ROMA

by R. A. Ender

  Sabina finally took a deep breath and stopped talking. Heather needed a moment to absorb all that her friend had said. She clearly remembered the fight in the last class of the day. She had made Claudia very mad with that retort, but it wasn’t her that started it, Claudia did. Why would her brothers want to beat me up? They should punch their sister for being mean.

  Before Heather could answer, Sabina was already heading down the road to the academy. “Sabina, wait,” Heather yelled out, but Sabina turned while she continued to walk.

  “Heather, I’m sorry, I don’t want to get beat up. I’m sorry,” and she hurried on alone.

  Heather was left standing alone on the sidewalk. After a moment she recovered from being abandoned. I’ll remember this next time Sabina needs help. She’s no kind of friend at all.

  Heather continued her walk to the academy. As she drew closer, there was an ever-growing number of kids running, walking and otherwise moving toward the academy from all directions. Though not a large town or a large academy, it was the only one that serviced the power plant community, so everyone attended and everyone knew everyone.

  As she got closer and moved off the sidewalk onto the dirt path across the yard, she could already see a lot of kids looking at her. She couldn’t see them really clearly as she needed to pay attention to where she was going. The dirt path was very muddy as the snow had just melted away over the past week leaving the ground very wet. In addition, there had been a frost the night before so the ground had, even more, moisture. Walking carefully from dry dirt patch to dry dirt patch, Heather navigated as best she could to keep her shoes clean and her dress from falling in the mud.

  As she stepped off the path, onto the sidewalks around the academy, she came face to face with Claudia. Claudia said nothing but her entire face and body language was one of triumph and unbridled happiness. As Heather stood looking at her, Claudia flashed the biggest smile ever and quickly ran inside through the large double door main entrance.

  Throughout the whole morning of classes, Heather could feel herself being watched by everyone. Even some of the teachers seemed to be paying extra attention to her, though she had no idea how they could have learned of the fight to come. Even if they had, shouldn’t they take steps to stop it from happening and save me? She thought to herself.

  What was worse than being the center of attention was being alone. Sabina was not the only friend to abandon her. Her other two best friends, Rebecca and Arcadia had deliberately chosen chairs on the other side of the classroom with Sabina. Usually, all four of them sat together, but not today. Heather was utterly alone.

  As the bell rang for the midday break, Heather did not get up from her chair. All the other kids left, though a couple stayed outside the classroom looking in at her as she stayed in her seat. The teacher, who had been reading something on her screen, had not even noticed that Heather was still there until she stood to leave.

  “Heather, are you not going to eat?” The teacher asked innocently enough. Heather only shook her head as a response.

  The teacher paused for a moment, before picking up her bag and leaving the room. Again, Heather was left alone.

  She didn’t know what to do. She could stay here all day but what difference would that make? Eventually, she would have to go home and the brothers would just be there then. How would that be better?

  Suddenly, Heather got the idea to go home. Her Mom would be at the power plant working, the house would be empty.

  Without completely thinking through the idea, Heather grabbed her book bag and headed out of the classroom. She skipped down the stairs to the main floor and out the rear entrance to the school. She began walking across the field, but eventually, she began running.

  She was so focused on getting home and to safety that she did not hear the noise behind her. She was just running to the sidewalk that would take her home. But before she got there, she felt an enormous weight hit her in the back and everything went black.

  What seemed like a second later, bright sunlight was in her eyes. Despite the light, she felt cold and wet, a feeling that penetrated deep into her bones. One of her arms felt warm, though she didn’t know which one and anyway, she couldn’t move it.

  Suddenly, she was struck in that arm hard! The pain of the impact took a moment to register but when it did it was devastating. The pain shot through her arm and into her chest and knocked her backward onto the wet, cold, hard ground. Her head hit the partially frozen ground even though she was already down. She felt as though she was losing unconsciousness but her mind clung to the noises around her.

  Through the pain, she realized she was surrounded by kids. She could not distinguish one from the other. They were a crowd of noise, a crowd of disorder, a crowd of chaos. What stood out from the crowd was the smiling and gleeful voice of Claudia front and center. That voice emerged clearly from the crowd.

  Forcing her eyes open, she could see two large boys. Though they were close, Heather could not recognize them. They were moving shadows, shouting unheard things and waving their arms wildly. Suddenly one of the shadows moved closer and struck her arm again.

  Again, the pain struck her in the chest. Against the ground already, she convulsed violently and screamed. It was a frightened scream of pain.

  Heather had no clear view of what was going on. She had no idea who was there, what they were doing, or what she could do. She tried to roll over but her arm would not move. She tried the other arm and her body rolled, but onto her other arm, and the pain produced sent her screaming back onto her back.

  At that moment, the arm was struck again. This time she did not even react. She actually did not feel any pain from the blow. Her body simply got very light and her eyes moved about wildly. In this state, she felt several more blows but they did not produce pain.

