On Dagger's Wings (The Spiral War Book 1)

by SF Edwards

  “I heard about your little accident, Vaughnt. I couldn’t believe it until I got to the hangar. You know it’s still sitting there, don’t you?”

  That can’t be right; they must have hauled it away. Otherwise, it’ll take up valuable space in the recovery area. Then he remembered the repair area lay in full view of the whole deck.

  “You know it looked bad with all those stress fractures and burst panels. How it’s collapsed onto the deck was impressive since the landing gear snapped. I heard techs wondering if the stress fractures would spread into the deck like a disease and weaken the structure of the hangar then into the academy. They’re taking bets as to whether or not it’ll throw the academy off-balance and kill us all,” Chertsin jabbed.

  Blazer gritted his teeth. Why did Chertsin have to be here? Why did he have to come and torment me? From the seat beside him, Blazer felt Arion tense up. I bet he wants to reach across and break Chertsin in two. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Seri wave him down and felt Arion ease back. What is about Seri that calms him down so fast?

  Chertsin stood back up, taking Blazer’s mug with him and rang it with a fork. “Attention! Attention cadets!” Eyes all across the pub turned their way. “I’m sure most of you have heard by now that the freshman class has lost its first trainer.”

  Blazer didn’t want to believe that. Have they declared the trainer a complete loss? If they did then I’m down, out of the flight program for sure. He tried to think of the names of the teams that were Special Operations that didn’t fly and had lost members. I don’t want to go those teams! I can’t just leave my friends behind like that. Would it be better to just take a voluntary expulsion? What if I requested a transfer to another academy? I’m going to lose my team no matter what, but at least I won’t have to face them or Marda again.

  Chertsin pointed the fork back at Blazer and continued. “Cadet Schan ‘Blazer’ Vaughnt, who thinks he’s so much better than the rest of us that he already goes by a call sign.”

  Blazer never wanted the nickname to follow him. It had stuck to him since childhood, when his grandfather gave it to him, and no matter where he went it followed.

  “He crashed his trainer on the first flight to the Proving Grounds. And to prove how bad it was, the academy is foregoing the normal three cycle waiting period and has already called the board of inquiry about his crash.”

  Blazer couldn’t believe that and was about to call Chertsin out on what had to be an obvious lie when Seri spoke up. “There is no requirement to wait three cycles to convene a board, Cadet Chertsin. It just usually takes that long to gather all the data and witness statements. If the academy were to have the board early that is probably a good thing for Blazer.”

  She doesn’t sound all that convinced.

  “Please! That plane is so thrashed that Vaughnt will never fly again except as a passenger,” Chertsin retorted.

  Blazer was on his feet in a flash and wasn’t sure who was on theirs’ first with him, Seri or Arion. He could tell Chertsin backed away from though - Seri. Despite Arion’s physical size and presence Chertsin saw Seri as more of a threat. Chertsin was Tomeris after all and had dealt with other Tomeris standing larger than him his whole life. The authority and intimidation that showed in Seri’s eyes were enough to send lesser men running and Chertsin shook visibly as a result.

  “If a board has been called,” Seri began. “We will find out soon since the academy must legally inform Cadet Vaughnt so that he might represent himself. So I suggest that you stop spreading rumors and speculation and, if you keep it up, we know what rumors can do to a career. Don’t we cadet?” she threatened.

  Chertsin turned defiant at that. “You don’t know what you are talking about so don’t even go there,” Chertsin growled back.

  What does Seri have on him? Is there something in his past that he doesn’t want revealed?

  Seri leaned in closer. “Really? Why don’t you try me, little man?”

  Before anyone could say another word, Temblin sprinted into the eatery. Spying Blazer, he grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him aside. “Look. I don’t care if you prefer your old macomm but carry around your standard issued unit too,” he reprimanded, slamming the cylindrical device into Blazer’s hand. “I just spent the better part of a hect looking for you because this thing said you were in your quarters. I only found you because I saw that the rest of your team was here.”

  “What’s going on?” Blazer asked, before the realization hit him.

