by E. A. James
“It means you’ve officially passed your last test, Cadet—or should I say—Captain Winter,” he said, his voice booming with pride.
“Hell yes!” she exclaimed as she jumped down from the large, white, boxy flight simulator.
Just as her feet hit the floor, the heavy metal door in the corner of the room went flying open, slamming back against the wall forcefully. In the blink of an eye, the room filled with the bustle of excited bodies, all crowding in towards her. They had been watching her last simulated flight on the monitors hanging just outside the simulation room. It was common practice that a public audience was allowed to attend a cadet's final test. That way, the celebration could start immediately upon receiving her final mark.
She scanned the faces, recognizing most of them as her fellow Academy cadets. Her parents were there, mixed in with the crowd, trying to push their way towards her, with her sister close on their heels.
“If I can have your attention,” her Field Training Officer’s voice rang out, causing an anxious calm to fall over the crowd.
He was no longer behind the glass. Now, he stood in the doorway, his tall frame easily hovering over the mass of people. Everyone turned to look at him as he walked into the room. The crowd parted as he made his way towards Kira, a satisfied grin spread across his face.
“Kira Winter,” he said when he reached her. “It has been my honor to train you these last four years. You have always been an exemplary student, going above and beyond what was asked of you. You are a quick learner and a great pilot. I have no doubt that you will make the Terran Alliance Forces proud with your service.”
Reaching into his pocket, he revealed a small, golden pin. Although it wasn’t large in size, it was immense in meaning, especially for her. It was her badge, her title, the symbol of her first official ranking in the T.A.F.—it was everything she had ever wanted and everything she had worked so hard for.
She beamed with pride as he fastened the golden wings to the collar of her uniform. Her eyes once again flitted around the room, scanning the faces in the crowd. They were the faces of people who had supported her through the grueling training process, the faces of all the people who had stood by her from start to finish.
As her Field Training Officer pulled back, patting her firmly on her shoulder, her eyes landed on one specific face in the crowd—Ryker Dune’s. Lieutenant Dune was her Combat Training Officer, specializing in hand-to-hand combat. He had previously served as a member of the Terran Alliance Special Forces, the most prestigious of all the T.A.F. units. He began working at the Academy during her second year in training when an injury he sustained while out on a mission left him "temporarily unfit for battle."
There had always been a sort of unspoken tension between them. Kira felt it from the beginning and she knew that he did, too. But, the fact that he was her superior had always overshadowed them. Now, though, as she watched him walk confidently in her direction, she had a feeling that that divide was growing smaller as the distance between them lessened.
“Captain,” Ryker said, pushing his way through the crowd and extending his hand to her.
“Lieutenant Dune,” she replied, slipping her hand into his.
Although he was 28-years old, six years older than her, he had a boyish look about him. If it weren’t for the faint ripple of scars etched his right temple and cheek from the accident that had taken him temporarily out of the Special Forces, there would be no trace of age or experience on his face. Even his large frame and muscular build didn’t make-up for his childlike features. His thick, dark black hair was always messy, and there was a hint of mischief buried beneath his stern, serious countenance.
“You did it,” he said with a crooked smile. “You trained, worked your ass off, and rose to the top of your class. And, I’m proud to say that I got to be a part of what I know will be an amazing success story for the Terran Alliance Forces.”
“Someone is full of compliments today,” she replied quickly. “That’s a nice change.”
Although there had been some level of attraction passed between them during her training, Ryker had always been exceptionally hard on her. She didn’t mind, though. She took it as a challenge; it drove her and pushed her to work and train harder.
“That’s not the only thing that’s changed,” he said. “Your status has changed as well. You’re no longer a cadet in the Academy.”
“Oh,” she said, with a sarcastic gasp, “is that why all these people are here staring at me?”
Ryker smiled and ran his fingers through his hair. He kept his eyes focused on hers as he continued, “I mean, you’re no longer my student. And, that means, that there’s nothing standing in the way of my asking you out.”
“Except maybe this extremely awkward situation,” she said, looking over his shoulder at the mass of faces lining up to congratulate her. “Everyone is looking at us.”
His gaze didn’t follow hers; it remained glued to her face. “Are they? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Well, they are.”
“Then why don’t we continue this conversation later tonight, in a more private setting—I’ll prepare dinner for us in my quarters.”
The thought of being in a Training Officer’s private quarters made Kira’s pulse quicken. Just five minutes before, it would have been breaking the first cardinal rule of the Academy—no relationships between officers and cadets.
But, she wasn’t a cadet anymore. She was a captain in the Terran Alliance Forces. The realization quickly pushed all doubt and insecurity from her mind, replacing those feelings with pride and confidence.
“If that will keep you from holding up the line, I guess I’ll accept,” she said playfully, not letting the rush of excitement she was feeling come through in her voice.
