by JN Chaney
I could see the fear in her eyes. It was the sort of worry you get when you don’t know all the angles, when you can’t make the perfect prediction. It’s the unknowing of it all, like the moment you see the other guy draw his gun, and you don’t know if you’ll be fast enough. It’s that dread you have before the doctor comes in and tells you about your mother…and even though you’ve played the story out in your head a hundred times already, you still don’t know for sure how hard the truth will hit you…because you can’t.
Then, Lex told me what I already knew she’d say. “I just don’t want you to die.”
The words turned my stomach, even more than I thought they would. Not because I hated them, but because I understood where they came from.
That fear, clawing in the back of her mind.
We were both quiet for a moment. “You’re scared,” I finally told her.
She nodded, slowly.
I was slow to continue. I didn’t know how to talk about any of this stuff, especially to a little girl. “It’s okay to be scared,” I muttered. “Everyone else is afraid, too.”
“You’re not,” she whispered.
“You think so?” I asked, straightening up in my seat. I cleared my throat. “I didn’t know you could read my thoughts, kid.”
“You’re never scared, even when the bad people come,” she said, looking at me. “You’re always brave.”
I laughed. “Funny, I thought you were the brave one.” I shook my head. “I get scared shitless all the time, Lex.”
“R-Really?” she asked, a wide-eyed expression on her face.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Every time I go on a job. Every time I’m about to get into a fight. Lately, it seems like it happens every day. Point is, everyone gets scared. It’s just a feeling you get, like instinct.” I took a short breath. “But that’s a good thing.”
“It is?” asked Lex.
I nodded. “Fear…keeps you awake, even when you’re tired. It opens your eyes…teaches you what to look out for. In some ways, fear can be your friend, if you let it.”
“A friend? Really?” she asked.
“You just have to know how to listen,” I said, tapping my chest. “Understand what it’s trying to tell you.”
“I didn’t know it was talking,” she said.
“Oh, yeah,” I said, nodding. “There’s always something, like a voice deep down inside, telling where the danger is, teaching you how to stay alive. All you gotta do is open your ears and listen.”
She sat there, staring at the dash for a long while, taking in what I had told her. “So, fear is good,” she finally said, turning to me. “You can be scared and it’s okay.”
“Right,” I said.
“Then, we’re both scared,” she told me. “We just have to listen.”
I nodded. “Scared shitless,” I said. “But don’t tell anyone. I’ve got a reputation.”
She giggled. “Me too! I’ve got a reputator!”
“You sure do, kid,” I said, patting her on the head, and we both laughed.
* * *
“What’s our status, Athena?” I asked. The time for the mission was at hand, and I was sitting in my strike ship, hand on the dash, ready to go.
“Titan is currently passing through the Maelstrom system. We will arrive in empty space, less than a light-year from the planet, in approximately five minutes,” she answered. “Any longer and we will be closer to Androsia.”
“Everyone hear that?” I asked over the com.
“Got it,” said Abigail, who was on the bridge of The Renegade Star, manning its controls. Much as it pained me to let someone else fly my ship, she was the only one I trusted to get the job done. “Frederick and I will be ready.” She paused. “And Sigmond, too, of course.”
“Correct,” said Sigmond. “I am at your disposal, Ms. Pryar.”
“We’ll get this moon to safety, Captain,” said Freddie.
“Octavia?” I said, glancing across the deck from inside my little ship. “How about the rest of you?”
“We know the plan,” said the former Union medic. “Alphonse is getting ready to undergo the same treatment in just a few minutes. If need be, we’ll send him out.”
“Are you sure about that guy?” asked Freddie. “Seems like we’ll be putting a lot of trust in him in case things go wrong.”
“He’s the only one who can do it,” said Octavia. “He has the right training, he can adapt quickly under pressure, and he has experience with flying.”
“Relax, Fred. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get to that point,” I said.
He sighed, but straightened himself and nodded. “Right. We can do this.”
“No doubt about that,” said Abby.
Athena broke in before I could say anything else. “I will require at least twenty minutes to create a new long-range slipspace tunnel. You must do what you can until enough time has passed. You must not fail.”
“I get it, lady,” I muttered. “I won’t fuck it up.” Then, I added to myself, Because if I do, I’m dead.
“We’ll head to Titan’s bridge, while you two finish preparations,” said Octavia. She turned in the wheelchair, rolling away from us. “Good luck.”
Hitchens and Bolin waved, each looking strikingly similar from this distance.
I made a gun with my fingers and pretended to shoot at them, which caused Hitchens to clutch his belly and laugh. They went inside, along with Lex, who was holding Camilla’s hand. Lex’s eyes lingered on me for just a moment before she finally turned the corner.
I let out a short sigh and tapped the com in my ear. “We all set over there, Abby?”
“We’re ready, Jace.”
“Good,” I said, clearing my throat. I was quiet for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts.
“Arriving at destination in 15 seconds,” announced Athena.
So much for taking a moment, I thought.
I cracked my neck, spine, elbows, and knuckles. “Here goes nothing,” I muttered, placing my hand on the dash control panel, and visualizing my strike ship lifting off the deck floor. I felt the rumble beneath me, and suddenly I was airborne, moving toward the landing bay entrance.
