by Randal Sloan
“The ship before you represents the next step for Space Tech. We know that our enemies continue to work against us, as we saw in their upgraded missiles the last time we faced them. It would be foolish of us to not expect more problems with them. So the ship before you represents a new class of our corvettes, with the addition of heavy armor. May our enemies regret the day they decided to challenge us.
“As witnessed by everyone gathered here today, I hereby christen you Artemis. May your flights be swift, your attacks be fierce, and your armor be strong.”
Julie raised and then dropped her hand to signify to the VR to strike the virtual champagne bottle against the ship. She could have sworn she felt the champagne splash back on her causing her mouth to open in surprise, but then she felt Zeke’s mental smirk and knew what he’d done. Smiling at herself for falling for his little practical joke, knowing the AI had been his tool to facilitate it, she finished her speech.
“This concludes our ceremony. Thank you, everyone, for your time.” As she stepped down from the podium, she sent Zeke a mental, “You’re going to pay for that one!”
Julie mingled with her family, friends and co-workers a few minutes before the group broke up. She wasn’t surprised that no one mentioned the not-so-virtual champagne. Everyone probably thought it was imagined!
#
As she returned to her office, Julie was surprised by a VR call from a psychiatrist at the secure psychiatric facility where Jon Rupert was being treated. Jon’s whereabouts were being kept secret in case anyone from the Organization tried to get revenge. After all, he had been the mole who worked for Space Tech and betrayed all of their leaders, many of whom were expected to get the death penalty. Jon had been sent for treatment after attempting to kidnap Julie and accidentally shooting Zeke. The call was being supervised by the staff psychiatrist assigned to Jon and he would keep tabs on Jon during the call.
The psychiatrist, Doctor Al Foster, initiated the conversation. “Jon has been making excellent progress with his therapy. A large contribution to that progress has been due to your help in the past. But one of the things we have been trying in the last few days is hypnotherapy to help Jon look at things that we believe he has repressed due to the terrible environment he had to survive in the Organization. One of the results of that is he has discovered something that he believes may be important to you. We are at the point we really need to get past this to be able to move on in his therapy, so understand that is the only reason I have allowed this call. I’m turning the discussion over to him, but I will be quick to censor him if he gets out of line.”
Jon had appeared distressed at the beginning of the call, but he finally seemed to relax. Maybe he had thought the psychiatrist would back out or that Julie wouldn’t take his call.
“Thank you so much for speaking with me. Again, Julie, I must tell you how sorry I am for doing what I did. What I did was terrible. But I remembered something that I feel is very important. My uncle was talking to someone about the pirates. He said something about them getting nuclear weapons. They were old weapons and they were going to have to do something to refurbish them, but that was only going to take them a few weeks. I’m very much afraid that when you go after the pirates, they’ll have them ready by now. I needed to let you know.”
Julie looked at him in shock. She should have realized that was likely to happen. “You’re right!” she told him. “That is very important. We’ll have to make plans accordingly.” She looked at him thoughtfully a moment. “This is just another of those times when they’re getting more resources than they should have. We really need to figure out who is helping them.”
Jon gave a nod of understanding. “I really didn’t know much about them because my uncle was the only one who ever met with them.” He paused a moment, trying to think back over the times he had tried to forget.
“Maybe one thing, but I don’t know if it helps or will confuse you even more. My uncle talked a few times about the men supporting us, but I didn’t pay it much attention at the time. After all, I thought he was crazy. He called them the real Organization. What I now think he meant was that the other Organization has existed behind the scenes for a long time now and that they are few in number but very powerful. Another thing I do remember was that they seemed to know things that they shouldn’t know but somehow they did. He had no clue how they did that, but it was like they could predict events before they happened.
“It made no sense to me at the time. I figured it was just coincidence, but now when I think about it with a little more perspective, I wonder if it’s possible they were somehow getting information from the future. I don’t think it’s time travel but maybe just information. Even with that, they didn’t seem infallible and in fact sometimes got it completely wrong. I’m hoping that means someone is fighting against them.”
Julie gave him a smile. “Well, I’m fighting them now. Big mistake on their part. I intend to wipe them out, and then I’ll go after those behind them. But I appreciate the information.”
Jon looked sad. “Know that I wish I was able to do more. I have a lot to make up for after what I did. Anyway, if I remember anything else, I’ll try to communicate it to you later.”
Julie gave him a sincere smile. “Thank you, Jon,” she told him. “I’ll have to think on it some more, but you’ve been a big help. You just work on getting yourself better.”
Jon looked over at the psychiatrist. “I still have a long way to go. But I’m doing better.”
Julie really hoped so. She had gradually come to terms over what Jon had done and really wanted him to get better. “Good; I sincerely hope you do get better and find some peace and happiness someday.”
Mouthing his thanks, the psychiatrist closed the VR call. Julie was glad he had allowed the call. The idea of the nukes was very important to their plans.
Julie sat there for some time, deep in thought. What Jon had said made a lot of sense, especially the part about the real Organization, but she just couldn’t quite fit it all together yet. She went to see Zeke. Maybe he would have some insight.
