by Saxon Andrew
Drey nodded, “There is that.” Drey looked at Andi, who was almost green. “Want to try it again in a few minutes. I think we can take you next time.”
Gary remained silent and Abby realized he was deferring to her. “I think that’s a good idea. You might want to allow Violet and Andi to board one of the small ships and avoid the punishment.”
Andi glared at the display, “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll stay here and observe what happens. My pilot has adequately prepared me for the stresses of combat.”
Andi glared at Abby and said, “I’ll stay right where I am.”
Abby said, “What about you, Violet?”
Ian said, “She’ll be back in a moment.” Everyone stared at him and he said, “She had to put on a clean uniform.”
Abby shut the display off and laughed so hard she thought she would cry. After a long pause she reactivated the board and said, “I really think it would benefit all of us to take some time to go through these maneuvers to prepare us for the real thing.”
Violet appeared on the display and Gary saw she was not feeling well. Ian said, “I believe we should take some time to attempt maneuvers for the next twenty four hours, until all of us acclimate to the forces involved. Tomorrow we’ll do this again. We’ll meet back at this location.” Everyone nodded and the three ships jumped away.
“Do you have anything you haven’t tried?”
Gary nodded and described it to G. “Do you think you can do it?”
“I’m not sure. It will take a major change in the gravity suppressors’ safeguards to pull it off.”
“How long would you have to override the system?”
“Only a second, but you would have to endure about six gravities to do it.”
Gary looked at Abby, “That’s a pretty tough load, Sir.”
“Can you do it?”
“We’ll have to recline our seats completely just before we do, but we should be able to handle the load that long. When I tell you to really strap in, you will need to make sure there is no slack anywhere in your harness and you’ll have to be wearing a uniform with absolutely no wrinkles in it.”
“Why?”
“A wrinkle will be pushed into your skin and deform the uniform pressures. You’ll hurt for weeks.”
“I have a uniform that meets those requirements. I’ll just have to overcome my modesty at wearing it.” Gary looked at Abby and shook his head. Abby said, “What?”
“I’ve never really looked at you without the negative emotions about you. Trust me on this, Sir; you have nothing to worry about as far as being modest.”
Abby turned red and said, “Do we need to practice this?”
“We should.”
“Then let’s go change and get on it.” Abby left the bridge and went to her quarters. She undressed and looked at herself in the mirror. She saw a woman six feet tall with light brown hair and blue eyes. She never really thought of her appearance but she saw that she was shapely and in good shape. She unpinned her hair and it fell to the middle of her back. She sighed and got dressed. When she went back to the bridge she saw Gary do a double take, “I’ve left my hair down. What do I need to do about it?”
Gary stared at Abby and forced himself to start thinking. “We’ll both wear skull caps with cushions built in. You should spread you hair out evenly inside it so there are no bulges, especially in the back. The bun you normally have would really cause a problem.”
“I thought it would. Will you help me put the cap on?”
Gary went over and took her hair and spread it out in the cap. He pulled the cap on and said, “How is it?”
Abby felt Gary’s closeness and felt her temperature go up. She turned and reclined her chair and put her head down. “I feel a space behind my neck.”
G said, “Hold on a moment.” Suddenly the chair felt like it absorbed her.
“Hey, that’s nice.”
Gary said, “As soon as I push the activate button, you chair will recline and form around you. Make sure you push all the air out of your lungs. The punishment won’t last long.”
Abby shrugged, “I can see why my lungs should not have air. They could be damaged by a rib.”
“Exactly; are you ready to try this?” Abby nodded and sat in her chair. She tried not to think about Gary’s body as he sat down but he was something to see. She closed her eyes and pushed the thoughts out of her mind.
The next two hours were brutal beyond description, but she knew afterwards, and Gary confirmed it, she would never have any more problems with high speed maneuvers. She also knew that she would start wearing the skin tight uniforms whenever they were in the alien’s domain. “Gary, I think we should keep these uniforms on whenever we’re in enemy space.”
“I have to agree. We couldn’t do this maneuver in our normal uniforms.”
“I hope I don’t embarrass you around Andi and Violet.”
Gary smiled, “I think it will be them that are embarrassed.”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I. You have nothing to worry about.” Gary paused, “I’m curious.”
“About what?”
“You haven’t been your normal vindictive self since you came on board…well, soon after you came on board. I’ve never seen you go this long without insulting someone.”
Abby thought a moment and said, “I think it’s like you said earlier.” Gary furrowed his brow and Abby said, “I’m totally out of my league here. I know nothing about space ships, the military, normal space, other space, or any of the other things I’ve seen. I’m doing all I can to play catch up and it’s impossible to find senseless errors when you don’t know anything about what’s happening around you.”
Gary nodded slowly, “You lack patience.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“When you’re dealing with things you know, your mind is moving so quickly that anyone that says something that is obviously wrong, you reject it and continue with your thoughts. The vindictive remarks are to get them out of their erroneous thought processes. You have no patience to slow down and point out how they’re wrong.”