I floated there for only a moment before Athena gave me the go-ahead. “Titan has successfully emerged from the slip tunnel. Please proceed. Good luck, Captain,” said the Cognitive.
“Thanks,” I said, bringing the ship out of the landing bay and into open space. “We’re sure as hell going to need it.”
* * *
According to Athena, Titan would need several minutes to recharge its core to near completion and then create a new slip tunnel. To hasten the process, it would need to bring down its shields and avoid any unnecessary combat. Of course, if any enemy ships came close enough to pose an immediate threat, shields would be raised and Titan would obliterate any threats that came to it, but the longer we could go without a fight, the better.
Which is where Abigail, Freddie, and I came into the picture. It was our job to distract and slow down the few dozen small to mid-sized ships in the local systems, should they attack. The Galactic Dawn might end up being a problem once it arrived, but we’d adjust to the situation as it developed. All we had to do was follow the plan.
“Athena,” I began. “Go ahead and begin moving into position. Remember, stay in the upper atmosphere of that planet. Focus on recharging that core so we can get the hell out of here.”
“Understood,” said the Cognitive.
“Sir,” interjected Sigmond. “I am detecting multiple incoming vessels, responding to our arrival.”
“What kind of ships are we talking about here, Siggy?” I asked.
“15 small to mid-size union attack ships,” informed the A.I.
I tabbed the console and mentally told it to run a quick scan of the system, just like Athena had showed me. When I did, the screen on top of the dash changed to show a readout of six planets as well as Titan, The Renegade Star, and my location.
I conti
nued to watch the readout as Titan began to move away from our present location, towards the gas giant on the edge of the solar system. Athena would wait there, until the last possible moment before The Galactic Dawn arrived. She would need all the time she could get to charge that core, and I was going to make damn sure she had it. The more energy we could accumulate, the further away from the Union we could get.
I watched Titan edge its way closer to the gas giant, until it was inside the upper stratosphere.
“Core is at 54% capacity,” informed Athena. “Beginning charging sequence.”
“Enemy vessels inbound. Arrival time is two minutes and counting,” informed Sigmund.
I commanded my little ship to raise its shields, and it did so instantly without me having to say a word. “Abby, you sure you’re ready for this?” I asked.
“Me?” She asked, acting like the question had been a surprise. “I’d be more worried about yourself, flying that weird little ship around after you only had a few hours to train in it.”
“It’s easy once you get the hang of it,” I told her. I imagined the ship performing a horizontal spin, and then it did, followed by a vertical roll. “See? Flies like a dream.”
“No need to show off,” she said.
I heard Freddie in the background laughing. “The captain sure is something, isn’t he?”
“Sit down and shut up, Frederick,” said Abigail. “You’ll give him an even bigger ego if you keep that up.”
“Pardon the interruption, everyone,” said Sigmond. “Enemy ships have arrived. I thought you might want to know.”
I examined the radar, spotting several dots on the other end of the system.
“You heard him,” I said to everyone. “Time to go to work.”
* * *
The blinking red dots edged closer with each passing second.
Abigail activated The Renegade Star’s cloaking device, while I brought my ship around to the back of a nearby planetoid. These ancient Earth ships didn’t have cloaks—fuck if I understood why—but unless you knew what you were looking for, they were nearly impossible to detect with traditional scanning equipment. The same was true of Titan.
If only we could’ve masked the slip tunnel, we might have been able to go totally undetected, but even that went beyond Athena’s abilities.
No big deal, I thought, watching as the first four ships came around the edge of the nearby planet. We’ll just have to play with what we have.
The ships passed by my position, heading to the slip tunnel we had arrived on. As they did, I pulled the strike ship around and targeted the one at the center of the pack.
I imagined my ship firing the same blue blast as before, back in the landing bay, and suddenly it happened. The light burst out of my left wing, traveling rapidly towards the others.
With that, the shield surrounding the four ships cracked apart, dissolving in a quick second, causing the enemy fighters to disperse.
“Now, Abby!” I snapped.
The Renegade Star decloaked on the opposite side of the fighters and began firing a spray of rounds, followed by the quad cannons.
Before the other ships could get very far, Abby had made quick work of the first one, ripping it to shreds. The Renegade Star’s cannons launched a set of missiles, each one aimed at a different ship. They barely had the chance to react before the torpedoes tore through their hulls and sent them to hell.
I set my sights on the last of the four, then ordered another volley from my cannons. The hit plowed through his wing, forcing him into a spin as the metal turned to dust. Abby took the opportunity to follow it up with her own attack, raining gunfire on him. The bullets sprayed diagonally across the hull, cutting through like paper and hitting the engine. The ship exploded in seconds, signaling our success.
“Nice one!” I called.
Before she could respond, I saw the other red dots blink on my dash, telling me the fight was far from over.
“Cloak yourself!” I shouted. “We’ve got more company!”
