Strand_Delarus

by Don Chase

  On their third sweep around the perimeter of the barge Zack’s wingman chimed in over the microphone. “I think I’ve got something here.”

  “Pirates?” Zack asked.

  “I don’t know yet, but its moving fast.”

  “I see it now too,” Zack said as he checked his scanner. “Let’s go say hello to our uninvited friend.” Zack veered off toward the source of the signal and the other two followed.

  The fighters were still outside of visual range when Zack first tried hailing the incoming ship. “Unknown ship this is the security escort of the mining vessel Brickton, please state your intentions,” he said calmly. After thirty second with no reply he repeated the query even though he knew he’d never get an answer if it was pirates.

  “I have visual,” his wingman said.

  “I do too,” Zack said. “We’ll give them one more. If that doesn’t work we’ll give them a few warning shots to run them off.”

  “Hey boss, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ship like that before,” his other wingman said.

  “Unknown ship this is the security escort of the mining ship Brickton please state your intentions,” Zack repeated after ignoring his wingman’s comment.

  “That thing is moving fast and it’s huge,” Zack said to himself. “Okay they’re not answering, let’s run them off. Remember, just fire in their general direction.”

  The wingman to his right confirmed the order. There was a massive flash and Zack’s left wingman disappeared, his ship instantly torn to shreds before he could answer.

  “BREAK RIGHT, BREAK RIGHT!” Zack screamed as he jerked his yoke to the right, causing his ship to break hard across the front of the incoming ship. The Brickton’s security escorts weren’t hardened fighter pilots. They were pilots sure, but they had little to no combat experience. They were hired because they could fly and had no problem with the long stretches away from a planet or station. Zack’s wingman let out a yelp and he looked over his shoulder just in time to see the ship explode. “Security team to Brickton, incoming ship is hostile. I repeat, incoming ship is hostile, jump now, jump now!” Zack spun his fighter around to face the ship and jammed his reverse thrusters to full. He opened up with his forward cannons and let loose with all eight of his tactical missiles. He watched with wide eyes as the missiles struck the ship, exploding on impact. He took his finger off the trigger and let out the breath he had been holding. He had started to smile when he looked close and saw that the ship was still perfectly intact. Panicking, he spun his fighter away from the ship, kicked in his afterburners and tried get some distance. Zack looked over his shoulder and had time to start to scream before the searing light hit his ship, blowing it into a million little pieces.

  “Security team to Brickton, incoming ship is hostile. I repeat, incoming ship is hostile, jump now, jump now!” Captain Rolen Tiber heard come through his headset. A moment later he heard a crew member sound off with, “Sir, incoming is five hundred klicks out.”

  “What about the security team?” he asked.

  “No sign of them since the detonations sir.”

  “Well you heard the man, jump us out of here,” Rolen said trying to keep the rising panic out of his voice.

  “Four hundred klicks.”

  “Where are we jumping to sir?” his navigator asked.

  “Anywhere that isn’t here.”

  “Okay sir I’ll get right on it.”

  “Three hundred klicks.”

  “You may want to just pick a place kiddo. I don’t think we have a lot of time.”

  “Almost done sir.”

  “Two.”

  Rolen looked up to the forward facing screen at the front of the bridge and saw movement. The invader was now within visual range and closing fast. He let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes for a moment. “We have visual. The raider is less than one hundred klicks out and closing.” He heard someone announce.

  “I’m sorry all.” That was all Captain Rolen Tiber uttered before the first shot slammed into the hull of the mining barge tearing it almost in two. Rolen braced for the second shot, closing his eyes tight. He opened them slowly when he heard the navigator announce, “Jump complete sir.”

  He stood still for a moment trying to wrap his head around the fact that wasn’t dead. “Damage report?” he called out and in a flash was inundated by different voices listing the multiple systems and breaches that the ship had sustained from just one shot.

  “Do we have propulsion?”

  “Aye sir.”

  “Get us underway then. I want to keep us moving until we can get ready for another jump.”

  “Aye sir.”

  “Navigation plot us a jump into GF space. I want us at the nearest Federation station as soon as possible so we can make repairs.”

  “Aye sir.”

  Rolen breathed a bit easier when he felt the engines of the large ship roar to life. He sat heavily in the command chair as he looked at the list of systems that were down on his compad. It would take all the profit he had in his hold plus probably half of his savings to repair the ship well enough to go back to work. He couldn’t get the fact that all that damage had been caused by a single shot and shook his head.

  “Seven bloody hells!” he heard. His heart sank as he stood, “What?” he asked, his hands on the railing surrounding the dais.

  “Inbound raider,” his crewman said.

  “How?”

  “I have no idea sir.”

  “It can’t possibly be the same one.”

  “It looks to be sir and they’re closing fast.”

  “Jump us out of here. I have no idea how they followed us.”

  “It isn’t possible sir,” the navigator said.

  “You may want to explain that to the raider, but after we jump out of here.”

  “We can’t jump yet, the drives are still down.”

  “Sir the raider is within range.”