  “The incident board has been called and we’ve been trying to reach you. Now get your ass in gear. We both need to be there and we’re late!”

  “Wait! Chertsin wasn’t just blowing smoke up my ass?” Blazer asked, suddenly overcome with self-loathing. Why did I forget to bring my macomm? He was angry that his desire to hold onto the past made him use his father’s old macomm and not his standard issue unit.

  “No. Now move!” Temblin implored and the two of them ran out of Mendrick’s, leaving his team standing there dumbfounded as Chertsin laughed.

  Chertsin’s squadron pointed and snickered from the bar. Blazer blocked it out as he went out the door. He had to get his wits about him to face his destiny. The command building where the board met was only a quick sprint from Mendrick’s.

  Both men stopped at the doors to the command building to smooth out their uniforms before they opened the doors.

  “Look. I know you’re shaken, but get your game face on. It’s not just your future on the line here but mine too,” Temblin insisted. “You look good. Let’s go!”

  “Thanks! You’re blue too. Where are we heading?”

  “The admiral’s office.”

  UCSBA-13, Admiral Sares’ Office

  The admiral’s office rested several levels below the surface. Blazer had never been this far outspin. The only thing he had ever seen of the command building was the above ground levels with the shops, visitors’ quarters and museums. He knew that all of the real work happened below ground where operation centers monitored every function of the academy. The admiral’s office was even deeper than the centers and was just outspin enough that the centrifugal gravity began to get uncomfortable.

  The admiral’s secretary ushered the two cadets in without ceremony. Both men ran up to the giant conference table that dominated the chamber. Large enough to have a full Special Operations team gathered around it, it sat almost empty, with the handful of instructors gathered there. Surrounded by the bare rock walls of the asteroid with the lights turned low, Blazer might have mistaken the place for a medieval dungeon if the occupants of the table hadn’t had interfaces in the nano-screen tabletop activated.

  Cadet Temblin rushed up to the head of the table where the admiral sat and reported in with a salute. “Cadets Temblin and Vaughnt reporting as ordered, sir!”

  The Admiral looked up at the two of them, his face unreadable with an unmistakable air of dissatisfaction upon it. “You’re late,” he commented flatly.

  Cadet Temblin shot a look over his shoulder at Blazer. “I’m sorry, sir. Cadet Vaughnt’s macomm was not on his person and I had to track him down through alternative means.”

  The admiral nodded. “Take your seats.”

  Blazer and Temblin sat opposite each other just beyond the other three seated there: Joda, Chief Flind, and the Dean of Flight Instruction, Commander Pio-Tolis. The admiral tapped a soft key in front of him and a number of holograms sprang to life around them.

  Blazer recognized the two-dimensional hologram in front of the Admiral. It was the over the shoulder camera from his trainer showing his heads up display and console. His helmet dome appeared blacked out thanks to the Nano film embedded in it. Below the video, the critical data from the flight recorder showed his trainer’s orientation relative to the surface of the Proving Grounds, the position of his controls and a HUD repeater with the word RCOS above it. It also showed what Cadet Temblin had seen with a record of his control positions.

  Around th
e room additional 3-D holograms floated. On either side of the table, above the seats, hovered a map of the Proving Grounds stretched out like it was one long twisted line instead of the circumnavigational route--the positions of all craft in the squadron highlighted.

  “Normally we do not call an accident investigation board this quickly. However, Cadet Temblin and Officer Vadair have come forward with certain data that convinced us to convene early,” the admiral stated matter-of-factly.

  What did they find? Will it help us both? Or will it protect Temblin but leave me adrift? Or will it sink us both?

  The Admiral pressed another key and the display began to play. It began just before the laser web and Blazer sat up a little in his seat proud at how well he had done there. He would have smiled but he suppressed that when he looked at the Admiral’s impassive face. They all watched the trainer approach the bend in the canyon when he turned with his head away from where he was going.

  “Cadet Vaughnt, care to explain?” the Admiral asked.

  Blazer didn’t understand and remained mute.

