by SF Edwards
Blazer grimaced. The lack of any strong gravity field meant they would have to make a strong burn to cancel their inertia and vector back to the academy. Worse yet, since the small asteroids around the gunnery zone weren’t orbiting the central point they would have to maneuver more around them; burning yet more fuel. There was nothing to do but go straight through. Blazer flipped his fighter about to face the academy and drifted backwards. Flying on sensors, he adjusted his position in space to skid past any obstacles.
Temblin wore a mad grin on the display.
Clearing the nav point, Blazer eased his throttle open canceling his old momentum vector before rocketing back towards the academy. As they flew, Blazer stole a glance at his fuel gauge. I’ll bet that saved us some reaction mass.
“All elements. Nach Zero Zero. You are cleared to approach and land. Landing will be in priority order two flights at a time,” Joda called after the last flight vectored towards the academy.
Blazer complied and called into the academy’s landing control. “Landing Control. Nach Zero Three. Flight of three requesting landing clearance. Am transmitting fuel status.”
“Copy Nach Zero Three. You are cleared with the second landing group. Establish parking position as indicated and await further instructions.”
“Nach Zero Three copies.” Blazer followed the transmitted navigational beams, slowed, and watched the first flight disappear into the dark, open maw of the docking bay. Blazer fired his reverse thrusters to prepare to hold position and waited for his turn when the landing controller reappeared.
“Nach Zero Five. Flight of three. Nach Zero Three. Flight of three. You are cleared to land. Follow your nav beams to landing.”
Blazer gritted his teeth. No surprise there that Zithe beat us back here, but how much fuel did they waste in the process? Blazer edged his throttle forward and angled his stick, to guide his trainer into the darkness. He didn’t glance at his element when they broke formation to head towards their own individual landing pads. This would be the trickiest part and he had to keep his attention focused.
They had to match the spin of the station before landing or risk tearing their landing gear off when they touched down. Blazer applied minute thruster pulses on his approach. Careful not to accelerate too much in the confined space, he leaned on his side thrusters to match the spin of the academy. He thanked the adaptive optics in his helmet and canopy illuminating his landing spot. He fired his thrusters gingerly and descended away from the centerline. His maneuvers to match rotation burned more fuel than his approach.
Damn it Joda, why aren’t we on a minimum fuel approach? In that scheme he could drop straight down from centerline onto the landing pad. Whether this was intentional or a sadistic approach by his instructor, Blazer couldn’t be sure. I’ve worked too hard to maintain my fuel to just blow it all now.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense just to do a min fuel drop onto the pad?” he asked.
“Yes it would but these are your orders,” Temblin stated, matter of fact.
Blazer bit at his lip and guided his trainer to the landing pad. He did his best to burn a minimum amount of fuel until he neared and felt the familiar tug of grappler beams take hold. Thankful, Blazer cut his throttle, ceasing his fuel consumption before he extended his landing gear out of order on his checklist. The grappler beams pulled him down in response until he felt his landing gear compress against the landing pad. A light blinked in response and breathing a sigh of relief, Blazer tapped the activation key for the magnetic locks in the landing skids.
UCSBA-13 Main Hangar
The spin of the station took hold of Blazer, pressing him lightly into his seat. He commenced his shutdown checklist by shutting down his engines fully to cool the plasma. Next, he powered down his main sensors and felt the landing pad begin to descend into the hangar. The elevator carried him outspin, passing through the dark entrance tunnel and the bomber deck without slowing.
The bright lights dazzled and assaulted his eyes a centipulse ahead of the darkening impulse of his helmet and canopy. His eyes cleared and he caught a glimpse of the rows of bombers, shuttles and dropships. He swore he saw cadets boarding a shuttle but only a few of them were in uniform. Washouts?