  “Send out the automated distress call,” Rolen said with resignation in his voice. He heard his crewman reply with “Aye sir,” just before the forward screen filled with a bright light. The ship was torn asunder and turned into so much space junk before Captain Rolen Tiber ever found out of if the distress call had even gone out.

  Chapter 3

  “Where are you going?” Dalon Rihn heard the raspy voice ask as he buttoned up the collar on his shirt.

  “Time for me to get to work,” he answered.

  “Can’t you stay for a little bit?” A young lady with dark tousled hair asked as she sat up and pulled the blanket up to cover her chest.

  “I think you may have gotten the wrong idea about last night,” he said as he turned around and gave her a grin.

  “No I didn’t, but it was… really fun.”

  “It was fun and now it’s time to go to work.” He grabbed his uniform coat, walked over to the bed and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Can I see you later?”

  “Sure, if I have some time.”

  “I’ll call you after my shift?”

  “Probably not a good idea, I’ll let you know; might be a busy day.” Rihn picked up his compad. He poked at it with his finger as he grumbled and walked toward the door that slid open.

  “Bye Dal,” the girl said as he walked through the door.

  “Mmhmm,” he answered distractedly as the door closed behind him. He turned and dropped his compad to his side. Smiling, he started down the long corridor chuckling and shaking his head. “Works every time.”

  The door to the control center slid open and Rihn walked into the large room that housed the central controls for the whole station. It was a round room with multiple workstations for the command crew. Everything had to be carefully monitored, water usage, oxygen consumption and even waste disposal. It wasn’t an exciting job, but it was crucial for the survival of everyone on a station; especially if that station, like the Delarus, was a considerable distance from the closest inhabited planet. “How are things looking today Rem?” He ask
ed as he stepped onto the dais in the middle on the room.

  Assistant Chief Reman Frake looked over his shoulder at his friend and boss, “Everything is fine.”

  “Well I just told a young lady that it looks like it could be a busy day for me,” Rihn said with a sly smirk.

  “So you lied,” Rem said laughing.

  “Essentially, yes,” Rihn said clapping his friend on the shoulder.

  “You better hope none of them actually figure out how boring it is up here,” Rem said as he stood up and stretched.

  “I’m not too worried about it,” Rihn answered as his second in command stepped past him.

  “You should be, it’s a small station,” Rem said. “You’re all set. I’m gonna go get some rack time.”

  “Excellent, I’ll wake you for lunch in a bit?” Rihn said as he took the command seat.

  “Sounds good,” Rem said as the door slid open. “Oh hey, one more thing.”

  “What’s up?”

  “Clean up will ya, you stink like sex,” Rem said with a wink before disappearing through the door.

  Rihn chuckled and tapped the compad on his chair to get up to speed. As he checked all the zones for outages, he thought that maybe he would give Jannie a call after his shift was over, or was it Ginny? He had been a bit drunk when they had met in the loud bar late last night so he wasn’t really sure. He knew that he could fake it until he got a minute to check out her ID badge.

  According to the small screen attached to his chair there were yet still more gravitational stabilizers that needed to be attended to. Maintenance and upkeep were constant on a medium sized station like the Delarus. Rihn was starting to think that they had gotten a bad batch of stabilizers in the last shipment of parts. There was no way that they should all be burning out as quickly as they were. He called down to the maintenance department. They assured him that they were working on the problem as quickly as they could and would keep him updated. He thanked the woman he was speaking to before checking to see when the next shipment of supplies would be coming in. He sighed when he saw that it wouldn’t be arriving for another week at least.

  “Talis do we have any ships inbound?” Rihn asked as he looked up from his compad.

  Talis hesitated and then answered, “Yes sir we do.”

  “You don’t sound too sure there Talis. Were you out drinking again last night?” Rihn asked.

  “No sir; I’m just not sure about the ship is all.”

  “What do you mean?

  “Well sir, it showed up on the long range scanners yesterday and we got no reply when we tried to hail it. I had the other shifts try as well and as of right now we still haven’t had any contact with the ship.”

  “Is it still inbound?”

  “It’s on a direct course toward us.”

  Rihn tapped into Talis’ tracking screen and saw that the ship was only a couple hours out. Rubbing his chin he thought for a moment before he spoke. “Try and hail them again,” he said.

  “I tried earlier sir,” Talis answered.

  “Try again. I don’t want to send out the fighters if I don’t have to,” Rihn said in way of explanation. He sat and watched as Talis tapped his headset and hailed the unknown ship three times. After waiting a couple minutes Talis looked over his shoulder questioningly toward his boss.

  “Okay well we tried,” Rihn said with a shrug. Tapping his headset he waited until he heard the gruff voice say, “Yeah?”

  “We have an unknown inbound that hasn’t answered our hails for over a day. Let’s send out the squadron to see if they need help or something,” Rihn said.

  “We’ll be ready to go in fifteen minutes,” the voice said.

  “Thank you, check in after you launch.”

  “Copy that.”

