“Lieutenant.”
“Commander,” replied Jack, in a slightly startled voice.
“I just wanted to apologize for blowing my top earlier. No hard feelings?”
“None taken.”
“That was an impressive display of piloting skills. You certainly impressed the Captain.
“Thank you.”
Across the room Red was standing by himself. He was doing a pretty good job of containing his emotions. Then one of the snobbier pilots had to say something.
“Hey Red, guess you’re not the greatest pilot in the Universe anymore! Jack could wipe the floor with you in five minutes!” Red would have been fine, but now his pride was hurt.
“I'll beat Thunder any time!” screamed Red.
“Oh yea? Why don't you put your money where your mouth is!” replied the pilot with a smirk.
“Fine, I will! Jack! Simulator now!”
“What? Not now Red I'm exhausted.”
“Yes, now!” yelled Red.
Everyone started yelling “Dogfight! Dogfight!” Everyone wanted to see Red finally beaten. Red had beaten them all except Trey who refused to fight in a simulator because he said he didn't trust the computer.
“Surely you’re not going to accept after all you've been through today?” asked April Kelly
“Doesn't look like I have much of choice,” said Jack. “All right!” he said. A cheer went up and everyone gathered around the simulator. This was something Jack had really wanted to avoid. He lost either way. If he defeated Red, Red would be sore at him for a month. If Red won, he wouldn't stop gloating for weeks.
The simulator fired up and the battle was on. Red immediately took the offensive. It was important for him to draw first blood, to end it quickly. Jack took a defensive approach. Red was overcome with his emotions and it affected his performance. He made mistakes. As always, it was a close match, but in the end Jack's concentration and calmness paid off. He slipped behind Red and blew him away.
The crowd cheered and Red stormed out of the room. He wasn't mad at Jack so much as he was at himself. His whole life he had wanted to be a fighter pilot and to be beaten by someone who’d never aspired to be more than a civilian made his defeat all the worse.
Jack was very quiet for the next couple of hours. When he returned to his cabin Red was already strapped into his bunk. There was technically neither day nor night in space, but all Space Force ships operated in sync with US Eastern Time. They also operated round the clock with rotating shifts. His schedule said that it was time for his squadron to sleep. Jack let out a yawn. He was ready for some sleep.
“Night, Red.”
“Good night,” said Red without a hint of emotion in his voice. Jack slipped out of his uniform and magnetic boots and just floated for a while, trying to clear his mind. Then he crawled into his bunk, zipped himself in for the night and turned out the light.
“You did good out there today, bud.” said Red. Jack smiled.
“Thanks Red,” he said and drifted off to sleep.
Jack Thunder had a dreamless sleep. Trey was up in his cabin recording a message for his wife and kids. Red dreamed of women and battle. Ironically, April Kelley couldn't sleep. She had one thing on her mind she couldn't get rid of no matter how hard she tried....Jack Thunder.
Chapter Five
The crimson ships of the Zidian fleet continued their unrelenting course through the hyperspace corridor on their way to their next jump point. Once there they would have only one fold-jump left before arriving at the Sol system. The forward swept, blade-like wings of the Zidian battlecruisers glared menacingly in the hazy blue of hyperspace. At the heart of the formation, the massive warship Krusha was a monstrous behemoth of a vessel. Sub Commander Kaydan stood on the command platform of the main bridge overseeing the final stages of the space-fold.
“Sub Commander Kaydan, forty mecrons to hyperspace terminus.”
Kaydan nodded in acknowledgment.
“Signal the fleet to prepare for reentry into normal space. I want all ships to clear the jump gate rapidly and move into defensive formation five.” The system they were approaching was supposed to be uninhabited but they were taking no chances. Kaydan keyed the comlink on the command console
“Commander, we are approaching the next jump point.”
A short while later, the quiet star studded blackness of space above a small icy and remote planetoid on the outskirts of the Proxima system was disrupted by the sudden appearance of a glowing blue hyperspace fissure which rapidly expanded into a massive swirling vortex out of which erupted the Zidian fleet. The Zidian ships remained in the special ovoid formation that allowed them to travel through a single hyperspace corridor together until they had completely cleared the jump gate. They then fanned out in a defensive formation, ready to meet any enemies that might have been there no matter how unlikely.
Commander Akdon entered the bridge and ascended to the command platform. Kaydan moved aside so that Akdon could survey all the readouts for himself.
“We’ve cleared the jump gate, Commander.”
“Excellent. Engage the Ansible, I want an immediate report from our scout ships on the outskirts of the Sol system.”
“Yes, sir.” Standard Zidian strategic doctrine required that a pair of scout ships always be one space-fold ahead of the main fleet.
Akdon activated the massive view screen and again brought up a detailed map of the Sol system.
“Commander Akdon, sir,” said a crewman below. “The first intelligence from our forward scouts has arrived by Ansible.”
“Transfer it onto the main screen.” The map filled up with new information. Akdon’s eyes grew wide at what he saw. “It seems our intelligence was somewhat incorrect,” said Akdon. “What do you make of this?”
