Starfire and The Planet Killer

by Christine Westhead

  "That should take most of the troops away from the hangar decks," he said.

  "Hal and Lieutenant Starfire should be in position by now. If they had been captured, we would have been the first to hear of it." Delta Ten walked towards the door. "We should review the troops and then get to our launch as soon as possible."

  "You are correct, Captain Ryden. I feel it is our duty to be in orbit to welcome our revered High Commander.

  "I would be honoured to pilot your launch, as always," Delta Ten opened the door and respectfully stood aside to let Thirty Seven pass.

  At the hangar, Starfire and Hal, wearing utility overalls over their clothes, stood behind some convenient storage drums under the balcony that had been occupied by Thirty Seven and Delta Ten just over an hour before.

  "That has to be it," whispered Starfire, peering around the stacked boxes. It was impossible to miss the ship carrying the Planet Killer weapon as it squatted in the centre of the silo floor. It almost filled the small silo, an ugly vessel, wedge shaped and featureless. It carried one standard engine at the rear and tapered down to a wide slot at the front. It had two stubby wings and a wide, raised aileron at the rear. It was surrounded by a dozen technicians who were removing connecting hoses or walking in and out of the dull black ship via a ramp under the large oval slot in the nose.

  "It's not built for speed," she mused.

  "I don't see any gun ports, either," added Hal. "Just that funnel at the front."

  "It's an air intake," said Starfire. "This thing has been adapted from a ground to air fighter." She turned to Hal, "It ain't gonna be that safe."

  "Will it go to light?" asked Hal. Starfire shook her head.

  "No," she answered, "we'll have to be towed or carried if we want to leave this system." She pulled a resigned face. "If it gets itself into orbit without disintegrating, we'll be lucky."

  "There's the crew lounge," Hal nudged Starfire and pointed to an open door. It had the usual magnetised board on the wall outside, where several identity tags stuck to it in a haphazard fashion.

  "How do we get over there without attracting any attention?" asked Starfire. They had managed to reach the hangar by staining their hands and faces, stealing the overalls of two hapless cleaning staff and polishing their way to the silo, using mainly unoccupied corridors. By pushing their hair up into their caps and keeping their faces averted, they could pass for Aurians at a distance but the launch silo was crowded and their eye colour would give them away instantly at close quarters. Although there were half caste Aurians like Con Tranter back at their base, they were rare and they would never have been allowed to work directly for the Federation.

  "We'll carry something," suggested Hal. He picked up a large storage box and motioned to Starfire to pick up the other end. "Head for the crew lounge, keep the box up and your head down." They weaved their way towards the entrance of the crew lounge, left it near the door and slipped into the room without being noticed. People were far too busy rushing to try and meet the impossible deadline set by Commissioner Rimek to wonder why two humble cleaning techs were moving storage boxes around the bay.

  Crew lounges like this were standard all over the galaxy. Located off the main hangar, they usually consisted of a large lounge sporting comfortable chairs, tables and computer consoles with an adjoining room for bunks, lockers, vanity units and a small private room for the Flight Commanding Officer. Despite attempts by squadron members to personalise their space with pictures and mascots, they always managed to carry the same impersonal transient feel of a hotel room or Starport waiting lounge. The main lounge was empty, but there were four metal I.D. tags stuck to the magnetised board just outside the door. Hal drew his makeshift laser pistol and drifted towards the sleeping quarters. He returned less than a minute later and beckoned Starfire inside. Two male pilots were unconscious in their bunks, the other two females lay in the communal vanity units. Starfire used her laser knife to cut the mattress bedding into strips and they quickly gagged and tied all the pilots. Starfire breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the heavy looking, black and silver space suits that were hanging in the lockers by the side of the bunks.

