by J Palliser
"You mean you didn't come to my quarters to seduce me?"
She shook her head and continued to play with his hair.
"You sacrificed your body for the Reich. Well, I am hurt." He looked over at her in the darkness and could see her smile. "But what a body!"
He tickled her and she laughed and squirmed under the assault. "You will pay dearly for your treachery."
"Oh, I hope so," she sighed. He seized her in a rough embrace and she cried for help in a whispered voice, then kissed him.
***
This time when Aiden awoke, he was comforted by Ajax's presence, despite a touch of a hangover. Then he realized what time it was.
"Shit!"
Aiden jumped out of bed and she sat up, startled. "What is it?"
"I'm late! I'm supposed to be flying out to Thula within the hour." He ran around her room picking up articles of clothing. "I have to go."
He swept over to the bed, his shirt halfway up his right arm. He leaned over and kissed her. "We'll get together for dinner tomorrow evening when I get back. Okay?"
She nodded and ran her fingers along his arm, not yet willing to let him leave. "I wish you didn't have to go. I feel like we just found each other and now we have to lose one another again."
He sighed and reached his hand up to take hers. "I know. I don't want to go any more than you want me to. But it's part of my job." She glanced down at their intermingled hands and he realized that he was being insensitive to her feelings by withdrawing from her. Or just protecting my own? "I am going to miss you. And I'll be back before you know it. I'll be arriving at Thula this afternoon, giving the lecture and heading back first thing tomorrow. I'll pick you up here for dinner tomorrow night around 1800."
He pulled her into a hug that couldn't last the years that he wanted it to. They separated, and he then headed off for his quarters to pick up his flight-suit and pack his bag.
Arriving at his room, he punched in his code and the door slid open. He grabbed his bag from the bottom of his closet and set it on his bunk. While he packed, there was a knock at his door. He opened it to find Ajax standing in the corridor.
"I want to go with you to the hangar," she said without explanation.
He chuckled. "Okay."
She frowned at him. "Aren't you worried that some of the crew will see us together?"
"Actually, I'm more afraid of leaving you here and having to go alone."
He took her right hand and kissed it. She caressed his face with it. "I don't believe you've ever been afraid of anything."
He hastily finished his packing then they left together and took a turbo-lift up to the hangar level. They exited the lift and crossed the large corridor to the huge set of doors that led to the bay. As soon as the doors opened, the sounds and smells of the hangar assaulted Aiden. Everything that had been so comforting just the day before now felt alien to him.
He navigated his way through the maze of crafts and mechanics to his ship, his arm around Ajax's shoulders, hers around his waist. He could feel the occasional stare and hear some whispered comments behind him, but he tried to ignore them.
As he walked up to his ship, Sadiah approached, holding his helmet and gloves. When she saw Ajax, she held back several meters.
"Well, I guess I gotta go." He didn't really want to, but knew that he had to. Thankfully she said nothing, just standing there looking at him, following his lead. He approached her and hugged her tightly, then turned without making eye contact, and headed towards the ladder of his waiting fighter.
"Don't be late for dinner," she said as he left her.
He turned as he stood on the first wrung of the ladder and smiled at her. "I won't."
Ajax moved a few meters away as Sadiah came up and handed Aiden his helmet. The Arcadian gave him a smile and he returned it, managing to blush only slightly. He turned and climbed up the rest of the ladder of his ship, hopped over the side, then dropped into his pilot's couch. Sadiah climbed up after him and handed him his gloves. "You have a fine lady, Commander. It looks like all those self-diagnostics actually did you some good."
He gave her a lopsided grin as he pulled on his gloves. She gave him a thumbs up and started down the ladder.
As his canopy began to lower, Aiden began his pre-flight checklist and hit some switches on the console. There was a low hum as the engines began their warm up sequence and he glanced back at where Ajax was standing. She was still close enough for him to read the abandoned expression on her face, and it tore at his heart. He realized that here, exposed in the very public hangar, he had withdrawn again, leaving her standing there alone without so much as a kiss goodbye.
"K9, put her in standby mode. I'll be right back."
As the hum of the engines died, he hit the release switch and the canopy began to rise. He pulled off his helmet and vaulted out of his couch and over the side of the fighter so fast that the techs didn't have a chance to replace the ladder. He landed in a crouch, already pulling at his gloves.
Ajax rushed to his side. "What's wrong? Did you forget something?" she asked as K9 gave an annoyed trill from his slot high up on the Valkyrie.
"I couldn't leave without this." Aiden pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close, returning his kiss with a passion that surprised both of them.
