Gunship

by J. J. Snow

  Ty watched as they came up on the screen one by one, cautiously cresting the hill. “What the hell is she doing here?” he demanded, pointing at the screen outraged.

  Tiny had just made the ridgeline and suddenly cut off to one side behind some boulders and scrubby pine trees. She flattened herself to the ground and pulled some brush over top of her to better camouflage her position. By the time she was done, she blended into the terrain so well that it would have been hard to pick her out if they hadn’t seen her set up to begin with.

  “She had a solid package in electronics, good duty report, and Commander Zain recommended her,” Duv began.

  “I don’t care what she has or who recommended her.” Ty turned to the Captain. “Captain, that broad is trouble. We don’t need her on this ship or in this crew!”

  Reilly glanced at Ty. “What’s the problem, Sergeant? She looks pretty good on paper and so far pretty good in the field, too.”

  Ty growled, “She has a lack of respect for authority and an attitude problem. I told Duv to have her bug off. She’s a loner. I know her type. She’ll get someone killed because she’ll be too busy trying to do her own thing.”

  Reilly started to reply but then leaned in to the screen. Two other recruits had crested the ridge about fifty yards separate from each other, but they were oblivious to that fact. They both moved down the hillside slowly, on guard. Two sharp cracks echoed over the hillside, and they both were marked as dead. One threw down his weapon in frustration, while the other looked in surprise at his neighbor. Reilly started to smile.

  “She’s good!” Skeeter remarked, looking around with a grin. He quickly turned back to the screen as Ty scowled in his direction.

  They watched as the rest of the pack behind the girl made the ridge only to be taken out by her. The sounds of shots fired put some of them on alert, but she used the terrain to her advantage and took them out one by one. The last recruit to appear managed to escape to cover behind a large rock, only to get shot a few seconds later when he attempted to flank her. Only four had outpaced her, and the gap was growing by the minute. Once she had picked off the thirteen behind her, she moved slowly out onto the lip of the ridge and set up.

  “No way she makes those shots,” Ty said. “She had to hide out to get the others at close range. That’s easy work, ambush shots, like shooting fish in a barrel. The ones in front of her are eight hundred to a thousand yards right now. She’s not that good.” He crossed his arms moodily.

  Marek and Chang came up to watch the progress. Reilly glanced at Chang and then away again. If the girl was Gaiden and she missed, it would be on purpose. Otherwise, those shots would be well within her ability and range.

  A moment later, the three closest recruits had been marked dead. She had missed one, the recruit in the lead. Reilly noted that the round she had fired wasn’t off by much and could’ve easily been corrected. She exchanged another look with Chang and then shot a look at Ty.

  “Told you she wouldn’t make them all.” Ty tried to sound smug, but it was obvious that even he was a bit impressed with the girl’s shooting skills, although he certainly wasn’t going to admit it.

  “Would you have been able to make all four of those?” Reilly let the question hang in the air as she stepped to the ladder and began to climb down, leaving Ty grumbling as he walked the edge of the ship, watching the girl as she headed back to the finish. As the crew’s sniper, Ty prided himself on the fact that none of them even came close to his ability to hit a long-range target. His dislike for the girl continued to grow. First she messes up our night out, and now she’s trying to show off at being a sniper. It was almost as if this girl were gunning for his spot. Ty shook off the thought.

  Ten recruits made it back in the required time and were allowed to continue. The others finished up and left quietly. Ty grabbed Skeeter, and together they went down to make sure the fires courses were ready. A series of weapons were set up for each recruit to qualify on. First, they would have to travel through a close-quarters combat (CQB) scenario which featured a two-story building with pop-up targets. Each recruit would have to negotiate barriers moving up to the building and then traverse several more barriers moving away from it with more pop-up targets. A grenade range, a heavy blaster range, and a sniper course with targets set at various distances rounded out the fires courses.

  While the recruits rested from the first stage of the crucible, Skeeter helped Ty check the timers, cameras and electronic scoring devices. Once they were sure everything was in place, Ty called out to the kid.

