“You can’t possibly think that this is a good idea?” I said, using the flight sticks to weave the ship up and down, avoiding the immediate threats in front of us. The screens in front of me fluttered and static noise began to degrade the image on screen.
“I’m losing visuals,” I said, realizing that the screen was dying.
“Signal boost,” Dale said, suddenly the image became clear again.
My breathing was out of whack as I tried to steer the ship in the right direction. But she was protesting against every maneuver. The asteroid field was proving a little too much for her. I didn’t know what was causing the static interference on the screens, but I assumed that it was a mixture of the compounds emanating from the floating rocks and the magnetics that surrounded them.
“Four medium sized bogies sixty-four clicks east,” Dale said, as I hit the sticks upwards and craned the ship to its side a little. We skimmed past the bogies, avoiding them by half a meter according to the readouts on the screen.
“The test isn’t over, I suppose,” I heard Borch gruff behind me. I didn’t bother turning around, but I was annoyed enough to give him an answer.
“This some sick game to you two or something? Lead us into an asteroid field to see if we have the metal to get the ship through it unscathed?”
The two Ursines started chirping behind me. I could tell that they were enjoying the experience immensely. There was something about their humor that ticked me off. It was like they were laughing at our—and their—misfortune. I found that strange. Strange that a creature would laugh at the possibility of dying. Humans didn’t do that sort of thing, and I couldn’t recollect another species doing so either. It proved very difficult to get a read on these things if they were always so nonchalant about things.
“This isn’t a game. If you die, we die. And both Borch and I like living. So concentrate on your screen, Captain Flynn.”
“Incoming, incoming!” Dale shouted. I hadn’t been paying the screen the full attention it deserved and nearly flew us right into a big asteroid. But luckily for me, I wasn’t the only one flying this ship. Jess was resuming her second-in-command role, with or without my permission. She was working both the thrusters and the central sticks from her command terminal. She righted the ship and managed to save us from certain death.
Her access codes were still valid on the computer systems. I’d forgotten to take them off. But now wasn’t the time to argue about rank, or whether she was allowed to help fly the ship or not. We were in great danger, so any quarrels would have to wait until we reached the great empty vacuum of deep space.
“For God’s sake, let me help!” I heard an unfamiliar voice say loudly from behind me. I quickly turned my head and saw the old Spanish man standing up. He had unbuckled himself from his seat and was making his way toward me.
“Incoming. Six clicks, west!” Dale gasped.
It was close. Really close. And the speed we were going at was making it even closer by the minute. I hit the sticks up once again and managed to skim the protruding rock. We’d missed it by a tenth of a meter according to the computer.
“Shit, that was unpleasant,” I said, deciding to drown out the distractions around me. I just couldn’t afford to sink us into a rock. We’d die and in the process blow up the asteroid field. Remembering that we had a nuke on board was making me twitchy. One false move, and the ship could blow up. The impact of the explosion would implode all the asteroids into a giant mass and splinter them off in all directions, causing massive damage to nearby planets.
Innocent races, ended, all because of pilot error.
“This is making me nervous,” I said, ducking and diving.
“Are you going to let me help then?” I heard that unfamiliar voice say once again. It was the damn old man. That damn old man that I thought was Spanish. He’d told me back at the prison that he didn’t speak English. Well, I guess he was lying.
“Sit back down! Can’t you see I’m busy?” I said, avoiding the onslaught of space junk flying at us. Rocks of all sizes lay in our midst. The smaller, pebble sized ones were of no concern. The worst they’d do is ricochet off the engines. The speed we were going at would make short work of the smaller rocks. When a ship travels at such speeds, an almost aura like energy surrounds it. It’s faint but powerful. The aura is basically an energy field. The energy field is akin to the aura a spaceship would generate once entering Earth’s atmosphere.
The aura gobbles up the small pebbles and rocks, protecting the ship from any damage. But nothing would stop the bigger rocks from hitting us, so that’s why I needed all the quiet I could get. But the old man was still talking to me, and to make things worse he’d stepped over the line.