Abby was silent and two hours later as they jumped to the coordinates to start the exercise she said, “You’re right.”
Gary smiled and slowly shook his head. The amount of thought put in to what he had told Abby had to be staggering for her to have taken that much time to think about it. As the other two ships appeared, Abby said, “Thanks for being patient with me.”
Gary nodded and smiled, “I have to.”
“Why?”
“You outrank me. It comes with the territory.”
Abby smiled and knew he was not being totally honest. He could have really punished her during their trial if he chose. He didn’t hurt her and she knew she might not have been so forgiving if he was learning from her. She looked at the two ships and said, “Have they got a surprise waiting for them.”
“Chose a direction?”
“I think taking a dive is called for.”
G said, “You are learning.”
“Just help me behave, G. A little learning with me is dangerous.”
“I’ve seen that.”
“You didn’t have to agree.”
“Just letting you see what happens.”
Abby nodded, “I deserve that.”
Their displays came on and they turned to the other four members of their teams. As soon as Drey saw them he said, “This doesn’t look good. You have acceleration suits on.”
Violet and Andi saw Abby in her skintight uniform and were shocked. The shapeless dresses and clothes she normally wore did not reveal her shape. Even the skull cap didn’t hide how beautiful she was.
Gary nodded, “I think we’re going to need them to get away from the two of you.”
Drey stared at Gary and said, “Is what you’re planning dangerous to your ship?”
G said, “Noo, it exercises my little used muscles.”
; Drey laughed and E said, “They’re up to something.”
Doc said, “Let em try.”
Drey said, “Ok, here’s how we’ll do this. You start flying forward and Ian and I will jump in behind you and attempt to fire on you. That’s what we’ll have to face with the aliens and now is a good time to see how we respond to that form of attack.”
Gary nodded and said, “I’ll start at nine tenths light speed.”
Ian smiled, “See you shortly.”
The two ships disappeared and Gary accelerated. Abby looked at him and said, “Will that speed change what we’ve done?”
“It might cause an extra gravity. Just make sure you empty your lungs.”
Abby shook her head and Gary said, “What?”
“I just hope my boobs are still on my chest when this it over. They’ll look ridiculous on my back.”
Gary and G laughed.
Chapter Nineteen
“G as soon as they appear, I’m going to activate the maneuver. I expect them to really be coming at high speed.”
“What if this doesn’t work?”
“Well then, I’ll just see what I can dial up as we pass them, G.”
• • •
“Are you ready?”
“I am. How do you want to handle this?”
“We’ll jump in less than a thousand yards behind him and attempt to get lock. I need E and Doc to determine his escape route. I think he’ll either go vertical again or dive out of our approach path.”
“We’re on it, Drey.”
Violet said, “Do you think he can do anything about this tactic?”
Drey laughed, “I don’t know that we could, but I’ve seen him pilot a vehicle through traffic that was impossible. That’s why he’s here. If there’s a way to escape, I suspect he can do it.”
“Do you see a way?”
“I’ve got to say I don’t.”
Andi said, “Well, let’s go teach them a lesson.”
Ian said, “I hope we are the teachers here.”
Drey smiled, “Amen to that.”
Drey and Ian emerged into normal space right behind Gary’s ship and suddenly dove. Their buzzers went off immediately ending the exercise. E said, “What the…”
They watched as G flew past them in the opposite direction too quickly to be targeted even if they weren’t already hit. “Drey, what just happened?”
“Give me a moment Ian.” Drey replayed the recording and saw G dive and suddenly the rear of the ship whipped around as its inertia kept the giant ship moving away from them with the front pointed at them. The front end of the ship had all its weapons pointed at them as they gave chase and had a huge target to hit because they couldn’t dive edge on to pursue Gary. Drey shook his head, “I didn’t know that kind of maneuver is possible.”
Doc said, “It isn’t. He had to override the gravity suppressors.”
Ian stared at the recording and shook his head. “I’m beginning to wonder if we could take him with six ships.”
Violet said, “I’m surprised Abigail is still alive after that kind of maneuver.”
Gary said, “Well, would you like to try again?”
Drey smiled, “No, I think we’ve seen enough. You need to download that maneuver to our ships and give us some time to practice. That was remarkable.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Abby said, “This can only be done with the right uniform. I suggest that while in alien space we keep them on or we won’t be able to do this.”
Violet said, “Are you alright, Abigail?”
“I’ve suffered a lot while Lt. Lungen practiced, but this maneuver has pretty much completed getting my body used to the stresses. It is going to be brutal, but the price is worth it.” Abigail thought a moment and said, “By the way, thanks for asking.”
Violet smiled, “I honestly didn’t think you’d last a week, but now I’m glad the two of you are here. I feel a lot safer with you two around.”
“Thanks, Violet.”
“Doc, do you have that maneuver downloaded?”
“I do.”
