by Linn Schwab
“They’re staying pretty far out,” Michelle said. “It’s like they’re afraid to come in after us.”
Robin frowned. “Either that, or they’re just waiting for something.”
Seconds later, a fleet of enemy ships arrived behind the destroyer. Among those ships were two carriers which immediately began deploying fighters.
Katrina watched the enemy fighters in despondency. “And now we know what they were waiting for.”
The Cricket’s bridge remained frozen in silence.
“Robin!” Caroline pleaded, prompting her to issue an order.
As Robin watched the enemy fighters approach, she felt paralyzed by indecision. There appeared to be no way out of this for her. In trying to double back on the enemy destroyer, it appeared that she had made a fatal error, steering her crew even further into harm’s way. Is there any point in even trying to run? she wondered, overcome with doubts about her own decisions. Do I have the skill to get us out of this? Is escape even a possibility?
Just before entering the asteroid field, the fighters inexplicably pulled up and veered away. The enemy destroyer then turned around as well, and sped off with them in the same direction, leaving Robin and her crew baffled and confused. An instant later, Phoebe jumped to her feet, yelling, “Sentinel forces!” and pointing her finger toward friendly space.
Within seconds, a full scale battle erupted. Gunships on both sides opened fire and squadrons of fighters clashed with each other. Robin looked on in awe and amazement as fighters swarmed around the enemy ships and destroyers attempted to set up attack runs. The skill and coordination on display left her feeling thoroughly intimidated.
“Shouldn’t we be trying to help?” Chrissy asked.
Robin slowly shook her head while watching the action continue to unfold. The destroyers were employing coordinated attack patterns that hadn’t even been touched upon yet in her training. “We’re not even close to being ready for this,” she said. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
Mindy tugged on Robin’s arm and tried to direct her attention to something. “Robin, look,” she said, pointing toward the rear of the enemy fleet. A single ship was attempting to withdraw from the battle. In isolation, it would prove to be an easy target.
Robin scrutinized the ship’s outline and determined it was just an enemy freighter. She looked at Mindy and shook her head. “Forget it. I’m not risking our lives just to attack an unarmed freighter. It isn’t worth it. It’s probably empty by now anyway.”
“No,” Mindy said, hinting Robin had misinterpreted her intention. “We should follow it.”
Robin stared at her in disbelief. “What?”
Overhearing Mindy’s suggestion, Caroline recalled what Commander Eldridge had said about the possibility of finding more enemy shipyards. She placed the Cricket in station–keeping, then stood up and looked directly at Robin. “Mindy’s right,” she insisted. “That freighter might lead us to another shipyard. We can’t pass up a chance like this, Robin. We should go after it while all those other ships are distracted.”
Robin gazed at Chrissy in silence, replaying the vow in her mind again. “I’m not going to let anything happen to her.” It was a vow that seemed increasingly impossible to keep.
“Alright,” she said with reluctance, shifting her attention to the enemy freighter. “We’ll have to follow it at a distance. Let’s stay out of sight for as long as we can. Stick to the edge of the debris field for now. If those other ships see us, we won’t have a chance.”
Caroline sat down at the helm and set the Cricket into motion again. She tracked along the outer edge of Pangea until the freighter was close to dropping out of sight. At that point, she slipped out of the asteroid field and set a course deeper into enemy space.
INTENTIONS 070
“Are you feeling any better now?” Dave asked when Major Richards opened her eyes.
She squinted and winced as though the light caused her pain. “That’s a military secret,” she said in jest.
Dave grinned and chuckled. “Well, at least you still seem to be yourself.”
She made an attempt to sit up, but realized she was still weak from the sedative. Allowing her head to fall back on the pillow, she tried to glance around the infirmary. It was just Dave and herself in the room at the moment. “What’s happening?” she asked. “Is the station in serious trouble?”
“You’re asking me?” Dave said. “I’m not exactly an expert here.”
“Captain Starling?” she asked with concern.
“You mean the young girl who was with us here earlier? I haven’t seen her since she left. But your commanding officer took me up to the control room a while ago, and I can tell you things seemed fairly calm when I was there. Whatever it was you sent her to do, I get the feeling she must have been successful.”
The major seemed to relax a little.
“Listen,” Dave said, “I don’t want to alarm you, Major, but your commanding officer...” He struggled to put his thoughts into words without touching on the subject of termination. “Well, let me just say that she doesn’t come across as being overly concerned with your well being. Or anyone else’s well being for that matter.”
The major grinned. “You noticed that, huh.”
“She makes it impossible not to notice. The two of you are nothing at all alike.”
“Yeah, well … she has her responsibilities, and I have mine. I doubt either of us would excel in the other’s position. We all have our individual strengths and weaknesses.”
“I suppose you’re probably right about that. But I’m hoping to make her responsibilities obsolete soon. She says she’s gonna send me back to my fleet so I can try to arrange negotiations between us. If I can persuade our worlds to stop fighting each other, then maybe her position won’t be needed any longer.”
The major looked into his eyes with sincerity, moved by his determination to end the war. “Do you really think you can convince your people to stop fighting us?”