  Davin “Jax” Jackson drained his mug and left it on the table in the cafeteria as he stood up and walked toward the door. Tapping his headset as the elevator doors opened he said, “Alpha squadron report to the hangar deck.” He stood in the elevator that would take him down the twelve levels to the hangar. He barely noticed the young teenage boy named Marcus standing opposite him as his squad checked in acknowledging the order to assemble.

  Jax had been an officer and a fighter pilot for the GF what seemed like a lifetime ago. A non combat wound and high blood pressure had forced him behind a desk until his retirement from the Federation. Itching to get back behind the stick, without the rigorous regulations that the GF set, he took a job on the privately owned Delarus to head up their three fighter squadrons. The pay was decent and the job was boring; it did get him back in the cockpit which was what he truly wanted. Truth be told, it was less of a want and more a need.

  The elevator lurched to a stop and the lights flickered causing both Jax and Marcus to look up curiously. The older looking man grumbled as he walked through the open doors and onto the hangar level. As the doors closed and he continued down to the maintenance level Marcus thought to himself, “Great, now I’m gonna have to fix these too.”

  Marcus got out of the elevator on the maintenance level and walked down the short hall to the office. He swiped his badge across the sensor as he entered. The ID badge was used for numerous things on the station. Residents swiped their badges constantly but this time it punched him in to work. He would swipe it again in and out of lunch and then a last time at the end of his shift. “Good morning Marcus,” he heard as he tucked his badge away.

  “Morning Olivia,” he answered with a smile.

  “How’s things?” she asked. She was already at her desk and he was early.

  “Same old thing,” he said as he started to walk by her. He stopped after a step or two and paused. “Actually, it isn’t the same at all today.”

  “Huh?”

  “The fighters are going out today.”

  “They are?”

  “Yeah, I heard Jackson in the elevator. Any chance you can find out what’s going on?” he asked leaning on the edge of her desk.

  “I can try. I haven’t heard anything yet but I can ask around,” she smiled up at him. She was at least five cycles older than Marcus but for some reason she had a huge crush on him. Unfortunately, he hadn’t seemed to notice or if he did, he didn’t show it.

  “Thanks, where am I heading this morning?”

  “You’re heading over to sector fifteen on levels six and seven for a couple more grav stabilizers at the moment.”

  “Lovely. Oh, add the elevator out here to someone’s list too would you?”

  “Why?”

  “Lights are flickering,” he said as he walked out back to the locker room to grab his tools.

  Jax finished the walk around of his fighter to find the five other pilots in Alpha squadron standing at the nose waiting for him. The Delarus had three squadrons, for a total of eighteen fighters. All were old GF models that had been refitted with new weapons arrays. They ranged in model types since they had been added over time. The station could easily operate with only the one squadron but the station owners wanted to give their investment a bit of protection with being so close to the uninhabited zone. “Morning all,” he said as he folded his arms across his chest. There was a murmur of greeting from the pilots before they fell silent again.

  “It seems we have an unidentified ship on a direct course for the station. They’ve tried to hail it multiple times with no success, so it looks like it’s our turn to go see if we can figure out what’s going on. Suit up and do your walk around. I’d like to be out there in ten,” Jax said.

  “Aye sir,” they said in almost perfect unison and trotted off to change into their flight suits.

  Soon, all six birds were on the flight deck as the alarms sounded in their dull flat tone while all the doors sealed shut behind them and the hangar bay slid open. The fighters lifted off the deck and used their directional thrusters to maneuver themselves out of the hangar. Once out in the open depths of space, they flipped on the main engines and slid into formation before heading toward uninhabited space
and the unidentified ship.

  As they flew along, they checked their comms and other in-flight systems to make sure everything was working correctly. Jax was always very careful when they left the station, even on routine patrols. He was in command of the pilots and took their safety very seriously. For the most part, he followed standard GF protocols which had been drilled into him during his long stint with the Federation. Some of the other pilots felt that he went a bit overboard with the precautions but rarely, if ever, did they mention it. The majority of the pilots on the Delarus were hired mercenaries with very limited flight experience and most had never seen combat. They had been shuttle or freighter pilots who flew an occasional yacht or racer which made learning the controls of the smaller and more maneuverable fighters easier for them.

  Jax had filled Alpha squad with some of the more experienced pilots and even then, there had been a couple who had only been in combat simulations. When he took over on the Delarus, he had called on a fellow retired fighter pilot by the name of Morris to be his second, and in command of Beta squadron. Morris was quiet and seemed reserved but Jax knew a different side of his second. He had seen the extreme intelligence and split second decision making that Morris tried to downplay while they were flying together back in the GF. He knew that if anything happened to him the station, the other squads would be in very capable hands.

  “Delarus command this is Alpha one,” Jax said.

  “Alpha one this is Delarus command, go ahead,” he heard.

  “According to your coordinates we are on an intercept course with the incoming ship and should be within visual range soon,” Jax said.

  “Copy that Alpha one. Please visually identify the vessel and report back their ID tags so we can put it into the system.”