  “Hey, Skeeter! You want to run through the CQB course once to test it for me?” Ty tossed him a rifle. Skeeter caught it and grinned. He nodded and headed to the start. Ty gave him the signal to get ready and then hit the buzzer.

  Seth’s brain registered everything at once. He felt his body surge forward, the rifle positioned so that it was pulled in tight to his shoulder, both eyes open and looking through the holographic weapons sight. Everything felt very relaxed and natural. The target popped out in front of him and he engaged one, then the next, moving between cover and around and over the barriers. He entered the structure, and the system generated a rapid-fire simulation from an interior machine-gun nest. Seth dove for the floor, then rolled and came up with the rifle to double tap the target. He moved up the stairwell, engaging two hidden targets, and avoided more simulated gunfire. On the top floor, he neutralized another target then headed to the side door, breathing lightly. He paused, then pushed the door open, sliding down the side rail briefly and swinging to the platform below to get out of the suppressive fire that rained down on him as he exited. Soon he was on the ground again, moving stealthily between the barriers. He engaged three more targets and prepared to exit the course. As he stepped forward, another two targets popped up, engaging him with suppressive fire. He moved for cover, but at the last moment his feet got tangled up in something and he hit the ground. The simulated rounds peppered his leg, and the alarm went off indicating that he had been hit. Frustrated, he stood up and brushed the dirt off, walking back to where Ty stood. He cleared his rifle and placed the magazine back in Ty’s hand, then looked back down the range, trying to figure out what had gone wrong with his feet. It suddenly dawned on him that Ty hadn’t said a word. He looked up at the sergeant to find that he was staring back in amazement. Warning bells began to sound in Seth’s head.

  “Where the hell did you learn to do that?” Ty demanded.

  “I, uh, I’ve been practicing the stuff you and the Captain taught me. On my own. I’ve been doing it since we got planetside at night when you guys go out.” Seth looked down as he lied.

  “You’ve been practicing? On your own?” Ty’s voice still echoed disbelief.

  Just then Reilly and Duv came around the corner with the remaining recruits. Ty waved them over.

  “What’s wrong?” Reilly asked when she saw Ty’s face. He showed them the score card.

  “Pretty impressive, Sergeant!” Reilly clapped him on the back “Nice to see you haven’t been slacking!”

  “It’s not mine. It’s Skeeter’s.” Reilly and Duv did a double take.

  “Say what? I thought I just heard you say my son did this.” Duv looked confused.

  “He did. I’ve never seen anything like it. He told me he’s been practicing the drills we taught him on his own in the evenings. Kid must be a natural!” Ty grinned and punched Seth in the shoulder.

  Reilly looked at the scores again. “Seth, this is incredible. You have some real talent here—that will definitely come in handy in our line of work!”

  Duv was bursting with pride, too. He slapped Skeeter’s other shoulder and then messed up his hair. “Well, it looks like we got the makings of a new scout sniper in our midst!” Ty nodded in agreement, still looking a bit baffled.

  Seth felt nauseous as he smiled back. “Thanks everybody. I couldn’t have done it without you!” He stepped off to the side so the first recruit could line u
p to start. Ty started the timer, and the focus shifted to the next man running the course.

  He fumed at himself. How could he have been so stupid? He had almost blown his cover. At that his mind paused. What cover? Why did he have to hide what he knew? And why did he know he needed to hide it?

  When he had woken up that morning, he had discovered he had a complete working knowledge of interstellar communications systems, encryption and cipher programming, and intelligence operations. Every day he woke up, he knew something else that he hadn’t known the day before. But he didn’t know why or how. He knew he should know, but whenever he tried to find that memory, it seemed to slip away down a dark black funnel.

