by Jay Toney
I ate a healthy portion of bacon, eggs, and home fries. Then relaxed savoring a mug of coffee. The way the girls were eating, I hoped they had the stomach to keep their meals down. I wasn't affected by space sickness; they might be. Maybe I should have warned Amber and Jewel about what Doc had planned for them.
Doc and I would be spending the whole day in a simulation with Amber and Jewel to get them up to par on their landing skills. That is what he did to me everytime I screwed up flying. I didn't expect anything had changed. Amber and Jewel were natural fliers like me. They should have been able to make a simple landing.
"Nathaniel, do you have any plans for today, or do you just want to get back in bed with us?" Jewel asked.
It was tempting to get back in bed with Amber and Jewel, but things would get a lot worse for them if we skipped out on Doc.
"We have an appointment that cannot be missed. If we don't hurry, we will be late." I tossed a towel to Amber and went into the bedroom with Jewel to change into our flight suits. When Amber joined us and saw what we were wearing she said, "You have got to be kidding?" I shook my head no.
Doc was waiting for us at one of the holographic simulation rooms. He had the simulation up and running.
"For a minute, I thought you might have forgotten."
"I don't think I will ever forget. You had me in the simulator every day for a week after I crashed."
All four of us entered the simulation. Two Marauders were parked on the simulation room's floor. I led Jewel to the Marauder on the right. Doc and Amber boarded the other Marauder.
I closed and sealed the hatch and led Jewel to the cockpit. I sat in the copilot's seat giving Jewel no choice but to sit in the pilot's seat. The view outside of the viewscreen was familiar to me. I had seen it before, years ago, before we returned to Alliance territory. The planet we were orbiting was Antares. Doc was making me relive the raid where my Marauder got shot up causing me to crash. This time I wouldn't let the Alliance shoot me down.
"You knew Doc would be waiting?" Jewel asked.
"Without a doubt. I almost feel sorry for Amber. Doc is going to make her do all of the flying. Keeping up with me is going to be hard. I intended the first part of the simulation to be a demonstration introducing you and Amber to flying in combat. After that we will practice flying for a while, then we will be working on your landings. By the end of the day the two of you should have no problem landing or tomorrow will be a very long day."
"We are flying again tomorrow?"
"Yes, pay close attention to how I am flying the Marauder. You are going to be at the controls following me with Doc at your side tomorrow. He isn't as forgiving as I am.
Doc, are the two of you ready?"
"We're strapped in and ready."
"Controlled decent or power dive?"
"As always, a little bit of both."
"What does he mean by that?"
"He wants me to enjoy myself."
I locked my coordinates in on the capital cities spaceport and accelerated towards the planet. Plasma filled our viewscreen, as we entered the upper atmosphere. I cut our thrust, allowing gravity to take over. Our entry into the atmosphere was when it was easiest to be targeted and hit by the planet's defenses. I rolled the ship banking left and right, trying to prevent a weapons lock on our ship.
Friction from the thickening atmosphere slowed our ships, and the plasma faded away. Turbulence buffeted our Marauders during our descent. The view of the ground rapidly approached us. It was only a simulation, but it looked and felt real.
"Nathaniel, shouldn't you slow down or level off?"
"Not yet. You need to learn to trust the ship like it is an extension of your body. Don't worry about your altitude, pull out of the dive when it looks and feels right."
I increased my throttles, accelerating and continuing my evasive maneuvers. The v-max warning sounded, followed by the low altitude warning. More warning lights flashed on the instrument console, and alarms sounded for my attention. I ignored all of them. Jewel closed her eyes and screamed.
"Open your eyes and watch what I am doing. The best starfighter pilots fly using the ship as an extension of their body. They act on instinct more than anything else. Tomorrow you will have to do it with Doc as your copilot." Jewel opened her eyes.
When it looked like we were about to crash, I pulled back hard on the controls and advanced the throttles to full power. The Marauder groaned and shuttered pulling several g's climbing out of the dive. It leveled off skimming the planet's surface. Jewel screamed again, but she kept her eyes open.
I targeted my first target and fired a missile, and then I turned to my right without waiting for the missile's explosion. I selected my next target and fired, then I banked the ship hard, rapidly changing our direction of flight and lining up on my third target. This time I wasn't going to miss the gunship that nearly shot me down. I selected my guns and fired a long burst at the ship destroying it with 40mm high explosive rounds. Then I pulled back hard on the controls, climbing high into the sky.
"You should have done that the first time," Doc teased.
"What, and miss all the attention I got from the ladies? Several young women felt sorry for me after the crash and expressed their gratitude in bed. My bed stayed warm for several weeks after the crash."
"You forgot the number of bruises I had to heal from their boyfriends and husbands."
"No, I didn't. The bruises made my injuries look more severe than they were, and the women more willing."
"What now?"
"Now you and Amber practice for a while."
Doc and I let Jewel and Amber practice acrobatics in the atmosphere and with the planet's gravity so that they could get a feel for how the ships responded. I had my suspicions about Jewel's and Amber's problem with their landings. They lacked confidence in both themselves and the Marauders. Not keeping their eyes open during the landing didn't help.
