by Jay Toney
"Fire missiles one and four."
The two missiles barely cleared their launch tubes before detonating against the hangar bay doors. The hangar doors and the surrounding structure were blown away from the space station, instantly depressurizing the hangar. The hangar's open hatch and holes cut through the blast doors caused explosive decompression in multiple docking ring sections.
Several soldiers were carried out into space by the escaping air. Some of the soldiers died after being exposed to vacuum and the extreme cold temperature of space. Most of them were able to seal the helmets of their armored space suits in time to save their lives. That didn't help the soldiers floating in space. They would die soon enough when their air ran out. The soldiers were expendable; their space suits were not. Priority would be given to recovering the armored space suits, not the people in them.
I sat on the helm seat and keyed in the startup sequence for the Persephone's engines. They only had a few seconds to warm up before I advanced the throttle setting to full power. The soldiers that were still alive in the hangar were cooked alive by the radiation from our engines.
"Natasha, give me a vector for the Vega jump point."
Natasha sent the coordinates to the helm station, where I sat. I adjusted our course and kept our engines operating at full power. We were making our run from the system ahead of schedule. I hoped that Red was ready. We were still in communication silence. I couldn't call to alert him of the change of plans.
Amber began scanning the area with our long-range sensors. She changed our viewscreen to show three different views, our forward view, the rear view, and our tactical screen.
Several Alliance cutters and destroyers were on an intercept course with our ship. Our escape surprised the Alliance commanders. We had enough of a lead that the destroyers were far enough out of range that they couldn't catch us. The cutters were another matter. They were designed for speed and were faster than our ship. Eventually, they could overtake us, but not before we jumped out of the system.
Reds battleship joined the chase. His ship was closer to us than the Alliance warships. The Vengeance was on an intercept course that would intercept us minutes before we could make our escape to hyperspace. I hoped that whatever Red had planned for us worked. If not, the Alliance would be chasing and hunting us until my ship was captured or destroyed.
"Starship Persephone, surrender at once!" the San Paulos space station controller demanded. "You are responsible for the deaths of over a thousand innocent people."
"No response, Jewel."
Red told me to maintain radio silence, no matter what was said. I felt sorry for the innocent people who lost their lives, but I wasn't the one who cut open the blast doors exposing a large section of the docking ring to vacuum. The Alliance soldiers who were after me and everyone who supported them deserved to die. There was always collateral damage in war, even with the best plans. The war against the Alliance was just getting started. There would be more.
"I didn't think that was possible, and I wish I weren't here to witness it. It's no longer a mystery as to why you always come back damaged."
"The truth is, I didn't think it was possible either, but I couldn't think of anything else.
Tanya, give me a damage report."
"The damage is minor. I don't see anything reported that we can't take care of when we have more time. There are no injuries or fatalities."
"Natasha, stand down from battle stations. Go to alert condition yellow."
The tactical screen showed the Alliance cutters still pursuing us, and getting closer. The destroyers broke off from the chase and fell back. Red was closing in with the Vengeance. Natasha added heading, range, and speed to the intercept projections on the tactical screen. At our current rate of acceleration, the Vengeance would be in weapons range in a few hours. The Alliance cutters would intercept us 20 minutes later.
We had nearly three hours that I could use for training instead of sitting and watching the tactical display on the main viewscreen. Amber and Jewel were doing very good in the Marauder simulation. Tanya was doing better than the last time, but not good enough for me to trust her with flying to a cargo shuttle. I kept her in training to keep her and Natasha's avatar out of trouble. I signaled Amber and Jewel to follow me. We left the bridge together and headed to the portside shuttle bay.
We had 24 Marauders in our shuttle bays. Six Marauders hung suspended in racks in the portside shuttle bay, and six were parked on the ready line. It was a long time since we had so many of the deadly starfighters. The Alliance confiscated most of our Marauders when we returned to Alliance territory. They left us with five Marauders, only because they weren't in operable condition and couldn't be flown due to a lack of parts that we had carefully hidden under the deck plates. The Marauders we had now were all flyable. All of them were salvaged from wrecks and reconditioned by Mikes maintenance team.
We changed into flight suits and helmets in the shuttle bay's ready room. Amber and Jewel both had a problem getting all of their hair beneath their helmets. Their hair was too long, and they had too much of it to allow their helmets to seal properly. It wasn't a problem in the simulator, but in a Marauder it was necessary. The helmet and flight suit served as a temporary spacesuit protecting the crew from the vacuum of space. It also contained the connections needed for the emergency life support located in the seat and the ships comm connections.
The solution was simple. The excess hair would have to go. Scissors were kept handy in the ready room to make the necessary adjustments to a pilots hair when needed. Jewel's and Amber's hair had just grown to a medium length, so having it cut short again wouldn't be too much of a shock. I cut their hair at the nape of their necks, keeping my cuts as even as I could. They could straighten out my cuts later and shape their hair.