  "These are the crews for the Planet Killer," she explained. "A two man crew and a relief crew. I hoped they'd be wearing space armour as this is an experimental ship. Nobody will recognise us in these." She shrugged into one and motioned for Hal to do the same. They closed the hatch to the sleeping quarters and Hal fused the lock with a quick burst of his laser pistol. They walked through the lounge and were half way to the exit when a harassed flight tech put his head round the door and called out,

  "Merry; Black; get your arses in gear and get in that ship. We're two minutes overdue." Hal snapped the visor of his space suit down with a click, blacked out his visor and grabbed the name tag saying, 'Merry, J. Cmdr'. He casually stepped in front of Starfire and gave the tech a lazy thumbs up, shielding her from view. She quickly flipped her helmet visor down, blacked it out, grabbed her I.D. badge and followed Hal from the room, throwing the tech a hasty salute as she sidled past him in the doorway.

  All the umbilicals had been removed from the craft, it had been turned so that it faced the hangar doors and its nose had been hooked to a small ground buggy. Hal and Starfire walked purposefully to the ship, feet plodding slowly inside their heavy, armoured suits, and Starfire closed the ramp as soon as they were inside. They clumped heavily to the pilot section and Starfire slid awkwardly into the starboard seat, scanning the controls and information screens. There was no windscreen but a large computer screen at window height in front of them showed the hangar floor below them. They cleared their visors and Starfire turned to Hal, who had raised his hand to open his helmet and she leaned across and batted it away. She used the internal suit com and Hal heard her voice come through his helmet.

  "I thought so," she began. "This thing isn't space-worthy," she plugged an oxygen intake, dangling from the console, into a hole in her suit and twisted it to lock it in place, like a vacuum cleaner hose. "Get hooked up and make sure you do it right." Hal followed her instructions and they plugged themselves into the ship using various hoses and cables that dangled from the controls in front of them.

  "Can you fly it?" asked Hal, studying the weapons specifications on a screen in between them. Starfire threw him a dirty look and said,

  "Can you fire it?" Hal declined to answer and strapped himself in, content to watch Starfire trying to press delicate crystals that were not meant to be accessed by hands covered in space suit gauntlets. Hal pressed one of his crystals. "I just broke the vid link with ground control," he explained. "They can hear us but they can't see us. You never know, there might be somebody there who knows Merry and Black really well." The ship lurched suddenly and started to move forward. Hal turned a questioning face to Starfire.

  "This ship has wheels; I had to let the handbrake off," she explained. "It's been built in a hurry and it doesn't have any lift off thrusters. My guess is we'll need a runway or a ramp to get us off the ground so we need to be towed. The schematics we had showed lift off thrusters, so I'm not really sure."

  "Oh, great," muttered Hal, "so we're just bumbling along on a best guess are we?" Starfire placed her hands palm downward over the glass console and a crystal bar rose from a slot and seated itself under her waiting fingers. She bit her bottom lip and grasped the steering bar tightly, her eyes scanning all of the unfamiliar controls in front of her.

  "Steady," Hal's calm voice came over the internal com and had the right effect. She turned a strained but smiling face towards him.

  "Does it show that much?"

  "What, that you're shit scared? Sure, but it's natural. Just concentrate on flying this piece of Aurian crap and you'll be fine."

  "I know," Starfire relaxed slightly. "I've flown in combat; hell, I've been in a few ground fights, but nothing like this." She glared at the controls. "I've always had complete faith in my ships, but this thing……" She pointed vaguely at the controls. "It's not
even a proper space ship. It's just a converted warplane. It isn't even air-tight."

  "There's Thirty Seven," said Hal in an attempt to divert her attention from the fact they were sitting in a makeshift spaceship that had been turned into a flying bomb. He pointed to the forward screen where they could just make out Thirty Seven and Delta Ten, standing at the foot of the ramp to Rimek's fake launch.

  "Good grief, look at all those troops!" gasped Starfire, leaning forward for a better view. "There must be every man on the base down there."

  "Got to be Thirty Seven's doing," mused Hal. "He's been keeping them out of our way." The buggy and its grim burden trundled slowly between the assembled ranks until it came to a halt over a large rectangle painted on the tarmac. The square buggy unhitched itself from the Planet Killer ship and a loud clanking noised could be heard, reverberating through the hull. The com console bleeped and a screen in front of them changed to show the inside of a Starport control room.

  "Experimental Planet Killer Two, we have lost visual. Respond please."

  "We can see and hear you, Port," said Starfire. "Must be a glitch."