He flashed an optimistic grin at her. “Tell you what,” he said. “If I make it happen, will you agree to come back to Earth with me?”
Confusion and panic gripped the major. This was a completely unexpected development. She needed some time to collect her thoughts. “Why?” she asked, hoping he’d move on to another topic.
He reached for her hand and clasped it snugly in his own. “Because I’ve grown fond of your presence and I want to keep you with me. Am I not doing enough to make that obvious?”
The major turned her eyes away from him. Her predicament was only worsening. It pained her to be dishonest with him, but she realized the best thing she could do in this situation was just tell him what he wanted to hear. Even if he was asking her to do the impossible. Neither of us can ever go to Earth, she told herself. To do so would expose the whole planet to the virus. And beyond that, she was troubled by a lingering suspicion that she could never bring herself to leave Valhalla. Something Jenny had said to her earlier suddenly resurfaced at the forefront of her thoughts. “When you look inside yourself and ask what it is you fear most, it isn’t dying or being killed in combat, is it? What you fear is the same thing all of us fear. The prospect of being separated from Valhalla forever.”
Commander Eldridge stepped into the room now, with Virginia following a few paces behind her. “Mr. Samuels,” the commander said, “your plane is repaired and ready to go.”
Dave got to his feet, still holding onto the major’s hand. “So, what do you say, Major?” he pressed. “If I can stop the killing, will you promise to come back to Earth with me?”
She hesitated a moment longer, then relented and nodded her head in agreement. “Alright,” she said. “If you can stop the fighting, I’ll go wherever you want me to.”
He smiled and planted a kiss on her hand. “That’s all I needed to hear. This war is as good as over, Major. You just sealed its fate.” He turned to Commander Eldridge. “So, how are we going to do this, Commander? I
trust you have all the details worked out?”
She handed him a folded bundle of paper. “These pages contain detailed directions to a specific location near the edge of our patrol zone. Tell your emissary to arrive there in an unarmed shuttle. I’ll have someone waiting there to guide them to a secure meeting place. There’s also a deadline included in these instructions, which we’ve calculated from the clock on your instrument panel. I’m giving you approximately eight hours to get someone out to the meeting point. If no one shows up before the deadline passes, we’ll assume that your people aren’t interested in talking, and that’ll be the end of our offer. Understood?”
He reached for his crutches and exhaled slowly. “I guess the pressure’s on,” he said. “How am I supposed to get back to my fleet? I’m not exactly in familiar territory here.”
The commander gestured toward Virginia. “Lieutenant Scot, here, will escort you to the edge of our patrol zone, to make sure our forces don’t mistakenly attack you. Once you’re beyond our territory, it’ll be up to you to make contact with your fleet. Do you think that’ll be a problem for you?”
“No,” he said, “I think I have a pretty good idea where to find them.”
“Very well,” the commander said. “Lieutenant Scot will show you to the hangar.”
“Oh, one more thing,” Dave said, turning back to Major Richards again. “Is there any chance I can persuade you to tell me your name before I leave?”
She rolled to her side and sat herself up on the edge of the bed. “My name is Maryanne,” she said, reaching up to rub the side of her head.
“Maryanne,” he said with a smile. “I like that name. I’ll see you later, Maryanne.” He turned to Virginia and said, “Let’s go. A lot of people are counting on us.”
As Dave and Virginia left the room, Commander Eldridge observed the major’s expression. The empty, faraway look in her eyes gave way to a sudden flood of tears. “Well done, Major,” she said. The tone of her voice suggested genuine approval. “I’m sure that couldn’t have been easy for you. But it looks like you managed to keep him in the dark. I don’t think he suspects a thing.”
The major shook her head in dismay. “Tell me something, Commander,” she said. “Do you really intend to go through with these negotiations? Or was this all just a part of your plan to trick him into exposing his people to the virus?”
The commander rubbed her hands together as she contemplated how to respond. “I’ll tell you what,” she offered. “Since you’ve had to endure so much emotional distress, I’ll leave it up to you to decide how this plays out. If you decide you really want to see him again, then we’ll go ahead and send someone out to meet them. If you don’t think you can face up to that, we’ll just sit back and let the virus have its way with them. The choice is up to you, Major.” She turned away from her and headed for the door. “My shuttle should be back in a couple of hours. You have until then to make your decision.”
Major Richards pulled herself to her feet and walked to a nearby mirror on the wall. The commander’s footsteps fading in the distance underscored her perception of time running out. Do I really want to see him again? she wondered. Do I want to know how he reacts when he learns about the virus? But part of her was still holding out hope that the enemy actually possessed a cure. If they do have a cure, and he succeeds in ending the fighting, what should I do if he insists on taking me back to Earth? If what Captain McNeil says about this innate fear is true, what will happen to me if I try to leave? Is it something I can overcome, or will I end up going mad as a result? Or could it be that it doesn’t really exist? Could it be something she was just imagining?
During a brief lapse in her train of thought, she noticed something in the mirror’s reflection that revealed a clue about her inner feelings. She was subconsciously running her hands through her hair as if trying to make herself more attractive. She smiled and let out a quiet laugh, certain that she knew what the behavior signified. My inner voice has already spoken, she decided. Apparently, I do want to see him again. Even if things don’t go exactly as planned.