Ryker cocked his head to the side, smiled, and nodded. “I’ll see you at 1800 hours then, Captain Winter.”
She nodded quickly as he turned to walk away. Watching him go, she couldn’t keep the smile from her lips. Everything seemed to be coming together. Her career was on track and clearly, she was crossing the chasm between cadet and captain seamlessly.
Her gaze followed him as he turned the corner, leaving the room. Just as she was about to turn to search for her family in the crowd and continue letting the moment of celebration wash over her, something caught her eye. Something that made the smile quickly fall from her lips.
She didn’t need to see the ranks sewn into his uniform to know who he was. What he was doing at her pinning ceremony, though, was what confused her. Colonel Baron Grimm was the Special Forces’ most well-known commander. She had seen his face on broadcasts, his icy stare piercing through the holographic images with an intensity that demanded instant respect. And now, those glassy eyes were fixed on her.
A chill ran up her spine as he pushed through the crowd, making a beeline in her direction.
THOR - FAR HOPE SERIES - BOOK #1
CHAPTER ONE
“Captain, I’m not sure the ship can take it,” Kira’s co-pilot said from his seat to her right.
Kira didn’t take her eye off the monitor in front of her. She could see the Rengar ship coming straight towards them, but her hands didn’t flinch on the controls.
“That’s your problem, Johan,” she said calmly. “You don’t trust the ship.”
“I wouldn’t call it as much a trust issue as a practical one. The rat’s vessel is much bigger than ours.”
Referring to their targets as “rats” was not meant as a slight, rather a relatively accurate description of their appearance. Still, the description did capture the essence of the intelligent rodent race accurately. They truly were the rats of the galaxy—scheming and clever, dealing primarily with the black market, selling stolen goods and offering nefarious services in the Galactic Bazaar.
That’s what brought Kira to this moment. A group of Rengar pirates had stolen goods from a leading political officer of the Terran Alliance, and being one of the Alliance’s leading combat pilots,
she was called in to track down the ship, and lead a mission to retrieve the cargo.
“That’s something we will use to our advantage,” Kira replied confidently. Reaching for the intercom, she dialed in the code linked to the bridge. “Rix,” she said, speaking directly to the ship’s engineer, “make sure the shields are up. We’re expecting contact in ten, nine…” as she counted down, she watched the image on the screen grow larger and larger.
Johan nervously clutched the throttle in his hands so tightly that his knuckles were beginning to turn white. Kira continued to count, waiting until she reached “two” before thrusting the vessel forward and sending the ship into a high-speed plummet.
The Rengar ship just nicked their right wing, but with the shields up, the pirates’ Junker did little damage to the top-of-the-line Terran Alliance fighter she was piloting. Johan held his breath as she turned the ship hard right and once again began to climb, heading directly towards the belly of the enemy ship.
Rix’s voice came over the intercom. “They’re lowering their guns, Captain,” he informed her.
“Good,” she replied, watching for the cannons to drop out below the pirate ship. “Ready the missiles,” she ordered Johan.
His hands shook slightly as he typed a command code into the console in front of him. The ship shuddered as the missiles moved to the ready position.
As they continued to get closer and closer to the pirate vessel, the air in the cockpit became electric with tension. Kira loved these moments. The adrenaline that pumped through her veins, the feeling of control that overwhelmed her, waiting for the perfect moment to give the order.
“We’re getting too close,” Johan warned, ready to reach for the controls in front of him and pull the ship back.
“Don’t even think about it,” Kira said firmly. “We’re almost there.”
"They're targeting us," Rix's voice came over the intercom again.
“They won’t have time,” Kira said, moving her hand towards the missile launch switch. “Switching to weapons only control, Johan, you have the controls – try not to panic.”
Training the cross-hairs that appeared on her screen to the slits from which the guns were lowering on the underbelly of the enemy ship, she inhaled sharply. Just as the large, cannon-sized barrels swiveled in their direction she hit the launch.
Simultaneously, she shouted to Johan to dive. “Take us down, now!” she ordered, keeping her eyes glued to the screen.
There was a blast; large enough to disrupt their flight pattern slightly, but not so large that it destroyed the Rengar ship.
“Perfect,” she said analyzing the data on her console, shooting a cocky smile to Johan. “You can radio the others and let them know the ship has been disabled. Have reinforcements sent in, and the clean-up crew sent out to retrieve what the rat’s stole this time.”
Johan made the call while she relaxed back in her seat. Radioing down to the bridge, she confirmed that the remaining members of her small crew were safe. Rix, although slightly shaken, confirmed that they were.
“No matter how many flights I take with you, Captain, I will never cease to be amazed by your tactics,” Johan said once he had finished the call.