My line!
“I don’t know what your name is pal, or why the Ursines decided to stick you on this ship with us, but I shit you not, if you don’t get back in your damn seat and strap in, I’ll jettison your ass into space with no suit! Do you understand me?” I said, forcing myself to grip the stick tightly as I tilted it. The ship banked and we avoided yet another near-collision. They were getting closer and closer. Meanwhile, Borch and Ern were having a chirping session behind us. You know what they say, near death experiences are comedy gold!
“I respect your position, sir, but I’m a trained SNAKE PIT fighter,” he said, his voice uneven and unassuming.
His comment caught me off guard. I turned in my chair and looked at him. Dale shouted something but whatever it was, Jess took care of it. As I stared at the old man, I felt the ship sway from side to side. Jess was quick on the controls and the scanner wasn’t beeping as much as it was before. You see, it beeped when we encountered a near-miss with an object. And it turned out, Jess was good at avoiding things. So for the time being, we were safe. But I wasn’t taking a breather. I was taking stock.
“What do you mean you’re a SNAKE PIT fighter?” I asked, quickly turning back to the screen and resuming my duties.
“Exactly what it sounds like I mean,” the old man said.
SNAKE PIT fighters were specially trained warship fighters on Earth. I knew what sort of men were part of the SNAKE PIT. They were the elite. They were big. They were rough. This guy wasn’t. He was scrawny. Unkempt and too cautious to be a fighter.
“You aren’t no SNAKE PIT fighter,” I said.
“INCOMING! Fifteen bogies!” was all Dale was able to say before I spotted the line of asteroids careening toward us. It was like the rocks were in a conga line or something. They appeared out of nowhere. One minute it looked like one rock, and then BAM, there were fourteen more behind it, in a neat single file. It was an odd sight indeed. Nature had a way of surprising you in the nastiest possible way at times. And from time to time, the usual unorganized chaos of space showed you something new.
I pulled the ship up, avoiding the conga line of rocks. But this was no party, that’s for sure. I was sweating buckets, and even with the immense help from Dale and Jess, truth was, the ship needed more than three people flying it. It was a six-man job, but we didn’t have six men.
“I was a SNAKE PIT fighter,” the old man said standing beside me. “I’m too old for it now. But ten years ago, I was still active. I can be your co-pilot. I see you have a spare seat,” he said, still standing next to me, still over the line. I looked at the seat and then at him. Nobody had sat in the co-pilot seat for three months. Not since we’d lost the man that used to sit in it. Out of respect to him, I’d been flying the ship by myself for a while. The co-pilot had full access to the ship, just like me. Jess, the second-in-command, or my number two, if you like, only had part access. She was helpful, but she wasn’t in the guts of the ship so to speak. Meaning, she was just skimming the surface. She’d never had her hands dirty before. Only a trained individual could understand the complexity of a ship like this, hence why Jess didn’t just take over the duties of co-pilot.
“I can do it, you need to trust me,” the old guy said, staring at me. I could see him in the reflection of
the screen in front of me. He looked sincere. Like he wanted to help. I mean, I couldn’t really blame him. I’d want to help too if I thought the ship I was on was in as much danger as we were in. But I couldn’t shake off the fact that he’d lied. He’d told me he didn’t speak English. And all this time he did. Not only did he speak it, but he was good at it! So I was taking a gamble. A big gamble.
Did I let him help me, or did we die trying to maneuver an understaffed ship through a hazardous asteroid field?
“If you make one mistake pal, I’ll shut your computer off and I will actually jettison you into outer space. This is our lives your talking about, so you better be serious when you say you were a SNAKE PIT fighter.”
The guy didn’t hesitate. He sat down in the co-pilot chair and unlocked the controls by himself. Watching his hands and fingers, I could tell that he knew his way around a ship. But that didn’t prove anything. Any man could know his way around a ship. It didn’t mean that he was part of one of the most elite fighting groups in space.
