"Okay," Alice said, nodding then squeezing him back as best as she could. "I love you too."
Waking up was slow, not because it was difficult, but they were both hesitant to leave as the weather cleared and they shared a powerful link that neither of them had fully allowed themselves to enjoy before.
Twenty-Three
Pulling Patrol Duty
* * *
The new Uriel fighters were a divisive factor for the fighter wings aboard the Triton. While the War Forge and the fleet surrounding it were travelling even further from the well charted, civilized systems while they looked for a longer-term home, half the pilots aboard the ship commanded by Commodore McPatrick passed their qualifiers on their new fighters.
The other half struggled and failed. The neural interface was incredible to some, but the rest were blocked in many ways, unable to make a complete connection. They were left behind, allowed to respond to alerts using their old fighters, but the ones who qualified on the new versions were put to work, patrolling and investigating the new solar system that was called Sola 35b.
It wasn't a normal human name for a solar system even though it used all the right characters when it was uploaded to the navigational data pool three centuries before. Most of the pilots in the training class aboard the Triton passed the qualification on the new Uriels, something that didn't surprise Noah Lucas, since they were some of the best pilots in the fleet.
That afforded him a special opportunity. The small group of pilots he was assigned to along with Pixie, who also passed, were given the task of exploring the space around Sola 35b Five, or just Sola Five for short. The fifth planet from the solar systems' white star was predicted to have earth like qualities. With no reservations at all, but a little guilt at being able to go out on mission while many other pilots were being questioned by therapists, poked by doctors and examined by analysts to find out why they couldn't successfully qualify on the newest fighters, Noah dropped into the seat of his new Uriel.
There were a lot of nicknames floating around for the new ships, he supposed it was because they might have looked the same as the old Uriels, but they felt completely different. The neural link system picked his presence up and connected to him the instant he finished putting his harness on. The punter gears, arms and little bay closed his canopy for him, performed an extra check on his fighter, and gave him the green light. A countdown started. "All systems ready," he said.
"Flight Control here, we'll wait for your partner to strap in. She's not late yet, but it's close."
"Keep your pants on, Control, I'm dropping into my seat now," Pixie said.
"You were a better pilot when you were in charge," Rayman, a new pilot who was given command of their small squad after Pixie's turn was over.
"So was everyone else," Pixie replied, you could hear her grin as she taunted him. It took her seconds to get under his skin, and she did it all the time. It was only fair, he often started the spats and fights they got into. "When's your turn at command over?"
"End of tomorrow," Rayman replied.
"Cool, I hope they put Carnie in charge next. A break would be nice."
"A break?" Rayman said.
"Hey, am I the last one to strap in?" Pixie said. "Shows here that you're not fully harnessed, Rayman. I'm all strapped up and ready to go."
"Just making sure I'm the last out."
"This is Flight Control. Waiting on you, Rayman. We punt in sequence. If we have to skip you, you'll be reported."
"Sorry, Control, strapped in now."
Noah pushed the mute control on his communications system as he snickered. Rayman didn't have the worst command instincts, but he was a complete control freak, and that cost him here and there. It was also easy for Pixie to find things to taunt him about. She was ready on time, her checks were done, she just wasn't as early as the other three pilots for the mission, which didn't really matter. Rayman liked to be the last to punt in simulations where he was supposed to be in charge, though, and he'd leave part of his harness unbuckled to make sure of that.
This wasn't a simulated mission, though, and Pixie was smart enough to strap in quick and check on Rayman to see if he was holding to his simulation habits, just to embarrass him because she knew the actual live procedures better. Noah was surprised it worked, and happy their rivalry didn't make them late for their launch.
"We're going to have words later," Rayman grumbled to Pixie.
A count down started from ten on Carnie's canopy. He could see his tactical map, the communications stream, scan data and his mission details all at once as if he had second sight. He could also feel all the extremities of his fighter as though they were extensions of his body. The new neural link made him feel like he was a new being flying through space. It was his first time punting outside of a simulation though, so he braced himself, unmuting his communicator. "Ooh, this is going to rock," he said with a grin.
"I hear it's like getting kicked in the back, not like the simulations at all," Pixie said.
"I'm sure they adjusted the kinetic feedback," Rayman dismissed.
The armoured door in the punter opened as Carnie's counter flashed down: 3…..2…..1 and in a thrust of pistons and compressed air, his Uriel was flung thirty kilometres away from the Triton in less than a second and a half. It felt like one of the few times he played on a swing as a child on a planet with normal gravity, when he swung up really high and jumped, only his Uriel never hit the ground. The laughter was the same, the thrill was better. A check of the other three fighters with him showed that they'd all punted fine. "Oooh, that was awesome!" Pixie said.
"All right, clear the channel," Rayman said. "We have a mission plan to work. Set your Quad Drives for the first set of coordinates and make your micro-jump to the planet. I'll see you two when Thorn and I cross by you near its second moon. Stick to the patrol pattern, report anything anomalous the instant you see it."
"Yes, Sir," Pixie and Carnie replied at the same time.
