by C. S. Harte
“You didn’t exactly leave me a choice.”
“She’s a great pilot, like you. Once you get to know her, you’ll like…”
“Drop your weapon!” yelled a voice from behind.
Six marines positioned themselves around Jonas and Nume.
“We’re surrounded.” He nudged her. “Drop the rifle.”
Nume lowered her weapon to the ground. She created a telepathic link to Jonas where only he could hear her. “On the count of three, run toward the alley and don’t look back. Keep running until you make it to the ship. It’s the Zephyr, on the furthermost side of the dock.”
What are you doing? We're cornered!
“Trust me. Please.”
Jonas sighed. Alright. I will.
“One.”
“Drop the girl,” the leader said to Jonas.
“Two.”
“OK. OK. Easy everyone. Don’t shoot.” Jones pretended to lower Alyana.
“Three.”
Jonas broke for the alley with Alyana cradled in his arms. He heard screams and cries mixed with the sound of rifle fire but didn’t look back. Did Nume sacrifice herself for us? His arms and legs began to tire. Almost there. I can see the entrance to the dock. He noticed a red blur steak in front of him and skidded to a stop.
“Where is Nume?” Whisper asked.
“Back there, in the alley.” He pointed with his eyes.
“You left her?” She glared at Jonas. “How could you?”
“She told me to trust she’ll make it back here.”
Whisper shook her head. “Idiot. I’m going back for her. Take Alyana to the ship. You know which ship, right?”
Jonas nodded and continued into the stardock. He could see the Zephyr through the windows of the space ports. CMS Zephyr? That's a Fleet ship… The vessel appeared small, one of the smallest Jonas had ever seen with a Fleet insignia. It was closer to a passenger transport than a warship, but there was no doubt that the Zephyr was a warship. Jonas observed eight missile launchers, a dozen laser ports, two different engine manifolds, and hull plating that Jonas had never seen before. The Zephyr looked the part of a quick-strike class of ships, designed to hit hard and run fast.
How do rebels have access to Fleet warships? Something isn’t right. Jonas looked behind expecting a trap. He saw Nume and Whisper running toward him. He released a deep breath.
“What are you waiting for? Get in the ship!” Whisper yelled.
“It’s a Fleet warship. In case you forgot, I’m running away from Fleet’s military.”
“It was a Fleet ship.” Nume smiled. “We’ve since re-purposed it for ourselves.”
“You stole a Fleet warship?” Jonas narrowed his eyes. “How?”
“Questions later.” Whisper pushed Jonas. “Let’s get on board first.”
A laser blast streaked past Jonas, barely missing him.
“More marines!” yelled Nume.
Jonas followed Nume and Whisper into the airlock. To think, I started this day in the prison of a space pirate jail. Now I’m about to board a stolen Fleet ship, with people I’ve never met and I have no idea where they’re going…
18
Jonas was the last to step onto the cramped bridge of the Zephyr. There were only two command terminals, tactical and navigation, and one science station where Kovat stood. This is a warship? My personal quarters on the Endurance was larger than this…
Nume sat at the tactical console. “Where is Alyana?”
“I gave her to Whisper. They were headed to the med bay last I saw them.”
“How is she?”
“Breathing. That’s all I know.”
“We need a pilot.” Nume motioned for Jonas to take his place at the navigation terminal.
As soon as Jonas placed his hands on the nav station, the console interface came to life. Three-dimensional, holographic elements rose from the console, surrounding Jonas’ hands in a wireframe of blue and white light. A sleeve of holographic displays and symbols surrounded Jonas’ arms, following him as he moved, providing additional command options. “I’ve never seen this setup before. I don’t know if I can…”
“The Zephyr is the first ship to use a biometric intention interface. You control the ship with your intentions. It’s really quite intuitive. You’ll see what I mean when you try it.”
“OK…” Jonas furrowed his brow.
“Airlock and docking clamps released. We’re ready to depart.”
Jonas placed his hand on the holographic throttle stick. It felt solid in his grip.