“Sometimes you’ve got to trust your fellow human,” he said, before engaging his steering and taking part control of the ship.
Chapter Sixteen
A little over three and a half hours later and we had made it through the asteroid field. It had been an experience, that’s for sure. We’d all come out of it knowing a thing or two more about ourselves. But reaching the end of the asteroid field didn’t make any of us jump for joy. It was the opposite in fact. We weren’t happy. We were defeated. I guess a little part of us, as a collective that is, was hoping against all hopes that maybe, just maybe, we’d clip the side of an asteroid and be done with it.
It’s not like we were a suicidal bunch, but coming out of the asteroid filled unscathed meant that we would have to see our mission through. As far as we were aware, there were no more hazardous hurdles in front of us, so our mission would continue. We would deliver a nuke to Earth, touch it down, get on board another ship, fly back into space, and press the button.
Then everybody we once knew would disintegrate into ash, and the surface of our once-beautiful planet would be scorched. There would be no hiding from the so-called MEGATON bomb. It would pack such a punch, that it might physically blow the Earth into two. And the sad fact was, we couldn’t do anything about it. We were both crap out of luck, and feeling sorry for ourselves. I guess the realization was dawning on everybody. And as I lay my hands off the controls and turned to the old man in the co-pilot seat, I could see that he too was wearing a frown.
“We made it,” I said, not sure whether or not I felt happy about it, which was a very strange feeling indeed. I mean, most people cherish their lives and would enjoy the feeling, the rush, of cheating death. But not me. Not today.
“We did. I guess it’s straight on to Earth now,” the old man said.
I studied him a little as he locked his controls and got off the co-pilot seat. I watched as she stretched his arms out wide, above his head, clicking and cracking his old bones. He turned around and smiled at me. It was a genuine smile.
“Thanks for believing in me, Captain. It’s been a rather long time since anybody has afforded me that respect.”
I nodded my head.
“Well, I guess I should be thanking you really,” I said, also locking my controls and getting up on my feet. “Without your help, I don’t know if I’d have been able to get this ship under control,” I said, walking up toward him and extending my hand. He hesitated for a second or two, but then embraced my hand in a shake. We shook for a few seconds. Nice and firm. A show of respect between the both of us.
“You did just fine, Captain,” the old man said, letting go of my hand and turning around. He was just about to go back to his two Spanish comrades when I asked him his name.
“I didn’t catch your name,” I said, watching him sit down next to the other two newcomers. They were quiet and hadn’t uttered a single word. I had my doubts as to whether they actually couldn’t speak English. Maybe they were just like the old man. Holding back. It made me wonder, why were they so timid? What was their deal? Why were they so strange?
“My name?” The old man said, sitting on his seat and looking around at his surroundings. The bridge was dead quiet and me and my crew were staring expectantly at the old man, waiting for him to say something. But he took his time. And we waited for his answer.
“It doesn’t really matter what my name is. Seeing that we’re all going to die on this ship, what’s the point in names?”
I looked at the man and shrugged my shoulders.
“Suit yourself. If you’re planning on dying anytime soon, I’m not one to say any different. But just a heads up, if you’re going to be part of this crew, you’re going to have to be more forthcoming. We have six months in suspended flight to get to know each other. I suggest you warm up to the idea of making some new friends,” I said, turning back to my controls. I was just about to sit back down when I heard the booming voice of one of the Ursines.
“Nobody is going to die on this ship. You are too important,” Borch said, as he approached me. He put his big paw on my right shoulder and patted me. It was a strange little habit that these big creatures possessed. I’d noticed it a few times before. Back at the prison. One of the guards had attempted to reassure me with a pat on the shoulder. I’d dismissed it as a tactic. Tactile tactics if you will. But the more time I’d spent in the presence of these things, the more I realized that they were actually quite friendly, in a sense. They communicated with us via friendly mannerisms. But their friendliness had boundaries. After all, they were planning to blow up our home planet. So they lost brownie points for that.
