Sentinels: Children of Valhalla (Sentinels Saga Book 1)

by Linn Schwab

  “Terrence, wait,” Peter insisted. “Before you run off and do something foolish, there’s something I think you should be aware of.”

  Terrence stopped and turned to face him. “I’m listening,” he said, his arms crossed in defiance.

  Peter hesitated then took a deep breath. “I think this war may be close to ending,” he said, keeping his voice down so no one else would overhear. “And we could be very close to winning.”

  Captain Moore’s eyebrows perked up in interest. “How can that be?” he said with a laugh. “We’re getting the living snot beat out of us.”

  “I can’t say for sure,” Peter explained, “but I suspect Admiral Sands has been putting something together. I’ve been noticing little changes since he joined Command Central. Maybe he’s preparing to make a move. I don’t know. But you’re right. These little skirmishes we’re fighting have no chance of accomplishing anything directly. The only thing that makes any sense is that we’re just keeping up appearances here so the enemy doesn’t get suspicious of something.”

  “Keeping up appearances,” Terrence said with sarcasm. “Wonderful way to die. I wonder if they’ll attribute that to us at our memorial services.”

  “Just hang in there a little longer,” Peter suggested. “This could all be over soon.” He noticed some movement behind Captain Moore. The ship’s flight commander was standing in the doorway. “I’ll talk to you later,” he said. “Just keep your head and try to stay out of trouble.”

  Commander Patterson located Peter and headed straight in his direction. “Don’t bother taking off your flight suit,” he said. “New orders just came through for you.”

  “New orders? What could possibly be new about them? Is it time for me to stop killing the enemy?” he said, with a staged hopeful inflection in his voice.

  The commander frowned. “Hardly. You’re just being reassigned. Perhaps a chance to kill even more of them? Commander Ingman just sent for you. He wants your squadron to report to him at some location in sector Y–‌twelve.”

  Peter’s reaction clearly indicated surprise. “Y–‌twelve? There’s no action in that area.”

  Commander Patterson shrugged. “Perhaps it is time for you to stop killing then.” He stared at Peter in silence, as if expecting a response from him. Finally, he stepped closer to him and addressed him more as one of his peers. “Peter,” he said, lowering his voice, “what can you tell me about Joel Ingman?”

  Peter looked at him with suspicion. The tone of his voice seemed to suggest he was digging for dirt on Commander Ingman. “Why do you ask?” he responded flatly, recalling his former commander’s efforts to avoid attracting unwanted attention.

  “Oh, come on, Peter, isn’t it obvious? Something’s going on here, and none of us has a clue what it is. Now, you knew Commander Ingman as well as anyone in the fleet. Hell, he was your flight commander for nine years on this ship. Then two years ago, without any explanation, Command up and pulls him to some undisclosed location, presumably somewhere in sector Y–‌twelve, which has been secure since before you and I were even born. Now suddenly he’s asking for elite fighter squadrons? Can you make any sense out of this?”

  “No more than you can, Commander. Perhaps Y–‌twelve isn’t as secure as we thought it was.”

  “That’s exactly what concerns me, Peter. Why would they send such an experienced commander to watch over an area that poses no threat to us? And have you noticed a change in the makeup of our forces? They’ve been siphoning off a lot of our smaller class vessels, and shifting them closer to—”

  “Let me guess. Y–‌twelve?”

  “That’s right. There’s something Command isn’t telling us, Peter. Even Admiral Curtis seems to be in the dark.”

  Peter reached inside his locker and retrieved a photograph of his daughter. “I wouldn’t be too concerned,” he said as he tucked the picture away inside his flight suit. “Commander Ingman knows what he’s doing. That’s one thing I can tell you about him.”

  SONATA 029

  Robin’s battalion stood in formation in a staging area next to the spur. Four destroyers were waiting nearby for them, already fueled up and docked at the airlocks. The girls tried desperately to stand at attention while struggling to keep their legs from shaking. It was the proudest moment of their lives so far, and every one of them was trembling in fierce anticipation.