“I think by tactics you must mean recklessness”, Kira wryly replied. “Have I ever not gotten you home safely Johan?”
She had worked with Johan on a number of occasions, although they were far from close. He was a stocky man, with the same tanned skin and dark brown eyes that were typical of almost all the Terran race. Although he was a year older than her, making him 34-years old, she was his superior, something she sensed he resented.
“Not yet,” he said with a slight scoff. “But I tell my wife that if I ever don’t make it home for dinner, it’s probably because I’ve been out with you.”
“God,” Kira replied, wrinkling her nose in disgust, “that could send the wrong message.”
“Hey! You’d be lucky to get a guy like me; you know that?”
“You may be right,” she said, raising an eyebrow, “at least I know you can follow orders. Men usually aren’t very good at that.”
Kira had been in a handful of relationship throughout her adult life. But, none of them stuck. Her success often seemed to intimidate. It wasn’t just her professional identity that left them feeling inferior, but her overall demeanor. She didn’t ever back down from a fight, and she rarely admitted she was wrong—because she usually wasn’t.
On the surface, she didn’t seem to be the rough-and-tumble person that she was. With a petite frame and small figure, she was often underestimated. In addition, she found that she attracted a lot of attention, more attention than she would have liked, simply because of her physical appearance. While she did share the basic qualities as the other Terran's from her home planet Earth—dark hair and tanned skin—she had blue eyes. It was a recessive trait that had almost completely disappeared from the planet generations earlier. Today, individuals with light eyes or hair were looked at as a commodity throughout the empire.
Thankfully, a strong relationship with the Telani, a race native to the planet Maelor, had somewhat quelled the fascination with the fairer Terran's. Telani were known for their bright, blue eyes and platinum blond hair. Most Terran men would jump at the chance to be with a Telani woman.
Johan’s wife was Telani, a fact he constantly bragged about. That was one of the reasons why Kira never felt the need to take it easy on her co-pilot. It was good for him to have a lesson in humility from time to time.
“Set the coordinates for the T.S.F Victory,” she ordered Johan, not giving him time to respond to her previous comment, but relishing in the satisfaction that her command simply served to prove her point.
He let out a disgruntled huff as he did as she said. Just as they pulled away from the scene of the encounter, five larger Terran Alliance ships swarmed in to complete the task they had started.
Smiling to herself, Kira settled back into her chair. Flipping the auto-pilot switch, she let the ship do the rest of the work for her, taking them back to the Terran forces’ flagship, where they would dock and debrief—the official end of their mission.
Johan still seemed tense. Perhaps he was simply upset with her earlier comment. "Relax," she said to him, kicking her feet up and closing her eyes. "In no time at all, we'll be home, and getting ready to start our three-week leave. Hopefully, that's enough time for your hands to stop shaking.”
CHAPTER TWO
“What the hell were you thinking, Kira?” her commanding officer asked her, his face slightly red.
They were seated in a debriefing room aboard the T.F.S Victory. It was a small room, with no windows. Kira always felt like she was being interrogated rather than debriefed, but then again, the military protocol did save lives. Still, she wished these conversations would normally start without the attack on her judgment.
"I was thinking about completing my rather straightforward mission in the safest way possible so I could get back to Earth and start my leave, Admiral," she said pointedly.
Admiral Artanis let out a long sigh as he slid into the chair across from her. “You can’t keep taking risks like that.”
“It wasn’t a risk. I knew what I was doing.”
Artanis crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair, giving her the same look he so often did—one of disbelief with a slight hint of pride. While he was always hard on her, he had a soft spot for her as well. Over the years, they had developed an odd relationship. The only way Kira could think to describe it was that of a father and his rebellious daughter.
Admiral Artanis was usually not dealing with such trivial issues as mission debriefs, but Kira was one of a select few pilots assigned to the Admiral’s retinue that he was directly responsible for.
“Kira, you forced an encounter with a Rengar pirate ship, easily eight times the size of your own, with a significant weapons array. We had a battle plan drawn up that did not include you breaking formation and moving in with
out the support of the battle group.”
“I needed them to lower their guns so I could get a clear shot at disabling their engine systems.”
"That's another thing," Geoff said, leaning forward, running his fingers through his slightly graying hair. "What if you had been off target, just a little? You could have blown the entire ship, not just the engines.”
“I knew I wouldn’t miss, sir.”
“We could have lost all of that cargo Kira, and that would mean our conversation could have been very different.”
“We didn’t, plus, this would not have been necessary in the first place if Terran High Command took the necessary precautions to protect sensitive cargo.”
Geoff sighed, “It’s getting harder and harder to write these reports, skewing them in a way that keeps you out of trouble and in my employ,” he said, reaching for the tablet sitting on the table between them.