Jewel shook me awake. I must have nodded off while they were practicing. "Amber and I have been practicing for hours. We're getting hungry."
"All you have to do is land."
"I can't. You saw what happened the last time I tried."
"Yes, you can. All you need is a little confidence in yourself. That is why we are here. To give you and Amber that confidence."
Jewel lined the ship up with the center of the landing bay, lowered the landing gear, and eased off of the throttle. Her eyes closed and we entered the landing bay. Instead of landing, we flew straight into the barrier net. It wasn't the best way to land a Marauder, but we survived the landing.
"Natasha, reset the landing sequence, short approach."
"She is improving, she made it into the landing bay this time, before crashing."
"She would do a lot better landing with her eyes open."
We crashed several more times, trying to land. "Can we take a break, I've got to pee."
"We are not taking a break until you can land without crashing, even if it takes all night.
Natasha reset the simulation.
Jewel, listen to me, do what I tell you and keep your eyes open, or we will be here all night."
"Okay, I'll try."
"Line the ship up with the center of the runway. Set your target designator for the end of the runway. Lower your landing gear and ease back on the throttle. So far, you're doing very good. Ease off on your throttle a little more. Now get your nose up. That's too much, ease forward on the controls, hold it there, now cut your throttle." After our main gear touched down, I had her ease the nose down. She landed without crashing.
"That was easy, wasn't it?"
"I suppose so. Can we go now?"
"Not yet. You still need to land on your own.
Natasha, reset the simulation for one more landing."
Jewel lined the ship up, following the same sequence she just performed. The nose was still a little high, but still manageable. She made her first successful landing, without my help.
She exited the simulation without waiting for me and sped to our quarters. When I caught up with her, she looked much better and was jubilant having made her first landing. It was a couple of hours later before Amber showed up. She wasn't happy.
"Doc wouldn't let me take a break to pee. He said there were no breaks in combat. When I wet myself, he laughed and made me sit in my pee until I was able to land to his satisfaction."
"Nathaniel was just as mean. I barely made it here without wetting myself."
"That is why we wear absorbent underwear under our flight suits. It could have been worse; you could have done without them."
"I did. I won't make that mistake again."
"Amber after you get cleaned up, let's have an early dinner. I feel like celebrating tonight," Jewel rejoiced.
I noticed that Rosie left us a home cooked dinner in the galley. Maybe Doc wouldn't mind a helping hand in the officer's kitchen. I would have to broach the subject carefully with him. The galley and sickbay were still under his command. Since marrying Amber and having Jewel move in with us, meals in the officer's mess became a rare treat for us. We were almost always too busy to eat out. Anything Doc prepared made our frozen meals taste bland. Rosie wasn't a bad cook either.
Doc was waiting for us at the same holographic simulation room that we used yesterday for training. He had the simulation ready for us to use. He had a grin on his face that let me know Jewel was in trouble. He wasn't planning on giving her any slack after we left hours before he finished the training session with Amber.
"Nathaniel, you were far too easy with Jewel. I made Amber make a successful landing, on her own, before allowing her to leave the simulation."
"What makes you think I didn't. Jewel made two landings before we left."
"If that is true, we will have an early lunch today."
"Speaking of lunch, there is a new cook aboard who is as good as, or maybe even better than you are. In fact, the way she is feeding us, I'll have to get some larger pants and make the girls exercise more to keep their figures."
"Nonsense."
"Last night she fed all of us a meal that we had never eaten before. It was some lizard meat cooked in a stew. We had to disturb her and Mike to see if she had enough left over for a second serving for us. Thankfully, she did."
"It's on!"
I hoped Rosie was up to Doc's challenge. Either way, we were going to feast today. Doc took Jewel with him today leaving me with Amber. We strapped in and began the simulation.
I would be flying in the lead again. This time Jewel would be following me, at the controls of her Marauder. I wasn't going to take it as easy on her as I did Amber. Yesterday, I let gravity pull us towards the planet's surface. Today, I would be doing a powered dive.
The winglets on Marauders didn't sweep forward or back for atmospheric flight. It was the only design flaw in the Marauders construction, as far as I was concerned. The winglets could be retracted bringing them in closer to the hull. I retracted them. My dive was going to be well over the v-max rating for the winglets. The winglets helped stabilize the Marauder at slow speeds but were otherwise useless.
Jewel had better keep her eyes open this time, or Doc would make her repeat the dive over and over again until he was satisfied she could do it without so much as blinking. I locked the coordinates in the navigation computer, advanced the throttles to full power and dove towards the planet's surface. This time, I kept the throttles at full power during the dive.
The nose of the ship glowed a fiery orange with our descent. Then the glow became flames, and streaks of plasma covered the cockpit windscreen. I maneuvered the starfighter by feel, rolling and banking to the left and right. The ship made a loud whistling noise as it pushed its way through the planet's atmosphere.