  As she lay on her back in this unfeeling light state, she caught sight of an eagle flying overhead. Despite its distance, she seemed to be able to see every feather. She could see the wind passing over its wings, the slight flutter of its feathers, and its eyes looking down. It was looking directly at her. They were looking at each other. For a moment, the eagle simply glided, looking down at her.

  Then, a huge weight landed on her and rolled to the side. The shock of this impact brought her head back to the ground, and she realized that lying on the ground, evidently unconscious, was Claudia’s brother. Turning her head the other way, she saw a small boy standing in front of the other brother yelling at him.

  For a moment, all that passed was loud yelling. Then, Claudia’s other brother lunged at the small boy. He quickly and deftly sidestepped the other boys lunge, but spun quickly to lunge at him himself. They became entangled, fighting, on the ground.

  Despite his small size, the younger boy was besting Claudia’s remaining conscious brother. He was attacking with a ferocity and intensity of a committed fighter. Every blow was its hardest, every grab and hold was solid, and anything that could produce pain was employed to its maximum. At one point, Claudia’s brother began to cry out in pain. Even at that point, the young warrior did not give an uncia. He continued to reign down on the older boy as much as he could. Heather could see him clearly now, could see his eyes. They communicated a clear intent, “I have to win this now, and for all time.”

  Finally, Claudia’s brother escaped from the younger boys grasp. Instead of turning back to beat him, though, he turned tail and ran away. He abandoned his unconscious brother, pushed his sister out of the way, and ran through the gathered crowd. At that same moment, the crowd began to split apart and many of the kids started running. Heather quickly realized the reason for that, teachers had finally arrived.

  Before they had gotten to her, though, she felt a warm hand on her arm and another hand wiping her face. She looked up to see the young boy, a little battered from his battle, looking at her. It was Richard. Her friend since as long back as she could remember had saved her life. He was there for her, he was caring for her. And he was clearly crying as
tears streaked down his dirty face.

  Heather tried to speak, but couldn’t muster the strength to utter words, but she mouthed the words she needed to communicate. Thank you.

  After that, she couldn’t remember anything clearly. She remembered being moved, she remembered a very clean room and a nurse, and she remembered suddenly being startled fully awake by a door shutting.

  She found herself in a room, lying on a bed. Across from her, in a chair, was Richard. He had a few bandages on his arms and face, but he still smiled widely the instant she looked at him.

  “Your Mom isn’t able to come yet because she can’t get anyone to come into the station. The teachers said I can stay until she comes if you want me too.”

  Heather had never felt so happy in all her life.

  Later that night, after her Mom had held her and kissed her for at least an hour before she let her go to bed, Heather pulled out her diary to record the day’s events.

  When her father had died a year ago, her Mom had shown her all the diaries he had written just for her. Since before she was born, he had written an entry every few days with her developments, interesting events in the family or the world, and passed along his love to her. After he died, her Mom had said how important it was for her to keep that tradition alive. She told her how much those books meant to her Dad, and how much it would mean to him that she continue them.

  And she had, with great care despite being only eleven. And today, she wrote about her newest love for her oldest friend. She wrote of how he pushed through a crowd of followers, confronted evil with determination and courage, and saved her life. She never forgot, and she never repaid her debt to him.

  Closing the diary, Heather lay with her eyes closed remembering the pain, and remembering the joy. I’m glad I kept these diaries. They give me strength to persevere.

  It had been over a year since the IAE had laid siege to New Earth. After the initial few weeks, the stalemate had developed. IAE could control the inner system, but they could not enter orbit and could not attack the planet surface. This was the purpose of the New Earth Defense Alliance, and it had succeeded.

  Every day since they had had strategy meetings, but nothing had changed since those first few weeks. Certainly, new rumors, new information and how many ships stayed in the inner system changed, but nothing of substance. It was after a month or so that Heather had rediscovered her diaries. Every day, to take herself away from the stress, from the burden of defending billions of lives, she read back to her childhood and enjoyed the simpler times of her life.

  And today, I get a little extra moral courage, I think, she thought to herself with a smile. I don’t know where Richard is but if anyone is still fighting, still persevering and still punishing the evil of the world, he is.

  At that moment, the audio communicator opened up after a brief alarm warning. “Legatus, we have a ship that has entered the inner system broadcasting N.E.D.A. and Defense Force codes! Come up to the command center immediately.”

  Without even putting the diary away, leaving it open to the last page she read on her bed, she ran for the door.

  CHAPTER 26

  The smallest possible maneuvering thruster burst pushed the little Nemesis bomber slightly to starboard. As the swing reached its termination point and the opposite thruster fired, the ship was left facing down the nose of an IAE Dreadnaught.

  Richard, staring out the cockpit of the bomber, felt very much like he had just lifted a periscope above water and was staring at a large battleship steaming toward him. The massive double triangle hull of the IAE Dreadnaught was a vicious and frightening image anytime. It was even worse when the only thing separating you was a sheet of clear hull.

