by Kyle Larson
“This is going to take too much time,” Amelia said. “There’s got to be something we’re missing.”
“You’re right about that, Chapman,” Teve said, as he appeared behind them. “This ship would have leveled a city by now if it was the real thing. If not a city, several ships or hundreds of people. What the two of you have been doing is useless. Not to mention, you most likely wouldn’t have just had cannons to worry about. If this were a real ship of the Uranian Corsairs, it would have about a hundred star divers aboard, all of whom would be firing at you right now. I’d hoped you’d realized the advantages you have against something like this. Any thoughts?”
The electro-cannon blasts didn’t stop for Teve’s lecture and he wasn’t going to give them a break. Kelvin and Amelia thought of their answers as they continued to deflect and dodge electro-blasts from the freshly charged cannon they circled. As usual, Teve dodged it all without blinking an eye.
“Even a hundred star divers couldn’t bring down a ship this size!” Amelia protested. The combination of fatigue and the hours they’d spent dodging electro-blasts had begun to take their toll on her. Teve’s teaching methods of doing rather than explaining were getting old for Amelia. She was used to learning things from studies or instruction so that when it was time to use the knowledge she was prepared to act. With Teve, it was all about improvisation and learning from failure. Amelia accepted that failure can be a great teacher, but the impossibility of taking down a freighter didn’t seem constructive at all to her.
“If you two haven’t learned that you’re more capable with those staffs and the gravity of this planet than a thousand star divers, then I’m not sure you’ve been paying attention. Just because the staffs are your weapons doesn’t mean that’s what you’re limited to,” Teve said.
“What are we supposed to do? Kick this thing?” Kelvin said. The volume of his voice was elevated, as well. The frustration he shared with Amelia was equal.
“Since you’ve been here, how many times have you felt pain?” Teve said. “You’ve run into stone walls going at the speed of a rocket and after the impact, you feel a few seconds of stinging. No bleeding and no bruises. Your body is protected by the gravity of this planet. You are bonded to it and when you hold that staff, wear that armor, it just becomes stronger. If any person from any other planet came here and tried to hold that staff or wear that armor they wouldn’t even be able to sit up straight. Remember how hard it was for you both to pick up your staffs the first time. It would be even worse for someone not bonded to the gravity.”
“He’s talking about the Sanctuary Spring,” Mara said, from the mobile holster Kelvin had attached to his arm. The armor Tendai gave him didn’t come with pockets or pouches, so Kelvin had to strap his mobile to his right arm. He wanted to make sure Mara was there, as her job was also to record Kelvin’s voyages for Earth’s historical archive. “In case the two of you forgot, it essentially made your bodies tough as stone. That’s why you don’t feel any pain. Must be nice.”
“She’s right,” Teve said. “Your staff is strong, but it’s only an extension of the strength you already have. One of the last things I wanted to teach you was to use the strength this gravity gives you. Not just for swinging the staff, but for taking on things that may seem impossible. You’re never going to bring a ship like this down by smashing into steel panels. This ship flies because it has power from an engine and because there are computers on the bridge running a simulation that keeps it moving. If it has neither of those, you won’t have to waste time taking out cannons. No one chops down a tree one branch at a time. You go for the trunk and the roots!”
Amelia and Kelvin both realized what they needed to do. They looked to one another and then looked to the ship above them, as the cannons still fired frantic shots. Amelia looked to Teve and smiled. She dove down hundreds of feet and then shot right back up, building up as much speed as she could. She was on a collision course for the ship. If she had been a star diver or a drone, it’s likely the ship’s collision safety programs would have steered it away, but because she was just a human, it didn’t detect any danger. Just before the impact, Amelia shielded her eyes, but that wouldn’t be necessary, as her body ripped through the layers of steel and iron like they were paper.
It took a few seconds for her to fly through the ship completely, tearing through each section easily. All she saw when she moved through the guts of the ship was a barrage of corridors and conduits. It was so fast she didn’t even expect it when she came back out through the top of the hull. As soon as she did, she dove right back down and cut through the ship again, to reappear from where she’d just left. Kelvin was no longer there, just Teve, who laughed to himself at how simple the lesson should have been.
“Sellwood wanted to join in the fun,” Teve said.
Amelia didn’t waste time with a response. Kelvin shot through the hull and motioned for her to help him. She went right back to doing what she had. Between her and Kelvin, they were cutting holes in the giant ship like it was a balloon. After a few minutes of cutting through one end of the ship to the other, they met on the upper part of the hull. They were still having little effect on the giant vessel.
“Do you know where the engine is?” Kelvin said. “This still isn’t working.”
Before Amelia could answer, Mara chimed in. “You know, I’m still here, don’t you? Just because you have thiese comic book, superpowers now don’t mean I’m useless. I don’t know if Millie knows where the engine on this ship is, but I can take you right to it.”
“Yeah, she’s right, Kelvin. I don’t know much about the Corsairs ships other than their models. She can guide us,” Amelia said.
“Lead the way, Mara,” Kelvin said.