The number of qualification tests Carnie studied for and passed over the previous few days, all while learning how to pilot the new fighter, was astonishing. Several of the Officer Qualifiers were difficult. The studying was brutal, there was a lot of reading and preparation tests, but the Qualifiers were frustrating. They were tests of your decision making, presenting situations in simulation that required him to make on the spot, time sensitive calls. Even so, the advanced qualifier for Quad Drives was the most difficult one. I took three tries for him to pass, but on the third attempt, he felt he had a real understanding of the system and how to use it without making the computer doing all the work.
Even so, as he plotted the micro-jump that would take them over a hundred million kilometres in a second, he let the computer do the heavy lifting. It was what the software was built for. He got the ready signal from Pixie and they jumped at the same time. A flash of blue and white light crossed his canopy for an instant and they emerged a hundred thousand kilometres away from Planet Sola 35b Five. Pixie's fighter was to his right. "First time in a new Uriel, first punt while fully neutrally connected, and our first dimensional jump. I'd say we're doing pretty well for one morning," Pixie said. "All systems on my fighter check out fine. It's really not supposed to be this easy to be a test pilot."
"We're technically not test pilots, just the first flesh and bone pilots to try this stuff out."
"Oh, because a few thousand simulations couldn't be wrong," Pixie snickered. "I'll be shocked if this neural assistance stuff doesn't do something funky to our heads eventually."
"Time to start our sweep, starting with the nearest moon."
"Don't tell me you're gonna get all stiff like Damon, sorry, I meant Rayman."
"I just want to keep the mission on track, we can talk after we're on course and gathering data. It's not like we'll be short on time," Carnie said. He engaged the autopilot after checking the planned route and made sure the gain on his passive scanners was turned up all the way.
"Oh, go
od. If you got all stiff on me, I'd have to hang out with Thorn. She's as boring as vanilla custard, but at least she likes a good laugh."
The fighters split off from each other, each starting on a course that would keep them in easy communication range while efficiently collecting data from the first moon, then the planet a hundred fifty thousand kilometres away. "Don't worry, I won't get all official on you, or pick on you like Rayman. What's the deal between you two, anyway?"
"Oh, he and I shared a bunk for a night. Ever since I turned him down for a second night, then a third and a fourth, he's been more and more of a baby about it. I thought I'd get a break from him when I was assigned here, but…"
"Then the Excalibur sent him into the program late," Carnie finished for her. "I guess there's something to the no fraternizing rule most military orgs have."
"Sure, but I'll take one thick-headed stalker as the price for something to break the boredom. Shaking the bunk with someone's a great stress reliever, and a romance can make all this seem worth it if it goes right. You'd know more about that, though."
"Not at the moment." The scan data started coming in, and most of the moon was barren, a rock with no atmosphere.
"Haven't heard from the Princess for a while?"
"I told you…"
"Okay, I had to call her that one more time, sorry."
"Anyway, Alice hasn't sent any messages out. I'm thinking whatever's going on has her ship running silent. No news from Fleet, either, but that just verifies my theory."
"You know, if you two got married, you'd have a right to more info."
"Wow, it's a bit soon for that," Carnie said. "Way soon."
Pixie laughed. "Yeah, I just don't know where you guys are in your relationship. You don't talk about it much. Are you all coupled up? Deep in the honeymoon stage? Do you ever meet in person? Is it a simulation thing, where you just meet in the digital? Or have you two gone through the early stages and just keep it open?"
"We met a couple times, it went well," Carnie said.
"You don't sound too sure."
"Oh, I'm sure it went well. We talked about it, there are holos," he said more certainly, it sounded almost defensive to his ears.
"Oh, yeah. I saw that splatterball fight. Looked like a bunch of crewmates to me, though. I didn't notice you two connecting. Then again, holovids don't tell the whole story, I guess."
Carnie had met a lot of trouble makers in his short life. During his teens and before, he was fortunate enough to watch the older kids and adults go through the heavy drama that happened between the stars, and he watched those trouble makers. The ones who got between relationships, or questioned them at the right time, put ideas in people's head were always a little entertaining but frightening to him. He tapped the picture of Alice on one of his secondary cockpit screens, it was one he took from a call he had with her, where she was smiling at him warmly and decided to shut the door on any trouble. "Yeah, Alice and I are private. A lot of people lurk on her social feed, trying to get dirt, so we stay close to each other and enjoy what we've got. There's no room for a third in there, we like it that way."
"I wasn't asking to get involved with you guys or anything," Pixie retorted. Was she backtracking? "I just want to follow success, y'know? She's the act to beat in the Apex program, and you two have something cool going on, if I'm guessing right. If I could have her record and get together with someone as awesome as either of you, it would be like the end of my problems. I'd be the bright centre to the galaxy."
Pixie seemed more earnest as she went on and Carnie decided to let her off the hook. "Nothing's perfect, but I'm pretty happy, yeah. The waiting is the hardest, but talk to anyone who has someone important somewhere else on the fleet. We're all going through it."
"Except for me," Pixie sighed.
"There's always Rayman," Carnie snickered. "I'm sure he's showing his love whenever he tries to pick on you."
