by Linn Schwab
The officer performed some calculations on his console. “At our current rate of forward progress, I’d estimate close to thirty minutes, Captain.”
“Good. Alright, listen up,” he announced to his crew. “Here’s the plan. As soon as we have an unobstructed view of the target area, we’re going to initiate a deep field optical search. Assuming we manage to remain undetected, we’ll allow the search to run until it’s complete. However, if we’re forced to bug out early, I want the radar up and running while we make our retreat. We’ll capture as much telemetry as we can, and attempt to relay it to the fleet as we’re withdrawing. Is everyone clear on that?”
“Yes, sir!” they replied in unison.
“Alright. Let’s do our best to get some pictures of whatever’s back there. The whole fleet is counting on us to get this right.”
* * * *
Now that the fighters were all on their way, Captain Wells sat down at a console on the bridge and waited to hear what came in over the radio.
“How much longer?” one of her lieutenants asked her.
“It’s going to be a while,” she said. “The route they’re trying to follow is going to slow them down a bit. Let’s just hope nothing happens here while they’re away.”
Somewhere on the other side of the bridge, another lieutenant suddenly cried out in panic. “Captain, I see movement off the port side! Profile looks like an enemy cruiser!”
Captain Wells sprang to her feet and raced across the bridge. With the fighters all away, her ship was defenseless. “Are any of our destroyers in range?” she asked.
The lieutenant looked up at her and shook her head. “They’re all positioned along the edge of Pangea. We can’t even reach them by radio right now.”
The captain’s eyes remained locked on the enemy ship as it moved through the wreckage off in the distance. “It doesn’t look like they’ve seen us,” she said. “Either that, or they’re hoping they can avoid us.”
“They’re headed for Volaris,” the lieutenant observed. “I don’t think they came here looking for us.”
“I think you’re right,” the captain agreed. “Put a call through to Volaris, now!”
* * * *
“The Zephyr’s calling us,” Lindsey said. She reached forward and switched on the control room’s speakers.
“Volaris, this is Captain Wells. I need to speak with Commander Eldridge right away.”
Veronica switched her microphone on. “Captain Wells, this is Lieutenant Marlowe. This station has just suffered a catastrophic collision, and we’re currently in emergency recovery status. Commander Eldridge is currently unaccounted for. We don’t even know if she’s still alive.”
Several seconds of silence passed before Captain Wells spoke up again. “Understood,” she said with hesitation. “Can I speak with Major Richards, then?”
Veronica looked up at the monitors while Ariel continued to flip through the cameras. “Any luck?” she whispered.
Ariel simply shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Captain,” Veronica said. “We can’t locate Major Richards either.”
“Well, tell me who’s in command, then, Lieutenant. I’m not familiar yet with all of your personnel. Just take a quick look around yourself and tell me who is the ranking officer in the control room right now?”
Lindsey and Veronica both glanced at each other, then turned to look behind them at Robin. “Umm...” Veronica said, “that would be Captain Starling.”
Robin felt the blood suddenly rush from her face. She swallowed and moved a step closer to the microphone. Anxiety rippled through her entire body as she tried to come to grips with the task she now faced. The crisis of a station thrown into total chaos had just been summarily dropped on her shoulders.
“Listen, Lieutenant,” Captain Wells insisted, “we’re running out of time here. Whoever this Captain Starling is, you need to inform her there’s an enemy light cruiser heading your way. It’s steaming through the wreckage field even as we speak. If she doesn’t get some forces out here to deal with it soon, the station’s position is going to be compromised!”
“Captain,” Robin started to reply, but the speakers hissed and suddenly went silent.
“We lost the signal,” Lindsey said. “The optical link’s been interrupted.”
“Who can we send?” Robin asked.
“We don’t have anyone left,” Veronica informed her. “Everything we have is out near Pangea.”
“There must be something we can do,” Lindsey said.
As Robin tried to come up with a plan, her eyes gravitated to the bank of monitors that Ariel was using to search for Major Richards. One of the station’s security cameras showed an external view of spur number two. The Angelfish and Wallaby were both still docked there. She assumed the Wallaby was still sitting there because it hadn’t yet been fully repaired. “What about the Angelfish?” she asked.
Veronica shook her head. “Her engines are shot. I’m not even sure if she can fly.”
“The Wallaby can still fly,” Robin insisted. She shifted her attention to another monitor which showed a live image of the spur’s interior. A trio of technicians were feverishly working to repair the spur’s electrical systems.
“Who are those girls?” Robin asked, pointing at the three technicians on the screen.
Veronica zoomed the camera in. “Chelsea, Meghan, and Brandi,” she said.
“I need to talk to them,” Robin insisted.
“The intercom is down,” Lindsey reminded her. “There’s no way to get in touch with them from here.”
“Wait!” Veronica said. She hastily flipped through some of the switches on her console. “I can patch your voice in over the alarm system speakers. We won’t be able to hear them, but they should be able to hear us. Okay, it’s ready. Go ahead.”
“Brandi!” Robin said into the microphone. “Can you hear me?” She watched for a reaction on the screen. Brandi suddenly appeared to glance around the room. “This is Captain Starling,” Robin said. “If you can hear me, wave your arms above your head.”