“You can thank Kovat. He designed everything on this ship.”
Jonas looked back at his Katok shipmate who seemed unconcerned with the others on the bridge.
“Engines are powered up. We're ready to go. Let’s not stay here any longer.”
“Could you explain a little more?" Jonas grimaced. "Think about where I want to go, and the ship will follow?”
“That’s the idea.” Nume nodded. “Left hand controls speed and acceleration. Right controls direction and plane.”
With a shift in pressure in Jonas’ hands, the Zephyr drifted backward away from the stardock and turned its nose toward open space. Jonas eyed the switch for a one-quarter ion drive. The Zephyr computer correctly recognized his intention. The ship proceeded forward at one-quarter ion speed. “This is remarkable,” he whispered to himself.
“Set a course for the gravity well of Noctae. From there, we can warp to the Cygni sector.”
“Aye, course set,” Jonas confirmed.
The Zephyr drifted out of the stardock and into open space.
“We're at one-quarter ion engines. At this speed, we'll reach Noctae in a little over seven minutes.”
“Kovat says this ship has not been warp tested. He wants to run a few precautionary system checks first when we reach the gravity well.”
Jonas raised his eyebrows. “How new is this ship? I’ve never heard of the Zephyr class.”
“We’re on the first prototype. Kovat is the lead engineer.”
“Tell him this is a very nimble warship, the most responsive craft I've ever flown. The intentions interface is amazing. I feel like the ship is a part of my body.”
“Kovat says thank you. There’s a lot more he would like to show you when we’re safe.”
Klaxons blared.
“Did I do something wrong?” Jonas searched his console for warnings.
“No, we’re being fired upon. Shields holding.”
“By who?”
“Two, make that three ships, chasing us.”
“Fleet?”
“Sensors show corvette configuration.” Nume activated the main viewscreen in front of the bridge to show the chaser ships. “Valiant-class. But no Fleet identifiers.”
“I've seen ships like that before. They're covert.” Jonas shifted his left hand forward. “Hold on, moving to full ion engines. ETA to Noctae gravity well is 3 minutes, 34 seconds.”
“They’re gaining on us!” Nume bit her lip.
“Valiant-class ships are built for speed. I hope this has an equally innovative defense and weapons system.”
The Zephyr rattled as it suffered a direct hit.
“That knocked out one of our shield generators! Shields down to 89%!” Nume shouted.
The enemy ships appeared on Jonas’ holographic interface as flashing red dots. A white line connected each ship to the Zephyr and had a countdown clock above the line. “If I’m reading this correctly, the bad guys are on pace to overtake us in less than three minutes.”
“We didn’t have time to stock the armory before we stole this ship, but we have defense drones and neutron missiles.”
“Neutron missiles?” Jonas narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t they theoretical?” He cracked a smile. “Well, I’m curious to see if they really open up micro black holes that swallow ships.”
“Scratch that. Kovat says our weapons systems are offline. He hasn’t had time to implement them yet. He believes our nano-ori
llium hull plating can protect us long enough to reach the gravity well of the star.”
Another volley of laser fire landed on the Zephyr. Shields strength dropped to 43%.
“Nano-what hull?” Jonas tilted his head. “I’ve never heard of that.”
“Nano-orillium composite hull, a plating that is a composite of orillium, ceramics, and nanites that are explosion-resistant, heat-resistant up to 6000 Kelvins, and self-repairing.”
“Has all of this technology been field tested or is this all based on simulations?”
“Kovat says yes to both. Limited field testing, many computational hours of simulated testing. He is confident in his math.”
The Zephyr shook violently. Shields at 22%.
“This isn’t going to work. We’re taking too many hits.” Jonas altered the Zephyr’s path.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m sure Kovat’s math is correct, but my philosophy is to not take damage if you don’t have to.”
“You’re taking us into the Noctae asteroid belt?”
“Yes.”
