There was a pause, and she tapped her thumb on the top of the control stick as she waited. Zero One-One was the flight lead, and he would need to approve her suggestions. If he didn’t, they would need to end their flight after only two segments.
“Zero One-One, Hellcat One-One, what are you going to do?”
“Ever heard of the Russian Night Witches?”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“Good. Maintain speed and relative distance, and all should be fine.” Colt explained the rest of what she had in mind. The squad might never let her live down the embarrassment of screwing up the airshow, but she wasn’t about to bail before they finished it. She’d pull it back on track, even if it was risky.
Colt began to climb, thankful for the Hellcat’s powerful engine. They would start off a bit high for the audience, but she needed the altitude if she wanted to pull this off.
The Zeros narrowed the gap as they approached the crowds below. Zero One-One kept a running monologue in her ear as he drew closer. She waited until the last second, and switched the engine off.
When the enemy thinks they’ve got you, cut the engine and scream to your death. Her grandmother’s story echoed in her mind. Without the roar of the engine, there was nothing to mask her thoughts.
Colt counted the seconds as she plummeted to the ground. The Hellcat’s impressive stability kept her from spiraling. The runway stretched out before her. She tugged backward on the stick. It would be easy to land, but that wasn’t the point.
Except you don’t die. You switch the engine back on after they’ve overshot you and you climb back up behind them.
The Zeros roared past overhead, their shadows blocking the sun. She hit the engine switch, ready for the second half of the trick. Nothing. She hit it again. The engine coughed, then stopped. Colt checked her altimeter. If she was going to land, she needed to decide before she ran out of tarmac. She jabbed the switch one last time, sighing in relief as the engine roared to life once more.
She pulled the control stick all the way back, climbing rapidly behind the Zeros. The lead one was too far away, so she centered her sights on the tale of Zero One-Two and pressed the trigger. The blank bullets caught the tail of the Zero.
“Gotcha,” she whispered.
In response the Zero wobbled, then rolled away, smoke pouring from his tail.
Colt let out a sigh of relief. Her part was done. She could stop being on display. Not that anyone would let her forget this had happened. After all her screw-ups today, she’d never be able to face her squadron again. She’d put herself out there, drawn attention to herself, and look what had happened.
“How was it?” Hawk demanded as soon as she opened the canopy.
“Good. I liked the solitude. In fact, I think I’ll ask for a transfer to fly the F/A-18Es.”
Hawk jerked back. “You what?”
She grinned to hide her nervousness. Let him think she was switching to the single-seat variation of the Super Hornet. It served him right for making her fly the Hellcat.
A group of people separated themselves from the crowd as Colt slid to the ground. She recognized them as they drew nearer. She had hoped to slip away before the squadron found her. Maybe by the time they were back aboard the carrier in a few weeks, they would have forgotten all about this.
No such luck.
She squared off to face them, forcing herself to stop fiddling with the helmet strap.
Baxter led the group, a huge smile on his face. The small princess sat on her father’s shoulders, feet kicking excitedly against his chest.
“Is that her, Daddy?”
“Yes, that’s her, Princess,” Baxter replied, swinging her to the ground.
Colt winked at her. “We’re not princesses. We’re Night Witches.”
Arleigh Jacobs grew up wanting to be a fighter pilot. Life had other plans, so now she writes action thrillers featuring strong female role models, while still plotting a way to one day fly in a fighter jet.
Find out more at arleighjacobs.com.
Chaos on the Horizon
By Aidan Pilkington-Burrows and Lillia Hunter
What makes a young woman and a cat so special they can stop space and time collapsing? Is it magic? Is it science? They really don’t know. What they do know, is Hannah can’t help attracting pan-dimensional beings to her, like moths to a flame. It’s a constant battle, trying to keep our Universe safe, from monsters who just want to destroy it all.
Chapter One
Not wanting to waste another of the few matches she had, Hannah lit a third candle from the flame of the first, trying not to burn her fingers. The glow was enough for her to see Cori under the bed, giving birth to another tiny kitten.
Outside the house, only the faint light at the upper window gave anyone reason to believe the house was occupied. To human eyes, the flickering light was so easily ignored. Anything non-human was blinded by the sheer ferocity of energy that made Hannah the 'Beacon'. They were out there, swirling, chattering in the darkness of their own dimension; the pinpoint of light providing them with the exact location of the doorway they needed. Like moths to a flame, they each found their way to the Beacon, and thence the Horizon they must cross.
Like a barrier between all places, the Horizon was always beyond sight.
Something else knew they were coming and sought to get there first.
Navigating the night, it spiralled its course, seeking and searching, closing in on her. Over the rooftops and houses, lost to the sight of any who might glance up at the precise moment the spirit found her.
Peering into the semi-shadow, Hannah lowered the last candle she would have time to light. Soft mewings and squeaks suggested all was well. Watching as the cat strained a little, she saw the last of the tiny balls of fluff come to life. She couldn't help but blink, as a tiny shower of golden-orange sparks fell onto the hard, wooden floor. Holding the candle closer, she could see there were no signs of anything electrical beneath the bed. As her eyes adjusted, picking out the shape of the poorly looking thing, she found herself talking to it.
