by Richard Sosa
“Right, you must get in the air, form up and get your butts through gravity, and bust ass into space. Is there anyone unwilling or unsure about what I am asking of you? There is no dishonor to being honest. Better to know now than when your friends need you to perform.” Rik waited for anyone to speak up. Silence. “Remember, you all must fill forward so even if you trained at level six, for example, if your commander was detained and doesn’t get in the air in time then call out the slot and move into it. We need to be battle-ready when we first encounter the CS’s in clusters. This is important so listen up,” Rik paused for effect, “they don’t expect resistance that is worth a shit. They are in a feeding cycle preparing to eat. This means they will have air defenses stowed away. But if they see us jockeying into positions and moving around in our squares and Raptors coming under the group trying to catch up, they will calculate the attack protocol and respond faster than you can imagine. We’ll lose our advantage instantly. I am I clear?” One pilot raises his hand. Rik pointed at him. “Yes?”
“Is there any time when we should break ranks?” The young pilot was unsure.
Rik nodded a deadly ‘no’. “Break ranks because you’re dead and shot out of formation.” Everyone in the room laughed nervously. Rik said to the young man, compassion in his tone. “My offer still stands for you and anyone here. I am flying with you I wouldn’t want to put you through this while I am on the sidelines. But I need an honest clear conviction for this task. There is no dishonor if you believe you are not up to it. I want to know now.”
The young pilot looked at Rik with a determined smirk. “No sir, you don’t understand. I wanted to know if I could go hunting on my own.”
“There will be an opportunity to hunt but we need to hit them all together first, hard and fast, close in so that their major ships are so damaged they cannot transverse an entry to our planet. We need to stop them in space or die trying,” Rik paused in thought, “when the CS’s realize they are losing the space battle they will deploy a smaller defender; a pill-shaped orb called a ‘striker’. These things will engage you in space and you will have your hands full fighting them off.” The young pilot saluted and sat down.
Rik walked over to the board and drew a circle. “The CS is both organic and metallic with these large pores on the surface. The pores serve multiple functions for feeding, weapons, and points of entry and exit. Within the pores are complex alternating engineering that can shift rapidly to defense, propulsion, navigation, communication and some hypothesize some type of sensing organ that can smell the environment or something like that. All this change out is accomplished by internal rotating chamber systems that glide to the pore location as needed,” Rik stopped to adjust his marker and then said as he attempted to draw something else then gave up, “If we damage the larger pores with deep laser shots then we may damage these internal chambers as well. The propulsion chamber may be a lucky hit, this is their EpSat-vo wrist.” The pilots understood. “If the CS’s land on the planet they have ground forces that will attempt to decimate our defenses quickly. I am telling all of you straight, do your job and make sure they can’t get into the atmosphere. I hope the modified weapons can destroy all the ships committed to landing on the planet. Our new twisted light weapon is the key to surviving. There will be many of them, so fight like the devil.”
Chapter Thirty-two
The day was ending, and Rik spent the rest of it at Hangar 52. Iris walked toward the Flyer and watched Rik’s head bobbing as he worked in the cockpit. The Technicians had moved on to other ground defense equipment outside the hangar and all the Flyer pilots were sweating maneuvers in the simulators. Many people had gone home for dinner. The hangar had the smell of grease and fuel and the high ceilings created an echo now that it was empty of bodies and equipment. Iris peered into the cockpit. “Is that my recorder?” Rik jumped inside the cockpit and banged his elbow. Iris pressed, “Don’t lose it. What are you doing? Are you coming home?”
“No, this one is mine and I loaned the other one to you, remember? Loaned, there’s a difference.”
She picked up his recorder and scanned his unusual tools that were mixed in with familiar ones all lined in neat order. She sat down the palm-size recorder and frowned.