The Renegade Star faded, blurring back into the darkness of space. I could still follow her position with my radar, which meant I’d know exactly where she was at any given moment, making it easier to maneuver these fighters around to give her an advantage. That was always the key to victory. You had to control the battlefield.
12 more blips made their way towards me. My best guess was that the first wave had been closer when we arrived, which was unfortunate for them. If only they had waited for the rest of their friends, they might have lasted a bit longer.
Not much longer, mind you, but a little more. I wasn’t taking any prisoners today. If you threaten my ship and my crew, you were done.
The remaining 12 ships were fast approaching, their destination being the destroyed ships of their fallen friends. I couldn’t imagine the confusion that must have been going through their minds at that moment.
But they would understand soon enough.
I fired a shot of blue energy directly into the last ship to arrive. It ran straight through the hull and into the cockpit creating a hole so large you could float through it. Somehow, the vessel didn’t split completely apart, but it was well on its way.
The other fighters turned toward me, firing rapidly and unloading a wide spray of bullets. The gunfire swept across my side, largely missing me before several shots struck my shield. I shook it off, returning fire with my beam cannon, targeting the nearest ship in the group.
The squad moved towards me, breaking off into two sets, each with their own shield.
The Renegade Star dropped its cloak and began unloading its quad cannons on one of the groups.
I decided that was my cue to take the other.
Bringing my ship forward, I dove beneath the oncoming squad. I tilted my ship back, firing a blast directly into the center of their shield. They took it, much to my surprise, and the shield remained.
I dodged enemy fire, rolling to my left and pulling up, then to the right. Several shots hit my shield, but did very little damage.
This was one hell of a ship.
I sent another blast into the squad’s shield, finally cracking it to pieces and destroying the centermost vessel. The beam also managed to catch the edge of one of the other ships, releasing atmosphere and sending it careening into another vessel, effectively disabling three of them at once. There were only two left in the squad, making for a quick clean up.
It was a good thing too, because there was no way Abby would be able to handle all six of those other strike ships on her own, even with Siggy and Freddie to help her. As much as I loved The Star, it wasn’t a warship. It could only do so much against that many—
Before I could finish the thought, two of the ships in the other group exploded. The Renegade Star flew straight through the debris, letting the shattered bits of metal deflect off its shield. A blast exploded from the quad cannons, decimating two of the other vessels, leaving only one behind.
The final ship began to run, attempting to make its way out of the system. The Star let out a spray of bullets, following the ship as it made its escape, finally tagging its tail, then moved along its hull, ripping it to shreds.
I whistled. “Damn, Abby.”
“You sound surprised,” returned the nun over the com.
“Maybe a little,” I said, snickering.
A sudden burst of green light sparked nearby, like a manifesting thunderstorm. It was the rift, the slip tunnel reopening. “Jace!” I heard Abigail shout.
“I see it,” I answered. “Athena, what’s the status of that core?”
“Tritium core is currently at 87%,” said the Cognitive.
“Not quite there,” I muttered turning my ship towards the opening tunnel. I wasn’t sure what we could do against a vessel as powerful as The Galactic Dawn, but we’d hold this position for as long as possible.
The tear opened and the carrier ship began to emerge. I could see its hull, massive as it was, with its name etched on the side in g
old letters.
A voice came over the com before the carrier had fully emerged. “This is General Brigham of the Union Fleet. Captain Hughes, respond immediately.”
I was surprised to hear the old man speak, since I never accepted the call, but I quickly let it go. I didn’t have Sigmond to filter the coms, I had to remind myself.
I pictured Brigham’s face as he repeated the transmission. How anyone could follow me this far and still have enough fight in them was beyond me.
An image appeared on my console, depicting an older-looking man in a Union military uniform. It was Brigham, much to my surprise. “Captain Hughes, respond.”
“What the hell?” I asked.
Brigham cocked his brow at the sound of my voice. “Hughes? Have you decided to turn yourself in?”
I paused, hesitating to answer. Why was he able to hear me? Had I accidentally opened the com? It must have been triggered by my subconscious. I was still getting used to controlling this ship, so maybe I’d done this accidentally.
I cleared my throat, composing myself. “General,” I said with a monotone voice. “What can I do for you?”
Brigham seemed unmoved by my question. He was stone cold. “You can surrender yourself at once, Captain. Do so immediately and I will ensure your crew survives the day.”
“Let’s not waste time with this again,” I said, thinking back to the last encounter I had with this man. He’d made the same offer and I’d promptly ignored him. “You want the kid. I’m not giving her up. That puts us at a crossroads.”
“Indeed, it does,” said the General. “You must understand that my capabilities far outweigh your own, though. Compare our ships, Captain. The Galactic Dawn is the flagship of the fleet. It has no equal.”
“That’s true,” I said with a nod. “You’re walking around strutting that beast of a ship and I’m over here with The Renegade Star. There ain’t much of a comparison.”
“I’m glad you see that,” he said.
I raised a finger. “It’s a good thing I’m not flying that ship, then, isn’t it?”
He paused, furrowing his brow. “Excuse me?”
“You’ll see,” I said, quickly ordering my ship to begin accelerating. I visualized the com shutting off, and the image of the General disappeared.