Space Armada

by Harp Truman

  He shifted in the cockpit and tried to get comfortable, except there was something by his leg. He looked down and saw that somebody had left an L-gun in the craft. An L-gun was a small laser gun, used to weld metal when doing repairs on a ship. Somebody must have been repairing the craft from an earlier test and accidentally left it in there.

  Huck got through the ‘A-R-M-A-D’ letters with relative ease.

  The officials were very impressed with his handling of the craft. It was clear to everyone he was a pilot with enormous natural ability.

  As he flew towards the last ‘A,’ his flight stick froze up. It was too late to change course. His plan had been to fly towards the letter and take the sharpest of right turns to get through the middle.

  There was murmurs on the ground as Huck hurtled towards the last letter. They could tell something was wrong. He should have slowed down by now.

  Huck only had a few seconds to think. He knew that to avoid a collision, he needed to make a sharp right.

  But how?

  The stick was broken.

  Without thinking, he opened up the cockpit and used the L-gun to cut off the left wing. As soon as it was off, the craft banked a hard right, straight through the letter, and started its descent to the ground.

  There were screams now as some of the onlookers saw the wing come loose and thought they were about to witness a gruesome death. Huck had no fears. He had a lot of experience ejecting from craft back on Io. Compared to that harsh environment, a parachute ride on earth didn’t faze him for a second.

  As soon as he unclipped from his seat he pressed the eject button.

  The craft smashed into the ground and burst into flames as Huck landed safely a few seconds later. The officials were in hysterics. Never before had they witnessed such an exhilarating test flight.

  They clapped Huck on the back and remarked at his amazing skill and ability to think under pressure. There was just one person who wasn’t happy.

  Edward.

  He walked away slowly, a small box of screws in one hand.

  Fourteen

  Huck and Fern were center stage, in front of an enormous crowd that had gathered for a special ceremony in honor of the convoy.

  Spacecraft overhead were doing special turns and flips in the sky. There were banners and fireworks going off. A hologram explained the convoy mission to the eager crowds. Commander Keller was officially promoted to the status of Admiral, and his crew transferred to the Columbus, the new, top of the line battleship that had just been launched for the mission. It was the new flagship of the armada, the most advanced battleship ever built.

  Huck and Fern had never seen so much color, so much happiness. It was utterly mesmerizing to them. Huck nudged Fern to show her the acrobatics a pilot was doing, but Fern wasn’t paying attention. She was too drawn to the crowd.

  “Earth to Fern, do you copy?” Huck said, but she still didn’t hear him.

  Huck tapped her on the shoulder.

  “What do you want?” Fern said distractedly.

  “Sorry, I was trying to tell you something but your mind is clearly elsewhere,” Huck said.

  Fern looked upset.

  “I was just thinking about something,” she said.

  Huck looked out into the crowd where Fern had been looking and saw a family. Parents with their little girl. The girl was on the father’s shoulders, waving around a small convoy ship toy. The mother was trying to get her to be still so she could take a holographic picture of her.

  “Miss you parents?” Huck said.

  “Everyday. They would have loved to see this, Huck.”

  Huck touched her lightly on the small of her back.

  “You know what else they would have loved?” Huck said.

  Fern shook her head.

  “To see you happy. They wouldn’t want you to waste an opportunity like this.”

  Fern nodded slowly. She knew he was right, but somehow it just didn’t feel good to be enjoying this when so many other people couldn’t.

  There was an uproar in the crowd and Huck and Fern looked to see what was causing such a commotion. A woman in her late forties in a smart blouse walked to the podium on the stage. She was dressed casually but everything about her said business. She put her hand up and the crowd hushed to complete silence. Whoever she was, she was very important.

  “As the Home Fleet Admiral,” she said, “it gives me great pleasure to have the honor of addressing you all today.”

  She looked around the crowd and beamed. Whoever her PR team were, they had taught her well.

  “The convoy mission has been in all our minds for many years. But it has been in the minds and hearts of the people working on it for so much longer. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has contributed to this mission and will make it such a success.”

  She then pointed at Huck and Fern and kept pointing around the crowd at the various different groups of people who were part of the mission.

  The convoy was the biggest mission in history. It consisted of one hundred thousand colonists from earth, enough people to populate an entire new world. Which is what they were going to do. Humans were going to expand beyond the solar system and this mission was the first step.

  Toward that end, the entire energies of earth had been put into building the new convoy fleet. It consisted of two massive battleships, Columbus and Magellan, each with a crew of ten thousand. Alongside the battleships would be four destroyers, each with a crew of four thousand. They were lighter than the battleships, but what they lacked in armament they made up for in speed. They were capable of reaching 0.75 the speed of light, as compared to 0.7 for the battleships. The fastest ships of all were the six corvettes, which were lighter still, with a crew of one thousand, but which could reach a top speed of 0.8 light speed.

  The Admiral clicked a button and a huge hologram above the crowd showed a system of stars and planets. It wasn’t our solar system, but that of Alpha Centauri, four light years away. She pressed another button and the hologram zoomed in to show a zone around the star, Proxima Centauri, which held the planet that they would be headed for, Terra Nova.