  The Dreadnaught was the premier ship of the IAE fleet. By many times the largest ship, it was a behemoth. Principally it was a large scale assault vessel, for fleet engagements or planetary assaults. Its huge, double-barreled turrets sat two on top and two on the bottom. All could be independently targeted and rotated, or they could all be focused forward at a single target. One focused and sustained shot was enough to obliterate most mid-sized ships.

  Here, as always, it was the lead ship of the fleet formation. Its shield generators could absorb any assault and provide time for a swift reaction. Its hull was strong enough to allow the ship to survive considerable poundings well after the shields had overheated and the generators had gone offline or melted down.

  Its only weakness was that it was entirely unprotected from smaller craft. Aside from the turrets, the Dreadnaughts did not support any other weapons. While all Defense Force vessels used Scintillate guns to attempt to destroy incoming projectile weapons, the Dreadnaught relied on its staying power instead. To defend against smaller craft, the Dreadnaughts were always a part of a larger fleet, and it carried in its hull a large number of fighter craft.

  Fortunately, the fighter crafts were not deployed today. That made the Dreadnaught the best place for the IAE fleet to discover their little-cloaked ship once they passed by the front nose of the ship and its sensors, for the first time, identified an object moving. That would give the little bomber at least twenty stadiums of travel along the side of the ship to reach maximum speed without any risk of taking fire from other ships nearby. Just too much chance of striking their own ship in the effort, better to wait until the bomber passed.

  Hopefully, Richard thought to himself, we’ll be at top speed and can maneuver ourselves out of any problem.

  By now their passive sensors had a great picture of the large ships in New Earth near space. The silhouettes had begun to appear clearly when they were about one or two light hours of travel away. At that point, both Robin and himself had taken their seats and been on pins and needles for the past eight hours. Now, less than thirty minutes to the planetary atmosphere, the tension had risen to the point where a calm had entered Richard.

  There was only so much tension he would allow before pushing it all out and gaining a complete and total inner calmness. This talent had been the key to his success as a commanding officer. Being able to maintain your cool, think rationally and act in an informed manner was important in combat, the moments of greatest tension and stress. If you can stay in control, you will succeed. If you cannot, you will not. For no other reason than that your whole crew will follow your lead. A commanding officer in command means a crew in charge of their ship. A frantic and confused officer leads to an indecisive crew who fumble at their stations.

  Richard had learned this lesson early in his career under other commanders who had been less than successful. Therefore, he cultivated this skill and deployed it at important moments. It led to recognition, promotion, and command. Even when he was forced into the Admiralty, he had avoided a desk, a star base or an academic posting. A new ship had been commissioned and he was its commander. Its purpose, officially, was to take the best and brightest academy graduates and train them for command. His floating officer training school gave all its students three years of progressive training under the best command staff ever assembled, in Richard’s opinion. So far, it had been an enormous success for almost ten years.

  Unofficially, the training ship was at the disposal of the Commanding Admirals Council for special missions it needed to be handled with discretion and little record. And today, as the Defense Force fleets began their mission to reconquer the Old Colony Region, it will continue this role.

  At this moment, the Caesar Augustus was in deep space awaiting the signal to jump in the system and destroy the IAE fleet. For that to happen, Richard and Robin needed to get their little bomber onto the ground, provide the exact location of the ship and send a direct message to jump.

  “You ready, Captain?” Robin asked breaking Richard’s train of thought.

  “Captain? You haven’t called me that for a long time.” Richard said, smiling. “I’m ready.”

  They both fell into silence and waited.

  The Dreadnaught just grew larger and larger in their cockpit. As they approac
hed, it steadily grew to the point where nothing else could be seen but the dark gray side of the hull. As they traveled forward, the ship slowly began to curve away from the Dreadnaught as the various expelled gasses, heat and radiation pushed the little bomber ever so gently away. This meant there was no need to use the thrusters, giving them even longer before being detected.

  “If they don’t see us soon, we may need to accelerate anyways so that we have enough speed to avoid taking hits after we pass this bruising hulk,” Robin said, knowing exactly what Richard was thinking.

  That did not come to pass, though. Almost as soon as she finished her sentence, the light on the display indicated that the ship had just detected an active scan of their area of space. That was their signal to punch it.

  “Ok, dropping the cloak now….cloak is offline. Maximizing engines…accelerating now.” And as Robin said that, the ship began passing by the hull of the Dreadnaught at an ever increasing rate.

  Taking control of the ship, Richard maintained a parallel course to the straight line of the hull, angling out to the extended wing point that marks the end of the ship. The display was now constantly flashing with multiple confirmed active scans.

  “I think we can perform our own active scan now. Get us a picture, Robin.”

  And without further comment, Robin hit a button and suddenly the interior of the cockpit window blazed to light with detailed information. Every ship, visible or not, appeared with a small transparent information window that didn’t seriously obscure outside visibility. At the furthest distance, the information states only what the target is and its distance. Once the target gets closer, more information becomes visible such as speed, angle, power, shielding and importantly, weaponry.