by Randal Sloan
“You’re right, I really wish that would work. But who would pay the price for us taking the easy way out? Some of our family or friends or someone else completely innocent? Maybe even one or both of us later, somehow caught off guard at a vulnerable time. We know they have the nukes. Do we have any real choice?”
“No,” she told him, “but I can’t stand the thought of losing you.”
“Neither can I lose you. You mean everything to me. You know that.”
“Yet we have to do this somehow.” Julie just clung tightly to Zeke, both of them trying to dig within themselves to find a way to go on. Somehow together they slowly found the strength they needed, each helping the other.
Zeke gave Julie a sad smile. “You know, a few months ago if you had been getting ready for this battle, all you would have been talking about would be revenge. Now we know it must be done, and we know we have to do it, even though desperately we wish we didn’t. The only thing we care about is protecting each other. That and surviving so we can see our daughter.”
Julie nodded. “She is so beautiful and brilliant and strong. She’s going to be such a handful to raise, and such a joy.”
“Oh and Zeke,” Julie told him, giving him her own smile. This one was a little less sad. “We have been so busy I never got a chance to tell you. Our daughter talked a little bit about her brother. As we both already knew, we’re going to have a son after our daughter. I think he is going to be amazing too. I can’t wait to see him either.”
“You must be careful tomorrow, for our families’ sake. Promise me,” Zeke pleaded with her.
“You know I will. And I know you’re not telling me something. Something you probably can’t because of that obelisk. But you have to be careful too. You must promise.”
Zeke pulled her close and said to her quietly. “I promise I will do everything I can both to protect you and to protect myself. Nothing has ever changed about that or ever will.”
Tears in her eyes, Julie nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. They stayed that way for a long time.
#
The next day they set the plan in place. Julie and Joe both saying that they hoped it would work to draw the pirates out. Zeke already knew it would, but just not exactly like the other two thought it would. But he was no longer worried about himself, but he worried the other two might somehow be overwhelmed before he could get there to help. But he knew he would have to wait, wait until the one pirate that had something he shouldn’t have sent it after the big ship. Then after that was done, he could get there and help.
So they followed the plan. Joe left first, headed out as if he was going on a patrol. He deliberately went at a pace that would allow him to return at the right time. Zeke also left, making it look like he was going toward R4. Julie left a little later and flew her ship as if something was wrong. Finally she stopped and sent a mayday out, declaring that her drive had failed.
Joe and Zeke both immediately started toward her, Joe flying at close to full speed and Zeke flying his ship only about half speed. They figured the pirates would expect that out of them, plus Zeke knew he couldn’t let himself get too close. And of course, the pirates appeared, exactly as Zeke knew they would. But he almost freaked out when he saw how many there were. They had expected only five or six. Their best count, it had been based on the number that had escaped after the failed attack on the station and the amount of damage the escaping ships had taken.
There were ten of them total! If his daughter hadn’t warned him at the obelisk, he would have rushed in to try to help. But he held his course, calling Joe and telling him he had to go faster to get there to help. Joe acknowledged it and sped up but Zeke knew that for at least the first few minutes Julie would be completely alone. They hadn’t worried when they expected five or so, but now! He did speed up a little but nothing like he wanted to do. And so, he watched closely to see which ship would be the one. Finally, one separated from the others and shot forward toward him.
Julie was already busy. Realizing that she finally had a real challenge before her, she knew she had to change the plan and immediately go on the attack. She refused to run away because she knew this was their chance to wipe out all the pirates. But if she waited and let them all fire their missiles at her at once, she knew she would be overwhelmed. When a couple of them pulled out ahead of the others and off to one side of the rest, she went after them. She shot toward them at full speed, weaving and phasing in and out so they couldn’t get missile lock. She knew that if they had nukes, and they did, she somehow knew in her heart, that they would only have to get the missiles close to her and set them off. With enough nuclear explosions simultaneously, even her shields wouldn’t save her. But without missile lock, they couldn’t even launch them.
Julie quickly got her own missile lock and fired her first attack, maneuvering her ship so the first pirate was between her and the second, preventing him missile lock for a few seconds longer. The first was too busy trying to dodge her missile to no avail. She quickly closed to what was for her rail gun range to the second and fired a full spread. Seconds later, both pirates vanished in balls of fire.
Of course by this time, the rest of them were approaching, except for one that appeared to have veered off toward Zeke. Zeke could easily handle one, she thought, too busy to give it another thought. That was one less she had to worry about. Looking at the remaining ships, she saw immediately that they still thought in only two dimensions, all flying in a single plane. Picking the side nearest to her, she concentrated on the edges of the group and maneuvered her ship to strike from up above them. That helped put more distance between her and the ones on the far side, too far away for them to get missile lock. She still tried to avoid lock by the others, but there were just too many ships for that to work this time. She quickly got her own locks on the two targets she had chosen and fired her own missiles.