“I know you’re a good pilot, but unlike Earth’s asteroid belt, this one is 2,000 times denser with asteroids moving as fast as 5,000 kilometers per second!” Nume's face turned even more pale than before.
“It’s your turn to trust me.” Jonas grinned.
“This is the first time you’ve flown a ship in over five years, and you’re using a new experimental navigational interface while flying into what is essentially a minefield. I don’t know about this, Jonas…”
“The Zephyr is a smaller, more maneuverable ship compared to those Valiant corvettes chasing us. They may be faster, but their speed will be negated by the millions of death rocks in that belt.”
“Kovat doesn’t like this plan.”
“Well, tell Kovat I don’t care,” Jonas said with a sharp edge in his tone. “This will buy us the precious seconds of separation we need without taking too much damage.”
Alarms sounded on Nume’s console.
“Artemis missiles fired! I’m tracking six incoming!”
“Hang on!” Jonas steered the Zephyr hard to starboard and into the first layer of the asteroid belt.
Two of the missiles collided with the outside band of asteroids. The ensuing explosion took out another three. The last missile was able to track the Zephyr through the rocky field.
“Impact in 11 seconds. Jonas, Artemis missiles goes through shields…”
“I know what Artemis missiles are! Just let me find something big enough…" His eyes grew wide. "There!”
The Zephyr turned hard to port and dived below a streaking asteroid. The remaining missile could not change course in time and collided with the asteroid.
“WOW!” Nume jumped from her seat. “Great job, Jonas! Even Kovat is mildly impressed.”
“I’ll take that.” He winked at her. “Have to make sure you live today so you can fight tomorrow.” As soon as Jonas said those words, a light turned on in his head. He realized Nume was only buying time when she agreed to testify against him. I understand what she did and why she did it, but I lost everything and everyone I cared about. Those five years in solitary may not have been hell, but I can’t imagine anything being worse…
“Two of the three ships followed us into the asteroid belt. Sensors are showing the third one returning to Caldia station.”
“This chase isn’t over until we reach the gravity well and warp out of this system.”
“Jonas…” Nume pointed at the viewscreen. A cluster of five large asteroids were circling each other in chaotic, random orbits while simultaneously heading for the Zephyr.
“I see it. The navigational computer is having trouble plotting a path through because of the indiscriminate motions. I have to manually react to the… I think I see a pattern…”
Nume held her breath as the ship flew through the cluster.
Kovat sent a series of rapid course corrections to Jonas’ terminal.
“Got it.” Jonas deftly piloted the Zephyr through a sequence of acute angles and speed changes, like a blitzball player jumping through a tough defense.
“We made it through!” Nume cheered.
“Thanks for the assist, Kovat!” Jonas laughed.
“He said no thanks necessary. The math was simple.”
“You know, I never met a Katok, but I pictured talking to them to be just like this — mostly one-sided conversations with a bit of condescension.”
“One of the trailing ships just exploded. It tried to duplicate our path through the asteroid cluster and failed. The other is breaking off the chase.”
“Seems like we’re in the clear. We did it!" Jonas cheered. "Less than 90 seconds till we reach the star’s gravity well. I hope Kovat is OK with skipping the initial warp checks. I don’t want to hang out here longer than we have to.”
“Kovat says he prefers to do the checks. We should have time now that the Fleet ships are no longer after us. Sending over the coordinates.”
“Cygni system right? That’s in the Delta Quadrant?” Jonas shook his head. “I swore to never go back there. Too much of that space is unknown and unexplored.”
“It’ll be fine, Jonas. There's a reason why we're going there.”
“Tell Kovat to be quick.”
“He says he doesn’t waste time, unlike humans.”
"Really, how do you stand that guy?"
Nume laughed. "He's not so..."
The proximity alert went off.
“There’s another ship hiding behind the star…" Her eyes protruded from their sockets. "It’s firing missiles! I count 16 on the way! 12 seconds to impact…”
“That’s not enough time to engage warp. Tell Kovat to skip the warp pre-checks and just initialize the warp engines. I’ll buy us a little time.” Jonas maneuvered the Zephyr into the star’s photosphere. “I hope you meant it when you said the nano-orillium hull plating could handle up to 6000 Kelvins of temperature…”
“You’re taking us into the star?” Nume tugged at her ear.