Brandi looked up at the security camera, raised her arms up and waved them back and forth.
“Brandi,” Robin said, “there’s an enemy ship coming toward the station! I need you girls to start reloading the Wallaby’s weapons! Get as many torpedoes inside her as you can! And hurry! Captain Starling, out.”
* * * *
Chelsea and Meghan both glanced at Brandi and headed straight for the armory.
“Wait!” Brandi cautioned them. “Janine ordered us not to touch the Wallaby.”
Meghan stopped and pointed up at the security camera. “You heard her, Brandi!” she argued. “There’s an enemy warship coming this way! This station is in serious danger, and Robin gave us a direct order!”
“I realize that,” Brandi said, “but we don’t know if she’s authorized to overrule Janine. And I have serious doubts that she is. Robin isn’t even a senior officer. She’s just a captain, Meghan.”
Chelsea understood the dilemma they were faced with, and realized time was of the essence. She didn’t relish the thought of disobeying orders, but neither did she want to be responsible for leaving the station vulnerable to attack. “Well,” she suggested, hoping she might be able to win Brandi over, “Robin may be just a captain by rank, but isn’t she the lead captain in her battalion?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Meghan confirmed. “She is the lead captain in her battalion.”
“So?” Brandi argued, still unconvinced.
“So, technically,” Chelsea extrapolated, “doesn’t that also sort of make her a ‘battalion commander?’”
Brandi winced in indecision, then bit her lip and reluctantly agreed. “Alright,” she said, “that’s good enough for me. You two grab the forklifts and start bringing in torpedoes. I’ll get the Wallaby’s rear hatch opened.”
* * * *
“Okay,” Veronica said, “so now we have a ship. But who’s gonna fly her once we
get her loaded? The Wallaby’s crew is on Orion right now, and the crew of the Angelfish flew to Cumulus with Sheri.”
Robin turned her eyes to the infirmary camera. The enemy pilot was sitting on the edge of his bed, and Virginia was poking at the intercom buttons. “I need to get to the infirmary,” she said. “Is there a safe way to get down there from here?”
Veronica called up a schematic of the station. “Yes,” she said, “it looks pretty clear. You’ll have to avoid section G–thirty–two. I’m not getting any readings from there, so I can’t tell if it’s still pressurized or not.”
Robin placed her hand on Ariel’s shoulder. “Ariel, come with me,” she ordered, then spun toward the rear wall and headed for the corridor.
Ariel flashed a nervous glance at Veronica, then ran toward the exit to catch up with Robin.
As Robin and Ariel raced along the corridor, they found Miranda limping toward the control room, dragging a fire extinguisher behind her. Her dress and skin were blackened by soot, and her abdomen was covered with splotches of blood. Her footsteps seemed painfully slow and forlorn. The look in her eyes was empty and distant. Robin rushed to her side and examined her for injuries. She didn’t appear to have any open wounds, so the blood or her dress must’ve come from someone else. Her dazed expression hinted at what she’d experienced. She’d obviously witnessed something horrific.
“Miranda,” Robin insisted, “leave the fire extinguisher and just go to the control room.”
Miranda lowered herself to the floor and wrapped her arms possessively around the extinguisher, clinging to it as if it were a life preserver. Her appearance suggested she may have tried to rescue someone, but Robin could only guess who it might have been. Most likely, one of the other controllers. From the look in her eyes, though, it seemed apparent that she had failed.
“She’s in shock,” Ariel said. “We need to get her to the infirmary.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Robin said. “Lindsey!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, “I need you to come out here and get Miranda!” She grabbed Ariel’s arm and pulled her to a ladder, then climbed down ahead of her to the next level.
* * * *
“Nothing’s working,” Virginia said. The intercom controls weren’t responding to her commands. “The impact must’ve damaged some of our systems.” She gave up and sat down on the cot again.
“Can you open the door?” Dave asked her.
“Yes, but I can’t tell if the corridor outside is still pressurized.”
“So we just sit here and wait, then?”
She nodded and leaned back against the wall. “I think that’s the smartest thing we can do. If someone triggers the door from outside, then I guess we’ll know it’s safe to open.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Dave said. Seconds later, he heard footsteps running through the corridor. The door released and slid open, and two young girls stepped into the room. The older of the two remained close to the doorway, staring at him in curiosity. The younger girl immediately spoke to Virginia, paying him no attention whatsoever.
“Virginia,” Robin said, “I realize your arm is probably still hurting, but I need to know if you can pilot a destroyer right now.”
Virginia stood up and applied some pressure to her bandage. The anesthetic was wearing off, but the pain in her arm was tolerable now. “I think so,” she said. “Why? What’s going on?”
“There’s an enemy warship coming this way. We need to make sure it doesn’t get close enough to find us.”
“Wait,” Dave said, “let me talk to them. This might be the only chance we ever get.”
“Why should we listen to you!” Robin said, casting and angry glare at him to make it clear his input wasn’t welcome. She looked at Virginia again and said, “I’m sending you and Ariel out in the Wallaby. You’ll have to fly the ship and line up the shots yourself, and let her know when to fire the torpedoes.”