  He stood for a moment longer, wishing the churning in the pit of his stomach would just go away. It didn’t, and when he looked up, he knew why. The girl with the dark hair was standing across from him, watching him carefully, casually, as if he meant nothing. In that moment, Seth realized he meant everything to her. She had been sent after all to protect him, to ensure nothing interfered with his mission. His brain raged. What mission? He dug for the missing pieces, but nothing happened. He turned his thoughts back to the girl as she stepped up to the line. Information flared and then focused again in his mind. He knew. In that instant, as the start signal began to blare, she turned her head just slightly and gave him a grin. She knew he knew. She also knew there was nobody he could tell unless he wanted them dead. She winked at him and disappeared into the course.

  —————

  Ty fumed as he watched the new recruit. She had blazed through the first courses of fire as if they were nothing. He would have thought she was cheating except for the fact that he had set up the courses himself and finalized them that morning when she was already in the field. Every time she caught him looking at her, she would smirk as if she was just trying to get under his skin. It was infuriating.

  He had just finished demoing the sniper course for the recruits. He only missed one shot, when a gust of wind came up and nudged it just shy of the thousand-yard target. Ty stood and walked back to the observation area as Tiny stepped forward to shoot.

  “Not bad, Sergeant,” she commented as she picked up her ammo and moved forward of the firing line.

  Ty spun and looked down at her. “I’d like to see you do better, if you think you can,” he challenged.

  Tiny gave him that irritating smile and nodded once. She got into position and steadied her breathing. The world fell away. She and the rifle existed as one. The targets floated in the distance. She moved like a well-oiled machine, loading a round and taking each one out in a matter of seconds. She paused and realized she was done. The last target had gone down. She loved to shoot for just that reason. She had to clear her mind of everything else in order to do it. It forced her to relax.

  As she turned, her grin faded slightly as she saw Ty’s face.

  “Congratulations! That’s a new record for the course for time and targets taken out. You’re pretty solid on a rifle,” Reilly commented as Tiny set the weapon back in the rack.

  “I had some good teachers,” she responded, watching Ty grind his teeth out of the corner of her eye.

  For some reason, she had managed to get under the sergeant’s skin. So much for endearing herself to the crew and keeping a low profile like Zain had requested. Ty was going to be a problem, she could already tell. He viewed her as a threat. It would only be a matter of time before things came to a head. Killing him wasn’t an option, no matter how irritating his attitude was. The rest of the crew would turn on her in a minute if she did that, and her mission was to become part of the crew, not annihilate them. No, she’d have to find another way to deal with the situation. Just then Ty brushed past her aggressively, snarling and muttering something about being in the way. She sighed. She hated it when men decided to try to bully her.

  “Hey!”

  Ty turned and glared at her.

  “Looks like I did do better.” Tiny knew she shouldn’t poke the bear, but she couldn’t resist. Besides, the more she poked, the sooner they could get the impending physical confrontation out of the way.

  Ty muttered something under his breath and stomped off while Tiny began to grin again. Fights were usually so boring for her. But this one might actually be a bit of a challenge. A girl could hope, right?

  —————

  The crucible finally came to an end. Only four recruits had made it through, including the strange girl named Tiny. Reilly eyed them all appraisingly.

  “Congratulations. You all completed the basic course required for consideration to join up. I say consideration because this is my ship. Your next step is proving to me that you deserve to be a part of my crew. You all know we run the risky edge sometimes and we’re no strangers to trouble. You need to decide if this is for you or not. If you want to give it a go, then report back here in the morning. My gunny, Forlan Chang, and my sergeant at arms, Joby Ty, will get you set up with bunk space and start working you into the duty roster. My rules are simple. Work hard, look out for each other, and don’t piss me off. You manage to do that, and we should get along just fine. Duty starts at oh-nine-hundred tomorrow.” Reilly turned her back and walked onto the ship.

  The recruits looked around briefly at Chang and Ty and then began to disperse. As Tiny walked off, Ty called out “Oh-nine-hundred means oh-nine-hundred. If you want a job, don’t be late!”

  A few of them looked back and then continued to walk. Tiny disappeared into the darkness without a word.