From the ground our ship looked like a shooting star, bright enough to be seen in daylight. The Marauder slowed in the denser atmosphere at low altitude, even with the throttles at full power. The plasma faded away, and our view was replaced with the view of the ground and the spaceports remaining defenses.
I pulled out of the dive, flying low and targeted my first target, a gun tower. I fired a missile, banked and turned to the right to bring my next target into targeting reticle. I was too close for a missile lock. I switched to the ships 40 mm cannon and fired. I rolled the Marauder to the left and pulled back hard on the controls. I fired my guns at the gunship that was supposed to be my final target and missed again.
The last time I pulled up and accelerated away from the spaceport. I was an easy target for the gunship and nearly lost my Marauder when the gunship shot it up. This time I was going to try something different. I had to, or Doc would never let me forget that I was shot down by the same enemy twice.
I cut my throttles and opened the speed brakes. The starfighter shuddered and shook but slowed down in time for the gunship's weapons fire to overshoot us. I closed the speed brakes, advanced the throttles, banked and pulled back hard on the controls. The Marauder's inertia dampers strained to compensate for the sudden g-force.
The maneuver was enough to get behind the gunship, but not enough to bring my weapons on target. I cycled the starfighter's weapons from its 40mm cannon to its particle beam turret. The turret would track the gunship. All I had to do was stay with it and fire. The reticle turned solid green, indicating a lock and I fired.
The gunship pilot was a veteran pilot and rolled his ship, evading my fire. I matched his moves, firing bursts from my gun turret. His ship caught fire but continued flying and trying to break away from me. I wasn't expecting him to open his speed brakes while I was directly behind him. I pulled up hard, but not fast enough. Our ships collided with a hard jolt and the sound of metal tearing away. Several warning lights flashed on. I lost my port engine, but I still had control. Gunfire from the enemy ship pierced my Marauders, hull setting off more warnings for hydraulic failures.
While I still had control, I cut my throttles and let the ship stall. I nosed the Marauder over into a dive and selected missiles. I flew straight at the gunship. I didn't have time to wait for a missile lock, but I was close enough to launch my missiles without a lock. I waited until the last second and fired two missiles before pulling out of the dive. I watched the gunship explode into a fireball in my rearview monitor.
My ship was damaged but still flyable. I sealed my visor and told Amber to do the same. We would be venting our air as we climbed. There was too much damage to repair. Besides, I needed to land the ship just to show Doc that I still could.
We headed back to the Persephone, and I lined the ship up with the port nacelles runway. That is when the malfunctions happened. Doc must have reprogrammed the simulation for the same string of events to happen to me as the last time when I got shot up. The landing gear wouldn't lower. No big deal, I could belly in. The ship lost lateral and yaw control. This time I was ready, I could still land with just the ships pitch control. The starfighter was centered perfectly with the runway. The throttles were frozen. I flipped the fuel cutoff switches to off, and the engines died. I could still use the thrusters to slow our approach. All of the ship's power went out, leaving Amber and me in darkness. If that wasn't bad enough; the ship went into a spin. "Damn you Doc!" I selected duel ejection and pulled the eject handle.
Natasha's voice filled the cockpit, "Simulation complete."
"Natasha, reset the simulation for landing practice."
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"That was just like the story Doc told us about your crash, except this time you didn't crash."
"It was worse. This time I lost my ship, and I had to eject. Even if I shot down the gunship, the simulation would have ended the same way. Doc programmed a catastrophic failure for all of the Marauders systems, to make me eject."
Amber and I practiced landing. I reset the simulation for different approaches and different malfunctions, but nothing like what Doc did to me. She made a perfect landing every time. Doc ended the simulation after a couple of hours and headed straight to the officer's galley.
"Doc seems upset this morning," Jewel observed. "I thought he would be happy with the way we landed without crashing this morning."
"He is happy about that. That's why we finished so early this morning."
"Then why did he leave so abruptly?"
"He has never had a challenger go up against him for his cooking. He is taking it a little bit too personally. Either he is going to love Rosie, or kill her. I'm not sure which."
"We have to stop them."
"Why do that? It's going to be fun for both of them."
A ship-wide announcement was made, calling Rosie to the officer's galley.
****
"I hear that you have been fattening up my son and daughter in law. They say that your cooking may be better than mine. We shall see. I accept your challenge."
"I didn't challenge you. I was just trying to be nice to Nathaniel and his companions. They have been very kind to Mike and me."
"That doesn't make any difference. May the best cook win."
There were twelve of us, in the dining facility, ready to eat lunch. A feast was laid out before us. Doc stood at a table with his meal selections, Rosie stood by hers. All of the ship's officers took samples from both tables. I was stuffed when Doc called for a vote. The vote was 6 to 5 in Doc's Favor. All eyes turned to me for the final vote. If I were smart, I would vote for Doc, and everything would return to normal. On the other hand, if I voted for Rosie, we would all be eating real good until the tie was settled. That could be a very long time from now if no one changed their vote. No one was likely to. It was as much a political vote as it was for the best meal. I voted for Rosie."