Rik reviewed his work in the cockpit. “I am glad I visited the pilots earlier today. I think it went well,” Rik checked his work and pointed inside the cockpit, “I am setting in a four-panel flat force field inside the cockpit and on the bottom. This will protect the co-pilot. I don't want you hurt. I’ve put in a good word to Dask and he said, I can ask you to co-pilot with me.”
“He said what? Wait. I am not going with you. Are you completely crazy? I am staying on the ground. I hate these damn things. Dask would never allow me to fly, what do you mean, ‘putting in a word?’” She adjusted her shoulder bag to leave, “Stop trying to run my life.”
“Of course, you’re right. I was out of line. I am sorry.” Rik tried to redirect. “Don’t go. Please. Look at this small force field. It’s cool. If this works and the pilot and co-pilot are safe from cannon shot and lasers this will revolutionize the Flyers advantage. I give my permission for you and Ra to steal this and both of you will be rich.”
“No. You need to have some secrets of your own. Besides I’ve taken enough stuff from you. Here’s your recorder back,” she reluctantly handed it to Rik.
Rik looked at it in her hand and ignored her. “Keep it. I am joking, it’s yours.”
“Rik, you can’t assume things around here because I have commitments also.”
“Commitments? Are you married?”
“Stop being stupid. Do you see a husband hanging around?”
Rik noticed how relieved he felt and then noticed the silence growing between them, as Iris stared at him. “Right, I was out of line, I think. I should finish this…”
“Yes, don't let me keep…”
“You don't have to go.”
“It's o.k. I…,” She gestures outside, “I need some supplies. Hey. Did you actually tell the pilots to die trying to kill the Orbs? A bit dramatic don’t you think?”
“Who’s informing on me?”
“I haven’t seen it yet, but word has it that your presentation made it to the commons net.”
Rik said. “I am not leaving.”
“I'll be here. On the ground, with my cannons and infantry.”
“They'll be hundreds of those damn CS’s. I can’t sugar coat it. We'll give them a beating, but... we'll be the story of history. I am going to set my recorder to my array cloud source in the Targain-Seven system and maybe other Lares can see our efforts. But then maybe not. It’s so discouraging to the Lares when they witness a promising race of humans destroyed. Maybe I won’t record.”
Iris was pensive and walked away and he watched her leave then shouted after her, “Iris, wait for me.”
He climbed down from the Flyer and ran after her and grabbed her hand. “Hey, Dask said you’re a marine. He said this time you’ll be ready, what does that mean?”
She gave him a frightened stare and then looked at the ground and around as if wanting to run away somewhere. “Well, you’ll hear it anyway someday, I guess. This is none of your business.”
Rik put up his hands as if to back away. “I don’t want you to feel obligated.”
“Let’s sit.” She pointed to a bench.
He admired her face but got concerned when she was going to cry. He leaned in. “Hey, I won’t ever judge you. I want to be on your side. We can drop this.”
She composed herself. “I was a commissioned pilot. I had over twenty simulated combat missions completed but not too much real experience. A lot of us don’t. All your teams are going to be cutting their teeth up there with the Orbs, I hope you thought of that?”
Rik shook his head bitterly. “Gods, do I know that.”
She fidgeted on the bench and her hands slapped her thighs determined to on a course of action. “We don’t have any major wars on this planet. We
have not had any wars or fighting on this planet for many Reapons, that’s a measure of time.”
Rik listened for the point. He waited, don’t push, he thought.
“We had a real-time training call in the early morning,” Iris said, “I remember it was still dark and raining as I rushed out of the barracks and our team began the process for takeoff. When I was in the air, I immediately noticed my Tri-module 458 was not with me and plugged in. The 458 is a unit that pings the location of your Flyer in location to the others. It’s the early version of what you and Karl did to link the Flyers in swarm mode.”
“What happened?”
Iris breathed heavily. “It’s what didn’t happen. The protocol was, no communication until the attack mode occurs and there was no check-in. I debated breaking the silence and letting the CO know I was not linked but made the call not to. At first, everything was fine but our attackers in the training were right on us immediately and they came in close, that’s the point, but since I was not sending a location message, they were electronically blind, and visibility was bad.”