“Oh, little one. Are you going to be alright?”
She felt so sorry for this one. It was the last and clearly the runt, almost perfect, but not quite. For some reason though, she was drawn to it.
“You're really cute. I think I'll call you...”
“Charlie.”
Jumping back, Hannah almost dropped the candle she was holding.
“You can speak?”
”Clearly. And my name's Charlie. I'm a Chaos Cat... well... kitten. I'll get bigger.”
She watched, quietly, shocked at what she saw. Not only did the kitten seem to be okay, but it grew a little, stood on its own four legs, and opened its wings.
“Woah. What? You've got wings?”
“Oh. You can see those?” Charlie said, in some surprise. “That's never happened before.”
“Before?”
“And you can hear me?”
“Ye...er... Yes.”
“Wow. In all my lives, I've never actually had a conversation with a person.”
“All your lives? Like, you've been alive before?”
“Yep. Oh, so many times. Waaaay too many times.”
“Cats really do have nine lives?”
“No. We don't. We're just really lucky. And some of us happen to be, well, a bit special.”
The strangeness of the moment seemed almost lost on Hannah.
“Are you special?”
“Er... Wings!”
“Oh. Of course.”
Hannah looked at the other kittens. They all looked perfectly normal. They were still tiny balls of fluff, lying at the side of their mother with their eyes closed. Charlie seemed to be much bigger, even than he had been when she first heard him speak. Still watchful and wary of him, she moved back, allowing him to emerge from the shadows.
“Look, Kid, I’ve never been able to speak to a Beacon before…”
“What d’you mean, a Beacon?”
“You’re a Beacon. You’re like this bright, shiny lighthouse that we can see in other dimensions. It’s how we know where to travel. Everything seems to be beyond a barrier we call the ‘Horizon’. Beacons shine through the barrier, showing us gateways we can travel through.” He squinted at her, waiting for her to catch up.
Hannah tried to understand but all her thoughts turned to the stuff of her own life: the chaos, the battles, the deaths. She’d never seen a “horizon” or a “barrier,” but she’d surely had thoughts about alternate realities. How else could she explain what she’d been through? “I don’t know about dimensions. You mean like other universes? Those sort of dimensions?”
“Yeah, Kid. Those.”
She thought for a moment then made a firm decision. She might as well tell Charlie as anyone else. When was she going to have the chance to mull things over with a talking cat? Deep breath. Tell the truth. “So, all my life, all that I can remember, I’ve been fighting these monsters. They’re like demons or something from the Bible.”
Charlie didn’t even bat an eyelid. “They’re… Well… Have you heard the word ‘pandemonium’? It’s a short version of ‘pan-dimensional demon’. That’s what you’ve been encountering. We have other names for them.”
It was real and he believed her. Incredible. “So, what? They’re…”
“Not from around here, Kid.”
“Oh, so it’s not a Heaven and Hell thing?” She fell back on her haunches.
“Not if you keep killing them.”
She dropped her head to her chest. It wasn’t easy for her to speak about that. She knew she was destroying other creatures, but she knew she had to. They’d attacked her, whenever they found her. It had just become something she did to survive. “Why do they come, Charlie?”
He pondered his answer. “The ones you’ve seen, have they always looked the same?”
“Yes. They’re always the same. Same colour, same sort of thing. They move like smoke, then they turn into the most horrible looking... I guess they’re some sort of animal.”
“Those ones are what we call Ivza. They’re sent out, looking for ways to open up the Horizon enough so that so the rest of their kind can break through. They have to destroy the Beacon in each dimension to conquer everything. They enslave dimensions, one at a time, endlessly. My own world has fallen.”
She saw his head fall, as he felt the loss. His eyes glazed from tears he could barely suppress. She wanted to touch him. Comfort him. Pet him. But were you really supposed to pet a cat with wings? She didn’t know. She was so used to fighting alien things, the thought of comforting one was, well, alien. “My queen, Kehsrah, my brothers and sisters, have all been made the slaves of the Ivza, and their masters, the Knazh.”
Hannah had no idea what all that meant. She thought of saying something to try to make him feel better, but she didn’t have anything to say that even made sense to her. She watched, as he inhaled, puffed out his chest, and raised his eyes to meet hers.
“I’m here to protect you. You’ve been alone, fighting these things. I know it seems like forever and you’ve been able to do it, all by yourself.”
She nodded, acknowledging his understanding of her situation, as nobody ever had before.
“That light, the stuff that attracts the monsters to you, is the energy you use to kill them. You ‘zap’ them, with a beam of it, don’t you?”
She nodded again. “It comes out of my hands. I just…it’s like Iron Man. It’s not as weird now, as it was. I just, it’s normal. I mean, it’s not normal, it’s just what I do.”
“Well… I need you to do what you do. The Knazh are coming. When they do, they’re not going to stop, until they win.”
“Win?”
He didn’t know how to explain what that would really mean. He was relieved, in a way, when the girl explained it for him.
“You mean, they win when we’re dead?”
“Yeah, Kid.”
