Freedom Flight (Space Rogue Book 3)

by Jay Toney

  The others were enthusiastically eating their spider meat, so I gave it a try. It didn't have the bitter taste of insect any longer. It had a flavor between chicken and fish. The gravy made it even better. The meat was tender and easy to chew, as opposed to the leather like spider I ate the last time. I even treated myself to a second plate.

  "Rosie, that was the best spider meat I've ever had," Doc boasted, forgetting their contest.

  After dinner Amber suggested that they go somewhere nice and peaceful. She led the way to the holosimulator. Both Jewel and Amber searched through the computer files before settling on Mt. Shasta 1900 AD. I had never heard of it, but Jewel and Amber were busy modifying the file, by adding all sorts of camping gear, and a camp fire. When they were satisfied, we all stepped into the simulation.

  It was dark, and I was cold. Ahead of us was the glow of a campfire. We hurried to get near the fire, to warm us. None of us were dressed for the cold air. We made our way to the fire, being careful to avoid the trees surrounding us. The trees gave way to a small clearing, with a roaring campfire, and a tent large enough for three times as many people as we had.

  There was a log close enough to the fire to sit on and still feel the warmth of the fire. The three of us sat close to each other trying to get warm.

  "The next time, we will have to be more specific, about the weather and temperature," Jewel commented.

  "That or we will have to dress appropriately," Amber agreed.

  "We could have Persephone change the simulation parameters," I offered.

  They both answered, "No, and ruin the experience. That wouldn't be any fun."

  "Neither is freezing."

  I reached out towards the fire hoping to pull its heat a little closer. It didn't do any good. After shivering for a while, we got up and entered the tent. There were three air mattresses on the ground, three sleeping bags, and a lamp. That sleeping arrangement wasn't going to work. I pushed the mattresses together. Still not entirely satisfied, I unzipped one of the sleeping bags and laid it on top of the mattresses. Then I unzipped the other two and laid them on top, over lapping them, to use like a blanket.

  Satisfied, I took my boots off, and crawled, below the covers. Amber and Jewel joined me on the makeshift bed and turned off the light. The shared body heat soon had us warm and comfortable. It wasn't long before we were all asleep, snuggled up to each other.

  Morning came early. Both girls shook me until they were sure I was awake. I stood and stumbled around, picking up one of the open sleeping bags, and wrapping it around myself like a blanket. My surroundings confused me. I didn't know where I was or what I was doing here. Jewel and Amber each wrapped a sleeping blanket around themselves in similar fashion. Jewel grabbed my boots, and Amber took my hand leading me to the glowing hatch of the simulation room.

  We stepped into the corridor, and the girls continued leading me to our cabin. Once inside, we dropped our blankets, and the girls hurried to the powder room. Rosie came in and quietly set our breakfast on the table, then started a fresh pot of coffee. She zipped up our sleeping bags, rolled them, then tied them in place. She gathered the sleeping bags and put them in my closet. Then she set about tidying our cabin. Jewel and Amber joined me at the table. Amber poured three glasses of juice for me, and we ate our meal. My head was starting to clear now. It was my turn to use the bathroom. All of the juice I drank was starting to have an affect on me. When I finished, I joined the girls showering, and dressing for today. While we were in the shower Rosie gathered our clothes and started cleaning them. She left us three robes to wear, until we dressed. It didn't take her long to tidy up after us, as we were gone all night. We dressed and headed to the bridge for our morning shift.

  We were first to arrive, relieving the late night crewman. This new habit of being on time was new to me. In the past I tried to get to the bridge as late as possible and leave as early I could. Jewel and Amber were forcing me to be on time, by waking me early to insure my head had time to clear before I started the day.