“Well, sir, our scouts’ long-range scanners have picked up installations on and around many of the other planets, plus multiple other contacts that appear to be spacecraft. But this makes no sense. How could intelligence have been so mistaken as to their technological development? The data is no more than a few months old.”
Akdon’s already menacing face became hard and even more menacing.
“I don’t know Kaydan, but you can be assured that I will find out who is responsible for this outrage and when I do the responsible party will suffer a fate far worse than death. I have long questioned the competency of our military intelligence service, but I have no doubt that this was nothing short of deliberate misinformation on the part of one of my political rivals--an attempt to sabotage our mission in an effort to prevent my imminent promotion to Supreme Fleet Commander and membership in the Junta itself! I have my suspicions as to who. When I become Supreme Fleet Commander I will deal with him. In any event we will conquer this starsystem in despite this subterfuge.” He glared hard at the map on the view screen. “The Human ships and installations will have to be destroyed before we take their home world.”
“But commander, we aren't adequately equipped to engage an enemy fleet. Shall I contact fleet headquarters and ask for re-enforcements?”
“Absolutely not! I’ll not give whoever did this the satisfaction of seeing me ask for help and I will not be made to look weak in front of our superiors. We can handle it. The Humans’ technology can't be that high, otherwise they would have detected our scout ships. Alert the fleet of our latest intelligence. We'll rendezvous with our scouts right outside the frontier of the enemy star system.”
“Yes, Commander. We should be ready to make the final hyperspace-fold in a matter of hours.”
“Good. In the meantime, I want to test these Humans. What is the closest target to our scout ships of any significance?”
“Commander, our latest data indicates the enemy has a primitive mining colony on one of the moons of the sixth planet. There is a space station in orbit of that moon. There is also a Human vessel in the same vicinity. It appears to be one of the largest ships that they have.”
Akdon nodded.
&nbs
p; “Order our scout ships to launch a squad of fighters. I want the squad to execute a space-fold into the vicinity of the station and that ship within range of their primitive detection technology. The fighters are not to engage the station or the vessel, I merely want to see how the Humans respond so we can get an idea of their capabilities. Have communications link us up by Ansible to the scout ships. I want to monitor the entire operation myself.”
“Yes, sir.”
In orbit around Pluto, five Zidian fighters launched from one of the two battle cruisers that were serving as the scout ships for the main Zidian fleet. Though the fighter craft lacked the ability to generate their own jump gates, Zidian battle cruisers were perfectly capable of opening multiple fighter sized vortexes so that they could dispatch the smaller ships anywhere in a star system within a matter of minutes.
The five fighters moved into a reverse V formation. The lead pilot signaled the others.
“Squad Leader Brel, to all craft. Stand by for hyperspace deployment to combat zone.” He then signaled their home ship. “We are ready to deploy.”
Moments later five fighter sized jump gates opened directly in the flight path of each ship. Brel flew straight into the vortex. The star studded black of regular space was replaced by the glowing hazy blue of the hyperspace corridor that had been produced by folding two points of regular space together. He readied his transmitter. He wouldn’t be able to communicate with his squad until they had each traversed their respective hyperspace corridors but he intended to issue orders the moment they cleared their jump gates. After only a few short minutes he reentered normal space. As his ship erupted out of the small swirling vortex he immediately signaled the others.
“Fall back into formation. Make your course 371 mark 4.” He brought his own fighter around. The view from his cockpit was then filled with the massive sight of a large gas giant that had one of the largest and most magnificent ring systems he had ever seen. “Go to full throttle. Scanners to maximum. This time we want them to detect us.”
Brel and his squad had spent the past several weeks surveying the Sol system and its inhabitants. They’d managed to remain undetected and had gathered a great deal of intelligence which had already been relayed to the fleet by Ansible. Now they were finally going to reveal themselves to their enemies.
On the bridge of the Saratoga the officer manning the scanners was caught off guard to see two unidentified blips on her screen.
“Commander Kelly.”
“What is it, Ensign?”
“Mam, I read five unidentified blips. They are in the Saturn zone and heading straight for Titan base.”
“Who could they be? There hasn’t been a pirate attack in nearly a year.”
“Well they aren’t broadcasting transponder ID signals.”
“Open a channel.”
“Yes, mam.” The ensign tied her console into the com system. “You’re live Commander.”
“Unidentified ships, this is the USS Saratoga. Please identify yourself.” She waited a minute for the message to reach the ships and gave them a full two minutes to respond. They were too distant for instantaneous communication.
“They’re not responding, Commander.”
April Kelly nodded.
“What flight is flying point right now?”
The ensign checked her computer readout.
“Commander Knight’s. He’s out there with that gorgeous new fighter jock.”
April Kelly’s face hardened.
“Ensign, if you can possibly get control of your hormones for a brief moment, kindly patch me through to Commander Knight. Then launch another flight and call Captain Doran to the bridge…”
“I’m telling you, Jack, there’s this cute hottie on the bridge that would be perfect for you,” said Red over the transmitter. Jack, who was busy checking the vector controls of his Star Sword, sighed. Red’s voice was as sly and lusty as ever. “She’s got long auburn hair that is just…”
“Shouldn’t you be paying more attention to your flight path, Red.”