They separated and he kissed her hand. He held it for just a moment longer, looking at her earnestly. "I am so sorry for what I did before."
"Honestly, Aiden, I know how all this makes you feel." She glanced around the hangar. "And although it does hurt when you push me away, I'm making it my mission to make you more at ease with not only me, but yourself as well."
As he looked into her understanding green eyes, he wanted to say it, to say I love you, but he couldn't. Although he cared deeply for Ajax, he hadn't reached that point... yet. So he remained silent, kissing her lightly on the lips.
"I'll see you tomorrow," she said, and pushed him towards his ship. "And the sooner you get moving, the sooner you'll come back to me."
He smiled and waved goodbye, still keeping silent, not trusting himself to speak for fear of what he might say. Picking up his discarded gloves as he passed them, he headed up the ladder and into the Bf-109 Valkyrie that had carried him through battle after battle.
As his canopy began to lower for the second time, he spared one more glance at where Ajax had been standing. She had backed away another couple of meters to be clear of the impulse engine backwash and she discreetly blew him a kiss. He gave her an abbreviated salute that he hoped she could see. She smiled, and waved goodbye.
"Okay, K9, start her up and let's get some atmosphere beneath us."
His mech-droid tootled and a translation scrolled across the screen. Aiden didn't catch all of it, but thought it finished with and it is about time. The hum of the engines returned. He got all the way through his checklist this time, then brought the engines online and hovered out of the hangar.
As his fighter moved out into the cityscape of Daraa, Aiden kicked in his ship's Junkers J210 thrust engines. He soared towards the atmosphere on the pre-cleared flight plan that Daraa Traffic Control had given him. As the huge metropolis disappeared beneath him, K9 beeped a question at him. He looked at the translation as it scrolled across the secondary screen.
He smiled at what he read. "Yes, she's very beautiful, thanks for reminding me. And I am not sure how it's any of your business who I date."
K9 made a trilling noise that sounded suspiciously like a raspberry. Sounds like K7 has been teaching you some bad habits.
As he cleared the atmosphere and made his run up to gravity-drive, Aiden looked back at Daraa and wished for one of the first times that he didn't have to leave.
7
VI
On the bridge of the Khawarij Jinn-class Destroyer Abraxas, Admiral Omar Samra stared out into the vastness of space. The silhouette of a Raqqa-class Cruiser, the Bajang, hovered in the distance, the only other man-
made object in his field of view. Its four huge antigrav generators were already powered up, waiting for their prey to enter the web that they had worked so hard to spin.
Behind and below him he could make out the sounds of the bridge crew going through their last minute checks of all systems. If the information from Thula was correct, Hunt had left there three hours before. His ship had been tracked as it entered gravity-drive on the course they had predicted.
A klaxon began to sound and Samra returned to the center of the bridge, walking briskly along the command walkway. "Commander Rakin, report."
The tall, dark haired Commander stood in the crew pit next to the sensor officer. "There is a ship coming out of gravity-drive directly between Abraxas and the Bajang, sir."
"Identify it for me, please."
Commander Rakin bent over the sensor technician's screen. "Sensors make it out to be a Bf-109 Valkyrie, Admiral. We are receiving a signal from the homing beacon." There was a pause as he double-checked the sensor board. "Confirmed. It's Hunt, sir."
"Commence communications jamming on all frequencies. I don't want any messages getting out of this system. Launch our fighters."
"Yes, sir," Rakin answered, turning towards the technician manning the communications console.
As his crew scurried about, putting their plan into motion, Samra remained at the view-port, his hands clasped tightly at the small of his back. They would have to be very careful how they captured Hunt. No clue could be left for anyone to find. He would have to disappear without a trace in order for Prefect Tanweer to be able to get away with her scheme. If the Reich Ministry found out who had captured him, they would send their forces in to rescue him and all could be lost.
A flash of light caught his attention. He looked out into the vastness of space and saw a distant shape that had to be Hunts' ship. A quartet of M29 Defenders were closing on him, green tracer fire lancing out into the blackness of space.
He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Soon we'll have him. Aiden Hunt, your luck is about to run out.
***
Aiden was trying to catch up on some sleep during his nine hour trip back to Daraa when a warning alarm sounded, signaling an unexpected reversion to real space. Aiden was awake immediately, looking for whatever trouble he was undoubtedly in.
It didn't take him long to find it. The bulky arrow shape of a Jinn-class Destroyer hung directly in front of his Valkyrie. His Identity Friend/Foe transponder tentatively identified her as the Abraxas. In the distance he could see the distinctive outline of the Raqqa-class Cruiser that had yanked him from gravity-drive. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, boiling out of the Destroyers' main hangar deck came a full squadron of M29 Defenders.