Veering away at full speed, Julie thanked God for Zeke and his tweaks which got her a little more speed. She quickly outdistanced all but the two missiles closest to her, but the pirates, realizing she would soon pull away from them too, detonated them in a fiery nuclear blast which she simply couldn’t outrun. No longer a question on the nukes, Julie thought. Amazingly, even with the two of them, Zeke’s shields held and she was clear.
The pirates clearly had no idea on the shields, not expecting her to survive, so they were completely surprised when she burst out of the explosion. They had stopped their own pitiful version of dodging and weaving. That meant that she was able to quickly get her own lock on another one, immediately destroying him.
Julie was just turning to prepare to engage the remaining ones when suddenly a huge explosion lit up the entire area of space. “Zeke!” she screamed and all rational thought left her. She spun and launched her ship toward where she knew Zeke had been, moving faster than she had ever done before. Fortunately, none of the remaining pirate ships could get missile lock because she would not have had enough remaining thought to avoid them. She knew now why he had been testing the horrible weapon she had sworn she would never use but now she would launch without hesitation. Somehow, the enemies that fought in this terrible temporal war had managed to get that weapon to the pirates.
She passed the shattered remains of the pirate ship that had fired the weapon and she laughed bitterly at the irony of it, killed by his own weapon. Her screens were almost totally blinded at this point, but she was having trouble seeing anyway because of the tears in her eyes.
Just as she was nearing total despair, her screens started to clear and she saw a ship. “Zeke!” Julie screamed again.
“Sorry, love. I’m ok,” mercifully Zeke answered her. “That monster shook me so hard, I think it scrambled my brain.”
“Hey, hold on a second,” Zeke told her. Suddenly his ship fired four huge plasma blasts, each of them striking and destroying one of the four ships that had been following her. “My turn. Just taking care of the rest of them. You can’t believe how hard it was watchi
ng you have to fight all of them while I waited till I got the big one over with. I had to make sure I wasn’t close enough for it to fry you like it did our pal.”
“Hey, I’m counting him too. That makes me an Ace like you, except you’re a double Ace now.”
“Zeke,” Julie told him, “You’re babbling now, love. Not that I care. I’m coming aboard and I’m going to need several minutes of Zeke time, just you and me.”
“You got it, love. I need a lot of Julie time too, but I was thinking more on the lines of years myself.”
About that time, Joe came bursting on the scene, staring in disbelief at what he saw before him. “Dang it, guys,” he sent out over the VR. “Couldn’t you have left me one or two?”
#
After a considerable amount of Zeke time, Julie knew she still had to send out the broadcast she had planned. It just wasn’t going to be the broadcast they expected to hear. So she remained on board with Zeke, the two of them returning together to Space Tech Station. Once back, she notified her two envoys of an impending broadcast in the media room. Several members of the media were also on station, although quite a few had left for her originally schedule broadcast at Space Tech Corporate on Earth. Too bad for them.
This time, she turned to Zeke, telling him, “You’re coming to this one too. We have to recognize our new Ace. Plus, don’t you think it’s time to announce to the world our engagement? The wedding is in less than two weeks.” She couldn’t help but give a huge smile at that thought.
The same friendly makeup artist was there, so Julie introduced her to Zeke. “Zeke, this is Jesalyn Hensley, the best makeup artist in the world.” She smiled at Jess’ reaction, knowing the woman wouldn’t want to be given such recognition.
“Jess, this is my fiancé, Zeke,” she told her.
“Glad to meet you. Bet this girl’s a handful to keep up with,” she told him.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Zeke told her. “But I love her anyway,” he went on, seeing the face Julie was giving him, and then he finished, “More than life itself.”
“He needs to start taking better care of himself,” Julie said. “I need him too.” Seeing the woman’s confusion, Julie went on, “I thought I’d lost him today. It was a terrifying moment or so before I knew he was ok.”
“Well, thank God he came through alright,” Jess told them. Lightly touching up his face with makeup, she went on, “He doesn’t need much either. The two of you make quite the couple. I’m pleased that I have been able to work with you.”
Julie couldn’t help but smile. She really liked this makeup lady.
So shortly thereafter they had the media broadcast. Smiling and holding Zeke’s hand, Julie stepped up to the podium. “Today we made another big step forward in the demise of the Organization. While I was in flight to earth to make a different broadcast, I was attacked by the remaining pirate ships. In the battle that ensued, all of the pirate ships were destroyed despite the fact they were using illegal weaponry. Nuclear warheads and another weapon so terrible I hope that today is the last time it is ever used. And I’m convinced it was all of their ships, since we encountered significantly more than we expected to see. In fact, a total of ten ships.”
Pulling Zeke closer she went on. “I was able to destroy five of the pirate ships and Zeke here took out the other five. That makes Zeke an Ace if you’re counting.”
Giving them a huge smile, Julie went on, “Zeke and I have decided to make public our engagement of several months. Zeke and I are to be married in a private ceremony in just under a couple of weeks.”
“That’s all that I have prepared. I’m going to start with our two envoys. Do you have any questions that you would like to ask?”
James was first, and ever the practical one, his question was, “I would like to know about this weapon that you described as so horrific. Do you have this weapon also, and do you intend to use it?”