  This is it, Robin told herself — giddy from the charge of adrenaline in her blood. Our whole lives have been leading up to this moment. It’s time for us to prove ourselves.

  Crowded together at one end of the room, the sister squadrons were all in attendance. The younger girls were quietly grateful for their presence, despite the added tension they could sense in the air. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, Commander Jeffries walked into the room and moved along the front of the formation. She coasted through the customary uniform inspection, then stepped back and smiled proudly at the whole battalion.

  “Good morning, Sentinels,” she addressed them at last, bringing an end to the excruciating silence. “This is an important day for all of you. It’s time for you to put into practice what you’ve learned. To move forward into a new phase of your training. The significance of this flight may seem largely symbolic, but every moment of experience you gain can only serve to make you stronger. Try to draw as much as you can from this exercise. Make every moment count as if it’s your last.”

  Robin glanced at the other girls around her. All of them had a look of intense focus on their faces.

  “Let’s talk about today’s mission,” the commander continued. “As you know, destroyers are highly automated vessels, requiring only minimal crews to operate. Your christening flights are simple pushbutton exercises. Out and back loops through friendly–‌controlled space. All of your instructions will be radioed to you by Lieutenant Marlowe upstairs in the control room. All you have to do is carefully follow her instructions, and you’ll breeze through these flights without the slightest bit of trouble.

  “ECHO 8,” she announced, “you’ll be flying the Terrapin. ECHO 7, your ship is the Gecko. ECHO 6, you’ll be in the Angelfish, and ECHO 5, you’ll have the Wallaby. These flights will last for approximately four hours. I’ll see all of you in the cafeteria for lunch.” She straightened herself and positioned her fist over her heart. “LIFE!” she shouted, saluting the young crews.

  “VAL–HALLA!” they cheered, returning her salute.

  “Stand by!” the commander ordered. “Lieutenant Marlowe will give you the order to scramble.” She wheeled about and stepped over to a nearby wall where Major Richards was standing and watching in silence. The two of them whispered back and forth to each other, casually observing the young Sentinels as they waited to receive their first instructions.

  Robin struggled to maintain her composure as she waited for the initial order to come. The seconds continued to roll slowly by, chiseling away at her fragile nerves. She bit her lip and bounced on the balls of her feet, trying desperately to rid herself of some of her anxiety.

  Standing off to the side with the rest of the pilots, Nancy watched in helplessness as the younger girls all began to fidget. She could sense the intensity of the stress they were feeling, and see the effect it was having on them. The tension in the room was still escalating, growing stronger with each and every second that passed. Finally she decided, Enough is enough! We can’t send them off like this!

  Raising her hands to the sides of her mouth, Nancy drew in a deep breath and yelled, “Make us proud, little sisters!” declaring an end to the unbearable silence. In an instant, the room was resounding with cheers as the rest of the pilots followed Nancy’s example. They called the girls’ names out and voiced their encouragement, whistling and applauding to show their support.

  Robin felt herself bristling with pride, hearing the names of her battalion members bounced off the walls. This is incredible! she thought. She felt almost as if she could fly across the room.

 
; A single bell sounded, startling the girls, and Lieutenant Marlowe’s voice suddenly called out, “Scramble all squads, scramble all squads!”

  In a flash, the girls had broken out of formation and were sprinting toward their vessels at a feverish pace. They ducked into their respective ships through the airlocks and quickly sealed the cargo bay doors shut behind them.

  Plopping herself down in the captain’s chair, Robin pulled her key from her pocket and slipped it into the ignition slot. The bridge powered up, just as she expected, and a familiar, pleasant–‌sounding voice announced, “CVS Wallaby, Congo–‌class destroyer, Captain Robin Starling commanding.” Robin grinned from ear to ear, beaming with delight as the voice spoke her name. My first command! she told herself, savoring the moment. My very first command of an actual ship!

  “Begin pre–‌launch sequence!” she ordered, then looked around to see that all of her girls were in their places. “Secure all hatches!”