“Forgive me Borch, but I understand where the old man is coming from,” I said, turning to face him. He was so big; I was overshadowed by his physical girth. My crew couldn’t see me behind him, nor could I see them. It was quite a sight. Like a total lunar eclipse. Being swallowed by complete darkness. Or at least that’s how I felt.
“You are important to us. You hold some significance,” Borch said, looking down at me with soft eyes. I couldn’t believe it. The beast possessed soft eyes. It was a jarring sight. A sight that the others couldn’t see. All they could see was his back as he stood over me, staring down. But I could see his sincerity. He looked to be telling the truth. Like he meant what he was saying. But the skeptic in me was ever present, and I found it increasingly hard to believe anything anymore.
“What significance can we as humans possibly hold to a race of aliens who want our people dead?” I asked.
“You are missing the big picture. Your planet will die. The people on it will die. But you will live. Surely that is significant?”
I stood there, staring at the big creature. He tilted his ginormous head as he looked at me, but then, as if snapping out of his momentarily compassionate state, he turned around to address the group.
“You are all willing to do a courageous thing. It is admirable. And you should all be proud. For too long, humanity has been a stain on the Milky Way. A stain on the universe. But now, you, the last crusaders of humanity, have the chance to rid the galaxy of that stain. A stain so deep, it bears its roots in many solar systems. We aren’t stupid. We are aware that you humans travel far, and travel wide. We appreciate that not every human will succumb to the MEGATON bomb. But that is not the true goal of our mission. As long as the stain is gone, then the remnants of the stain can continue to live without fear or further annihilation.”
Borch turned back to me and gently pushed me out of the way. He didn’t need to push me too hard, I lost my balance and fell into my chair. He pushed the chair aside, with me in it and started to fiddle with the controls. He unlocked the computer system and with his serrated, long claws, he tapped the touch screen. After a few swipes of the screen, he put the ship into ULTRA BOOST mode. The ship shuddered for a second and then out of the blue started rumbling and vibrating.
I watched the screens in front of me transmit the real-time view of de
ep space in front of us. The stars glistened and then began to smudge, as lines and colors appeared on the screen. After a few more moments of shuddering, the ship started speeding and the shuddering stopped when the ship reached its max stable speed.
“ULTRA BOOST ENGAGED,” the ship’s computer said, a buzzing sound ringing through the ship for a few seconds.
I watched as the digital dials showed the ships speed. It glowed back at me in red numbers. The numbers were flashing every other second.
“Three hundred and ten thousand miles per second,” Dale said from his chair. I could tell by his tone that he was surprised that we were going so fast.
“Looks like they weren’t lying,” Jess said as she stared at the readings on her screen as well. We were all transfixed by the numbers, and the crazy thing was that the numbers seemed to be getting higher by the second. We were travelling at more than double the speed of light. I remember shaking my head, thinking that it was absurd that the Ursines thought that Alpha Ship One could travel at such speeds. But when I saw it with my own eyes, the coordinates to Earth nearing with every second, I smiled.
“Let’s hope we don’t have any more asteroid fields to fly through. At these speeds, we’ll miss them approaching.”
Borch leaned over my shoulder as he watched the ships computer gargle out various outputs. He turned his big furry head toward me and twisted his mouth into some sort of smile.
“There are no more asteroids, Captain Flynn. You can trust me on that. We have plotted a course that is well known to be free of any space rocks, or anything that has the capacity to slow us down,” he gruffed.
I started to laugh. The sound was foreign to me, probably because I hadn’t found myself laughing in a long while.
“Rocks slowing us down is the least of our worries, Borch,” I said, looking at him square in the eyes. “I’m more worried about the ship exploding into a brilliant ball of flames when we either get hit by an object, or the ship falls apart due to the external pressures of traveling at such a high speed.”
Stasis (Alpha Ship One Book 1) Page 10