Blazer had no time to dwell on that thought as the elevator continued to descend to the Splicer 1000 deck. A crewman with a set of light batons waved him off the pad. Blazer complied and after releasing the magnetic locks on his landing skids, powered up the de-grav generators and applied forward thrust to slide away. He followed the deckhand’s signals before a set of holographic guide beacons formed on his canopy laying out his course to the recovery area. Careful to avoid any of the deckhands and parked trainers, he reached his assigned slot in the recovery area. Blazer dialed down the de-grav generators and settled the trainer onto its landing skids.
With a sigh of relief, Blazer began the final shutdown procedure, killing all of the craft’s key systems. After deactivating life-support, he cracked open the canopy before removing his helmet and shutting down main power. He took in an eager breath of hangar air.
It stunk of fuel, lubricant, and the ionized charge left by the plasma rockets in the launch tubes. Still, it was better than the recycled air he’d been breathing the last few hects. The smell and taste of his sweat were almost overpowering. He looked around and gave a thumbs-up to Gokhead and Arion who had parked on either side of him. They waited in their cockpits as the recovery technicians ‘safed’ their trainers while the rest of the squadron continued to arrive.
After the technicians indicated that his fighter was safe, Blazer pushed himself out of the cockpit. He hopped over the side to land gently on the lower gravity deck and took a moment to stretch before heading over to the assembly area where Joda waited. Despite landing last, Joda was already clear while the others awaited technicians to safe their craft. Looking back, Blazer saw why, technicians taxiing Joda’s trainer over to the refueling area to prepare it for his next sortie.
Blazer moved through the growing group, sharing congratulatory nods and handshakes. The faces looking back at him mirrored his own: wide smiles, eyes shining with pride. He could tell that they were over their first major hurdle. The mistake at the landing fields was minor, not even causing injuries or damage.
Everyone waited until the last pilot landed and the instructors arrived from the RCOS center. Blazer's instructor found him quickly and pelted him with tips for his next flight pointing out how he could improve. It didn’t even bother him. The tips were ones that came from experience, not spite. Looking about, he found the other instructors doing the same thing, though a few seemed more agitated than his own.
I’m surprised Joda’s waiting so long to debrief us. Looking over he saw why.
Joda stood reviewing the flight on his macomm. “You all did extremely well.”
His sudden encroachment on the conversations stopped everyone dead and they turned to face him.
“The mix up at the landing field, while unfortunate, illustrates why we practiced so hard in the simulators before putting you in the trainers for the first time. It also demonstrates why we use the RCOS and why your safety instructors are key. Timing in spaceflight can mean the difference between life and death. This is an area we all need to improve upon.”
Blazer saw Nash and his instructor nod in understanding. It took him a second look to recognize that it was a different instructor than the one from the landing fields.
“Now, I have here the results of the navigation exercise.”
Finally, take-offs and landings were one thing, they practiced those until they could do them unconsciously in the simulators, the fuel scores were the real prize. I just wish I knew that before we launched. It would have changed how I practiced landings. Looking around he could see that some of them regretted their hot, full-thrust take offs.
“The numbers for the fuel consumption exercise are as follows. If we do not consider the fuel burned at the landing fields and the use of the escape vectors where
some of you used your afterburners.”
Blazer heard many cadets breathe sighs of relief about that, himself included.
“Use of afterburners was authorized though unnecessary in most cases,” he went on staring down several cadets who were nowhere near the potential accident. “All of you should have burned approximately the same amount of fuel on the navigation course. The fastest group was Element Five.”
Zithe, Rudjick and Chris hooted at the news, stealing glances at the other groups as they congratulated each other.
“However, speed was not the goal of the exercise.”
Blazer smiled at Zithe’s shocked look. Did Joda just hand them a failure?
“Your element's fuel consumption was seventh. Only one element burned more fuel than you which was coincidently also the last element to arrive, Element Six. Do you care to explain?”
The leader of that particular Explosions flight group held up a hand. “That was my fault, sir. We had miscalculated the gravitational pull around Singularity Station and before that at the second nav marker we ended up going wide as a result.”