  "Experimental Planet Killer Two, you are clamped, please stand by for tilt." Starfire looked at Hal. In the normal course of events, a communications problem at launch would have had any spaceship grounded until it was sorted. It went double for an experimental craft but in this case, it was obvious that they were expendable.

  "Aye, standing by," answered Starfire, tightening her harness. The ship slowly lifted from the nose until it sat at ninety degrees to the ground and Starfire and Hal were lying back in their seats.

  "You may start your engine," said the flight tech. Starfire pressed a few crystals and the cramped cockpit began to shake. A dull rumble that started beneath them increased in volume to a high pitched, screaming whine. A stubby blast shield raised behind the vibrating engine and the tech gave them permission to lift off.

  The ugly black ship rose into the air like a missile, leaving a curly trail of smoke and acrid fumes behind it. A hidden motor cut in underneath the launch pad and the smoke from the launch was sucked downward in a reversing spiral plume to disappear into the ground. Inside the ship, Hal and Starfire shook and bucked with the vibrations until Starfire brought the nose down to make for a more gentle ascent.

  "That's the hard bit over and we're still in one piece," said Starfire, not looking away from her console.

  "Tell me something, Lieutenant," began Hal, a gentle smile on his lips.

  "Yes?" asked Starfire, always wary when Hal was being pleasant.

  "How do we get down again?"

  "Ah, well, I was hoping you weren't going to ask me that. This thing doesn't seem to have any landing thrusters either. I think it has to be towed for landing as well. It there's no atmosphere or gravity it shouldn't be too much of a problem." Starfire made some minute alterations and held up her hand for silence. "Flight Control this is Experimental Planet Killer Two leaving the atmosphere."

  "Your course is already entered into the targeting computer. Good luck," called the tech, and broke the link.

  "There's another ship closing," Hal informed Starfire. "It's Thirty Seven." He flicked his finger at a crystal and spoke.

  "I have you on my scope, Commissioner. It is an honour to demonstrate this weapon for you."

  "I am sure it is, Commander Merry," Thirty Seven's flat tones invaded the cockpit. "I have selected another target for this demonstration. Captain Ryden will send you the co-ordinates." They watched their screen as a stylised view of the Norbus Solar system appeared and a circle flashed around one of the farthest asteroids. Hal and Starfire exchanged a grin. They knew Jed would be listening in and he would already be there, waiting for them. The two ships converged and headed away from the sun towards the outer system at a leisurely pace until the comlink, set to receive all channels, burst into life again.

  "Norbus Alpha," the voice was Aurian with a High-Born, military accent, "this is Space Launch Rimek One requesting permission to dock. I have the Commissioner on board." Hal and Starfire looked at each other in horror a split second before Thirty-Seven's normal voice came out of the speakers.

  "Full speed ahead, Little Dragon, my counterpart has arrived."

  "Way ahead of you, Mother," Starfire pushed the steering bar forward and the craft lurched after the Thirty Seven's speeding launch in front of them.

  "Do you not wish to see the demonstration, Commissioner?" asked the port controller. Starfire and Hal moved another ten thousand K's.

  "What demonstration are you talking about?" This time it was Rimek on the air. The Planet killer passed Norbus One, the next planet in the Norbus System. There was a short, uncomfortable silence.

  "The Planet Killer, Sir. You requested a demonstration." Starfire eased their ship past the Norbus Sky Train Port."

  "You are speaking in riddles," droned Rimek. "Let me speak to your commanding officer."

  "This is General Colfax, Commissioner."

  "Give me a status report, now!" Rimek managed to convey impatience by speaking very quickly. Colfax swallowed something that seemed to be stuck in his throat.

  "You came here three hours ago, Sir. You requested a full compliment inspection review, then you ordered a demonstration of the Planet Killer. You took off fifteen minutes ago for the outer sector to watch it." Starfire rounded Norbus Two and headed for a little moon that orbited it. She gave a sigh of relief to see the comforting shape of The Rising Star docking with Rimek's fake launch. A glance at her controls showed that the engine was overheating dangerously and she quickly cut the power and eased the Planet Killer up into the large belly hold using its forward inertia. Jed closed the belly doors and the ship dropped down suddenly to slam onto the cargo bay floor as the internal gravity made itself apparent.