The two of them plunged back into the nest of steel and wiring. Mara gave them precise directions, which took them down a corridor instead of cutting through the ship. They still flew, but they had to admit it was much faster not having to punch through different layers to get to the engine room. Mara had taken them to one of the few corridors that spanned the entire ship. It didn’t take long before they were in a cavernous room, filled with the humming sound of what they knew to be the engine.
The engine was a giant sphere, completely metallic, that had ducts and wires running in and out of it. The sections that weren’t covered in different appendages were a brilliant chrome. It was a typical engine, manufactured by the Martian Shipyards, the Nine Kingdoms largest manufacturer. Kelvin had only seen the Monarch’s, which was much bigger than this one.
“You know how these work, right?” Kelvin said.
“Are you talking to me or her?” Amelia said, pointing to the mobile.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to have contributed something to all of this when the historians start downloading my recordings,” Mara said before she launched into a technobabble description of how they could disable the engine. As the explanation carried on for much longer than they expected, Mara suddenly stopped, as if she realized how complicated she was making things. “You know what? Forget everything I just told you. I forgot we’re not in space and I was giving you directions on how to trigger a core meltdown. If the core of this ship melts down, Venus is going to have about a century’s worth of radiation floating in its atmosphere.”
“Yeah, somehow I think Teve wouldn’t risk that,” Kelvin said.
“Well, of course, he wouldn’t risk that, brainiac. But, if I’m going to show you how to disable a ship on a planet, I need to show you how to do it safely, so you don’t kill every living being on the planet. I doubt your Traditions of Service would get much traction from that.”
“Come on, Mara,” Amelia said, impatiently.
“Look straight up,” Mara said.
At the top of the room was a very dense series of conduits and wires that covered the ceiling. It was intricate, with each conduit going right to the center of the room where the engine sat. Mara projected a beam that illuminated a specific conduit.
> “Use your staffs to smash that up and this ship won’t be going anywhere.”
“Won’t the system just reroute the power supply through another conduit?” Amelia said.
“Nah, that’s the fatal flaw of all these Uranian modifications. They jack these ships up to go as fast as they can, but in doing so, they make it that much easier to shut down. That conduit’s ten times bigger than it’s supposed to be, which in theory allows the engine to take gulps of power instead of controlled sips like most designs. Most ships have several conduits that regulate the power, but this just has one. You take it out, the safety regulators will cut off all power from the battery.”
“That was going to be my question,” Kelvin said. “You sure once we bust through that we’re not going to get blasted with the power those Uranians had bottled up.”
“Pretty sure,” Mara said. “Once the breach is detected, the battery will cut off the power supply.”
“You first,” Amelia said, as she lifted off the ground and flew toward the duct.
“Ha, ha,” Kelvin said.
They flew to the ceiling and made short work of the duct with their staffs. The best way to tell if it was successful was to see if the ship stopped moving, which they couldn’t detect from the engine room since it was so deep in the ship. Once again, they flew through the layers of metal and breached the hull, with the Venusian sky in front of them they soared above the ship and looked down. It had stopped and had started to plummet towards the surface.
“Sure is a waste of a good ship,” Kelvin said.
Just before it smashed into the ground, the ship turned up and stabilized. It floated just above the surface, so Kelvin and Amelia flew down, assuming Teve would be there. Their teacher stood on the highest point of the curved hull, where they landed to join them.
“Now, next time listen to Mara,” Teve said. “Remember, not everything has to be a shootout or a fight. If you’d done that right away, the ship wouldn’t have been able to get a single shot off.”
“But what if we had been over a city? The wreckage would have killed and injured a lot of people,” Kelvin said.
“Not likely,” Teve said. “Most ships have safety-thrusters, just like a star diver. That’s all this ship is running on now. It’s as harmless as a sitting duck, since you cut off power from the battery,” Teve said. “Now, are you two ready for your last test?”
Kelvin and Amelia looked at each other. They were both dazed and exhausted. What they were ready for was a big meal and eight-hours of sleep. They both nodded reluctantly but tried to convey with their gloomy expressions that they’d rather wait for another day.
“You’ve gone up against the drones, which were designed to mimic star divers. You’ve gone up against this Uranian gunboat. You know what you need to do with each, so now try it with both,” Teve said, as he pointed behind them.
The two students turned around and looked toward the canyon. Every single drone they had taken out now flew from the mouth of the canyon and was headed straight toward them. Kelvin couldn't tell if he imagined it, but it sounded like the drones were buzzing like hornets. As they prepared their staffs, the Uranian ship came back to life and the cannons started to fire as it shot up into the air, throwing Amelia and Kelvin off. They caught themselves in mid-air and prepared for the new battle that approached on two fronts.
Teve watched and hoped he had prepared them for it. This would be challenging, but not nearly as difficult as the real thing.
Aren stood at her workstation and refreshed the status report of the super-cannon. Her wait was approaching five hours and she expected Corporal Woad to be on time. The corporal was on time with most everything else, so she doubted his first time would be on such an important day. This was when Aren would demonstrate the power she had with a weapon that could not only take down the gravity shield but could take down Venus itself. She would take control of the Wanderers and eliminate the Colonel. Then she’d dictate terms to the Nine Kingdoms.
