The Emperor's Daughter (Sentinel Series Book 1)

by Richard Flunker

  The Midnight Oil was an atmospheric capable ship; that meant that it could land and take off from a planet and fly without a gravity field; it was aero dynamic. Kale never learned how to fly in the atmosphere and relied on the AI to do so.

  This particular model of Stiletto ships, VIP luxury ships, was usually called the Swan. The main body of the ship was shaped like a cone. This housed the drive and above the drive a center room with three attached rooms. Just below the main room was access to the drive, life support and a small workout room. The pilot’s cabin sat smoothly at the front. Wings reached out to either side for atmospheric flight, but swung into the main body of the ship when in space. Towards the rear of the main body, two semi circles protruded from the top and bottom, the gravity field projectors.

  The name swan came from the appearance the ship took while docked or on the ground. The pilot’s cabin would extend forward and down until reaching the floor. The main access ramp into the ship was just behind the swan’s head, behind the cabin, allowing access directly to the cockpit or back up into the body. There was one more ramp that entered from the swan’s rear, usually used while docking in space. The neck would then retract into the body while in flight.

  The ship itself was aptly painted white, with the underneath still mostly metallic. While landed, three large legs released from the body and held the ship in place nearly twelve feet off the ground. The Hausen reactor could be accessed via hatch and hull release on the rear part of the craft’s main body while docked for larger maintenance jobs.

  A tail fin on the rear of the ship could be deployed to fly in the atmosphere as needed, but was rarely used. FEI could pilot the ship even in the worst of storms without it.

  It was FEI’s ship as much as it was Kale’s. But he was just an AI.

  The hangar with the Midnight Oil was silent until a hiss introduced the cargo tram that began lowering out of the ceiling down onto the floor. Seventeen separate cargo pods came through the hole and then moved towards the corner closest to the ship. Their pod was on the right edge of this collection of pods closest to the ship. The gravity field around it blinked a few times, then shimmered off. The pods dropped all the way to the floor. The top instantly popped open and Kale and Ayia jumped out.

  “I probably should have brushed my teeth before that,” he commented.

  “It was rather stale in there,” she added.

  “FEI, thank you again. What’s the status?”

  “I am unable to start the drive, they have it on manual lock down.”

  Kale looked around until he saw a set of consoles. He walked over to them.

  “Which one?”

  A screen on one of the consoles lit up. Kale stepped over to it. The screen started flickering with several different options, a menu, scrolling through a circle. It spun many choices until it stopped at one. The words clearly stated ‘Manual Lock’.

  “You can find it for me, but you can’t activate it?”

  “It’s locked to AI touch, it needs a manual touch.”

  Kale hit the button and it vanished back into the screen. Instantly behind him, he heard the familiar hum of the Hausen reactor, deep within the ship. The drive made no sound, but the effect of its gravity field actually vibrated the air. In space, that meant only the air inside the cabin, but in a planet’s atmosphere, with more actual air to vibrate, the sound was always louder and deeper. Kale loved that sound.

  “The drive’s activation has set off the alarms. Guards have been dispatched.”

  Kale began running to the ship.

  “You always ruin a good moment,” he reprimanded the AI.

  Kale led Ayia into the cabin, hitting a button by the ramp bringing it up. He jumped into his seat and began lighting up screens, dragging images back and forth between them, throwing some up on the main display. They were the sequences for energy between components on the ship. First it was power from the drive to the capacitors, then to life support, always virtually channeling the energy. As he ran through the sequence, a screen came to life. Video images with words scrolled across the bottom. It was the port; video footage from the inside. Armed guards were running down corridors.

  “Ayia, you ever fired a gun?”

  “Yes, I have.”

  Kale had not expected that answer. He took a good hard look at his passenger then pointed at a closed closet on the rear of the cockpit.