Julie looked at Zeke and then turning back to James answering, “We know how to build it. We haven’t done so at this time. I want to say I would never use it, but when I thought they had killed Zeke earlier today with their version of it, I realized that I would without a thought if they harmed one of my own.” She let a little of her anger show through.
That revelation shook up a lot of the people watching. Many of them loved and trusted Julie. They believed her when she gave them her oath about the kinetic weapons. Still, a larger weapon in the hands of anyone was a little scary.
After a moment, Julie softened a little. “I will give you the same oath I gave you before. I will swear to use this weapon as a last resort, only to protect those that I love and those that work for the good of mankind.”
James nodded, unable to speak. Once again, he believed her, as did those that were watching. A mental collective sigh of relief that could be almost be felt moved across the viewing audience.
Xiu had the same worries as everyone else. But for her question, she took an entirely different tact. She smiled at Julie. “I know you are having a private wedding, but I want to ask you on behalf of my country and the millions of other people out there who will want to see it, will you please consider a VR broadcast of the wedding?”
Julie was completely taken my surprise for a moment, but she gave Xiu a smile. “Yes,” she told her, “I didn’t realize that anyone would care, but we can do that if people are really interested.”
Neither of them had any follow-up questions. Julie let some of the other media attending ask questions, most asking for details about the battle with the pirates, so Julie gave them a few minutes, but it wasn’t long until she was ready to wrap it up.
Smiling, Julie told her audience, “As you know, Space Tech is having a big media event up here in a few days. I look forward to seeing a lot of you then. We have a few new toys that we want to show you.”
#
Despite all the flurry of activity and media events, Julie had been able to dedicate a good bit of her time to her personal project, the powered suit for Brian. Buried in her work on that system was her determination to use the capabilities developed for her other intended purpose; a powered and shielded armor for all of her Space Forces. She had come to love Brian as the adopted brother she considered him and that just increased her determination to protect Tim and the others.
It was time to test Brian’s suit. Julie had used herself as the tester for the final design; using her prototype of the armor to test the functionality. The enhanced AI Space Tech had developed in association with Future Tech Unlimited was used as the core of the system, along with the power supply that Julie had built to support it all. In the case of Brian, that power was used to give his suit the capability to move on its own, all based on his instructions to the AI. In the case of the Space Tech armor, that power unit would allow the armor to do much more.
Uncle Ted did all the work of fitting the suit on Brian and testing the fit, although Julie knew it would be perfect. Modern systems allowed precise measurements to be automatically taken and used to fit anyone. What Uncle Ted really was doing was making sure Brian was comfortable with what was happening; he was deliberately taking his time to allow him to adjust to it all. In Brian’s case, sensors were also included to measure the stress the suit was putting on his body. With Julie’s dampening system in place, she was convinced that stress would be less than his normal ride aboard his wheelchair.
Now was the moment of truth. They were standing in the room built for Brian, originally intended to only function at zero g. Gravity plates now allowed Julie to be able to control his gravity level from the zero default up to a standard 1 g. For the test, she had set the level to about one-half standard.
Brian was trying to control his excitement. Uncle Ted’s work had taken care of his nervousness, but nothing could dampen his level of enthusiasm. Just as excited herself, nevertheless Julie managed to hide hers a little better.
“Ok, little brother, if you’re ready, it’s time,” she said. When he nodded, she wen
t on, “For the test, I’ll be keeping partial control of your systems, just in case. Your VR should be displaying a path to the end of the room. Please instruct your AI to walk you to that destination and back.”
She didn’t have to tell Brian twice. “AI, please walk me over there and back,” he said.
“Woo-hoo!” he shouted as the powered suit started walking him across the room. “Faster,” he said. The AI complied but Julie had put governors on it to prevent it from going too fast. It only went moderately faster, bringing a slight frown to his face.
“You’ve got to learn to walk first, little brother,” she told him. “You can run when we’re sure it’s all ok.”
Laughing, Brian told her as the suit began to bring him back to her, “I guess that means the obstacle course is out.”
“Yeah, for now, but I know we won’t be able to keep you off it for too long. Just enjoy walking for today. I know Uncle Ted is going to be keeping us slow until he’s sure everything is ok.”
Uncle Ted nodded. “I’m watching him. So far, he’s looking superb. That damping field is absolutely amazing.”
Brian had returned to stand in front of them. “It’s the best, sis. Thank you so much.”
Julie rushed forward to hug him. “Super, little brother. I’m going to leave you with Uncle Ted. Make sure you do everything he says to do. I’m sure it won’t be long until you’re running across the whole station! Just be patient for a little while longer.”
Brian held her just a moment longer. “I know, sis. I’ll be good. But you’d better watch out. It won’t be long before I’m gonna to give you a run for the prize on that obstacle course.”
Laughing, Julie pulled away, turning to her uncle. “I’ve done my best here, Uncle Ted. Good luck in keeping our little fireball in control.”
Walking to the door, she said, “See you later, Bri.”