  After Jewel shared her muddle handedness with me, I couldn't afford to sleep in any longer. It wasn't an even trade with me. While I was muddle headed and confused when I first I first got up, Jewel wasn't any longer. During our bonding with the Iniguar disks, different parts of what made us who we are were exchanged. Amber became more dominant and Jewel and I became less so. Both girls got my ability to fly, and to see and navigate hyperspace. I lost my need and taste for coffee and now drunk lots of juice in the morning. I think I got that from Amber. All three of were hypersensitive to being tickled. I'm not sure whether Jewel or Amber shared that. The last thing I discovered was liking eel. I used to hate eel, but now I craved it. Both Jewel and Amber seemed to enjoy eating eel, so I don't know who passed that to me. I was sure I was going to make more new discoveries about us as time passed.

  Doc and Jane got to the bridge 30 minutes after we arrived. I couldn't resist myself.

  "Doc, what kept you this morning, dallying with the ladies again?"

  "I'll have you know I am a single lady man."

  "I hear it only takes two to play, but its been a long time since I last had the pleasure of only one woman, I have forgotten what it is like."

  "As I recall it wasn't that long ago. In fact, she is pregnant with your children, and will be giving birth soon."

  He got me there. There was no playful banter I could come back with, after that.

  "Persephone, how much longer until we reach our destination."

  "We have been siting idle for awhile. We can enter normal space whenever you are ready."

  "Persephone, take us out of hyperspace."

  The ship entered the Socunda System, decelerating below light speed. When we reached our cruising speed, our sublight engines kicked in.

  "Amber, use passive scans only. Our lizard friends may be watching for us. Jewel turn off our transponder. Persephone, cut our drives and run silent until we are sure this system is safe."

  The Lucy and the Vengeance followed our example.

  Red's image appeared on our viewscreen. "Nathaniel, is there a problem?"

  "No Red. I am just being cautious after seeing our friends in the last system. I thought they would have given up by now."

  "I don't think they are someone we want to tangle with either. We don't know anything about their capabilities. Mixing it up with them wouldn't be a good way to learn."

  "Captain, I'm picking up drive emissions around the fourth planet. They are from multiple sources and very recent."

  "Jewel, are you picking anything up?"

  "Just surface chatter from the third and fourth planets. I'm not receiving any ship to ship communications, or transponder signals."

  "Persephone, take us in closer to the fourth planet."

  "Captain, I'm picking up three ships, a cruiser, and two destroyers. They are raising shields and weapons."

  "I'm still not getting any transponder data."

  "Jane raise our shields. Doc bring our weapons online. Jewel sound battle stations, secure all hatches."

  Amber brought up the tactical display on our main view screen.

  "Captain, they are Crimson Tide ships, their commander is demanding our surrender."

  "Let them eat static. Persephone, start calculating missile solutions."

  I changed seating, and sat at the helm controls. I increased our speed to flank speed. The Vengeance, and the Lucy followed, staying in formation. Both ships had their shields up and weapons ready.

  "Captain, their firing missiles," Amber reported.

  "At this range, they are just wasting their ammunition. Every body hold your fire."

  We closed, but
still hadn't crossed the effective missile rang marker on our tactical display. "Amber, bring our ECM and PDC online."

  The enemy ships fired another salvo, wasting more of their missiles. We crossed the line but still didn't fire.

  "Persephone and Doc, target their lead destroyer, and stand by." They fired a third salvo, and I altered course hard to starboard, then brought us back on course for the destroyers. We evaded two of their missiles with the maneuver. Amber was systematically using jamming frequencies on their incoming missiles. Three more flew off course.

  When we closed to range of our particle beam guns, I gave the order to fire. Doc fired every gun he could get to lock onto the destroyer. Persephone fired four missiles. Amber engaged the remaining missiles with our PDC, destroying them. All of our missiles impacted the destroyer. Two struck the bow, and two struck amidships. Secondary explosions lifted the upper deck from the hull. Only a few escape pods were jettisoned from the stern of the ship.