"That's not love, dear Carnie," she replied. "And it's not as much fun as you might think, there was no clicking there. I'm into free love and everything but sharing a bunk with him was a mistake from minute one. I was out of there the moment I was sure he was sleeping."
"Right, hopefully he'll get over it before it affects his command score. He loses more points than anyone whenever he argues with a subordinate. On the bright side, you make Hal stumble over his words and drop things," Carnie offered.
"Do I?" Pixie asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "Seriously? Traveller? Wow, I didn't think anything could make that guy shake in his boots. His command score is almost double mine from his turn in charge."
"Yeah, he has eyes for you whenever you're near. Just don't break his heart, okay?"
"Hey, don't worry, a crush from a nice guy like that is a great big compliment. I'll be as nice as…"
The reason why Pixie lost her train of thought appeared on the tactical scanner. A city with tall towers, a partially radial pattern of transportation tubes, buildings, domes and industrial buildings. Their skin was metal, mostly of the same types that could be found on the moon's surface, and the occupants had built old shield emitters the size of buildings into its rim.
"I'm seeing a lot of damage," Pixie said in a hushed tone. She was using a laser link to communicate so their other signals wouldn't trigger anything below. It was one of their new procedures.
He switched over. "There's no power down there, no sign of people, no movement on detectors." The desolation was as astonishing as the city itself. He'd seen moon settlements before, but never so extensive. There were dozens of huge mining shafts around the city as well, all capped, but some of the protective barriers were broken. "This whole place was hit by weapons' fire. Scanners suggest kinetic, but there are thousands of hits from heavy bombs."
"Would be nice if there was someone to talk to down there," Pixie said. "Not picking anything up though, not yet. I'm gonna go lower."
"Wait, we don't know…" Carnie started to say as he watched her fighter start to move down towards the city. He decided on a different tact. "I'm going to follow procedure. Book says we get distance and report."
"Oh, um," Pixie said as her ship turned back, moving away from the city, following him instead. "Got excited for a minute there."
"Command, we found something significant. An abandoned settlement on the moon, sending scan data now," Carnie reported. "Doesn't look like there's anything down there, but we haven't analyzed the results yet."
"I see it," Rayman said. "Running analysis now."
"Shouldn't you forward that on to Flight Command?" Pixie prodded.
"Just taking a look before we get anyone excited. Hey, there's a faint signal down there, how'd you miss it?" Rayman asked.
"We didn't have time to run our analysis, we thought it was more important to forward the raw data, like the regulation says," Carnie said.
"Regs say you forward new information to you commanding officer. That's me. Looks like the computer thinks the signal is an old distress beacon, but it's weak, it's probably been blinking for a century. You're cleared for duty out of the cockpit, and Pixie just finished her urban combat qual. You two head down and investigate, I'm sending you the info you'll need to find the signal I found."
"I'd like to hear those orders from Flight Command," Pixie said. "I might love guns and exploring but…"
"Do you want me to report you for insubordination?" Rayman said.
Carnie switched to a private channel with Pixie. "You good for a trip down? We'll get out the millisecond we see a sign of trouble."
"I finished my first three combat quals and the first five explorer quals. I'm ready, I guess, but this'll be my first mission out of the cockpit. Don't get me wrong, I want to check it out, but I'd rather do it with a squad of trained soldiers."
"So, what'll it be, Pixie?" Rayman asked peevishly.
"Yes, Sir. Going down to check it out, Sir," Pixie said.
"Carnie has the lead, he's been face to face with Edxi according to his file. Even if it
was a little baby, that makes him more experienced," Rayman ordered.
Carnie wanted to send his temporary commander recordings of his latest encounter to show him how dangerous it really was, but answered; "Yes, Sir, heading down," instead. He flipped over to the private channel he had with Pixie. "We're not playing heroes here. Activate your heavy encounter suit before you touch down. We're just buying time until Flight Command yanks his leash and sends real ground pounders down."
"Are you sure we can't check it out a little? I mean, this place is weird looking, I kinda want to see more."
"We'll follow the mission… slowly," Carnie replied as he watched the city loom larger in his cockpit window. Holes and burns in the upper sides of the buildings became clearer as he got closer.
Twenty-Four
Ghost Town
* * *
Following procedure, Carnie pinged all channels, prompting for a Navnet response from any towers that might be on standby from the moon city that filled the crater. He waited a minute, hoping that he wouldn't trigger defence systems instead, but nothing happened.
Darkened domes, holes in the rooftops and the sides of a few of the larger buildings drew his eye away from the main port, which had its secondary landing doors open. "That's probably where they launched fighters or escape craft from when this place was under attack." They'd already done two low passes so they could pick up as much as they could on their scanners, there was no motion or evidence of electrical charges beyond what could be expected from deactivated equipment.
"You're buying time so Command can call this off," Pixie said.
"Oh yeah," Carnie said. "But I can't put our landing off anymore, it'll look like insubordination," he said, plotting a course into one of the bays. "We go in slow, keep your scanners on passive and use your three-sixty degree recorders to take in the sights."
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13 Page 19