“Hey I’m just trying to help out my buddy,” said Red innocently. “Besides, I can’t have you cramping my image. The best friend of the greatest pilot in the known universe needs to have a hot woman on his arm. But if you’d rather do without my extensive expertise in this area…”
“I would.”
“Have it your way. I’ve got to hand it to Captain Doran, though. Our great leader truly has an eye for beauty. Have you been to the command deck yet? It’s bridge bunny heaven! All that is except our illustrious first officer. Don’t get me wrong, she’s got the looks on the outside, but on the inside she’s an ice cube—a real freezer unit, but you’ve already seen that first hand. Yeah, Jack, one day one day when I’m Captain, I will see to it that I too am surrounded by the most exquisite examples of feminine beauty…”
“Shut up, Red,” came the annoyed voice of Trey Knight. “We’ve got more important things to do than listen to you flap your big mouth and show us what a pompous jackass you are. We just got new orders. There’s a group of ships headed for Titan station. They don’t have ID signals and they’ve not responded to our communications. We’ve been ordered to intercept them. Beta flight’s been launched as well. They’ll be our back up. Now let’s come about. Stay in formation and prepare to hit your boosters We’re going in for a closer look!”
Kaydan spotted the human ships on the view screen.
“Commander! Multiple contacts on course for our ships!”
“What are they?” demanded Akdon.
“The computer is processing the data now.” The map on the screen was replaced by a detailed diagram of a Star Sword fighter. “They appear to be a squad of small fighter craft slightly smaller than our own fighters. Simple maneuvering engines, basic plasma weapons, no energy shield technology of any kind, and each seems to have only one pilot.”
“Did they launch from the moon?” asked Akdon.
“No Commander. They launched from the nearby ship and from the primitive base orbiting the moon. They are not capable of atmospheric flight.”
Akdon smirked.
“Toys. Not as simple as we originally expected but toys none the less. Order our two ships to close on the enemy squadrons but don’t attack them. I want to see if they’ll shoot first.”
The Star Swords were headed at their full speed toward the five Zidian ships.
“Knight to Saratoga come in,” said Trey.
“Go ahead, Commander,” replied Captain Doran.
“I have a good scanner lock on the contacts. They are definitely space craft, but their configuration doesn’t match any pirate ship I’ve ever seen.” Trey stared hard at the scanner image and suddenly a distant memory came to mind. He quickly keyed his mic. “All ships! Arm your plasma cannons! “Captain, remember that mystery ship I encountered years ago at the end of the first battle of Jupiter? I think these ships are the same type.”
“Are you certain, Commander?”
“Captain when one ship takes out your whole squadron in less than two minutes you never forget it!”
“Alright, Trey. I will inform command. I want you to continue towards those ships. We need as much information as we can get, and I want you to make absolutely certain of your ID. Use extreme caution, but do not fire unless fired upon. Understood? If there’s trouble head back this way. We’ll launch every fighter we’ve got to support you. Be advised that Titan base has also launched a squadron.”
“Roger, Captain.” Not that opening fire will do any good. Not one shot got through last time… Trey keyed his mic and signaled Jack and the others.
“Alright, guys, I don’t have time to explain, but there’s a pretty good chance that these ships we’re approaching are both hostile and lethal. Stay alert. We’re going to keep our distance. If they fire at us, then I want the whole squadron to break up into dispersal pattern sierra and head back to Saratoga at full speed!”
“Who are they, Trey?” asked Jack.
&n
bsp; “I don’t know. I encountered one once during the Pirate Wars and lost my whole squadron. I never saw one again… until now. Command deemed the whole thing classified. Whatever these things are, they’re not from around here and they are far more advanced than we are.”
“We’ll handle them!” said Red. “They’re probably just a bunch of losers. We’ll blast them out of the stars.”
“Your overconfidence is going to get you killed, Red.”
“Jack’s right. This isn’t a game, Styler and it isn’t the time to show us your bravado. Those things are lethal. And unless I’m mistaken they are surrounded by some sort of shielding that makes them impervious to attack. Our plasma cannons didn’t so much as scratch them last time!
They continued closing on the contacts. When they were just outside of visual range Trey transmitted all of his scanner data back to the Saratoga and then keyed the mic.
“Unidentified ships, this is Star Sword one, identify yourselves.”
“Commander Akdon the enemy’s lead ship just signaled our fighters.”
“How long before we can communicate with them?”
“Our translation matrix is just starting to process their language. We’ll continue to monitor their transmissions. It appears to be a simple dialect. It should not take long to decipher.”
“Excellent.”
“Saratoga, we now have visual contact over,”
“Understood,” came the voice of Captain Doran. “Maintain your distance, make no provocative action, observe contacts only for now.”
“Copy that. All ships. Come about to course 315.”
As the squadron came about, Jack got his first glimpse of the strange space ships. From the look of them, they were definitely fighter interceptors. Their forward swept, blade-like wings made them look extremely menacing. Jack felt a cold chill go up his spine.
Starstorm (Starstorm Saga) Page 5