We each boarded one of the waiting Marauders and did a quick diagnostic check and keyed in the startup sequence.
"Jewel form up on my right, Amber on my left. We will be taking off in a three-ship formation."
I taxied my ship to the center of the launch tube and waited. Amber and Jewel lined their starfighters up on my wing tips. When they signaled that they were ready, we launched accelerating down the launch tube. We left the Persephone behind us, heading away from the ship, into deep space.
"Amber and Jewel, stay in formation. I will be taking the two of you through some basic maneuvers." I performed a series of banks and rolls, then added climbs and dives. So far they were doing better than I expected. I took them through some advanced maneuvers. These maneuvers were made for atmospheric flight, with gravity to assist from a planet or a moon. They could still be simulated in space but required greater control. We practiced the Immelmann turn, the Split S, and stalls. So far, so good. I had them practice, the Cuban Eight, and the Half Eight. When the other trainees caught up to Jewel and Amber with their training, I would start teaching them combat techniques.
It had been a while since I last had a chance to fly a Marauder. I was enjoying the sense of flight and the thrill it left in me.
"Captain Roberts, It is time to return to the ship. We are approaching the jump point."
It didn't seem like the two hours I reserved to fly the Marauders passed. It felt like only minutes had passed. I led Amber and Jewel around the ship in a lazy circle so that they would have a straight on approach into the landing bay. Landing should be easy for them, the way they are flying their Marauders.
"We will be landing together; follow me in. Find your mark on the runway and fly to it. When you are over the runway, cut power and ease your nose up. After your main gear touchdown, push your nose down and brake. Just like you do in the simulators."
"But..."
"No buts lets go." I eased my throttle back to m
ake the landing slow and easy for the girls. They followed staying in formation. When I was over the runway, I pulled my throttles back and eased back on the controls. The landing was smooth and easy. However, it went horribly wrong for Amber and Jewel.
Jewels Marauder skidded down the runway, on its belly, spinning out of control. When she finally came to a stop, her starfighter was still spinning. Amber's landing was worse when she touched down; she pulled back too hard on the controls. The Marauder tried to follow her command and flipped over on its back. Amber got a close-up view of the runway with her ship skidding down the runway on its twin tails.
From the sounds of their cursing, they couldn't have been hurt bad. The rescue teams were already mobilizing the crane and people. Jewel's ship would be easiest to take care of, so Amber would have to wait, to be extracted.
"Natasha, please let Doc know he will have a couple of visitors in sickbay shortly."
"He is on the way, what happened?"
"The practice session flying the Marauders went very good. The landings didn't go as well."
"We have only just started landing basics. Neither Jewel or Amber have made a successful landing yet. They have crashed every time and seldom in the landing bay."
"Chief Mike is getting the initial damage report now. He wants to see you."
I headed to the bridge, knowing I couldn't avoid him for long.
"Are Amber and Jewel alright," Mike asked.
"Doc is checking on them. I think they are just a little shaken up."
"Why did you have them trying to land so early in their training? You could have had them brought in on autopilot or towed in, saving us all a lot of grief."
"You should have seen them fly; they handled the Marauders like experienced pilots. Landing the Marauders should have been easy for them. I don't understand what happened. They were on my wing tips, seconds from touching down, then they were skidding down the runway out of control."
"Evidently, they weren't as ready as you thought they were. How much damage did Amber and Jewel do to the runway?"
"It isn't bad. They didn't dig in or cause any divots."
"Lucky for them. If they had, they would be hammering the divots out. How much damage was done to the Marauders?"
"I Jewels fighter isn't too bad. She made her landing skidding on the ship's belly. Amber's Marauder will take a little more work. She flipped her ship onto its back and skidded down the runway on its twin tails. The ridicule they will take from landing the way they did will be a lot worse than the damage they caused."
The Vengeance closed to within firing range of his energy weapons. Red's image filled our main viewscreen, "I'm going to see all of you hanged for what you did to the space station. Surrender now, and I'll make it quick."
"Tanya, no response. Maintain comm silence."
The Vengeance targeted my starship with its forward turrets and fired. Energy from its weapons splashed off of our shields.
"Natty, damage report!"
"Zero damage. The Vengeance's weapons are using minimum power."
"Set our weapons to minimum power and signal our gunners to return fire." Our plasma cannon raked the bridge of the Vengeance and struck its hull amidships. The shields easily deflected the energy from our plasma cannons, but it looked like we were scoring hits on the battleship.
"I am personally going to hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands. When I collect your bounty, I am going to be rich. I'll be wealthy enough to purchase your wife and use her for my enjoyment providing she survives."
Red would never do that to his sister. It was a ruse meant for the Alliance to hear. They were monitoring our comms. I was sure they were having a good laugh from Red's threat. In the Alliance, it was expected for commanders to enslave the people they captured, at least the ones they didn't kill for pleasure or sport.
