by M. D. Cooper
“Sera’s not evil, perhaps just mischievous,” Tanis said with a wry smile.
“Just the right amount then, I’m sure.” Earl said and slapped Sera’s ass.
“Um… yes,” Sera almost squeaked in startlement.
“Tanis tells me you are the best chef within a dozen light-years,” Sera smiled winningly. “I look forward to sampling it myself.”
“Oh ho! You’ll do more than sample. I expect to see that slim stomach of yours plump and full when you are done.”
“Earl’s not happy if people eating his food don’t have to unbuckle their belts,” Tanis added. “But we really must be going Earl, the captain is waiting.”
“But of course, we mustn’t keep his majesty waiting.” Earl bowed and swept his arm as they stepped passed him. Tanis led the way through the kitchen and into the dining room with Earls calls of what to eat ringing out behind them.
They were smiling and laughing as they stepped into the officer’s wardroom where the captain and Terrance were already seated. The room was dominated by a long wooden table, its surface inscribed with intricate patterns. Placed around it were wooden chairs and even the walls were covered with wood. Chandeliers made of natural crystal hung from the ceiling.
Sera took in the opulence, glad she dressed up for the occasion.
“Welcome,” Captain Andrews said as he and Terrance rose. “You ladies look stunning,” he said, though Sera could tell his eyes lingered longer on her.
“Was Earl pelting you with dinner suggestions?” Terrance asked.
“I think he just told us to sample at least forty separate dishes,” Sera replied with a laugh.
“That would be the first course,” Captain Andrews chuckled. “He’s quite excited to have you back, Tanis.”
“Of course he is, he’s gotten to stuff me with different creations for a hundred years and I’ve loved each one, it’s like having your biggest fan back.”
“He stayed out of stasis that long?” Sera asked.
“All great chefs are control freaks,” Tanis said with a shrug. “None can bear the thought of their kitchen in other people’s hands for too long.”
“But then he’s spent half his life in there…” Nance said.
“And he wouldn’t have it any other way,” Terrance replied.
The captain indicated that Tanis and Sera should sit at the head of the table with him, Sera on his right and Tanis on his left. “You are, after all, the guest of honor,” he said to Sera.
The rest of the crew sat down the sides of the table, getting settled just as Joseph entered through the kitchen, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“I barely escaped with my life!” he laughed as he planted a kiss on Tanis’s cheek and sat at her side.
Conversation fell mainly to the events of the last five thousand years, Sera filling in some interesting details of the history they missed. A topic everyone was especially interested in were the initial FTL wars of the forty-sixth century and the conflicts of the eight millennia which very nearly brought an end to the human race.
The other diners filtered in over the next fifteen minutes, more than a few taking a moment to welcome Tanis back. Small conversations picked up around the table as everyone pelted Sera and her crew with questions.
“I have to ask,” Cargo said to Tanis at one point. “How is it that we’re even having this fancy dinner? Shouldn’t we be preparing for a battle? It’s a miracle we haven’t been attacked yet.”
“No miracle,” Tanis replied. “No one can win out there, especially considering that they all fear our picotech. Everyone is waiting for reinforcements, and when those reinforcements arrive, it’ll still be a stalemate. By that time, our FTL drive will be ready and we’ll leave them in the dust. In the meantime—unless they all decide to ally against us, we can hold them off.”
The serving staff appeared shortly after, leading carts of appetizers. They were adorned in pristine white hats and jackets—Earl would allow nothing less. With no small amount of poise and decorum, they set plates of everything from finger foods to soups in the center of the table.
Sera didn’t hesitate to select a bevy of meat filled pastries and half a dozen different types of cheeses. The servers quickly replaced empty dishes, and—after her third helping—Sera wondered what could possibly be next.
She did not wait long before the staff returned with an array of pasta salads, sprinkled with the finest olive oil fused with garlic and oregano. It didn’t stop there as they returned with more food arranged on elegant platters, on which the garnishes even looked good enough to eat.
Sera sampled just a little bit of everything and Cheeky made several vocal sounds of pleasure that were on the verge of embarrassing. Nance and Thompson seemed absorbed in their own private conversation while they shared a meatloaf—purportedly sourced from the ship’s own farms.
