded Jack, swallowing.

  "About Fritz. What do we do next? Where do we go from here?"

  "I'm not sure," shrugged Jack, "help him if we can, let him develop however he wants to..." Then a sudden idea hit him. "But not before we have a little fun..."

  Maria picked at her sandwich. "Fun? Like what?"

  "Like watching the look on Brian's face... and Paul's, Mike's, Derrik's... even the Professor." Fritz nodded vigorously and wagged his tail with enthusiasm. Jack smiled at the idea and the dog's understanding of it.

  Her eyes sparkled for the first time in weeks. "Oh! That's a super idea! Call them now! Invite them down to eat or something..!"

  "Can't," said Jack, his mouth full, "gotta wait till they come back..."

  "Come back... From where?" interrupted Maria.

  "Patrol," answered Jack.

  "Oh. How come I didn't get to go?"

  Jack paused to think, holding up one finger to stall, while he swallowed. "Wasn't your shift," he lied. "You'll fly with me once we pass through the Genesis Gate to the next sector." He hoped that would be a sufficient answer. It was and she offered no complaint.

  Jack didn't want her to think he didn't trust her, but he had been concerned that her attitude or frame of mind would affect her performance. But, it seemed that the storm had passed. He decided she would fly his wing, and if everything was acceptable, he would not hesitate to assign her regular patrol duties. "Well I'm done," yawned Steele, pushing the empty plate away, "I'm going to go get some shut eye. You coming, dog?" Fritz hopped off his chair and ambled up next to him as he rose from the table. "You'd better go get some rest too," he told Maria, "you want to
be wide awake for patrol."

  ■ ■ ■

  Jack had been asleep for less than an hour when the bridge called his quarters, waking him. He reached over and tapped the comm button on the night table. "Yes?"

  "Sorry to disturb you, Jack..."

  "It's Ok, Walt, what's up?"

  "We're nearing the Genesis Gate. I've maneuvered astern of the Princess, what else should we do?"

  "What's our time to the gate?"

  There was a pause while the Professor consulted Ragnaar at the navigation station. "About thirty minutes to entry."

  "Are the guys back from patrol yet?" Jack stretched and propped himself up on one elbow.

  "Not yet, they're on their return leg from the rearward point."

  "Ok," yawned Jack, "call `em in. Tell them to come straight back, no detours. We'll relaunch in the next sector. Oh, and find out how long it takes to pass through."

  "Right, stand by." Jack could hear the Professor recalling the fighters and requesting travel time from the helm. "Ok, the boys are on their way back, and our travel time will be five and a half hours, give or take a few minutes."

  "That's fine, Walt, give me about five, but if you need me, wake me."

  "Right-o." The comm beeped as the connection ended. Jack looked down at Fritz who lay curled on the bed near his feet. His optical sensor glowed faintly, but he appeared to be asleep. The young Captain drifted off wondering if the dog could actually see while he was asleep.

  ■ ■ ■

  The two flights of fighters rejoined astern of the Freedom and fell into a finger four formation. But before they could execute a turnabout to begin final approach for recovery, they picked up a blip on the edge of their sensor range. Paul triggered his mic, "Flight leader to base..."

  "This is the tower, flight leader, go ahead."

  "We've got a bogie out here, tower..." continued Paul, "do we have time to check it out? Please advise..."

  "Negative flight leader, begin recovery immediately."

  "Roger," answered Pappy. "You heard him boys, loop and roll."

  Brian pulled back on his stick and followed Derrik's wingtip through the 180 degree half loop. Once on top, they executed a half roll to right themselves for final approach. Brian throttled back to match his wing leader's speed as Paul and Mike pulled ahead to create a loose diamond formation. Derrik and Brian fell further behind as Paul and Mike began their final approach.

  Brian followed the tower's commands as they were given, gear down, line up on the ship's signal markers, throttle down to one notch before idle, coast and wait. Paul and Mike disappeared through the giant aft landing bay doors which still looked too small to Brian. Even at his low throttle setting, he was gaining on the cruiser, as it had slowed for recovery procedures.

  "Flight one recovered. Flight two, you are clear to land." Brian concentrated on the flashing landing lights that ran down the runway and the instructions from the tower, engines off, anti-grav on, arm breaking jets, arm emergency canopy release. The controller's voice was calm and even, and his reassuring tone made Brian's first recovery less stressful.

  As his fighter passed through the blue veil of the stasis field, the ship's artificial gravity tugged on Brian's fighter, bouncing the landing skids off the deck one time before being countered by his craft's anti gravity gear. The solid thump and the shower of sparks skittering across the floor startled him. Embarrassed, he glanced over at Derrik's Warthog off his wingtip but the other pilot hadn't seemed to notice. Firing his breaking jets, he slowed and directed by the tower, taxied his fighter off the runway. He coasted on anti-grav, maneuvering the craft gently by the stick and followed the mechanic's hand signals to the fighter's parking revetment.