“Oh Gods, what happened Iris?”
She looked away in shame. “A pilot came right at me and I avoided a direct collision, but he clipped my tail. God damn it. God damn it to hell. I could see him. I knew his trajectory was going over me.” Iris’ eyes were tearing as she talked, “but he didn’t even see me. He didn’t have a chance. My Flyer lost altitude and the tail sheared off. I bailed but Michal didn’t get out. His Flyer went into a tumble and then a fireball and then crashed.”
Rik reached and pulled Iris close in and held her. She sobbed quietly and then there was silence. Rik felt her shoulders heave up and down and her hands fall lifeless from his embrace.
She said. “The inquiry busted me out which I agreed, and my career ended. Assigned as a non-commission staff with on-call only. If you’re ‘on-call’ on a planet that doesn’t have any war, well basically…” she looked away as if seeing something through the hangar wall, “no credits and no more friends in the pilot ranks. I was a loner. Then I met Ra and was taken in by all those ‘losers’ and ‘gamers’ that Dask hates, I immersed myself in lots of drugs and self-pity. That made things worse.”
“Iris I didn’t know.”
“Those people, those ‘losers’ would not let me sink and before I knew it, I had lots of work in data. If I am going to put my trust and faith in any group, it’s not the military, it’s people like Ra and his friends.”
Rik gently wipes a tear from her cheek. “I know what it’s like, in a war, things happen, you can’t control all the variables.”
“This wasn’t a god damn war. It was my stupid mistake for not being organized and prepared enough, for being too proud to admit a mistake and it cost the life of a young man, a promising pilot, who would probably be here to save our asses if it wasn’t for my being such an incompetent.”
She took in another deep breath. “Gods, will this ever end? I can’t believe Dask said you can ask if I want to fly. What a sadistic bastard. He knows I am grounded. I can’t fly legally not even a kite, that’s a toy by the way.”
“I know what a kite is. I am so damn stupid. I need to learn to shut my mouth. Dask didn’t say anything like that I made it up thinking I was being cute.”
“Well, that was pretty cute, right through the heart cute, you, cruel ass bastard.”
Rik held her close again. “I am so sorry. I can’t believe I did that stupid stunt. Please forgive me. I think you are the most beautiful women I’ve ever encountered, and I don’t care what happened to you. I am concluding all of us are wounded in some way.”
Rik looked at her hand in his. “I’ve done things I am not proud of. I let my family down and lost my younger brother when I was supposed to keep him safe. My inaction cost my mother her life.”
Iris was composed and said. “You didn’t know so I don’t blame you for your stupid Korpe actions. But I have to say I’ve never told anyone all these details before. Can I trust you? You’re not going to put this on the common net?”
Rik, with a determined expression, said, “You can trust me with your life, and I don’t know how to put anything on the common net.”
She laughs. “You’re always so dramatic.”
Chapter Thirty-three
The flight to the Orbital Platform was shaky at first but once in space, the calm slight rocking motion of the transport ship made Ra want to sleep. Out of the port, he saw planet Aoife decreasing in size as they moved away from her. There was a faint star beyond the planet which was one of the large gas giants in their system and it was the focus of his work. The twin suns were set at the right distance to provide a balance between the seasons with Aoife’s long elliptical orbit. If not for the smaller sun Aoife would turn into a solid mass of ice before returning to the larger sun just to be whipped back around and out by its massive gravitational pull. Further, in the distance, ancient Aoife Prime appeared as a larger bright star.
The San Germaine 701, had been in transport service for years, running short trips into space for satellite repair and now carrying materials, personnel, and technology for the new program to build defense systems. Ra re-ran the mantra in his mind, I am the only one that understands best how to run this system. We need that way to get data from deep space. This will be over soon, “Damn,” Ra said out loud as he held on, the ship jerked slightly as it locked into the docking tube. He gathered his things quickly to de-board and walked through a narrow one-person corridor that opened to a larger room at the docking lock.