  We targeted the last destroyer, firing four more missiles and firing our energy weapons at the ship. The Lucy joined in firing a mix of 30 mm and 40 mm high explosive rounds at the destroyer. The destroyers captain tried firing more missiles at us, but the Lucy easily destroyed them before the were fully clear of the launch tubes, leaving their debris in the missile tubes.

  Two of our missiles struck, one amidships and one astern. The last two missiles were destroyed by their ECM. The missiles damaged their armor plating, but the hull withstood the explosions. The captain made a fatal mistake. His missile tubes were reloaded, without checking for debris. He fired another full salvo at us. The missiles never cleared the missile tubes before exploding. The force of the blast blew the entire bow apart. There were no escape pods or lifeboats jettisoned from the remainder of the ship.

  I turned the Persephone, and joined Red and David in attacking the last ship. We fired a full salvo of missiles aimed amidships, and raked her hull with our energy guns. The shields absorbed the energy from our weapons, but weakened. Our missiles were destroyed by the cruisers PDC. Red fired his main guns at the bridge. His shot got through, vaporizing everybody, in the bridge. While his guns were charging for another shot, I fired four more missiles. The Lucy closed on the cruiser, and started strafing it with her guns. The 40 mm high explosive rounds chewed holes in the ship wherever they hit. All of my missiles hit the weakened cruiser. It was blown in half by the explosions. Only a few escape pods fired from the aft section. The rest of the ship was a lifeless hulk.

  Our data showed that this planet was colonized by agriculturalists. Farms, and exotic plants were grown for export. Their biggest customer was the third planet in the system. Our scans confirmed much of the data stored in our computers memory. No other starships, or even system ships showed up on our scans. We set course for third planet and entered orbit. Our scans didn't reveal anything unusual, but our comms did.

  "Captain, I am picking up a comm signal on low band. It coming from a signal not normally used," Jewel reported.

  "Put it on screen."

  "It's a low band signal, audio only."

  At first we only got static. Then a voice came over our comm.

  "Can any body hear me?"

  "This is Captain Roberts of the Persephone. How can I help you?"

  "I am General Sherman, of the defense ministry. Our government has been taken over by a group of pirates, calling themselves the Crimson Tide. They established an outpost here, at our spaceport. Their fleet is in route to our neighboring planet to seize control of them. Can you assist us?"

  "What defenses can we expect?"

  "They placed a wall around their compound, with about a dozen weapons towers. They also have two gun boats. Our governor and his staff are being held captive, in their compound. Their fleet consists of two destroyers, and a cruiser."

  "Their fleet isn't going to be a problem any longer. The farming communities on the fourth planet are safe. I can take care of the gunboats, weapons towers, and breach their walls. Do you have ground forces to take care of their soldiers?"

  "We have enough soldiers to finish the ground battle."

  "Can you be ready in one hour."

  "We will be ready. Thank you."

  "Jane you have the controls."

  "Persephone call Mike and have him meet us at the Marauders."

  I used the ships comm to call Randolph. "Randolph, I need Marauders 1-5 loaded and ready for a mixed ground and air attack."

  "I'll have them loaded by the time you get here."

  "Doc, Jewel, and Amber, lets fly."

  We all left the bridge, heading to the port side shuttle hangar.

  "Jewel and Amber, our first priority is to take out the gun boats. Leave the towers to Mike and Doc until after we get the gun boats. It is a lot easier to destroy them on the ground, if we can. We can assume they will have some type of defense against an air assault. Make sure you keep moving on the way down, so you don't make your self an easy target."

  "Is that why you fly the way that you do?"

  "That and its fun too."

  Randolph had the Marauders loaded. Each was loaded with six missiles and six bombs. With five Marauders that should be plenty. An image on the Marauders placard caught my attention. It was a picture of a spider, reared up with enormous fangs showing and a boot above it ready to squash it. Someone had a sic sense of humor painting this image as part of the kill record. I would bet anything that Doc had something to do with it.