  There was a murmur of wonder from the crowd as the hologram continued to change, showing pictures of the surface of the planet.

  “The journey will be six years of hardship and uncertainty at every corner,” the admiral said. “But the result will be countless years of joy for humanity. I have faith in our dream seekers. I wish them all the best!”

  She put her hands up and the crowd cheered and cried out in joy.

  A military parade started along the boulevard near the park. It was impressive to see the might and sheer force of power that earth had accumulated over the years.

  The military parade performed the role of providing faith and confidence to the public that the men and women of the convoy were in good hands, no matter what they came up against.

  Yes, there had been strange signals coming from the Alpha Centauri system, but as of yet, no alien life had been detected. Even if there was, and it turned out to be hostile, the convoy was very well protected from whatever may come, with the most advanced military spacecraft ever constructed by humans.

  Huck and Fern stood on the sidelines, watching everybody cheer and snap holographic images.

  “I don’t think this will ever feel real,” Huck said as fireworks lit up the sky.

  “I don’t think it’s supposed to,” Fern replied.

  Huck turned to face her.

  “What do you mean?”

  Fern wiped confetti off her shoulders.

  “It’s not real. None of these people know what the empire’s colonization policies have led to, right here in our own solar system. The radiation. The food shortages. The risk of dying every day,” Fern said, with anger in her voice.

  “Isn’t that a good thing? The convoy is here to fix all that, to create a more equal and prosperous future,” Huck said.

  “And until then, people just what? Wait
? For six more years?” Fern said.

  Huck pulled Fern in close.

  “Nobody should have to suffer. Nobody should have to go through what we’ve been through. And that’s why we’re here. So we can make a difference,” Huck said.

  “You’ve got a big heart Huck. It’s something I’ve always loved about you. But even you can’t deny that once we reach Terra Nova, nothing will change. There will always be the haves and have nots, the earthborn and the off-worlders, those dying of radiation poisoning while the technology to heal them sits here, unused.”

  “We’ll just have to deal with that when it comes,” Huck said.

  Fern nodded but it was clear she wasn’t fully satisfied.

  Fifteen

  The ceremony ended. People made their way back home while some of the colonists stayed to take pictures with the admiral. Huck was in the middle of a group of pilots who had heard about his earlier test incident. They wanted to hear the story told through his eyes and how he knew it would work.

  Feeling a little neglected, Fern walked off by herself. She sat in the middle of a park in absolute awe of her surroundings. She never knew that birds singing in the trees could be so melodic and she sat there, lost in their harmony. She was so lost in nature she didn’t see Edward and two of his friends walk up behind her, carrying a bottle of vodka.

  “Hey,” Edward said, “don’t you work at the bar? You’re from Io?”

  Fern stood up, a little embarrassed to be caught so unaware.

  “Uh, yeah. And you are?”

  Edward put a hand out toward her.

  “I’m Edward. This is Joe and Shane,” Edward said.

  Joe was a scrawny guy with bangs over his eyes. Shane had a buzz cut that made him look like he’d just gotten out of the army.

  “This must be such a rush for you,” Edward said, putting on his biggest fake smile.

  “Earth is beautiful. The holograms don’t do it justice,” Fern said, and looked around her in wonder.

  “It always made me a little sad,” Edward said.

  Fern raised her eyebrows.

  “Earth? How could a place like this make you sad?” Fern said.

  Joe and Shane looked at him too, trying to understand what he meant.

  “No, not the actual place. I’m sad because it’s so familiar to me now,” Edward said.

  He looked deep into Fern’s eyes.

  “Beauty should never become familiar,” he said softly.

  Fern blushed and looked away from him.

  “You out here alone?” Joe said.

  “Yeah. I just wanted to take in as much of Earth as I could.”

  Edward scoffed.

  “Alone,” he said. “We can’t have that. Why don’t you join us?”

  Edward gave her another fake smile and held up the bottle in his hand.

  “No, I couldn’t intrude. Thanks for the offer though,” Fern said.

  “Ah. You have to wait for your boyfriend, I’m sure,” Edward teased.

  Fern looked over and saw Huck taking pictures with some fangirls and a pang of jealousy hit her.

  “He’s not my boyfriend. You know what, give me that!” she said and reached for the bottle in Edward’s hand. She took a big swig. Edward looked to the others with a black grin on his face.

  “Oh wow, that’s a little strong” Fern said as she struggled to stay on her feet.

  “You okay there?” Edward said, but before Fern could answer, she collapsed into his arms.

  Edward and Joe each took one of her arms and held her up, making it look like she was walking for herself. A minute later, they were across the park and out of the sight of the crowds.

  Meanwhile, Huck left the crowd of pilots behind and began looking for Fern. His head was spinning back and forth as he searched through the last of the crowd that had gathered for the ceremony. He saw somebody up ahead who he thought was Fern and tried to reach out to her.

  “Hey! Fern! Wait up.”

