by J Palliser
"Speaking of the Commander." Ajax frowned slightly. "Have any of you seen or heard from him today?"
"We thought he was with you?" Otto spoke up. "I mean, you two are..." He stopped without finishing the sentence as he saw the look on his wife's face. Mira's mouth fell open in disbelief. Ares covered his eyes with one hand, shaking his head at his friend's blunder. "I mean... ahem... you see..." Otto blushed furiously.
"Otto, don't sweetheart. You're plotting a course into a black hole that you can't possibly pull out of." Mira patted his hand and looked at Ajax. "Forgive him, Major. Sometimes his mouth works before his brain is fully engaged." She tapped him gently on the forehead and shook her head.
Otto looked to Ares for help, but he just gave him the universal you're on your own look. But a smile was beginning to tug at the corners of his mouth.
Ajax looked at the three of them for a moment then started to laugh. She reached over and patted Otto's other hand. "Relax, Otto. It's not as if it's a secret that Aiden and I have been spending time with each other. I think he wanted to try to keep it quiet, but with friends like you around, I think that may be impossible."
Otto looked at her gratefully. "Thanks for coming to my rescue... But, I think I'll just sit here and keep my mouth shut."
"Good!" Ares and Mira responded in unison.
At that moment, the serving droid reappeared with her breakfast. There was a brief shuffle of plates and utensils, and then they were alone again.
Taking a sip of steaming java, Ajax looked at them a bit more seriously. "Aiden and I were supposed to meet for dinner last night, but he didn't show up. I just wondered if he'd left word with you." She looked into her cup for a moment before continuing. "He didn't let me know that he wasn't coming, and that's not like him."
Ares shook his head. "You're right, that isn't like him. Aiden is very predictable when it comes to that sort of thing." Aiden tapped a finger against the table as he thought the situation over. "He flew out to Thula the day-before-yesterday, and was supposed to be back yesterday afternoon. We haven't been to headquarters yet today, but we were going to check in with him after breakfast. We figured he'd made it back already since we hadn't heard anything different."
Ajax set down her half empty mug of java. "He hasn't checked in yet according to Luftwaffe Command. I tried to contact him on his personal frequency before coming to meet you. I couldn't reach him and no one has heard from him."
"He didn't leave you any word at all?" Mira frowned.
"E3 brought a bouquet of flowers to me that Aiden had arranged to be delivered yesterday afternoon. There was a note with them reminding me about dinner. But that was it."
"I'm not liking this at all." Otto played with the food left on his plate. "We'd better get back to base and see if they've heard anything."
"I think you're right." Ares stood and tossed some credits on the table, "Breakfast's on me. Let's go." The four of them headed for the door.
It only took them a few minutes to reach the Luftwaffe Command Center of Operations in the adjacent building. They went directly to the communications room. When they got there, Neva Cael, Knight Squadron's Arcadian Executive Officer, was standing over one of the tech stations, frowning. He looked up when the others entered.
"I was just going to send for you, Colonel." Neva's temple twitched nervously as he spoke. "I'm sorry to interrupt your down time, but I think we may have a problem. Commander Hunt..."
"... is in trouble," the Tarsus pilot finished the sentence for him.
"Perhaps. How did you know?"
"When isn't Aiden in trouble? Not to mention he didn't keep an appointment with Major Tiara last night." He nodded at Ajax.
"Oh, Major." Neva remembered himself and started to salute, but she dismissed it with a wave and looked at Ares.
"Does everyone in the squadron know about Aiden and I?" she asked.
"When it comes to Aiden and women, he can't hide much from us." Ares chuckled. "Besides, Jarro figured it out. You know what that means."
Otto laughed out loud then coughed into his hand. He then proceeded to admire the ceiling of the room.
Ajax groaned. "That's just great. By now everyone between here and the Rim Worlds knows."
Neva cleared his throat to bring attention back to the matter at hand.
"What have you got, Neva?" Otto leaned against a console, crossing his legs at the ankle. Mira wandered over and draped an arm over his shoulder.
"When I came in this morning, I found out that Aiden still hadn't checked in, even though he was supposed to be back yesterday. I thought that maybe he had been delayed and the message just hadn't reached me yet, so I contacted Thula to see if he was still there."
"And?" Ajax asked.
"Jace Borne reported that he saw him off early yesterday morning, and Thula Traffic Control confirmed that his ship went to gravity-drive about fifteen minutes later."
"Has there been any other word?" Ares played with his earlobe, a nervous habit he had picked up in the last few years, probably from having to deal with Jarro on a daily basis. Even after Jarro had left the squadron, the habit remained.