Virginia placed her hand over her card key. “I’m not authorized to operate destroyers.”
Robin pulled her own key out and placed it into Virginia’s palm. “Get out there as fast as you can,” she said. “We can’t afford to let them find us.”
“Virginia, wait,” Dave pleaded. “It isn’t safe for your people to stay here any longer. If you have a ship that’s ready to fly, then you should evacuate this station right now. Get everyone out of here before it’s too late.”
The two girls appeared to ignore his plea.
“Virginia,” he said, “don’t do this. Look … at least get the kids out of here!”
“We’re not leaving!” Robin insisted. She stared at him again to affirm her decision, then turned away from him and left the room. The other young girl followed her out, and they both ran off in different directions.
As Virginia started to move toward the door, Dave reached out and tugged on her uniform. “Wait, Virginia, listen to me. You really need to abandon this station.” She continued to walk away from him. “Virginia,” he complained, “I don’t understand. Why are you taking orders from her? She’s just a little girl!”
“She outranks me,” Virginia said, looking at him as if that should have been obvious. She stepped out of the room, leaving him alone, and he heard her footsteps racing off toward the distance.
Dave raised his right foot and slammed it down in frustration. “This war is never gonna end,” he muttered. “There’s far too much mule–headed stubbornness on both sides.”
When Virginia arrived at the spur, Ariel was already there waiting for her. One of the forklifts was backing out of the Wallaby, having just loaded a torpedo in her racks. Brandi stopped the forklift and flagged Virginia down to give her an update on the ship’s condition.
“We were only able to load racks one, two, and three. Captain McNeil’s fighter is still blocking the others. Since the weight of the torpedoes isn’t equally distributed, she may feel a little unbalanced when you’re maneuvering.”
“How many torpedoes do we have?” Virginia asked.
“You’ve only got eight, so try to make ‘em count. If you want to wait around, we can load a few more.”
Virginia shook her head. “We’ll take our chances with eight, I guess.” She ran through the airlock with Ariel, and closed the cargo bay doors behind her. “Ariel,” she said as they ran toward the bridge, “have you ever fired a torpedo before?”
“No. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.”
“Don’t worry, it’s not that difficult. I’ll explain it to you on the way out there.”
As the two of them stepped inside the bridge, Virginia instructed Ariel to sit at the weapons console. She slipped Robin’s key into the ignition slot. The system addressed her as “Captain Robin Starling,” and the bridge began to power up. She ran to the helm to start the engines, then moved to the systems console to close the inner hatches and release the moorings. She sat down at the helm again and pushed the throttle forward. “Here we go,” she said. “Hang on, Ariel.” The engines kicked into action, and the Wallaby shot forward away from the spur.
* * * *
Robin’s legs were getting weak from all the running and climbing, but there was one more task she was determined to complete. She pushed herself onward into the hangar in the hope that she would find Genevieve there. Inside, she encountered a group of technicians carrying an assortment of equipment toward the exits. She recognized Genevieve and called out her name, then ran to the center of the room to meet her.
“Genevieve,” Robin said, gasping for breath, “Commander Eldridge and the rest of my battalion may be cut off up in the gun bays.”
“We’ll head up there right now,” she promised. “Do you know of anywhere else that people might be trapped?”
Robin recalled the blood on Miranda’s dress. “There might be someone in trouble on the control room level. I don’t know exactly where, though.”
“Alright, I’ll send someone there too. Anything else you can tell me?”
“Umm, section G–thirty–two may be exposed. And the intercom’s broken. And some of the security cameras aren’t working.”
“Someone’s already working on the intercom. We’ll get to those other things as soon as we can.” She picked up a tool bag and called out to the others. “Alright girls, it looks like we’re headed up to the gun bays. We’ll split up and take two different routes, just in case one of them ends up being blocked. Let’s move!”
For an instant, Robin considered trying to accompany them, but she realized her muscles were too weak for such a climb. She watched them run out of the room with their equipment, then decided it was best if she returned to the control room. Her path lead her past the infirmary again. The enemy pilot was still sitting on his bed. She paused at the doorway to look in at him. He acknowledged her presence with a sullen wave.
“I don’t suppose Major Richards has time to drop by,” he said.
Robin crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. “We don’t know where she is. No one’s seen her since that ship crashed into us.”
Dave reacted with apparent concern. “I hope she’s alright.”
Robin wanted to say something bitter, but she was too emotionally spent to argue with him. “Yeah, me too,” she said. “She’s a really good officer.”
“Is that all you can think about!” Dave complained. “The significance of someone’s military value? Don’t you people have any feelings? Is there anyone you actually care about?”
Robin’s thoughts turned to her friends, who might or might not still be alive in the gun bays. The fear that she might never see them again was a constant companion at the back of her mind. The pilot’s words were cruel and unfair, she decided. What would he know about my feelings!
As Dave waited for her to answer, she reached up to wipe a few tears from her eyes. Pangs of guilt tugged at his conscience. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just that I’m confused by the way your people do things. On my world, girls your age would be taking dance lessons, not issuing orders to fighter pilots. What’s going on here is very disturbing to me.”