  He caught up to the girl, pulled her around and found out it wasn’t her at all.

  “Dude, get off me!” the girl said with a scowl and continued walking.

  Huck mumbled an apology and wondered where Fern could be.

  “What’s wrong, son?” familiar voice said from behind him.

  Huck looked around to see Admiral Keller standing there. He looked even bigger than before with a new admiral star on his uniform.

  “Hey Commander. I mean, Admiral. I was just looking for Fern. By the way, thanks for everything you did for her.”

  Keller nodded with a big smile.

  “It’s nothing. I’m glad to see you’re both making friends,” Keller said.

  “What do you mean?” Huck asked.

  “I’m sure I just saw Fern getting into Edward’s car,” Keller said.

  Huck couldn’t contain his anger.

  “You what? When was this? Was she okay?”

  Keller put up his hands.

  “Whoah slow down, kid. I just saw them from a distance. Edward’s got a place outside the city. He’s probably just going to show her a few Earth things,” Keller said.

  “You’ve got to tell me where that is,” Huck pleaded.

  “All right. As long as you promise not to do anything stupid. I can’t have my star pilot getting kicked out of the academy before he even begins,” Keller said.

  “I promise I won’t. It’s just, I’ve known Fern since we were kids. We always look out for each other and that isn’t about to stop just because we’re on Earth,” Huck said.

  Huck left Keller and made for the parking lot. He looked left and right, scouting the area. Seeing nobody around, he quickly bent down and hot-wired a motorcycle. It always helped to have had a dad as a mechanic.

  He jumped on the back of the bike, revved it up, and sped off toward the address Keller had given him.

  Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up outside what looked like a palace. Twenty foot high steel gates with an expansive garden led to what could only be described as a castle. Huck jumped off the motorcycle and ran over to the intercom. He pressed it and a hologram AI appeared.

  “Hi there. May I know who you are and who you would like to see?” the hologram said.

  “I’m Huck. Tell that asshole Edward I’m here to see him,” Huck said.

  The AI disappeared and a few moments later, Edward, Joe and Shane made their way to the gates. As they walked up, the gates opened and Huck walked in to meet them halfway.

  “Huck. To what do we owe this pleasure?” Edward said.

  “Cut the crap, Edward. Where’s my friend?” Huck demanded.

  “Well I’m right here ... Friend,” Edward said and looked to the others who were giggling.

  Huck had had enough.

  “Look, I’m going to count to three, and if I don’t see Fern, I’m going to do something we’ll both regret,” Huck said.

  “And what would that be?” Edward said, balling up his fists.

  “One” Huck said.

  Nobody moved.

  “Two”.

  Edward puffed up his chest.

  “Three,” Huck said, and walked forward.

  Edward’s fists came flying at him. Huck blocked the right hand then ducked the left. He followed up with a left hook that caught Edward right on his temple. Edward went down like a sack of shit.

  Shane came running forward. He was slow and deliberate. Huck had no problem sweeping him off his feet and kicking him in the stomach to keep him down. Shane lay on the ground, holding his stomach and wheezing for breath.

  Joe looked from Shane to Edward and put his hands up in submission. He didn’t want to be next on the list.

  “Tell me where she is right now or I swear there’s going to be hell to pay,” Huck said.

  “She’s inside, sleeping on the couch. Edward put something in her drink,” Joe stammered.

  Huck was furious. For a second he considered going back at Edward with more punches to his face but didn’t want to waste any time.
r />   Fern was in trouble.

  He took off at speed into the house to rescue her.

  Sixteen

  Huck sat on the wall outside a huge building with armed guards outside. Leading up to the entrance were large steps that biometrically scanned people as they entered. All government buildings had access to medical records and knew everything about everyone. Huck was fascinated as he watched people being scanned as they walked.

  “It’s crazy, right?” Fern said.

  Huck turned with a smile.

  “What is?” he asked.

  Fern jumped up on the wall next to him.

  “The way they act out here. It’s like they don’t care about each other,” Fern said.

  “I know what you mean. Kind of makes me think that’s why they started this convoy mission,” Huck said.

  “To give people a cause?”

  “Yeah. To unite everybody. We’re easier to control if we think we’re part of something,” he said.

  Fern punched him lightly on the shoulder.

  “When did you become so philosophical?” she said.

  “When you beat up the son of some earthborn big wig, you start thinking about life differently,” Huck said.

  The smile on Fern’s face had gone. A breeze started to blow and she zipped up her jacket.

  “I’m so sorry,” Fern said.

  Huck looked at her with a soft smile.

  “And just what do you have to be sorry about?” he said.

  “Don’t try to sugarcoat things. We both know this is all my fault,” Fern said.

  “None of this is your fault, you hear me? None of it. They drugged you and they were going to do who knows what to you. Everything they got, they had coming,” Huck spat.

  “Yeah, but now it’s coming to you? This is serious, Huck. We don’t belong here and they know it,” Fern said.

  She looked like she was about to cry. Huck put a hand around her and brought her in close.