"We didn't think so, but then someone remembered that there had been a high speed micro-burst signal intercepted very early this morning. At least part of one. It came through six different relays before reaching us here and was queued with the rest of the unknown traffic to be decoded at a later date."
"Is it from Aiden?" Ares asked, crossing his arms tightly across his chest.
"Like I said, it was only a partial signal, and it was sent high speed and encoded. It was pretty much ignored until now. When we started looking for Aiden, we took a closer look at it." He pointed to a Gaddi technician near by. "Paki is working on it now. He's slowing it down and decoding it so that-"
The diminutive technician suddenly became very animated, chittering in his own language. The entire group turned to look at him as he turned towards them, waving his hands in the air. He saw the confusion on the face of the Colonel and switched to english. "I've got it, sir! I think I've got it!"
The group moved over to look at the information that had begun to scroll on the screen. "It's from Commander Hunts' mech-droid. It appears to have been sent in somewhat of a hurry."
"What does it say?" Ares asked.
"Are you sure it's Aiden's mech-droid?" Ajax frowned at the screen.
"What does it say?" Mira echoed as she leaned over Otto.
"It's definitely K9's signal. All mech-droids have their own signal characteristics, sort of like voice prints. I compared this with a recording of K9's pattern. It's him, all right."
"What... does... it... say?" Ares's impatience was beginning to show. He leaned menacingly in towards the technician with a hand on each arm of his chair.
"I'm afraid it's a distress call, sir," the technician murmured apologetically. He turned to read the message from his screen and to escape Ares's glare. "It says 'Mayday, mayday. Taking fire. Jinn-class Destroyer. Eight remaining Defenders on intercept.' It then gives part of a coordinate.
"Only part of a coordinate?" Worry began to creep into Ajax's voice.
"It was incomplete, Major. The transmission ends in static like... well, as if it was suddenly cut off."
An icy pang of fear cut through Ares's insides. Otto visibly shivered at the same time. Mira looked at her husband's face, and put her hand on his arm. "Are you all right?"
He shook his head. "No. I just got a really bad feeling about this. Aiden is in real trouble."
"Do you think he's been captured?" Ares studied the younger man apprehensively.
"I don't know. I just know that he... needs us." His eyes lost focus as he seemed to look at something that no one else could see. Then he just hung his head. "I wish I could tell you more. It... it's just a feeling."
"Well, I for one have known you long enough to trust your 'feelings'." Ares straightened up and took out his comm. Adjusting the base of it, he thumbed it on. "Knight Squadron, Priority O
ne. Report to briefing room 6A in twenty minutes. Repeat. Knight Squadron, Priority One. Report to briefing room 6A in 2-0 minutes."
He pocketed his comm and turned again to the Executive Officer. "Neva, pull up what you have on the partial coordinate and plot likely points along the Commander's intended route home. Get as much information as you can from Thula Traffic Control about his possible flight plan."
"Yes, sir."
Ajax stepped forward. "Ares, I'd like to be included in any mission you may undertake. I can pilot a Maxim shuttle."
Ares shook his head. "I know how you must feel about this, but I can't authorize your participation in any Knight Squadron mission."
Ajax's voice hardened like steel as she glowered at him. "Either you let me participate in this mission with you, or I will go on my own. The choice is up to you."
They glared at each other for a moment, neither wanting to back down. Mira stepped in and put her hand on the woman's shoulder. "You can fly with me, Ajax. I'm volunteering the Raven."
"Thanks, Mira. I..." Ajax looked gratefully at the other woman, unable to finish the sentence.
"Trust me, I understand. I've been where you are now." Mira gave her a reassuring smile.
Ajax took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'd better notify my unit that I may be out of touch for a while. I'll meet you in the briefing room."
Ares gave in, unable or unwilling to fight both Ajax and Mira. "All right, we'll see you there," he replied. She gave him a curt nod, then turned and left the room.
To everyone else, Ajax had become all business, but as Mira watched her go, she recognized a woman trying to deal with the fear of losing someone she was beginning to care about. She'd been there herself when she and Otto had agreed to see each other and then she thought he had been killed during the Knight's mission to capture Thula. "That's Aiden for you."
"What does that mean exactly?" Otto asked.
"She's already falling for him. He has that effect on women and hasn't got a clue that he does it."
Neva looked dubious as he glanced through the door that Ajax had just passed through. "Are we talking about the same person? That women who looks ready to take on a squad of Mercs, falling for our Commander?"
"Trust me on this one, Neva. Call it woman's intuition."