Joda nodded his understanding. “Though excessive, your consumption was still within acceptable boundaries with this being your first flight. It is a topic you must focus on for future flights.”
They nodded. What the lower bound? Minimum return fuel load?
“Navigating is where you should burn the least amount of fuel. You will burn far more on take-offs, of course, in combat or as you saw upon return here, landing,” Joda continued.
Deniv raised a hand and Joda waved him to speak. “Sir, why did we land that way? It seems that it would have been much more fuel efficient, simpler, and even safer just to come straight in on the spin axis then drop down onto the pad.”
“You are right. It would have been, but we did it this way to test you.”
Is anything here not a test?
“Following the guide markers the way you did forced you to burn more fuel, but I had to see how you would compensate for the spin of the station. If you can’t do that then you don’t belong here. I’ve already washed four cadets out just for that.”
Joda didn’t focus on anyone in particular but Blazer saw Datt shrink back. Seri and Deniv responded with encouraging nudges forward.
“Now the element with the best fuel consumption was Element Seven.”
Gavit, Treb and Bichard’s exchanged quick hand slaps in response.
“They were not one of the first elements back, however.”
Yeah, they were what, second to last back? They must have taken a lower velocity course.
“You did very well and you made it back just within the appropriate time limit. Care to explain?”
As the element leader, Gavit stepped forward. “We took that into account in our calculations, taking some extra time do so. We knew that the absolute time limit would be our scheduled recovery time. Since this was all about raw economics, not style, our goal was to burn the least amount of fuel while getting the job done before it was too late. Bichard was particularly helpful in that regard.”
Bichard’s antennae twitched with excitement. “I spent many a class break plotting courses for my family’s freighter in the past. They have always been very efficient if sometimes slow, but we always made it to our clients on time.”
“And what if speed had been a factor?” Joda asked.
“Then I would have compensated for that,” Bichard replied, his mandibles clacking out a pride tone.
Joda smiled a toothy grin. “Exactly the right answer.”
Damn it, maybe we should have taken the slower route Arion prescribed. Did my desire to race cost us since we were the third flight to arrive?
“In terms of overall efficiency of time and fuel burned, Element Three.”
Blazer felt a load of relief lifted off his shoulder and smiled, pride filling his face. Gokhead returned a right handed cocky Drashig smile.
“Your fuel consumption was only slightly behind Element Seven’s but your higher speed course gave you more chance to recover in case something went wrong. Element Four, you were only slightly behind Three’s in fuel usage and time. In terms of best overall individual fuel consumption, Monstero Nach One Niner, Cadet Gokhead was the clear leader. You were followed closely by Cadets Telsh and Bichard.”
Gokhead’s proud smile used both sides of his mouth revealing his back teeth in the process.
“You all did well, and the overall worst fuel consumption was by Cadets Porc, and Nash. Cadets Zithe and Rudjick, you tied for third.”
Blazer turned as two rodent faced Nerzain, exchanged a quick hand slap in the air in response. “Hey, hey! We got named,” they hooted as Zithe and Rudjick slunk back.
“The point of this exercise was fuel consumption. Remember that in the future. Go for the objective and not the glory. Follow the objectives,” Joda lectured.
A look Blazer had never seen before entered Zithe’s eyes. It was not of anger, rage or even fear. Blazer guessed it was displeasure at himself and, from the way he kept eyeing him, at his instructor as well.
“You are dismissed! Further debriefing will be sent to you shortly by your instructors and myself. Now get yourselves cleaned up and back to your classes,” Joda ordered.
Temblin caught up with Blazer as he headed towards a downward-designated lift pad. “You did good out there. You have great form and you kept your element together well.”
“Thank you. You were a good instructor. Didn’t try and get too hands on or controlling.”