She looked forward to facing the Jovians. Aren was ready to bring Jupiter to its knees. Venus was just a practice run for that. She was quite sure Riz would want to be the one to attack Earth, so she’d leave that to him as she stabilized Venus. Once they’d recruited the Gravity Warriors –– one way or the other –– they’d be able to launch a strong attack on Jupiter. This victory on Venus was crucial to her plans but it was attainable and it would be the beginning of her reign.
Aren’s thoughts came back to Venus. She remembered her training under Riz. The lesson that a commander always had to remain present in battle was a large part of her training. The Gravity Warriors would still present enough challenges of their own if the words of the Colonel and Riz were to be believed. Her biggest disadvantage was not knowing what to expect. The Colonel and Riz hadn’t offered to share specifics and she didn’t expect they’d help her if she asked. The Colonel was either testing her or setting her up, so Aren was prepared for both. She was on her own, but she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
There was still no change in the status of the weapon. As she waited, she decided to check on the Monarch and the other Wanderers ships. Last she looked, the Wanderers were still chasing it in circles. Aren couldn’t imagine how devastated the people aboard the Monarch were, which would be what defeated them in the end. When the screen came on, the Monarch was nowhere to be found and the Wanderers looked like they were all headed back to the Antioch Belt. For a moment she was tempted to contact them and wanted to know why they hadn’t engaged Earth Navy.
It wouldn’t matter. Aren hoped Earth Navy would come to Venus so she could disable and capture them. She welcomed the Uranian Corsairs on their way, as well. It would just be more target practice for her new weapon. If Earth Navy showed up, she’d also be doing most the work for Riz. She knew Earth was all he was interested in. Part of Riz’s motivation was revenge against Aren’s father, but she’d learned to let go of that. Riz wasn’t going to hurt him or throw him in prison. All Riz wanted to do was build the government her father used to want.
The Sellwood family name was another reason Aren was doing this. They had always been liberators. They were never meant to be rulers. Aren believed that after this she could reconcile with her family. The deaths of those pilots would make it difficult, as well as whatever others followed, but acts of war had been forgiven before. Aren thought it was possible, but if it wasn’t, she would accept that. She didn’t need anyone, even family. She could build her own, someday.
As she watched the Wanderer ships head back toward the Antioch Belt, Aren believed this must have been the big trap. The Colonel would leave her to either Venus, Earth Navy, or the Uranian Corsairs. There’s no doubt Aren and her ships would be outgunned if they didn’t have the super-cannon. She assumed the Colonel thought he was leaving her to the wolves. That was just fine with her. He’d be even more shocked when her next target was his ship.
“Commander Sellwood,” an officer’s voice came over her headset. “We’ve picked up a ship incoming, very fast. It’s the Monarch.”
“The Monarch?” Aren said, startled. “How’s that possible?”
“I don’t know, ma’am, but we’ve got a positive identification. We can’t calculate exactly when it will be here, but we estimate within the hour.”
“Put your monitor through to my station. Sellwood out,” Aren snapped and cut off the communication.
It was not possible for the Monarch to be anywhere near Venus. It should have taken them weeks to get to Venus. When the tracking sensor feed came through, sure enough, it was a telescopic view of the Monarch. There was no mistaking its butterfly structure. No doubt the loyalty of the crew is what had turned Earth’s flagship around, coming back to try to help her brother on the planet below. That didn’t surprise her, but she was happy she’d be able to take the Monarch for herself. The Colonel had been obsessed with it, so it would be one more demonstration of superiority over him.
A notification popped up on her monitor.
The super-cannon was ready.
“Corporal Woad, come in,” Aren said over her headset.
“It’s ready, ma’am. Transferring targeting controls to your station now,” Woad said.
The Monarch could wait. Aren turned to the target array of her new weapon. She didn’t notice, but the bridge crew had literally stopped everything they were doing to watch her next move. Though she’d kept it a secret, the crew knew she had something planned. And it was hard not to notice the massive weapon being built between the two conjoined ships. None of them knew what it was capable of, and there was a real sense of fear that something this powerful was in Aren’s hands. They didn’t like that at all.
Aren moved the circular target emblem across a map of what was in range on the surface of Venus.
“Does it matter where I fire it at?”
“No, ma’am. The blast should take out their shield. The anti-gravity pulse will shut it down. Doesn’t matter where on the surface.”
“Good.”
Below, a large forest that didn’t look populated came on her monitor. There was no way to know whether or not anyone was on it. The cities were all marked and Venus was supposedly sparsely populated. Aren pointed the weapon in the direction of what appeared to be a mountain range. The Royal Palace was nearby so it would be a good way to demonstrate to Queen Tendai what her planet was up against.
Aren put her thumb to the panel and fired.
The final drone had been put down by Amelia, so Kelvin headed straight for the ship. It hadn’t taken them as long to destroy all of the drones. The cover fire from the larger ship hadn’t made it any easier though. They had to worry about deflecting and dodging all of those pulse cannons now too. Kelvin cut his way through the hull and went back into the corridors Mara had guided them through earlier. He wanted to bring down this ship on his own. Amelia was clearly a stronger student than him, but Kelvin wanted to prove he was capable, too.