  “Get one out, tell me you know what to do with it,” he said, all the while keeping his focus on the sequence screens. He threw a second screen to the main display. It had several indicators. The indicator bars were filling up. Ayia had seen it before.

  She ran over to the closet, opened it up and saw three rifles.

  “Plasma rifles? Are they charged?”

  “Ok, fine, you know what you're doing. We’re going to have company in…”

  A pause.

  “Two minutes sir,” came the AI’s voice.

  “Two minutes. Get back down, open the ramp, and be ready. If they have any clue what is going on, they will come armed with harpoons. If they do that they will punch the hull and we will be stuck.”

  She pulled out one of the rifles and turned a knob on the stock. Three green lights blinked, and then one began blinking red.

  “Good enough,” she began walking towards the ramp.

  “Shoot only if you have to. If you fire one of those things at them, make it count, because they will react quickly. And the moment you feel the ship start moving you close that ramp and get in here and hold on to something because you will have three seconds before we go flying out the hangar.”

  She nodded and turned back to the ramp. Kale hadn’t noticed her nodding as he was focused on the startup.

  The ramp lowered again and she ducked behind the doorway. There was absolutely nothing between her and the main entrance the guards would be coming through. She had fired many weapons before, but always at a virtual target, a wooden enemy. She hoped she didn’t have to this time. She heard Kale shout from within the cockpit, “They’re here!”

  The hangar door began to slide up. Ayia could see boots between the door and floor. She raised the rifle up and pointed it in their direction. She was looking for the harpoon, a large shoulder mounted weapon used to cripple but not destroy ships. It shot a giant hollow bullet that pierced the hull and splayed the inner hull. It would be impossible to fly into space with a hole in your ship.

  As soon as the door was half way up, some of the guards ducked under and began to walk in. They stopped the moment they saw the girl with the rifle pointed at them. They raised their weapons up immediately. Ayia couldn’t tell what kind they were. She quickly found the one carrying the harpoon, already on his shoulder. Ayia trained her sights on him.

  “They have one,” she shouted back into the cabin.

  “If he points it at my ship,” he started, “Please kill him.”

  She was never quite sure when he was joking, but she did understand the seriousness of the situation. These Sec-Units were supposed to be fighting for her father and the corporation. She knew they had face recognition software available; it would probably be a matter of seconds before they knew who she was. That reaction would tell her much about what was happening.

  “Put the weapon down. Get out of the ship,” one shouted.

  Ayia was about to shout back, but decided against it. She kept her rifle trained on the harpoon. Right in front of her, in the door, a small screen came to life. It startled her and she took a step back. Numbers were on it, counting backwards from forty seven. It was how much time they had. FEI was helping her.

  The guards walked slowly towards her. She couldn’t tell if they recognized what kind of rifle she had. It wasn’t likely, but she was sure the whole hangar was being scanned. It was only a matter of time.

  “Last warning, put the rifle down and walk out,” one of them shouted again.

  He had said rifle, not just weapon. He was getting some information. The number in front of her was at twenty tw
o. That was a long time in a gunfight. She saw one of the guards in the rear point at the ship. The man with the harpoon looked back, then faced the ship, pointing the large weapon at it. Ayia didn’t wait and fired the rifle.

  Plasma weapons are the bane of living flesh. A plasma rifle takes a tiny filament of iron and magnetically accelerates it up to 5kms per second. That within itself would hurt a lot, but the real horror comes as it goes down the shaft of the rifle. A fusion reactor super heats the iron filament, turning it into a plasma toroid. What exits the rifle is now superheated to temperatures that rival the inside of a star. This miniature star then flies to its target. Upon hitting a target, the incredible heat immediately disperses. Metal melts and nearly all organic material simply vaporizes. The weapon is considered an anti-personnel gun, and it’s a known fact that showing up with a plasma rifle is the most effective form of riot control and dispersal.