  “All hatches are sealed and secured,” Katrina answered.

  “Systems diagnostic?”

  Sheri scrolled through the readout on her console. “All systems nominal. Clear for ignition.”

  Robin and Caroline looked at each other, each of them aware of what the other was thinking. They smiled together in intense expectation. Robin drew a breath and said, “Prime the engines!”

  Caroline eased the throttle lever forward, keeping a close eye on the position indicator. “Engines primed and ready for ignition,” she said. Her fingers rested tensely on the three ignitor switches.

  Robin grasped both edges of her seat and looked around at her crew once more. She snugged her body against her chair and braced herself for the moment of truth. “Light the burners!”

  Caroline never even heard the switches click. As she flipped them, a powerful concussion rocked the ship. The blast reverberated through the hull for a second, then subsided to a gentle, continuous roar — a rumbling that was easier to feel than to hear.

  Easing back on the throttle now, Caroline brought the engines down to minimum idle. “All engines operating within normal parameters,” she reported. “Throttle position set at point zero zero five.”

  Robin relaxed and breathed a sigh of accomplishment. Now she was just waiting for clearance to launch.

  Seated at one of the control room consoles, Veronica stared at a bank of screens showing status updates for each of the destroyers. At the moment, her displays were still informing her that only three of the squads had their engines up and running. The power readings for the Angelfish were still blank. “Come on, Judy,” Veronica whispered, quietly voicing her encouragement. “You can do it. We can’t start the exercise without you”. A few more anxious seconds ticked by, then the engines on the Angelfish thundered to life.

  “Good girl,” Veronica said. “I knew you could do it.” She leaned forward over her console and pressed the START button on the mission chronometer. Each of the destroyers possessed a similar device, cued to start up in synchronization with hers.

  Standing just to Veronica’s side was a young controller who’d been assigned to assist her. She was new to Volaris and new to her position, and it showed in the nervous way she carried herself. In her hands, she held a cumbersome log book containing the flight plans for all four destroyers. Each flight instruction was carefully scripted to take place at a precise point in time. If the squads performed their maneuvers correctly, their patterns would bring them back to Volaris without any need for course adjustments. It was a simple, straightforward procedure — the perfect confidence builder for a fledgling station controller.

  “Okay, Ariel,” Veronica called to her assistant, “let’s get started. Read me the launch time for ECHO 5, then check it off and jump down to the following line. Just keep repeating the same procedure each time I prompt you for another instruction. Got it?”

  Ariel nodded and opened the flight book, then read back the launch time for ECHO 5. “The first instruction reads, ECHO 5, launch from Volaris at mission time zero zero one plus thirty.”

  Keying her transmitter to the Wallaby’s frequency, Veronica relayed the instruction to Mindy.

  Fidgeting nervously in her chair, Robin awaited the first flight instruction.

  “Here it is!” Mindy announced. She held the headset tight against her ear. “Launch from Volaris at mission time zero zero one plus thirty.”

  “Alright,” Robin said, checking the mission chronometer on her console. “Fifteen seconds! Keep the throttle set at point zero zero five. Hold our current heading, zero deviation. Stand by to release the moorings on my command.” She looked in Sheri’s direction, just to make sure she was paying attention. Sheri nodded in confirmation and placed her finger on the RELEASE button.

  “Ready…” Robin prompted, watching the chronometer, “mark!”

  Sheri pressed the button. The moorings let go with a single loud clunk, setting the Wallaby free from Volaris. A cheer went up from Robin’s crew the instant they felt the forward motion of the ship.

  “We’re away!” Robin cheerfully announced. She turned her eyes up toward the overhead monitors. On the screen that showed a rearward view from the ship, she saw the station slowly drifting away, and the other three destroyers still waiting to launch.

  Mindy suddenly held her hand up to indicate she was receiving another message. “Increase throttle to point zero two, at mission time zero zero two plus fifteen.”