  “Cadet, please explain your actions here,” the Admiral clarified.

  Blazer shot a look at Cadet Temblin who waved him to go on. Blazer cleared his throat and turning back to the Admiral explained. “I had just made it through the laser screen. I was feeling confident and since I knew the course so well, I decided to look back and check the progress of the rest of the squadron.”

  “Why did you take your eyes off your path?” the Admiral demanded.

  “As I said, sir, we’d practiced the Proving Grounds so many times that I thought I knew it by heart. That landbridge was not in any of the simulations.”

  Joda spoke. “As you were briefed repeatedly, cadet, the simulators are not entirely true to life. They do present you with the correct course and navigational features but the traps, as well as certain natural features, are not all present.”

  Blazer nodded. “I knew that, sir. I just got overconfident and lax in my observations.”

  Blazer noted the Rimdook chief seated beside Joda and the suppressed growl that escaped his lips, his arms crossed. He turned back to the Admiral.

  “I got complacent, sir. I did the one thing that I had been instructed over and over not to do. I flew rote. I had flown that course so many times in the official simulators and the desktop version that I thought I knew everything about it.”

  The Admiral nodded and looked at Joda. “As Officer Vadair explained, the simulators do not show a one hundred percent accurate map of the course. The question then becomes why didn’t your instructor know that the landbridge was there?”

  Temblin sat up straight and began. “I have not flown this particular course in the Proving Grounds in some time. So in order to prepare to take Cadet Vaughnt in, I flew the course numerous times in the Splicer 1000 and 3000 simulators and again on the desktop application.”

  The Admiral nodded and motioned for him to continue.

  “None of them showed the landbridge for me either.”

  The Admiral held up a hand. “What do you mean that your simulator didn’t display the landbridge?” He shot a hard look at Commander Pio-Tolis. “Explain!”

  Commander Pio-Tolis cleared her throat. “It was decided in the last review that in order to keep the cadets honest and on their toes that all simulators would not contain data that any other did not regardless of platform. After all, a cadet with strong computer weaving skills could then go in and stitch that data into their simulators without authorization.”

  The Admiral’s eyes darkened. “Cadet Instructors have always been authorized to use the fully unlocked instructor level simulations. They are there to provide safety to our younger cadets and, therefore, they must know everything they can about the Proving Ground courses. There is no margin for error in there. Cadet, you were lax,” he said looking at Blazer. “And you should have known that canyon better,” he said leveling a finger at Cadet Temblin. “Nevertheless, if the simulators provided to our instructors are not displaying the correct information that they need to protect their charges then you were wrong,” he concluded leveling a finger on Commander Pio-Tolis.

  Commander Pio-Tolis removed her macomm and pressed it to the tabletop linking the two units. “Cadet Temblin should have had full access to the instructor simulations whenever he went to the flight training building. It is the desktop application that does not have the instructor level simulator.”

  Temblin shook his head. “Negative, ma’am. I checked after the accident. The main simulators presented with the same scenario as Cadet Vaughnt despite my status as an instructor pilot.”

  Commander Pio-Tolis opened a number of windows on the table in front of her then selected one and scrolled through the list within. Her eyes widened when she read the list and her face flushed, she turned back to the Admiral. “It seems that a clerical error denied Cadet Temblin his necessary access. I have corrected it,” she explained, changing his clearance.

  The Admiral harrumphed then started the playback again. Warning sirens blared through the room before the admiral silenced them while they watched Blazer collide with the land bridge again. Blazer tried to look away. He had replayed the incident all cycle and to see it like this was almost too much. On the projection, Blazer recovered the trainer and began his climb from the canyon floor when the admiral paused the recording. “Cadet Temblin, do you care to explain?”

  Unable to suppress a smile, Cadet Temblin touched the tabletop and pulled over the playback controls. He reversed the recording to just before the alerts sounded, silencing them first and brought up the communications audio and started the playback at half speed. “As you can tell, as soon as I saw the landbridge I attempted to take control of the trainer and angle it underneath.”