Red's gunners fired the battleship's plasma cannon again. This time they included a salvo of eight missiles. They were launched to close for our ECM to have any effect or our PDC to track. The missiles detonated 50 meters from our hull, surrounding us in a cloud of chaff foil. Long range sensors scanning us would confuse our reflection as our ship being surrounded by a cloud of debris.
"Natty, cut our drives and silence our transponders."
Our gunners fired back. Instead of our plasma cannon striking the Vengeance, the energy was reflected by the chaff and looked like explosions surrounding our ship.
"Captain, we've reached the jump point." The Vengeance launched another salvo of missiles towards us. I engaged the hyperdrive just as the missiles were detonating. All that was left was a cloud of debris from the missiles. If everything went as planned, the Vengeance would follow us into hyperspace. In a little over two weeks, we would exit hyperspace into the Vega star system.
"Everyone stand down." There was nothing we could do but wait until we returned to real space.
"Natasha, sound the all clear, return to normal duty."
I left the bridge and headed to our quarters. Jewel, Amber, and Doc were there waiting. I was happy to see that they were both in good health.
"Nathaniel, don't ever have the face shield down on your helmet when you throw up. I thought I was going to drown in my own puke before I could get the helmet off," Jewel said.
"I am normally not affected by motion sickness, but that is one of the reasons that I usually don't wear a helmet."
"You should always wear your helmet. What would happen if your Marauder's hull was breached or you had to eject?" Doc chided me.
"I'd have to hold my breath," I laughed.
"That is the last thing you would want to do. It isn't funny. You would be dead."
"How is Amber?" I asked changing the subject.
"She has a few bruises but is mostly just shaken up. She will be back to normal in a few days. I gave her something for the pain and a sedative to relax her."
"If I had crashed like that I'd be spending at least a week in sickbay."
"Amber is too much like you are. It wouldn't do her any good."
"What do you mean?" Jewel asked.
"When Nathaniel was younger, 13 years old, he crashed his first Marauder."
"Doc you promised you wouldn't bring that up again."
"Did I? I seem to remember your asking me not to talk about it again. I don't ever recall saying that I wouldn't. He had been a squadron leader for nearly a year. We were on a raid in the Antares star system, and his ship got shot up a little, by what was left of the Alliance occupation forces."
"It was more than just a little," I interrupted.
"Any other pilot would have shut down, or ejected so that he could be picked up by the search and rescue team."
"Doc, you know how I feel about ejecting."
"Tell us, Nathaniel."
"I'm afraid of ejecting. I don't want to be left alone drifting in space wondering if I am going to be picked up, or not before my oxygen ran out. I've heard a lot of stories about pilots who cut their emergency oxygen hoses instead of waiting."
"Cowards, all of them. It took you long enough to admit that you are afraid of ejecting. Fortunately for all of us, Nathaniel was the last pilot to land, if you can call it that. His Marauder was left in pieces from one end of the shuttle bay to the other. It took over three weeks of repairs before we were able to use the hanger deck again. A helmet would have saved him from a nasty concussion. The only reason he survived the crash was that he is so damn hard headed."
"In my defense, one of my engines was destroyed by a missile hit. My other engine stuck at full throttle, my lateral and pitch controls were shot up and useless. The landing gear wouldn't
deploy, a loud alarm wouldn't silence distracting me, and the eject light kept flashing in my face. The only thing I could do was to cut off the fuel feed to the engine, just before entering the landing bay."
"The eject warning is there for a reason. You should have ejected."
"When I get up, can you tell me that story again?" Amber mumbled from the bed. "It doesn't make me feel so bad knowing Nathaniel that crashed worse than I did."
"Nathaniel spent a week in sickbay before I finally got tired of him laying around and kicked his lazy butt out."
Doc left us, laughing on his way out.
"I don't feel as bad either," Jewel said.
****
"Nathaniel, get up. I'm hungry. Rosie fixed all of us breakfast, before leaving." Between Jewels insistently shaking me, the mention of breakfast, and the smell of fresh coffee, I woke up. "Hurry up Nathaniel, you know I need something to wear before I get out of bed."
Jewel was far from being shy and didn't hesitate when it came to getting undressed. She spent as much time nude in our cabin as she did in the different outfits she wore throughout the day. But she insisted on being dressed before she got out of bed in the morning. Rosie had been in our room so there was nothing conveniently located on the floor that I could hand Jewel. I reluctantly got out of bed and got a robe from her closet and handed it to her.
"What about me?" Amber asked.
"You are already wearing a nightshirt."
"When did that happen?"
"Sometime between leaving sickbay and going to bed."
"I don't remember any of that."
"Doc had you medicated pretty good, maybe a little too good."
"Nathaniel, I'm still stiff and sore. Help me get up." I picked Amber up and carried her into the common room. Instead of setting her down in the galley I put her in the hot tub."
"Nathaniel!"
"Stay there. I will bring breakfast to you."
Jewel passed me a plate and mug of juice for Amber. I took it to her then joined Jewel in the galley's dining area.