Drey looked at Andi, “Let’s go change and see if we can pull it off.”
Andi looked at Abby on her display and left the bridge. Abby knew that Andi was still not over her past remarks. Even Ian didn’t appear to like her. She shrugged and said, “Is there anything else you want to try?”
Gary smiled, “There is an additional move coming out of the reverse twist where we accelerate back along the path we’re moving. G, we were somewhat slow going past them.”
“We were in normal force field and thruster systems. I suspect that we could activate the Dark Matter Drive and blow by them, but we would be moving too fast to fire any weapons.”
“What if we used the blue field to stop and reverse and then immediately went back to the standard systems?”
“I don’t know if I have that degree of control. You’re talking about changes happening in ten thousandth of a second.”
“Actually, the time would be a little longer due to the change of direction. Some time would be required to stop our forward momentum before we began moving on the new course.”
There was a pause and G said, “I’m not sure. We’ll need to give it a try before I know.”
Gary looked at Abby and she threw up her hands, “You know you’re going to do it. Will the loads change?”
“G?”
“I’ll work the suppressors to make sure they don’t go over six gravities but I compute that eight g’s will happen if I don’t.”
“G, the early astronauts endured 10 g’s on liftoff and survived. How long will the load be happening?”
“About two seconds.”
“Will we lose consciousness?”
“I suspect you’ll come close. If it lasted longer than four seconds, you would.”
Gary was silent as he considered the information. Abby looked at him and said, “Let’s say we’re being pursued by eight or ten alien ships and they’re moving in on us. The maneuver will allow us to probably kill the ones that are right on us, but other ships will be following them. We need to kill as many as possible to even the odds. If there’s a chance this will allow us to take out more ships, we need to see.” She paused and said, “G, will reducing the load to keep it at six G’s slow the maneuver?”
“Slightly.”
“Then try it at eight and let’s see if either of us are capable of manning the weapons.”
Gary nodded and said, “G, let’s do it.” An hour later, both of them were able to fire after the reversal. “G, send this maneuver to the other two ships.”
Drey looked at the incoming information and shook his head. Andi said, “What?”
“Those two are crazy.”
“What have they done now?”
“You don’t want to know. This is something we won’t do.”
“If they can do it…”
“E, do you have that maneuver in your databanks?”
“I do.”
“We’ll give it a go if we’re forced to it.”
“I think that would be wise.”
Andi showed her frustration and Drey said, “We all have our talents. Me trying to match your ability at analyzing energy would be like us trying to match Gary’s flying skills. We can only go so far before we fail. This is that place.”
Andi took a deep breath and then nodded. She looked at the display and smiled, “Well, at least I get to wear this uniform for the remainder of the trip.”
“I thought you’d like that.”
• • •
Ian looked at the others on his display and said, “Alright, I think we’re ready to go. Are there any last details before we go?”
E said, “We’re able to communicate now through that other space. There is no longer a need for an escape destination to get back together.”
Drey shook his head, “E, that other computer may intercept our communications.”
“Let it. We’ll be encrypting
them as we communicate. By the time it gets one done we’ll no longer be using it.”
Drey shook his head, “I wouldn’t sell that computer short.”
“It’s good but not that good. We have had the series of encryptions downloaded into our databanks and we’ll be going through them rather rapidly. I don’t see it breaking through.”
Andi said, “We should be in good shape on our weapons. It said that our beams are three times stronger than the ones used on their best ships.”
Ian shook his head, “It wasn’t telling the truth.”
Andi looked at Ian, “Oh?”
“Andi, it sent five ships to that dead planet to catch us. It wouldn’t have done that unless it believed we were monitoring its transmissions. If it suspected that, it would not have told the truth about the strength of their weapons on an open frequency.”
Andi thought a moment and said, “You’re right.”
Abby said, “Have we got a reading on their force fields? That should give us an idea of their relative beam strength.”
Drey said, “Andi got a reading on the decay of gamma rays on the inside of their force fields.”
Abby started thinking and said, “Yes but any idio…” She paused and after a moment said, “That was a good idea with the system you were using.”
Andi stared at Abby and said, “What were you going to say?”
Abby looked at her and said, “I really don’t know. Lt Lungen has pointed out that when I’m really concentrating on something I have no patience and say things that are very offensive. I’m trying to stop that behavior.” Abby looked at Andi, “What did I say?”
“You said any idiot.”
Gary said, “No, she said any idio.”
“I know what she meant.”
“It appears you don’t.”
Abby said, “Lieutenant, stay out of this.” She looked at Andi and said, “I’m sorry if I offended you, but you actually made a good decision to run that type of scan given the system you were forced to use.”
Drey saw Andi’s anger but it changed to curiosity, “What do you mean by the system?”
“The systems on your former ships don’t have the same software as the new ship. You didn’t have a way to scan for neutrino impacts or Higgs forces operating on the outer force field. You did the logical thing in looking at gamma ray degradation.”