“Close but not quite in…”
The missiles exploded behind the Zephyr, jarring the ship as each one of them detonated prematurely.
After the last missile exploded, Kovat initialized warp, collapsing the space in front of the ship while expanding the space in the rear. The Zephyr reached faster-than-light speeds and started its journey into the unknowns of the Delta Quadrant.
19
The Zephyr's viewscreen showed pinpricks of light from millions of stars, stretching and shifting colors in a repeating, dazzling cycle, creating a euphoric view of the universe.
Jonas wiped the sweat from his brow. “I can’t believe that worked. I never thought I would ever fly into the photosphere of a star and live to tell about it.”
Nume laughed. “Kovat says you made a grave error in calculations that could have cost us our lives. In a similar situation, you could have plotted a curved trajectory over the northern pole of the star to achieve the same effect of buying us time without the perilous risk.”
“I hope to never be in a similar situation.” Jonas smirked. “I’ll try to remember that.” He glanced at his console:
Distance 206.2 Light Years
Warp Factor: 9.15 (1607.25 times the speed of light)
Duration: 46.86 days.
“Looks like we have time to kill.” Jonas yawned. He stood and turned to Nume. “Do you need help? Otherwise, I’m heading to the crew deck.”
Nume looked at Kovat. “He says the repair droids are all the help he needs. You’ll only get in his way.”
“Well, alright then.”
“Wait, I’ll go with you.” Nume jumped out of her chair.
Jonas raised his eyebrows. “To my quarters?”
“No, to the decktram. I want to check on Alyana.”
“Oh, I almost forgot about her. I only carried her for two kilometers while they chased us, I should at least see if it was worth the effort.”
Th
ey entered the med bay to see Whisper operating a medical pod with Alyana inside. Tiny robotic arms whizzed back and forth as it treated her head injuries.
“It’s almost done with the surgery,” Whisper said.
Jonas watched as blood trickled down the back of Alyana’s neck. “I’m sorry,” he murmured as he placed a hand on the glass of the medical pod. His stomach felt uneasy. I’m sorry for wanting to leave you behind…
Nume rested a hand on his shoulder but didn’t speak.
Jonas turned to Whisper. “How serious are her injuries?”
“The blow to her head caused cranial hemorrhaging and brain swelling. The medical pod relieved the pressure and is repairing the damaged blood vessels. She’ll be out for another couple of days, but should make a full recovery.” Whisper glanced at Nume’s hand on Jonas. “I take it you two talked.”
Jonas’ eyes darted at Whisper then returned to Alyana. “We started a conversation. We haven’t finished it.”
Nume hugged Whisper. “Thank you for helping Alyana. That’s great news! All things considered, it could have been worse.”
Jonas yawned. “I should get some sleep. I think I need a week or two to catch up.”
“I can take over for you Lael,” Nume said with a smile. “Why don’t you and Jonas both head to bed.”
“Sure, Nume.” She patted Jonas’ back. “Let's go.”
Jonas followed Whisper to the crew deck. “So, Lael... or Whisper. I prefer Whisper since that’s what I’ve been calling you.”
“Whisper or Lael.” She shrugged. “Either is fine.”
“I’ve been trying to figure out how you got here.”
“I entered through the airlock, same as you.”
Jonas scoffed. “That’s not what I meant.”
She stopped and turned around. “Ask your question or in your case, questions.” Whisper crossed her arms.
“You’ve spent a good portion of your life fighting for the Commonwealth within Fleet Spec Ops. Now here you are with these… Rebels? Not sure if that’s the right word. Can you have a rebellion with only five people?”
“You’re counting yourself? So you decided to join us?”
Jonas shrugged. “I didn’t sign an enlistment agreement. I’m here for now, is all I can say.” He smirked.