Casting aside her worries about the virus for a moment, she once again tried to imagine a future where Dave became her constant, devoted companion. The idea had definite appeal to her, but it also conjured up another concern which suddenly seemed to hit her out of nowhere — something else Jenny had touched on in their discussion: “At what point in your progression as a Sentinel were you selected to take part in this ‘medical curriculum?’”
Why should that question bother me? she wondered. I remember it like it was just yesterday. But when she actually tried to recall the details, she realized she couldn’t remember it at all. It was like those memories were shrouded in a fog that she couldn’t seem to penetrate. What is wrong with me? she anguished. Could the concussion have caused me to lose part of my memory? And if so, is there anything else wrong with me? Am I even capable of making rational decisions?
Her thoughts now returned to the issue at hand. She wondered if she could trust herself to make the right choice. Should we try to engage them in negotiations? Or should we just hope that the virus ends the war for us?
* * * *
“So,” Virginia said as she led Dave into the hangar, “are you sure you’re going to be able to fly? It looks like you’re still in a lot of pain.”
“I’ll manage,” he said. “Just make sure I don’t have to shoot my way out, okay? I don’t think I could handle a dogfight right now.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t let anyone near you.”
He stopped and held his hand out to her. “Listen, Virginia ... whatever happens, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity. If it wasn’t for you, not only would I have been dead by now, but this chance to end the war might never have materialized. And if we do succeed in ending the fighting, it’ll all be because of you.”
Virginia briefly glanced at his hand, but showed no intent of returning the gesture. “End the fighting first,” she told him, “and then I’ll gladly shake your hand.”
He smiled at her and nodded in agreement. “Fair enough. I intend to hold you to that, though. And who knows ... maybe someday, we’ll actually be friends.”
* * * *
Commander Eldridge returned to the control room just as the destroyers from Orion were arriving. Ariel was back at her console now, and Lindsey was sitting on the floor beside Miranda while Veronica covered the station’s operations.
“Lieutenant Marx,” the commander said to Lindsey, “would you assist Miranda in getting down to the infirmary. She obviously needs some sort of treatment. And Major Richards could probably benefit from having something to keep her occupied right now.”
“Yes, Commander,” Lindsey responded. She stood up and pulled Miranda to her feet, then helped her walk to the elevator. As the two of them passed through the doorway, Janine rushed past them into the control room.
“Well,” the commander greeted her, “where have you been hiding out?”
Janine groaned and rolled her eyes. “I got caught in the corridor when the collision alert sounded, and ducked inside a storage room for safety. The impact knocked a bunch of containers over. It took me forever to clear a path to the door.” She paused to look down at herself and attempted to brush some of the dust off her dress. “It felt like I was trapped in there for days. So anyway, what all did I miss?”
* * * *
As the Cricket flew further into enemy space, continuing to shadow the enemy freighter, Robin felt a growing sense of unease inside her. It seemed to impact every last fibre of her being. It must be nervousness, she told herself. We’re completely out in the open here. It would be very easy for the enemy to spot us. How could I not be nervous about that. But deep inside, she harbored a niggling suspicion that something else was affecting her as well. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. But she had other concerns to worry about at the moment, and tried her best to push it to the back of her mind.
“Are you sure
they can’t see us?” Chrissy asked, watching the freighter on the surveillance scope.
“At this distance,” Michelle explained, “it would be tough for them to spot us unless they turn their scanners on. The only reason we still know where they are is because we already have an optical fix on their ship.”
Chrissy looked at her in curiosity. “So why don’t they turn their scanners on?”
“Because it would give their position away. And freighters don’t have any weapons to defend themselves. Their only hope of surviving is to remain undetected.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Robin saw Mindy suddenly shudder. “Are you alright, Mindy?” she asked.
Mindy pulled her arms snug against her chest. “I don’t feel very good,” she said, looking around herself in suspicion. “Something just doesn’t feel right here.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Robin said. “Do you think we should turn back?”
Mindy shuddered again, but closed her eyes and shook her head. “No,” she said, “this is important. We have to keep going.”
Robin quickly glanced around at the others. Michelle and Phoebe looked squeamish as well. Caroline was struggling to conceal her symptoms, but Robin could see right through her efforts. Only Chrissy appeared to be unaffected. Perhaps she was just slower to feel the effects.
“Alright,” Robin said, “let’s keep following them for now. Michelle, make sure you stay on top of our position, and have a direct route back to friendly space ready for us. If we have to turn back, I want to get out of here as fast as possible.”
* * * *
After departing from Volaris, Virginia led Dave on an indirect course that kept them away from the tip of Pangea. She knew tensions were still running high in that area, and forces from both sides were ready to pounce on each other. The two of them flew beside each other to the location Commander Eldridge had selected for the rendezvous. At that point, Virginia pulled back a little, signaling Dave he was on his own going forward. He looked over and waved at her, just as he’d done when the two had first met. He then slipped across the imaginary boundary that marked the outer edge of Sentinel space, and turned his fighter toward the location where he hoped he would find the remainder of his fleet.