"I think I'll stay clear of that one and just take your word for it," Otto said, although he knew she was right.
Ares harrumphed. "Neva, you should know by now that Aiden only goes for the difficult targets that everyone else says are impossible."
"I think you're right, Colonel."
"Have Sadiah pre-flight our ships. Inform Fighter Command what is happening and see if Admiral Raeder can fit me into his schedule as soon as possible. Okay, let's move out."
The four of them headed out of the comm center at a trot.
11
X
Ares looked over the room and counted heads. He noted that most of the pilots were in civilian dress, evidence that he had interrupted their leaves.
Everyone was present except Neva, who had been delayed while notifying Admiral Raeder of the situation and attempting to schedule a meeting for Ares.
Otto, Mira, and Ajax sat around a small table to one side of the room, in deep discussion over a copy of the transmission that E3, the unit's protocol droid, had brought from the operations center. Konrad Bauer sat in the front row talking with Owais. The Parni was demonstrating a complicated maneuver with his hands as he spoke. Milos Dinar and Inri Vach sat on either side of Valeria, a Charan female and the most recent addition to the squadron.
Rik Dekar, the squadron's towering Mutwa pilot and Aiden's wingman, leaned against a support column and silently surveyed the room. Two of the newer members of the squadron, Amon Vera, a human male from Belarus, and Ran Syra, a male Samma, lounged in the seats behind Konrad.
There was still one position in the squadron left to fill after Hanson and Jarro's transfers several months before, but Fighter Command had not yet sent them another new pilot. He figured that since they were on escort duty, they weren't high on the list of priority. Aiden had been looking at candidates since his return, but had not yet made any requests.
Neva walked in and sat down at the table with Otto and the others. He nodded at Ares to indicate that his mission had been a success. Standing at the center of the room, Ares began his briefing. "Knights, can I have your attention? Sorry to have to cancel your downtime, but we've got bad news."
Everyone's attention was riveted to the squadron's executive officer. They probably couldn't help but notice that he was giving the briefing and not their commander.
"As you know, day-before-yesterday Aiden flew out to Thula to give a lecture. He was due to stay overnight then head back to Daraa yesterday morning. We have verified that he did leave there on schedule, making his jump to gravity-drive on a pre-planned course. However, we have reason to believe that somewhere along his route home he was ambushed by an unknown Jinn-class Destroyer. As of now, he's approximately twenty hours overdue."
There was a sharp intake of breath all round. Ares knew the news would hit them hard because the Knights were fiercely loyal to Aiden. He also knew that in many ways, Aiden seemed invulnerable to them. On more occasions than Ares could count, Aiden had come within a hair's breadth of death and emerged with hardly a scratch. For this to happen pointed out only too clearly that Aiden, as well as everyone else in the room, was mortal.
As the shock of the announcement wore off, he could see the determined looks on their faces. He didn't need to be psychic-sensitive to know that they would stop at nothing to get their leader back. If he's alive.
He tried to shake off the thought.
Konrad was the first to speak up. "Do we have any idea where he was hit and how bad?"
"We don't have a specific place, but we do have a partial coordinate that K9 sent out in a high speed distress signal."
"Partial?" Inri frowned. "How partial?"
"Half a coordinate," Ares answered. He glanced down at his smart-pad. "The actual transmission reads: 'Mayday, mayday. Taking fire. Jinn-class Destroyer. Eight remaining Defenders on intercept.' Then it gave the first part of a coordinate. The rest of the transmission was cut off before it could be completed."
"That could mean his ship was destroyed." Rik said, not sounding convinced of the fact.
"He could have been hit by an plasma cannon." Otto spoke almost to himself, his arms held tightly across his chest.
"I hope you're right," Valeria spoke up. "The alternative is-"
"Not up for discussion!" Ares's voice was thick with the emotion he felt as Valeria echoed his earlier thoughts. "We've tried to project likely ambush points based on the information we have and the flight plan that Aiden filed before leaving Thula. Admittedly it's pretty slim, but it's the best that we have right now."
He sighed, a sign of his frustration. "Look, people, we have to believe that Aiden was set up for a reason. If that is the case, they didn't plan all this just to vape. They wanted him for something. I'm going to be meeting with Admiral Raeder in..."
"Ten minutes," Neva said.
"I'm going to be asking for permission to lead a mission to go after Aiden. Although I know that all of you will want to go, we'll have to keep a four-ship element here, due to future escort responsibilities. Who stays will be decided at our next meeting here in one hour. That's all for now. If there aren't any questions, you're dismissed."