  Ayia opened fire on the guard holding the harpoon. The first shot vaporized the man’s leg instantly, crumbling him. As he fell, the second and third shots hit the harpoon and his chest. The first bent the harpoon, causing the weapon to fire erroneously, unleashing its weapon into the three guards that were lined up next to him. The harpoon burst, sending flesh and armor splattering against the wall behind. The second shot vaporized his chest, sending his arms, his head and his remaining body flying in all directions. The poor soul never had a chance to even scream to death.

  A split second later half of the guards dropped to the floor while the other half ran out the hangar entrance. A shout echoed through the hangar: “PLASMA!!”

  Ayia saw the numbers on the screen: twelve.

  She turned another knob on the rifle, setting it to automatic, and began unleashing superheated rain down onto the guards, who were lying prone on the floor just one hundred feet from her. Wherever a shot hit, an instant hiss was followed by a whole section of body being atomized.

  She glanced down and saw the counter at two.

  “SHIT!”

  She hit the ramp button, threw the rifle aside and reached for a collar. Just as her hands reached it, the ship flew out of the hangar, gravity field not fully established. The force wrenched her body from the collar, tossing her down the corridor of the ships neck. A few moments later, the field took shape and gravity wasn’t acting on her.

  The Midnight Oil screamed out of the hangar and into the night air, its wings opening, and the sound of wind as the ship silently sped into the darkness. As the ship pointed up into space, Kale got one good view of the city. Most of it was dark, except for a small section to the northwest where flames were visible.

  Going from a planet’s atmosphere into outer space wasn’t as simple as just pointing the ship up and flying. It could be that simple but the energy requirements are usually so incredibly high that such a flight was usually reserved for dire emergencies. Instead, most ships lined up with the rotation of the planet and allowed centrifugal force to lessen some of those energy requirements.

  As the Midnight Oil flew out of Antan, FEI’s voice reaffirmed that their flight path would put them back over the city. The ship double around, still gaining altitude as Ayia came into the pilot’s cabin, holding her right hand to her head while her left hand held her right arm.

  “Anything broken?” Kale asked, turning to face her.

  “I,” she started, rubbing her head, “I'm not sure.”

  She sat down in the seat behind him, and looked over his shoulders as he spun around to look forward again. Kale could feel the heavy breath, the deflation, as Ayia saw the city. Antan was one of the jewels of the frontier space. It was an urban paradise, a wonder of engineering and technology as well as a display of wealth. On any ordinary night, flying over the city would have been like flying over an ocean of lights. Tonight, the only lights were those from vehicles far below, moving around in the darkness and the fires to the west of the city.

  The only other source of light was the highest top part of the tower, a beacon in the smoke and darkness of the city.

  “Is there any way for me to reach them?”

  Kale read her mind.

  “Check your chair,” he said, the sound of tapping on the screen faint in the cabin.

  Ayia looked down as the armrest on her left came to life with a small display screen a few inches wide. Two buttons came up, showing two frequencies available and open in the area of the ship. Likely, there were many more, but in this chaos they were either closed, encrypted, or destroyed. The two available channels were Antan Space Port and XTuM.116.Tower. Ayia hoped it was the right one. She taped the button and another heads up screen rose up above her in the viewport. Two circles appeared on either side. One was green and one red. The green circle was sending arrows to the red circle. It was attempting to connect with the tower. The red circle turned green and a solid line formed between the two circles. Static broke the silence.

  “Twenty Four Delta, this is Ix Tower watch. Please clear the line.”

  “Ix Tower, this is Ayia Agusto, I need to speak to my father.”

  There was a pause in the static.

  “Repeat, you said Ayia Agusto?”

  “Yes, it’s me. I need to speak to my father.”

  “Can you transmit ID please?”

  Ayia looked at Kale, mouthing the word ‘how’ but on the small screen on her armrest, a small silhouette of a hand came up. Kale indicated with his head, then swiveled back around to face forward. Ayia put her left hand on the display over the silhouette. Immediately the screen went dark.