“You’re right,” he said after listening to her thoughts. “We should have been expecting the nukes, although that’s bad news for us. The rest of what you said makes sense, but we just don’t have enough facts to understand it yet. Too many puzzle pieces, although the part about them knowing the future seems a little farfetched, but who knows. We’ll just have to keep digging.”
“What about the pirates? We have to take the nukes into account so that means the heavy armor is absolutely essential now.”
“Yes, I agree, but is that even enough?” Julie said softly. “At least we’ve already added it to Joe’s ship. I’m going to have to keep thinking on this one, I believe. I’m going to try one more time to figure out a way to get the drive to work in atmosphere. In between, we’re going to have to be extremely careful, keeping at least a couple of the older anti-pirate ships around as escorts and arranging fighter escorts if we go down to earth.”
Zeke smiled. “I’m not sure I miss being down there that much. This is becoming more and more like home. But I agree on the rest and we probably need to go talk to your uncle; you need to apply the rule to our family and friends too.”
“Yes, you’re right. It’s like we take one step forward, and then we have to take two steps back. I’ve got to figure out the fields somehow. I’m going to get a third ship started just in case.”
#
The next day Julie started working in earnest on the modification of the fields to allow the drive to work in the earth’s atmosphere. Her idea was to wrap the fields more tightly around the ship when in atmosphere so that the amount of air was too small to affect it; the change would reduce the amount of thrust available from the drive when in atmosphere, but she estimated it would only be ten percent or so. That was still faster than any other ship on or near the planet.
Zeke helped Julie set up an AI to simulate her changes since it wasn’t practical to test it in
flight, but as soon as she started talking about her math, he started getting glassy-eyed. Sheepishly, he told her, “If you don’t need me here for a while, I’m going to go with Joe on his initial test flight. He needs someone to keep an eye on him.”
Laughing Julie told him, “Go. I can tell I lost you a while ago. What you’ve set up for me is perfect. I should be able to handle the rest.”
Zeke hurried off. He didn’t want to wait around to see if she changed her mind.
Joe looked up in surprise when Zeke came aboard, but he gave his friend a big smile. “Good timing. I was just finishing up my pre-flight checks. The more the merrier, I say.”
“Just like old times,” Zeke told him as they prepared to undock. “Although I can say neither of us dreamed of this when we were in school together.”
“We did,” Joe told him. “We just didn’t dream big enough. Of course, a lot of that is because of your fiancée, who has changed everything. We’re just along for the ride.”
“Yeah, I know, but it’s been an amazing ride so far. Are we ready to do this?” Zeke asked as he finished the last step in the Undock procedure. The next step was up to the pilot.
Joe proudly took the ship’s controls, ready to run it through its paces. “Space Tech Station, this is Artemis. Ready to undock.”
“Artemis, you are clear to undock. Please follow your designated path until you are clear of our orbit.”
“Roger, Space Tech Station. Undocking now.”
“Safe flight Artemis and Godspeed.”
Using thrusters only, Joe moved away from the station. As soon as they were clear, he engaged the ship’s drive, shoving the controls up to one hundred percent. Zeke had to laugh at his friend when he heard Joe’s exclamation of glee.
“I gather you like your new toy,” Zeke told him, pleased to see his friend so happy.
Joe had to laugh with him. “Yeah, this is a little different from when I flew Julie’s ship down for the award. That time I had to fly a little more sedately and really, everyone knows it’s her ship. This time, I’m flying my own ship. Shall we try the turbo button?”
Not waiting for Zeke’s answer, he punched it. The little ship surged ahead, once more drawing an exclamation of glee from Joe.
Again laughing at his friend, Zeke asked him, “So are you just going to keep flying around going nowhere or did you actually want to go somewhere useful?”
“Oh, I’m ready. Just show me where I need to go.”
Zeke tapped on his console, indicating the test area in red. “Just follow the AI’s course,” he told him as the AI drew a line indicating their course out to the test area.
Joe followed the AI’s directions to take them out to the test area. At their speed it didn’t take them very long to reach it. He then proceeded to blow through the course, taking out all the targets. Other than a few simulated rail gun hits that the AI determined would not have made it through the armor, Joe successfully completed the test.
Bragging on his friend, Zeke didn’t have the heart to tell Joe that it didn’t beat his own time. It didn’t matter and they both knew it didn’t compare to Julie’s run through the test, and of course, Julie had done it all without a single rail gun hit.
They made a couple more runs before finally Zeke talked Joe into letting him try the ship out. He probably wouldn’t have done it then, but he knew Zeke needed to see what effect the armor had on the handling of the modified ship. Zeke’s own test went very well. Finally, he handed the control back over to Joe to fly them back to the Space Station.
“Hey, listen,” Zeke told his friend. “I need your help. We’ve got to come up with a plan, just the two of us; how do we wipe out those pirates?”
“I have just the idea,” Joe told him. “But we’re going to need some new toys!”