  We boarded our ships. I fired the engines up, and taxied the ship to the ready line.

  "Lock your face shields down, because this one is for real." I pushed my throttles all the way forward. The ship leaped forward taking off, Jewel and Amber stayed on my wing tips. Doc and Mike took up positions behind us. Doc, its power dive this time, just like Antares.

  I accelerated towards the ground. The spaceport couldn't be seen from this altitude, so I locked its coordinates into the navigation computer. The ship was making a whistling sound as we entered the upper atmosphere. Plasma glowed on the nose of my ship, then grew and enveloped my viewport in flames. I started rolling and banking my ship to make it a harder target to lock onto. My wingtips left fiery contrails, cutting through the sky.

  I silenced my pitch and airspeed warnings, flying by feel. The plasma faded to clear sky as the ship was slowed by the friction of the thicker atmosphere we encountered during our descendant. I could feel the strain on my wings now, grabbing the denser air. I eased back on the throttles a little, so they wouldn't shear off. When I got close to the ground I searched for the gunboats. They weren't on the ground. I started scanning for them, they found us first.

  I gunfire shot passed my viewport. I broke off from Amber and Jewel, performing a Split-S. One of the two gun boat pilots followed, and I led him away from the girls. I banked and rolled my ship, preventing a missile lock. This pilot must be a rookie, the way he broke off from his wingman. I was mistaken. I tried every maneuver I knew trying to shake him. He managed to stay on my tail, even with the gunboats lesser maneuverability.

  I only had one thing left to try. He would have to be insane to follow me. I pulled back on the controls taking my Marauder into a steep climb. I cut my throttles and let the ship stall, nosing over and dropping towards the ground. The idiot followed and we both accelerated our ships in a steep dive. I ignored the v-max warning, concentrating on the ground. The low altitude warning flashed for my attention. My smile grew wider as the ground rapidly approached. The gunman stayed on my tail. When I knew it was to late for him, I pulled back hard on my controls, my ship skimmed across the ground before gaining altitude. The gunship couldn't follow. The pilot tried to pull out of the dive, but his ship couldn't follow the maneuver. He impacted the gr
ound, and his ship exploded filling the sky with smoke and flames. I flew back to the spaceport to rejoin my wives.

  ****

  The gunboat pilot was good. Neither Amber or Jewel had the combat experience necessary to shake the pilot, and get control of the battle. They tried every maneuver Nathaniel taught them, but the gunboat pilot stayed on their tail.

  "Amber, he can only follow one of us. One of has to be the bait, while the other attacks."

  Gun fire narrowly missed Jewels ship. She cut the throttle on her port engine, and engaged the fire extinguisher. The foam from the extinguishing agent created a cloud of white smoke. She broke away from Amber's wing, and combat. The gunboat stayed with Amber's ship.

  Jewel started her climb. She reset the extinguisher, gave the engine a few seconds to clear, and restarted her port engine. It still smoked and sputtered a little, but was working. She nosed her ship over and dove, advancing her throttles to full. The gunboat pilot didn't notice her. Jewel lined up her gun sight. She waited until the range closed, then fired her 40 mm cannon. She pulled out of her dive, narrowly missing the gunship. The belly of her Marauder was the last thing the pilot saw as his ship broke apart.

  Jewel and Amber formed back up heading towards the spaceport, where the Crimson Tide's compound was located.

  "Jewel, your port engine is smoking."

  "It's sputtering and vibrating a lot too."

  "You better get back to the ship while its still working."

  "What about Nathaniel?"

  "I'll find him and let him know."

  Jewel broke off, and headed back to the Persephone.

  ****

  Jewels engine didn't last. The corrosive agents in the foam destroyed the bearings for its turbine shaft. The turbine finally seized up, locking in place. She had to constantly use her thrusters to compensate for the off centered thrust of her starboard engine. Landing her ship was tricky, she made a hard landing, but at least she didn't crash.