  "Launch fighters and destroy the Planet Killer." Rimek's flat voice sped up slightly, giving the illusion of urgency. "I have just arrived here from Katraia. You have been tricked." Delta Ten and Thirty Seven closed the hatch on board the Rising Star, disengaged the fake Rimek ship and let it drift slowly away.

  "Fighters will launch in two hours, Commissioner."

  "That is not acceptable. Launch immediately."

  "I'm afraid that is not possible, Sir. All available fighters have been disabled.

  "I shall be landing in four point three minutes, General. I do not expect to see you when I arrive." Still sitting in the Planet Killer, listening on the com, Hal and Starfire looked at each other and made throat cutting gestures. General Colfax was doomed. The stomach churning sensation that was the transition to light speed told them that they had entered hyperspace and Starfire pressed the release hatch for the entry ramp. She unclipped and removed her helmet, left it on her seat and shrugged out of clumsy suit.

  "I'm going up top," she said to Hal, "are you coming?"

  "Nope," Hal unlocked his helmet and removed it with a grateful sigh, "I gotta figure out how to fire off this damn thing."

  Starfire caught the Rising Star's internal aircar and emerged outside the pilot section in the hexagonal hall. Thirty Seven and Delta Ten had just arrived there as well, from the port aircar hatch.

  "Where is Hal?" asked Thirty Seven.

  "He's still examining the weapon," answered Starfire. "He asked me to send you to him, Del." The android bowed politely and left to go to the hold while Thirty Seven and Starfire continued into the pilot section. Jed Cloud left his seat at the controls and greeted them both warmly.

  "Well, we should be in Katraia within eight hours."

  "Yeah," answered Starfire, "And the Federation will be two hours behind us all the way."

  Chapter 20

  "Raemond, stop!" The harshly whispered words halted the young man in his tracks. He turned impatiently to see the head of the King's Council at his side.

  "Lord Fabidon," he whispered, amazed to see the old man. Now is not the time..."

  "I'm afraid it is, Raemond. You must call off your attack. Your plans are known t
o Prince Farrell and Rimek." To give the young man credit, he didn't ask 'are you sure?' or 'how could this happen?' He raised his wrist to his lips and hissed a command through his comlink that had the four snipers wriggling back to their commander while only half way to their targets.

  "My home awaits," said Fabidon, softly. "We will talk there. I suggest haste; even the time of your assault is known. When you do not attack, they will soon come out to see what has happened. Fabidon turned and melted into the night, closely followed by his trusty servant, Moon, Raemond and his group. Fabidon lived in a small castle with its own grounds, just outside the Palace walls. Two hard looking men were at the wicket gate tonight and they ushered everyone inside before sliding across a heavy, iron bolt. Everyone scuttled through the gardens to the rear of the big, stone house. They stopped at a few stone steps leading down to a small door, which was half below ground level. The thick, oak door opened into a basement room, tiled with flagstones. There was a roaring fire in the huge grate and heavy tapestries graced the walls, almost from floor to ceiling. The windows, which were at ground level from the outside, were shuttered and as soon as the last man was through and the door closed, Fabidon raised the lights.

  "All right, what's going on?" muttered Raemond. It was a mark of his tension that he forgot to address his host correctly or bow and he hastened to correct himself until stayed by Fabidon's raised hand. The old man allowed himself to be seated by Moon, and accepted a hot drink from a servant.

  "Deena!" gasped Raemond as he recognised someone as the room brightened, "what the hell happened to you?" The young woman was seated at a long, oak table while one of Fabidon's servants finished tying a bandage around her wounded shoulder.

  "It was that little shit, Tomas," she spoke with a heavy, country accent. "Seems he was up on the roof and heard all your plans. Couldn't wait to run to Farrell and tell him all about it. He turned up at the Labyrinth with the Galactic Police. I only just managed to get away." She winced as the servant finished tying the bandage and nodded her thanks. "They're waiting for you at the compound, in the dungeons and on Pinnacle Flats."