Sera thought they had reached the height of the banquet, but was mistaken. After their glasses were refilled with red wine, half a dozen chefs came from the kitchen and stood behind a table she had assumed was decorative. A fire roared to life and spread across the table’s surface. They watched, completely captivated as vegetables and thin slices of steak mixed with mushrooms were cooked in woks.
The chefs knew their business, spinning the utensils in their hands while dropping marinade into their pans. They served the dish with potatoes and a mixture of rice, covered in a delicate cream sauce.
Sera replied.
While the food was the most exquisite she had ever tasted, Sera still couldn’t keep from watching the Intrepid’s captain, even when he wasn’t addressing her. Her glances were innocent, but when she peered at him out the corner of her eye she was completely unaware that the look was highly seductive.
The banquet was delectable; delicate, cream filled pastries and cakes finished the dinner off perfectly, but it was the conversation and laughter from her crew that gave her the most enjoyment.
As the desert forks were being licked clean, a breathless Earnest Redding burst into the room and raced to the captain’s side.
“We…I…You’ll…” he gasped.
“Easy Earnest, catch your breath, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, Captain,” he managed after taking a gulp of air. “It’s what’s right! We’ve had a breakthrough.”
“Really?” Sera asked. “Something beyond the information I provided?”
“Oh yes, very much so, and no. Though we wouldn’t have been able to manage it without your graviton systems and all those research studies you provided as well.”
“So what is it then?” Terrance asked, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.
“We’ve discovered how to use the graviton emission systems that Captain Sera provided us with—emissions that work in matter repulsion and photon redirection in directional and focused beams and waves—to create a generalized and consistent suspension wave in the form of a massive halo upon which we were able to successfully place a McPherson generality focus layer tuned to a specific area of space, while altering the gravitational waves supporting it to form a hard shell of non-focused space underneath it.” He said without taking a single breath.
“OK, I’m no slouch when it comes to physics, but you’ve gone levels beyond what I knew existed.” Tanis said.
“It’s a stasis shield.” Sera said, feeling as though the breath had been sucked from her. “He figured out how to make a gods damned stasis shield.”
“Does it work as people have always envisioned?” Captain Andrews asked.
Earnest was catching his breath again after his long explanation so Sera looked to him.
“From the description, it’s the holy grail, maybe more so than even your picotech.”
Earnest nodded emphatically and everyone fell silent, not a single piece of cutlery moved, not a single mouth chewed. The only sound was Earnest taking one last breath before he said. “That’s exactly right. And we can have it in place in two days.”
Silence reigned again until Terrance stood and raised his glass of wine in the air. “I propose a toast. To our good friends from Sabrina and our great and dedicated Edeners. We’ve proved it before and we’re proving it again. There is nothing we can’t do, no chasm that can’t be crossed and no wall that can’t be breached. We’re living legends, people. We’re going to make history.”
“Make more history, that is,” Joe said with a laugh.
Everyone at the table stood and glasses clinked as the toast was repeated down the table, then everyone took a long draught. With wild abandon Terrance threw his glass at the fireplace where it shattered against the tile. In a moment, everyone followed his lead with laughter and loud calls for more wine.
ESCALLATION
STELLAR DATE: 10.29.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Orbiting Fierra
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
The cocoon of the Arc-6 fighter drew Jessica into its womb and she felt the ship’s systems connect with her mind.
Once more into the breach, she thought to herself.
Cordy, the squadron AI, addressed the pilots.
Jessica smiled at the squadron’s banter. Despite her near-death experience battling the Sirian scout ships, she had kept up her pilot’s credentials. She had not flown any active combat missions since that fateful battle, but did take part in several training exercises with the Black Death—as the squadron had become known.
Rock and Cary were old guard, they had flown against the Sirian scouts as well, but many of the pilots on that fateful mission had been Victorians who stayed behind when the Intrepid left The Kap.
Still, she recognized many of the pilots and had exchanged warm greetings in the ready room. The one person she missed was Carson, who had gone on to lead his own squadron—currently out patrolling the space around Fierra’s southern hemisphere.