#
Julie had been listening to them chatter on the VR, so she didn’t miss Joe’s exclamations of glee. She could relate to the joy one got from flying his own ship. The VR chatter went on for a while as Joe tested all the systems on the ship, including the weapons and the turbo boost button. She could hear Zeke and Joe as they interacted together and was glad they had gotten this opportunity. She had gradually started listening with only half an ear, her own tests not going so well, when the coms went nearly silent except for the communications with Space Tech Station. Julie had thought the two couldn’t get into too much trouble, but she knew they were up to something.
When they came back in, Joe was bursting with excitement, as Julie had expected. But the two had a look in their eyes that she knew meant they had something planned. She tried picking Zeke’s brain, using their connection to try to pick up on his thoughts, but she got nothing but a brick wall. That exasperated her to no end. Zeke was always better than her at this mental stuff, no matter how hard she worked on it.
Julie met with the two of them back in the little observation room to talk about the break-in flight. Joe still bubbled with excitement, so excited that he could hardly sit still. “It’s one thing to fly it in a simulator or even in your ship. It’s quite another thing to fly my own ship at full speed.”
Julie understood perfectly. She had felt that thrill the first time she had opened her ship up to full speed. The last time when Joe had flown them for their flight to earth, it had required a much more regal flight, so he never got to open it up.
Joe bubbled on, “That little ship is absolutely amazing.” Julie couldn’t help but smile. She felt exactly the same way about her ship.
Zeke chimed in. “He let me fly it for a few minutes, although it was rather begrudgingly. You can’t really tell the difference with the armor. Since the drive unit cancels inertia, you don’t even feel the difference in the turns or accel and decel. Of course, you have to remember the mass is still there. The only drawback I see is that until you figure out how to tweak the drives to work in atmosphere, we won’t be able do the takeoffs and landings.”
Joe didn’t want them to get bogged down on that. Right now he didn’t care. “I really like the turbo boost button. Zeke’s AI handles it perfectly. It’s not as good as what I’ve seen you do, but boy, is it fun to get that extra pop when you need it.”
Zeke nodded. “With the AI’s help, between the two of us we’re almost as good as Jules.”
Julie smiled but didn’t comment. But then, her smile slipped a little. So that’s what they’re up to.
Before Julie could act on her inspiration, Joe slapped Zeke on the back. “Zeke, do you remember that VR game that we played a couple of years ago. Alien Defense or something like that? Remember how the two of us would double team the aliens.”
“Yeah, we made quite the team.”
Julie had had enough. She had figured out the not-so-subtle sales pitch. “Ok, guys. You might as well fill me in on what you two are planning.”
The two looked at each other somewhat guiltily. “That obvious, huh?” Zeke sheepishly admitted at last.
Julie laughed. “Compared to Emily, you two are amateurs. Well?”
“We have a plan to take out all the pirates at once. I know you’re going to be busy, so we think we’ve come up with a way to lure them in if you’ll let me borrow your little ship.”
“I’ll think about it, but even then only under one condition. You have to add the new armor to my ship too. I’ve come way too close to losing you twice now, and I won’t take any chances. My test of the new field configuration to allow the drives to work in atmosphere still didn’t work, although I’m certain I’m getting close. We’ll just have to add the armor and figure out what to do about the in atmo problem or build another ship.”
Zeke was pleased so far. She hadn’t said no yet. “I know you think they’ll use nukes this time, based on what Jon told you. We actually agree with your assessment. We all know that they’re desperate and will do anything. That will only make public opinion turn against them even more, but they don’t care. All the more reason to have two of us this time. And yes, we were planning on adding th
e armor just like we’d already talked about doing.”
“But we also had another idea, which is why we think we could give this a try. Your little trick of using the drive fields against the planes actually gave it to us. What if we added secondary field generators on the sides of the ships? That and a couple of small independent power plants to operate them. We would have in effect a shield system that would protect us from even a nuclear blast. At least in theory.”
Julie looked at the two of them in surprise. “If you set the fields to repel, it should work. Wow, that would be cool. Why didn’t I think of that?”
Zeke gave her a smile. “You may have been a little distracted lately. That and you are just not as devious as the two of us. We’ve had a lot of practice together.”
Julie nodded. “I can see that. It may have been a mistake to let the two of you get back together. I’m going to have to keep a close eye on both of you. A really close eye.”
Zeke still had not looked Julie in the eyes. Of course, Julie had already learned with these two you had to keep digging. Like peeling back the layers on an onion. So she gave them the glare a second time. “Ok, I’m all in so far. What’s the rest of the plan, guys?”
Joe looked at Zeke. At least he was sitting further away than his friend, so he was thinking that maybe he would have enough time to make a run for it if he had to. “This is the part you’re not going to like. As we said, we plan to send Zeke out in your ship. Then we’re going to have him transmit a message using a recording from you. The message will say something to the effect that the drive has malfunctioned and to please send help. And I’ll be hidden nearby to swoop in and double team them.”
“You want Zeke to be bait. Why?”
“Because they’ll think it’s you, and all of them will come after you. The chance to take out the Dragon Princess? Not a single one will stay away. And we get them all at once.”
“Dragon Princess? That’s what they’re calling me?” Julie asked, a flash of anger in her eyes.