  “Bet she won’t be back tomorrow. She looked pretty beat to me, probably figured this isn’t for her after all.” Ty turned back to help Marek with clean up, leaving Chang alone.

  Chang watched the girl as she disappeared into the dark. “My mother always told me the greatest deception is the one we suffer from our own opinion,” he said to himself. “She will be back, she has no choice in it, otherwise she wouldn’t be here to begin with. What do you want with us, Zain’s spy?” he whispered to the night.

  But there was no answer. Chang loaded up the last of the gear and brought it inside as they locked up for the night.

  —————

  Reilly sat at her desk, staring at the holoscreen. Ty had brought her the video from the crucible before heading back down to help Chang and Marek finish stowing gear. Any of the newbies who showed tomorrow would be helping to clean the weapons and equipment they had used today. Reilly believed in starting small. If she could trust them to get the little things right, then later she would know she’d be able to trust them to get the big stuff right as well.

  She cued up the CQB course test run that Seth had done and watched it through, then looped it and watched it again. The kid was bright, but there was no way he could have taught himself how to become that tactically proficient in the short time since they had arrived on Roen. He also pulled some moves that only a seasoned operator would think to do, tactics that she was certain they hadn’t covered in training. But if he didn’t get it from them, then who was training him?

  She watched his reaction at the end of the course as he explained to Ty. Then she watched his response to their reactions. She paused the screen—there on his face, she could see shame, and fear, and something else…surprise, maybe? Realization? Of what, though? Reilly stood up and paced the room, thinking.

  Two psychopaths were after them, the military wanted them back to fight some secret war, a Gaiden was joining her crew, and now her pilot’s son had started to develop incredible tactical skills. When things began to stack up and get complicated, it was time to worry. Reilly had plenty to choose from in that department. She slid the images across the screen again. What did it all mean? And what was going on with Seth that would make him fearful enough to lie?

  —————

  The ticking of the old brass alarm clock woke Skeeter early. He lay very still, eyes closed, breathing as if he were still asleep. If he focused hard enough, he could almost hear the creak
of wood on the back staircase at his old house as his mother headed down to start breakfast. The smell of coffee, the feel of the old patchwork quilt on his bed, the light clatter of plates being placed on the table, sometimes it felt so real that he just knew when he opened his eyes he’d find himself back in his old room again. But when he did, the stark gray metal and familiar smells of the ship would hit him like a barrage gun, blowing that one good memory to pieces.

  A loud grinding noise brought him back to reality as the rear cargo bay door was lowered and the blast doors opened. He opened his eyes and slowly sat up. Something had changed. He looked around warily as if he expected to be ambushed at any moment. The strange impulses he had been having were gone. He knew he still had some items his brain was telling him to take care of, but they weren’t as urgent as they had seemed the day before. He stood up, hitched up his sweatpants, and padded barefoot over to the wall locker to pull out some clothes while he considered this new development.

  A few minutes later, he climbed up the ladder to the corridor that led to the common room and to breakfast. Although his senses were still very alert, the deluge of information seemed more manageable, and his head didn’t ache today. Nothing new had jumped into his mind yet, either, which was a relief but also made him nervous. He tried to think of something he had done differently the day before, that one thing that would lead him to the answers he had been looking for. He ran his fingers through his partially combed hair and stepped through the hatch.

  A single mug of coffee sat on the common room table. Next to it was a ledger and Reilly’s handheld. Seth heard her voice back in the kitchen with Chang, discussing bunking options for the new crew. He grabbed some toast and a couple of the fried eggs Chang had left for everyone on the table and sat down. He could still hear the Captain talking about extra gear and medical supplies as he leaned in to take a look at the ledger. The encryption on the pages blurred before his eyes as his brain processed the math and patterns. The cipher was complex to be sure, made more so by the use of alien Shiwan characters as the base language. The encryption itself was several layers of six-digit codes. He flipped the page to see if the pattern held or if it was page specific. He breathed a sigh of relief—it appeared the same throughout. He flipped back briefly and looked at the initial page again.