  “ID received. Thank you. Ms. Agusto, I will attempt to reach your father.”

  Ten seconds later, Ayia’s father’s face came up on one of the displays, relief evident in his eyes. They were also the eyes that were hiding a bit of despair, if not disappointment. It was a face Kale knew well; the face of a captain who knew his ship was about to go down.

  “Ayia, I didn’t know what to do. Those guards I sent after you never reported back in. I was worried. I see though that you are in the best hands possible.”

  “Father, I'm ok. We are in Kale’s ship, we’re headed into orbit,” Ayia reassured.

  “No need. Kale, I know you have done far more than needed, but if you could do me one more favor you would have a father’s eternal gratitude.”

  “Whatever I can do,” Kale answered.

  “We have three docks here on the Ix tower. Please dock here and drop Ayia off. I will have one of the docks cleared for you and you can be on your way within minutes,” he requested.

  A new display came up with telemetry for a new path into a section near the top of the tower. A picture zoomed in and showed three separate platforms.

  “Sir, as much as I’d like to, I don’t have the skill to land on something that small with my ship, even with my AI helping,” Kale pointed out.

  The CEO turned away from the display on his end for a moment, then came back.

  “It won’t be a problem. We will slave your ship to our gravity tractor when you're within range and we will pull you in and put you back out again. You won’t have to do a thing. Just get to the tower within five miles and the tractor will do the rest. You’ll just have to enable slave controls.”

  Kale never liked giving his ships control fully over, but it was probably the best way for everyone involved.

  “FEI, you have all that?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Feed it into the NAV, change course to the Ix tower.”

  “Thank you Kale,” Ayia said softly from behind him.

  “Yes, thank you again. I will see you there at the platform in about five minutes,” reaffirmed Ayia’s Father.

  The Midnight Oil turned northwest and instantly the tower came into view below them up ahead. The ship banked down through the clouds, emerging under the clouds in direct line with the tower. The giant beacon ahead of them stood out as a dark knife into the sky, silhouetted by the glow of the fire behind it. Within a minute the Midnight Oil dropped to the same altitude as the tower
and began its approach.

  “Midnight Oil, requesting slave transfer now,” came the transmission from the tower.

  “Ok FEI, hate doing this. Turn it over.”

  For a brief moment, when the gravity field around the ship turned off and the ship was picked up by a beam of gravity being projected by tower, the two felt weightlessness. They were held in place by the straps in their chairs. In that same instant, gravity was restored, and the Midnight Oil began a straight floating flight towards one of the platforms, now with its blinking lights slowly becoming visible in the dark night.

  “Kale, I wanted to…,”

  “I really don’t need more than one thank you,” Kale pointed out, without turning to face Ayia, “You are a really nice lady and all, but I'm being paid for all of this. That’s where my thank yous are.”

  Ayia didn’t have an immediate reply. It was quiet in the cabin for the next two minutes. As they approached the third platform, other ships were landing on the other two, smaller docks. The tower was probably one of the safest places in the city for those who were targets of the rebellion.

  The ship came to a stop and Kale could see why. There was still a very small ship, most likely a one manned planetary ship, on the platform they would land on.

  “Just waiting for the clear Midnight Oil,” came the answer from the tower when Kale requested an update. They would be there for a moment. He turned to face Ayia.

  “Not the way I wanted to say goodbye. I'm sorry, didn’t mean to react that way,” he said.

  “It’s not your fight. Not your place, I know.”

  “At one time you said you didn’t think it was yours either.”

  “I know. I still don’t think it is. I did grow up in that tower though. In many ways at least that building is home, just not the rest of it.”

  Kale looked at her face. It wasn’t the look he was expecting. It was a confused look. She turned her head slightly to the side. She wasn’t looking at him either, but through him. He turned around to look out, seeing the shape of the tower directly ahead of him. He looked back at Ayia then back at the tower and then he saw it. The tower was moving.