A young smart looking military man came up to him and extended his hand. “Are you Rabid from dirtside?”
He shook Ra’s hand. Ra attempted to salute and then instead put his hands in his pockets. “Just call me Ra. Hell of a ride to get here.”
The Captain smiled at Ra. “I am Captain Trej-re. This is my command at least through the emergency. No need to salute me you’re not in uniform. I understand you had a major role in developing the weapons we are going to be using. That’s good work.”
Ra looked around at the staff gathering. “Is there going to be enough room for all of us?”
“No. It’s going to be tight, but we have a plan to cycle staff out so don’t get too comfortable. Defense Services told me you need to set up the initial grid scans and then we can send you home.”
Ra agreed. “That’s going to be a matter of calibrating all the platforms with their distance to Aoife in the continuous orbit and the foci for light reflection. I need to monitor the programs to ensure they continuously update while in orbit.”
“Glad it’s you and not me.”
“No worries Captain, I should have it completed in a sun cycle or less.”
“Well let’s get to it. Maybe we can put you on the next flight back to Aoife,” the Captain turned to the Bozeman, “close and seal the hatch from the San Germaine and let it get underway.” The Bozeman opened the hatch to the platform which made a venting sound. A gangway connected the ship and the platform, and he motioned everyone to file through and into the orbital platform. While Ra was unpacking his duffle, he watched the San Germaine 701 floats silently into space.
After four days in space, Ra settled down to his first easy night as he contemplated his list of remaining tasks. “I still need to control the attitude of the orbiting platform and keep the dish array searching in gird 37,” he said, ‘Easy,’ he thought. Then it turned out not to be so easy as he struggled to get the array to stay on task and the programming had to be de-bugged constantly. Everything was working now as planned and he’s was beginning to look forward to being able to leave. He keyed instructions to the array computer and four small rockets fired to correct their orbit. He typed instructions and visually observed the large dish adjusting to the commands. He sat back, hands laced behind his head, proud of his accomplishment and looked over to his co-worker who was sleeping. He also gave a hateful glare at the half-eaten egg sandwich on his desk. It was once a solid block of ice for who knows
how long and now his stomach protested. He leaned over to the trash can and threw up trying to do it silently. “Oh, damn that’s nasty tasting.”
Ra closed his eyes tight because the urge to throw up was still strong and he began breathing and concentrating not to lose what was left of his lunch. He felt tired and his brain hurt. He took deep slow breaths. The orbital translator was playing havoc with his balance and then he heard ‘clicking’ and ‘chirping’ sounds inside his brain. Thankfully, the Dol-ve was the worst he has ever tasted. He took a few gulps to rinse out his mouth. After sitting quietly to make sure he was not going to throw up again he gathered the garbage and tied the bag securely then placed it in the recycler.
After a few more deep breaths he composed himself and looked at the person sleeping at his post. “Hey, Melve, wake the hell up.”
“What…What’s happening,” Melve almost fell out of his chair, “you got something?”
“No, I am just tired of thinking to myself. Watching you waste your life away sleeping. You want to play some games?”
Melve yawned widely and put his head in his hands. “I took the entire shift last night, remember. I haven’t slept in eighteen. I don’t want to play any games, grow up. A full sun cycle and I am ‘figging’ bored out of my head. Why the hell did I sign up for this? Why the hell did you wake me up?”
“Because I am tired of carrying all the workaround here.”
“I attended Aoife Technology Academy and the Military Commander School, you’re not carrying anything,” Melve said, “unless it’s my lunch.”
“Then you dropped out to be a line cook at the Green Tree Bistro?” Ra fired back.
“Hey, it was a way for me to concentrate on developing these orbital routines. Adopted by many industries I’ll have you know”