  He methodically flipped off the switches for braking jets, emergency canopy release and all his electronic gear before pulling the manual canopy release handle. As the canopy rose slowly with a hiss, he switched off the anti-grav and felt the craft settle to the deck with a gentle bump. Unsealing his flight gloves, he pulled them off and reached back to unseal his helmet. Still adjusted to the darkness of space, the bright lights in the parking area made his eyes water. The sound of someone climbing the boarding ladder told him someone was there, but his eyes refused to focus. The extra hands helped unseal and remove the helmet which made the light even worse. Suddenly realizing the pilots discomfort, the mechanic twisted around on the ladder and shouted at another member of the ground crew, "HEY YOU!” he pointed at the man. “Yeah YOU! Turn down these lights!" The man jumped at the order from his Crew Chief and the lights dimmed almost instantly. "I'm really sorry, Lieutenant," he said, turning back to Brian. "These new guys..." he explained as he unbuckled the pilot, "some just aren't real swift yet..."

  Brian blinked hard and wiped the tears with the back of his hand. "It's Ok, Chief. It's better now, thanks."

  The mechanic waited on the deck below as Brian descended the ladder from the cockpit. "So how do you like her, Lieutenant?" he asked, patting his hand on the port engine nacelle.

  "She handles nice, I like her," commented Brian, stepping to the deck.

  The mechanic handed him back his helmet as they turned to walk around the nose. "Yep, she's a good bird," he bragged, running his hand across the hull, "never been whacked. Not even once."

  Brian tried to sound reassuring. "Well, I'll do my very best to take good care of her."

  The Crew Chief laughed a deep belly laugh and slapped the pilot merrily on the back. "Ah, my boy, that's what they all say..." Brian didn't know whether to feel insulted or not, but he smiled just the same. Maybe he was referring to the landing, thought Brian. Maybe not.

  "Ah, now that was grand!" exclaimed Derrik, as he strolled over to Brian. "It's good to feel the power again. I almost forgot what it was like," he explained. They headed toward the pilot's ready room, their helmets tucked under their arms. "What'd you think?"

  "I had a blast!"

  "It is fun, isn't it?" It was a rhetorical question. "But it can get serious," explained Derrik, "especially if we meet some undesirables out there...”

  "Y'know," interrupted Brian, "I'm really not worried about that." He was surprised, but the possibility of that only made it more exciting. "But," he added, deciding to come clean, "I could use some practice on landing."

  "Why?"

  "Whaddya' mean, why? Didn't you see me touch down? There were sparks everywhere, I bounced pretty hard," said Brian, unzipping his suit as they walked.

  "So? So did I. You landed just fine. The sparks are from the skid plates on the bottom of the landing feet, they're supposed to do that, you wanker..."

  Brian smiled sheepishly. "Oh."

  Laughing, Derrik slapped Brian in the shoulder with his flight gloves repeatedly. "Wanker, sod, twit..."

  Laughing, they entered the ready room through the double doors and sat down with Mike and Paul, who had already shed their flight gear.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  FREEDOM, GENESIS GATE - BAHIA SYSTEM: JOKERS & GUNSLINGERS

  The comm buzzed once and Jack was awake. "Yes?"

  "Walt here, Captain. We're about twenty five minutes from exiting the Genesis Gate."

  "Thanks, Walt, I'll be right up." He jumped out of bed and strolled into the bathroom, whistling. The constant gentle rumbling of the ship in motion, made sleep soothing and deep. After a shower and a clean uniform, Jack felt fresh and energized. He was also excited about the prospect of flying a patrol. He could imagine seeing the expanse of space through the cockpit perspex, uninhibited by steel or view screens. The view from the glass of the observation deck was gratifying, but somehow he couldn't believe it would compare to the unhindered view from a fighter's cockpit.

  Jack checked his watch after he p
inned his wings on his tunic. "Are you ready to go Fritzer?"

  "Rrright!" came the gruff reply. He was eager to display his new found talents.

  "Now remember," coached Jack, "no talking until I give you the signal, Ok? " The Shepherd nodded his compliance and the two stepped out into the corridor and headed for the bridge.

  As expected, the pilots were hanging out on the bridge to watch the rather exceptional spectacle of leaving a Genesis Gate. At a distance, a Gate just looked like four small points of light in a square with a touch of color in the middle. Drawing closer, it became obvious the expanse between the markers was tremendous, and the color was actually a giant, slowly spinning swirl of brilliant translucent colors. As a ship entered, the swirl enlarged, reaching out and swallowing the ship into what appeared to be a starless tunnel of soft, shimmering, silver silk. Entering was beautiful, but exiting was breathtaking. Surrounded by shimmering silver, the horizon gradually filled with clouds of undulating, effervescent color. The clouds would grow as the ship approached, and after a time, it would be totally immersed in the hazy, wafting colors. Suddenly the colors would intensify, exploding outwards like a giant Roman candle, spilling the ship back into the star filled blackness. It was better than any Fourth of July fireworks show in the world.

  Being a substantial distance behind the Princess Hedonist, the crew of the Freedom had the best possible view. The Gate held itself open as the first ship passed through, showing a stunning array of brilliant colors with an expanse of black, star flecked sky, visible in the middle. Random clouds of color drifted across the opening. Then in an instant, they were out and it was gone.

  Jack and Fritz stepped past the mesmerized pilots and down the short steps to the pit and his command chair.