  Through a window near one end of the spur, Jenny and her squadron watched the departure. As Robin’s ship began to accelerate, they cheered and exchanged a few quick embraces.

  “There they go,” Nancy reflected, her feelings a mixture of sadness and joy. She turned to Jenny and held out her hand, smiling with a sense of pride and accomplishment. “We did it,” she said, shaking hands with her captain. “We helped our little sisters learn how to fly.”

  Jenny nodded in agreement. “I’m glad you talked me into this,” she said. “It was the best time I’ve ever had in my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

  A cheer went up from the next window over. The Angelfish was under way.

  Mindy readied her pen on the top page of her log book in anticipation of receiving another instruction. Part of her responsibilities included keeping a written record of each communication and any course alterations that were issued by her captain. It was a standard precautionary procedure performed on every Sentinel vessel. In the event of an onboard equipment failure, the log book could be referenced and perhaps lead them back to safety.

  Mindy raised her hand again, to indicate she was receiving a message. “Fifteen degree turn to starboard at mission time zero zero three plus forty.”

  “Okay,” Robin said, “you got that, Caroline?”

  “Fifteen degree turn to starboard,” Caroline confirmed. She entered the course alteration in her panel, then rested her finger on the actuator button and waited for Robin to give the order.

  “Ready…” Robin prompted, checking the chronometer again, “mark!”

  Caroline pressed the button and the Wallaby began to swing to the right. It eased through a gentle fifteen degree arc, then settled into a forward heading again. The girls all looked at each other and smiled. Everything seemed to be running smoothly, and they could feel their confidence building already. That’s what this is all about, Robin realized. Building our confidence. And it seems to be working beautifully.

  “Angle down ten degrees,” Mindy said, “at mission time zero zero five plus twenty.”

  “Ten degrees down,” Robin echoed. She waited as Caroline entered the changes in her console. “Ready … ‌mark!”

  The nose of the Wallaby went in to a dive, thrilling the girls with negative gravitational forces while giving them the sensation of being lifted from their seats.

  “Wow!” Phoebe yelled as the ship leveled off. “That was fun!”

  “I hope they give us that one again!” Sheri said.

  “I could do that all day!” Caroline exclaimed.<
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  Robin smiled and nodded in agreement, then looked to her left to gauge Mindy’s reaction. She was relieved yet also somewhat surprised to find Mindy giggling uncontrollably. What’s gotten into her? she wondered. This was not the response she would have expected. Whatever it was that had happened to Mindy, it seemed to have completely transformed her. She wanted to be convinced that this was a good thing, but there was a bittersweet sense of loss inside her. The Mindy that had needed her constant attention suddenly seemed to have been displaced.

  An indicator light began to flash on Robin’s console. An alert chime sounded and the computer’s voice announced, “Leaving Volaris proximity zone.”

  The distraction interrupted Robin’s thoughts and served as a reminder to stay focused on her duties. “We’re outside the traffic area now,” she said. “That sure didn’t take very long.”

  “Another order,” Mindy said, preparing to enter the command in her log. “Increase throttle to point one five, at mission time zero zero seven plus ten.”

  Testing our abilities, Robin thought to herself. That’s fifteen percent of full throttle already! She stood up and walked toward the front of the bridge, staring out at the distant stars in concern. How far out are they going to send us? she wondered. At that speed we could cover a lot of distance!

  TRIALS 030

  Commander Jeffries casually strolled through the hangar, passing time while the christening flights were under way. She’d come here to check up on operations and touch base with the maintenance crews who worked on the fighters. As commander of Volaris, it was her responsibility to keep things running as smoothly as possible. She could do this well enough just by reading daily reports, but she preferred the familiarity that came from a more hands–‌on approach, and the affinity it created with her personnel.

  As she walked along the outer wall of the hangar, she noticed a repair crew working on a disassembled fighter. She could tell by the bright yellow stripes on the plane that it belonged to one of the visiting Hornets. Curious, she approached the repair crew and pulled one of them aside for a moment.