  Blazer noted, slack-jawed, the change in Temblin’s control positions on the screen. Why didn’t I turn then?

  “I was unable to do so. The RCOS would not lock so I attempted to contact Cadet Vaughnt to instruct him. However, as you can see here,” Temblin said and brought up a video of himself at his console. “My microphone had been pushed away from my mouth when I took a drink earlier. One of my fellow instructors seeing this assisted me and pushed the microphone back into position for me. That was when Cadet Vaughnt heard me. As you can see on the display, and as I stated earlier, the RCOS refused to lock and give me control of the trainer.”

  Blazer’s hearts leapt. He remembered the flashing RCOS light and how the system seemed like it was trying to gain a lock but couldn’t.

  “Had I had control, I would have been able to steer the trainer away from the accident and afterwards, would have scolded Vaughnt for his mistake,” Temblin explained, carefully choosing his words.

  The playback continued in slow motion through the crash and beyond.

  “As you can see here, despite my inability to gain a command and control lock, I continued to attempt to arrest control. You can also see that my inputs were very nearly identical to Cadet Vaughnt’s with some minor variations consistent with different training backgrounds.”

  What does he mean by that? He decided to remain silent as everyone continued to watch the playback through the recovery.

  “You can see here that Cadet Vaughnt successfully recovered his trainer and continued with the mission. It was at this time that he started his descent after nearly exiting the canyon that I finally gained a lock and took control so that Cadet Vaughnt could assess the damage.”

  The admiral looked across the table at Chief Flind. “Chief, what happened?”

  The chief looked at the display then impassively reached into his bag and removed an object before placing it on the table. Blazer recognized it the instant it came into the light. It was a RCOS antenna unit.

  “This is the RCOS antenna from Cadet Vaughnt’s trainer,” Chief Flind stated as he flipped it over to reveal a number of connections. “The main receiving antenna connector was damaged.”

  “How?” the Admiral asked.

 
; “Could be a number of factors including age and wear. Considering that we just replaced all of the RCOS antenna units in our inventory, I would hazard to say that it was improperly installed.”

  “Why was Cadet Temblin able to resume control later then? If the connector was damaged, he shouldn’t have had any control.”

  Joda cleared his throat “There is a great deal of interference at the Proving Grounds, sometimes the FTL telemetry systems even cause communication disruptions. Once I saw that there was a problem I deactivated all the traps cutting much of that interference.”

  “In addition,” Chief Flind explained, “when Cadet Vaughnt recovered, he nearly exited the canyon then pushed to go back into the canyon. It appears that was enough to allow the connector to reengage just enough to allow the RCOS signal to take control. We also know that when a shield is attempting to replenish itself that any improperly connected connector will react to electromagnetic interference.”

  Joda nodded. “Our initial assumption was a blocked satellite. Diagnostics showed that all satellites were functioning normally and no other signals were being interrupted, just Cadet Vaughnt’s plane.”

  The Admiral looked at the device sitting in front of the chief, his eyes tracing the line it scratched in the table. “What is your assessment then, chief?”

  “I’m no flyer, admiral, but despite the RCOS problem, Cadet Vaughnt’s negligence is still what ultimately led to the accident.”

  A pit formed in Blazer’s stomach and he did his best to hide it.

  “Officer Vadair?” the admiral asked with a raised brow.

  “From looking at the recordings, Cadets Vaughnt and Temblin initiated nearly identical recovery avoidance procedures when presented with the impact of the landbridge and the aftermath. Had Cadet Temblin had a working RCOS signal, I am confident that he would have avoided the accident. Even if he had not, I feel that his recovery actually would have taken a centipulse longer than Cadet Vaughnt’s. His experience in the Splicer 3000 changed how he would have flown. Cadet Temblin did attempt to warn Cadet Vaughnt once he realized he could not gain control and made the right decision to keep his hands on his controls just in case. However, failures in his curriculum,” he continued, eyeing Commander Pio-Tolis, “and the failure of the RCOS were the prime cause of the accident in my assessment.”