She’d never considered losing before. She had always won. She killed the monsters. It was a stark realisation that made her take stock of what he was really saying. They meant to obliterate her.
Charlie took a deep breath. “It’s not just about you and me, Kid. If we die, my kind will be eradicated, your kind too. Everything that lives in this Universe, will be enslaved or destroyed. If we can hold on long enough, making them come here, forcing them to weaken their hold where they have my kind trapped… My queen will fight. She will be able to set everyone free. They will all fight.”
Hannah understood the immensity of the situation. “Do we have a choice, Charlie?”
That he didn’t answer immediately, was all the answer she needed. What he said next changed nothing. “No.”
The fur rose on his back and she felt it the same time he did.
Hannah rose from the floor, stood, and faced the large window.
It was an obvious point of ingress. Almost too obvious, really. She never understood why the demons didn't come through the walls. When she was first attacked, she used to run, thinking doors would keep them at bay. Once she knew they could float through doors, she stopped running.
“Stay back,” she commanded. “This will get messy.”
Charlie pushed himself into the air, slow wingbeats allowing him to hover. Preparing to swoop in front of her, he saw the creature beyond the glass. “Ivza.”
Hannah almost smiled. They now had a name. She could kill something with a name like that. Looking down, she could still see Coriander and her babies. Instinctively, she closed the space between herself and the demon, putting her body between the despicable enemy and those she knew she must protect.
“Get behind me, Charlie.”
That wasn't how it was supposed to be. He was there to protect her, not the other way around. Even though he knew she could defend herself, it was his duty. It was against all of his instincts not to do so.
Glass doesn't bow and bend, nor does wood. At least, it's not supposed to. Hannah understood physics became quite distorted, whenever there was a demon close by. She'd seen it enough times to know what was next.
Sure enough, the formless, fluid, inhuman mass entered the emptiness of the room.
Charlie watched, waiting. Peering into the shapelessness, his fangs and claws began to tingle in readiness as he saw the Ivza's snarling jawline. He took a deep breath, ready to fly at the creature. One more second and he would hurl himself at—
A shouting roar from the young woman stopped Charlie flying forward. Wondering what was hurting her, he looked.
Hannah took a stance, planted her feet firmly, and raised her arms. Almost out of breath, she willed the energy within her to leave. Directing it with her hands, beams of light tore into the forming shape of the thing she once thought of as being from Hell. Burning through it, melting its skin and sinew, it ceased to be a thing at all. So explosive was the power the girl wielded, that the body of the Ivza flew out in all directions, until the room glowed in the hideous colour of its bright blood.
Charlie shielded his eyes with a paw. So surprised, he forgot to flap his wings, he landed back on the uncovered mattress. The mess, body parts and what passed for something like yellow, fluorescent fluid, splattered outward, covering the walls and furniture beyond where the Ivza had been.
Hannah lowered her hands. Walked to the window and opened it. “Eww. That was a messy one. Let's get some air in the room.”
Returning to the bedside, she crouched, looking down at Cori, “Are you OK, momma?”
The cat purred, meowed in her general direction, then felt it safe to nap.
Just like that she’d vanquished the enemy. She was no ordinary Beacon. How could he be of service to someone as strong as Hannah? Treat her like it was normal? Tell her he’d be there for her? A bit of both?
“How did you know it was coming?” Charlie asked.
“The power goes out. I always carry candles in my bag now, just in case.”
“Ah yes. Any energy near them wh
en they come through just gets absorbed into them, wiped out by their presence. Something like that, anyway. Interdimensional physics is tricky.”
“All I know is that when the power goes out, one’s near. That’s enough for me.”
Charlie nodded.
“So, when you’re not fighting demons,” he asked, “this is what you do? Looking after cats and kittens?”
She shook her head. “No. I'm here for my friend, Nora. She had to go into hospital. I said I'd mind her cat, Coriander, while she had her babies. That reminds me, I need to tell her she's had seven.” She wasn’t even phased. She was back on her knees, cooing at the kittens.
The Ivza’s remains had begun to evaporate, disappearing from this plane, so Charlie dropped down from the bed, slunk over to the girl and rubbed himself along her thigh. “Best tell her she had six. I'm going to be with you when you need me, not here, with them.”
With that, he jumped onto the chest of drawers below the window and then out.
Hannah rushed over to the window to see where he'd fallen, only to find him hovering in the moonlight.
“You’d call us Hellcats. It makes sense for your mythologies. You've really never seen a Hellcat before, have you?”
“No.”
Charlie flapped his wings once, “Tell her she has six kittens. What else are you going to say? One flew out the window?”
“Yeah. I won't mention you. There would be far too much to explain.”
“That's how it goes, Kid.”
Chapter Two
It's not often you see a black cat the size of a Maine Coon walking down a main street in urban America. It's less often you see one waiting outside a diner for someone to leave the door open just enough. There was a swagger, a stylish arrogance to the way he moved. Bigger even than usual, he looked more like a true predator than any pet kitty. A few light-footed steps and a scamper and the door closed behind him. He sat regally for a moment on the chequerboard tiles, looking to be seen, rather than looking for her. Nonchalantly, he moved to the booth, then onto the bench seat opposite her.
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