"Shit!" He reached over his shoulder and hit the switch to lock into attack configuration, the last remains of sleep quickly vanishing from his system. He yanked the Valkyrie's stick hard to starboard, throwing the fighter into a roll, and headed away from the Destroyer. Four of the Defenders broke off from the main group in pursuit while the rest hung back as cover.
Aiden quickly thought over his options as he dove out of the range of the approaching fighters. "Well... I can't make a jump out of here because of that Cruiser. But there are only twelve of them." He chuckled lightly as K9 let out a trill of notes indicating what he thought of that comment. Aiden didn't need to look at the translation to know the mech-droid didn't like the odds any better than he did.
"K9, I want you to send a priority high-speed message off to Daraa. Route it through wherever you need to get it there. Tell them what we're up against and where we are." He felt pressure in his chest as he thought of Ajax. "And add to it a message for Major Tiara. Tell her I might not make it for dinner after all."
K9 beeped a subdued affirmative and got to work on the message without further comment. But a moment later, a red light appeared on his comm unit and K9 let out a low moan.
Just great! They're jamming us.
With a communications jam in effect, K9 wouldn't be able to send the message calling for help. It looked like Aiden was on his own. He took a deep breath, clearing his thoughts to concentrate on what he had to do.
He threw a quick glance over his shoulder at the mech-droid. "All right, make these guys targets one through four, closest to furthest. And hang on!" He watched data scroll across his monitor as he prepared to make his move.
"Okay, acquire one!" He stomped the right rudder pedal and the Valkyrie's rear end slid around, sending him head to head with the four Defenders. He adjusted his shields to full forward and K9 beeped a lock signal on the center fighter. His targeting box winked red at the same time as green tracer fire washed over the Valkyrie's forward shields as the targeted M29 got off the first shots. Aiden squeezed the firing button on his stick. The M29 pilot watched his own death coming at him as the quantum torpedo vaporized the view-port and hulled the cockpit. A frozen metal mist trailed from the spinning wreckage as it headed out into deep space.
"K9, give me two!" The other three M29s were slow in reacting and continued on their original course. Aiden switched back to cannons and took out the second M29 before its pilot had a chance to correct his mistake. Aiden's tracers slagged the right solar panel, sending the ship into a violent spin. A piece of the hot debris slashed through the ion engines at the rear of the ship, turning it into a brilliant, if brief, ball of fire.
The demise of the second M29 finally woke the other two pilots, and as he expected, they split in opposite directions. Evening out his shields, Aiden went after the one headed to starboard. Just as he'd gotten a lock on the M29 and squeezed his trigger, K9 gave a screech of warning. There was a loud whump and his Valkyrie jarred violently. The motion caused his shot to only graze the port panel of his target. The Defender that had broken to port had quickly looped around and was on his tail.
Aiden swore under his breath. He had hoped he would be able to get the first M29 before the second could get into position behind him. Adjusting the power to his shields for extra coverage in the rear, he rolled the fighter up onto its starboard and screamed into a dive. The M29 on his tail followed him. The one in front dove, trying to use its greater speed and maneuverability to make an impossibly tight turn and take him head-on.
They were doing exactly what he wanted them to do. "Good boys. Now pay close attention to me, and I'll give you a lesson in situational awareness."
He tossed his ship into an erratic weave that made it look like he was out of control, and the pursuing M29 closed in for the kill. He hastily evened out his shields again and, keeping an eye on his sensors, gradually eased his spin and moved his ship into position.
A proximity warning beep sounded from his display, and he immediately dropped the fighter below its previous line of flight and headed out of the way. At that moment, the M29 behind and the M29 in front of him met in the middle. The explosion was a spectacular mix of white and orange and the phototropic shielding of his canopy polarized momentarily to protect him from the glare.
"All right, K9, give me the next four..." His voice trailed off as he realized that the other fighters were retreating back toward the protection of the Destroyer. "What the...?"
The speakers in his helmet crackled to life. A different red light appeared on his comm unit as a transmission came in on an Imperial frequency. "Luftwaffe Valkyrie, this is Admiral Omar Samra of the Abraxas. You are outnumbered and cannot win this confrontation. Do you still intend to resist?"
Aiden smiled grimly. If they had stopped the jamming to contact him then maybe K9 could get a message out. Before he could say anything to K9, he saw another light illuminate on his comm unit as the high-speed transmission began. He had to give K9 all the time he could to get the message out.