Her preflight checklist showed green, and, while waiting for the squadron to drop down their ladders, she ran it again for good measure.
On cue, she felt movement and turned her vision outward, looking around the bay with the ship’s sensors. They confirmed that the suspension field had picked up her Arc-6 and was moving it to her ladder.
The Intrepid now sported a dozen fighter bays—a number necessary to store and service the vessel’s eight-hundred fighters. This bay held racks for over a hundred ships, though nearly all were currently deployed. On the far side of the bay, techs and automatons worked tirelessly around a cluster of Arc-5’s, upgrading them into Arc-6’s.
Her ship slipped onto its ladder, along with the other twenty-four fighters in the squadron, and a thirty second countdown appeared on her HUD.
No one spoke, every member of the Black Death likely following whatever rituals they performed alone before a combat drop. Jessica sent a thought to Trist in what she hoped was a glorious afterlife.
This is for you, babe.
There was almost no physical sensation as the fighters slid down their ladders, the new inertial dampeners removing all feelings of motion.
Jason replied.
Jessica complied, and in sequence with the other fighters, applied a 30g burn toward the moon below. She didn’t even feel a single g on her body, and the fighter spun and pivoted like it was on rails.
Amazing, she thought to herself.
The other pilots were also putting the ships through their paces and Jessica watched the squadron dance and spin as they began to break into a slow polar orbit. Their patrol path called for a half-dozen polar loops before slowing to hold position five-thousand kilometers above the south pole, creating a buffer between the pirate Padre’s fleet and the Intrepid and its fleet.
The moon below was a welcoming blue and green, with white cumulous clouds dotting its skies. A thick layer of water vapor high in the world’s stratosphere blurred the surface, but she could still make out oceans, green lands, deserts and icy poles.
Worlds like this one—distant from their star and orbiting massive jovians were not self-sustaining. The less-luminous light of their host star did not impart enough energy to the world to keep it warm with a more natural atmosphere. Combined with the gravity of its parent planet constantly tearing at its skies, the world would ultimately lose most of its air. It would take constant upkeep to remain habitable.
Still, for people who loved green grass and open spaces, it was hard to beat the real deal. Jessica found that she still missed Athabasca, and though it had been nice to visit Victoria from time to time, its brown forests and fields never sated her desire for a more terrestrial world.
She used her sensors to probe the world as much as she could. The mission report held true. No settlements had been constructed, but the moon wasn’t uninhabited either. The terraforming crews were still there; her dataset told her it was mostly biologists monitoring their work. A flotilla of tugs and cargo ships hung in low orbit where they had taken refuge from their work constructing a space elevator after the battle broke out between the Bollam’s World Space Force and the pirates.
With any luck this would be over soon and they could go back to their tasks unharmed.
Carson’s squadron dropped into a polar orbit, passing the Black Death as they did a quick loop around Fierra to reach the Intrepid’s elevation.
Four other squadrons patrolled the southern hemisphere, and on their final loop, Jessica’s squadron adjusted their trajectory to fit into their place in the pattern—when their final deceleration was interrupted by an exclamation from Cary.
Jess
ica’s scan confirmed Cary’s words. Her fighter was moving like a dog trying to screw a football, still travelling at over fifty-thousand kilometers per-hour.
Cordy said.
Jessica laughed at the humor. It wasn’t possible to vomit in a shoot suit, but that didn’t stop a person’s body from trying. The data from her scan showed Cary’s Arc-6 now spinning wildly as attitude control thrusters fired inaccurately, working off bad data as they tried to right the ship. Cary would be experiencing forces over thirty g’s in constant random vectors.
Cary groaned and then signaled affirmative.
Her fighter ceased its sporadic motion and settled into a relatively consistent vector—one aimed straight for the pirate fleet.
The squadron’s combat net was silent for a moment.
ENGAGEMENT
STELLAR DATE: 10.29.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Orbiting Fierra (6Mj Jovian)
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
Sera waved a greeting as she walked past Amanda who was now ensconced in the bridge’s foyer and followed the corridor past the conference room to the bridge itself.