“Some instructors do and some don’t. It just depends on their students. I didn’t see a need with you.” Temblin looked over his shoulder at the other squadron members and their instructors. “Some of the others, their instructors needed to break in a few times to show them things or get them back on task. Technically, you get all your instruction in the sims. We’re just there as a safety backup in case you need us. A lot of the stuff you learn here is going to become rote but if you get rote out there,” he said pointing towards the far end of the hangar to indicate out in space. “If you go rote out there then that’s when accidents happen. Don’t get complacent in the cockpit. Keep your eyes up and keep them moving. I’ll type up your debrief in my next class.”
“Thanks!” Blazer replied with a smile as his instructor broke off to join with one of his own squadron mates. Seeing that Arion was alone, he ran up to his old friend. “How’d you do?”
“Good. My instructor said I could do with a little better fuel management and that my high and null-g landings were a bit sloppy. It’s nothing that I can’t fix,” he responded.
“You were a little nervous this dawn. Feeling better?”
“Yeah. I just started to make mistakes in the sims towards the end. That had me a little on edge.”
“You did fine though,” Blazer replied, giving him a pat on the back and spotted the next class of cadets arriving. He made sure to steer away from that pad until he saw that Marda was among them and stopped.
“I’ll catch up. I see someone I need to talk to,” Blazer called to Arion as he proceeded ahead.
Arion looked over and saw Marda step off the pad with three orbs hovering around her. A scowl crossed his face. “She looks like she already has company.”
Blazer kept his eyes on Marda as he spoke, looking at her squadron and the three unfamiliar orbs. “It’ll be fine, Arion. Look, I’ll meet you at the locker room or, barring that, at lunch. Now get going.”
Arion bit back his reply and stormed off towards the lift as best he could in the low gravity. Blazer watched his friend for a moment and realized that he felt slighted by Blazer sending him on ahead. Blazer read the scowl on his face and tried his best to put a finger on why Marda bothered him so much. It can’t just be that she’s a medium. Does Arion think she’s too much of a distraction? Does he still think it’s too soon? Now it can’t be that. With all the weeding out going on in the program right now, if I lose focus I’ll head down washout row for sure,
that has to be it.
He continued to watch Arion stomp onto the down pad right before the warning lights lit. The rest of the squadron looked around curious, wondering where Blazer was. Gavit and Deniv exchanged knowing glances when they spotted Marda bounding across the deck towards Blazer, as did Chris and Seri. The others just ignored them. Blazer only noticed Arion glaring at her, hatred in his eyes.
***
Marda saw Blazer coming the moment her lift pad crossed the lip of the floor. She even saw the look of menace in Arion’s eyes when he stormed away. She did her best to ignore that look when Blazer came in her direction. As her lift halted, she bounded towards Blazer and that smile of his.
She loved that smile. What is it that he loves about me? Or, was Bichard mistaken? Had he misunderstood something Blazer had said? Looking in those eyes, she could tell that there was something there, something more than just having done well on his flight.
They approached each other and she could see how sweaty his hair and face were. She tried not to think how much he must smell right now. One of the orbs beside her whispered in her ear that he was rank. She brushed it off. I won’t be much better after my flight. “How did you do?” she asked.
“We did great! My element came in first on the primary challenge,” he replied with a proud smile.
“What was the primary challenge?” she asked. The pre-brief didn’t mention any challenge.
Blazer snuck a look over his shoulder and spotted Joda and another instructor watching them. “I don’t think I should say.”
Marda looked over his shoulder and saw her primary flight instructor talking with Joda. He’s right. Better not to jeopardize our standings on a loose word. “I understand.”
The look on Blazer’s face told her that he wanted to give her some clue and with a wicked smile he leaned in and whispered. “Watch your lower right gauge.”
Marda thought for a moment. The term gauge didn’t sit right with her, on the holographic heads-down display there was a set of virtual backup gauges that gave emergency information. Running off their own separate power supply from the rest of the displays they would display speed, acceleration, and navigation data alone. They were the only round dial gauges in the cockpit. All the rest of the displays were strips and meters. She thought about his clue. Lower right gauge. Lower right meter. Fuel! “Got it!”
