Starfire at Traitors Gate

by Christine Westhead

  Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Copyright

  For my beloved husband and best friend

  Allan Westhead

  Starfire at Traitor's Gate

  Chapter 1

  "They should be back by now." Lieutenant Tehr Starfire glanced at the wall clock in flight control for the tenth time in as many minutes. She knew better than to disturb the flight technicians, one of whom was desperately trying to contact Flight One Seven. Starfire's heart leapt when she heard Nik's voice, almost drowned out by static.

  "We hear you strength one, Flight One Seven. Say again." The tech at the desk looked ridiculously young to Starfire who wasn't much older herself, but she resisted the urge to push the young man aside and take control. The sound of static filled the room again and Starfire, along with the two technicians, unconsciously leaned forward, as if being nearer to the speakers would help them pick up the fading traces of speech. The young flight controller, whose I.D. badge labelled him as 'Ensign Blik', danced his fingers over the crystal controls on his console as he tried to filter out the noise. The static lessened slightly and Starfire picked out the sound of engines under stress.

  "They're in trouble," she gritted and Ensign Blik glanced away from his console long enough to glare her into silence. By rights, she should not have been there, but both techs knew her connection to the Flight Commander and they were too busy to try and make her leave.

  "Flight One Seven, I can't hear you, but perhaps you can hear me. If you can, switch off your communicator twice. The static cleared and silence descended. It came on again, then off then on. Starfire and Blik exchanged grins. It wasn't much but it was communication.

  "Very good, Commander Nikal. We'll use the standard 'one' for yes and 'two' for no. Do you understand?" There was silence, then static. "Good, Commander. Is your pilot conscious?" Two bursts of static made Starfire bite her lip. Nik was an average pilot at best. Not a bonus in a damaged fighter coming in for an emergency landing. "I understand, Commander. Can you eject the pilot section?" Another two bursts of static. "Can you shut down your engines?" Another negative. "All right, Commander, engage auto pilot and we'll bring you in from here."

  Ensign Blik threw the other tech a quick look. She shook her head. "Sorry Commander, auto will not engage and we can't shut your engines down for a rescue in space. Your main thrusters are overheating and we can't jettison your fuel in space. You have to land now and you have to land on manual. I'll talk you through it; just do everything I say. Do you understand?"

  There was one burst of static and Ensign Blik continued in a calm voice. "Okay Commander, I do have access to your on-board systems so please listen carefully. Channel all your remaining power into your port engine and cross patch your stabilisers into the port braking system. Good, that's a little better. You are three thousand K's out and closing on course. There's a fire in the port fuel cell. Put it out. Good. Your landing thrusters are inoperative so you'll have to glide in. Use Emergency Runway Three on the surface. Do you have a lock?" The comlink switched off, then on. "All emergency systems are online down here. Good luck, Commander. We'll see you in five."

  "You'll make it, Sir," whispered Starfire under her breath. Long minutes passed and she began to feel hopeful, then a dull rumble shook the room and most of the lights in front of Ensign Blik flashed red. They stared at each other in horror for a split second then Starfire was making for the aircar at a sprint.

  Once inside, she fumed at the delay as the spherical shuttle sped upwards along a maze of tunnels. It slowed or stopped at junctions to let through cars with a higher priority while she sat with her head in her hands, fearing the worst. The flight control room was three floors down. If they had felt the impact there, the crash must have been severe. The aircar stopped and the door slid silently open. Starfire rushed out and pushed her way through a throng of people who were all pressed against the glass of massive, wall sized windows, showing a direct view of the surface. They were at the rear of the base overlooking the emergency runway and Starfire jostled her way to the front. She ignored the grunts and retorts of those she pushed aside to view the organised chaos as the rescue teams tried to salvage what was left of Flight One Seven.

  It was a beautiful morning of blue and gold on the surface of Terrell. The vivid blue sky, fluffy, pink edged clouds and the golden sun were a stark contrast to the rest of the landscape. Everything on the ground was in the grey scale, from the black of the distant mountain range to the dirty greys of the surrounding earth. The only signs of human habitation were dull, concrete chimneys and rusting metal satellite dishes, sticking out of the ground as if placed in a haphazard fashion by a bored giant. A pall of black smoke hung almost motionless in the still air and a blanket of foam covered the runway. Starfire's experienced eye could see that the fighter's glide path had been too steep and too fast. The fighter's nose had hit the runway and it had cart-wheeled end over end to skid into the netting and eventually slide to a halt on its back, crushing the pilot section flat. As foam slid gently over the shining metal hull, the scorch marks of laser fire could be seen on its starboard side, explaining the starboard engine failure. A hover crane appeared, lowered magnetic clamps to the underside of the wreck and raised it slowly from the ground. One of the rescue crew ran forwards to peer up into the tangled mass of metal. Any last, tiny vestige of hope disappeared like a burst bubble as he shook his head slowly, spoke into his comlink, made a cutthroat gesture and waved the waiting ambulance forward.

  "Come on Lieutenant, there's nothing you can do here." Starfire jumped as a quiet voice by her right ear invaded her thoughts. She turned her head to see a tall Aurian Captain standing next to her. He placed his hand on her upper arm and she realised that she had been clutching a shiny steel guardrail so tightly that her knuckles were white. "My name's Raan." He stuck out his hand in an awkward attempt at a Terrellian greeting gesture. "I knew Nik."

  "He spoke of you," answered Starfire, taking the offered hand. She decided not to mention that most of what Nik said was not complimentary.

  "I'm sure he did," muttered Raan dryly. "Come on, let's get out of here." He guided her towards an oval blister in the bulkhead which housed an aircar door. It hissed open at his touch and they walked into the spherical car. Raan gently placed her on the padded bench seat that ran around the circumference of the little shuttle and quickly programmed in their destination on the keypad by the hatch. By an unspoken rule, all aircars were the same diameter on any planet in the system and seated up to ten people in its little globe. The shuttles sat in magnetic gimbals and moved in all directions through a maze of connecting tunnels using artificial gravity to keep its passengers in comfort. A complicated system of ranking and entitlement decided route priority and passenger's fee, if there was one. They were the standard mode of people transport on most planets in the system and the only one on Terrell. Raan sat facing Starfire and once they were moving, he took a deep breath and blurted, "Look Lieutenant, about you and Nik…"

  "He told me you didn't think I should have been his pilot," cut in Starfire, "but it was Nik's decision."

  "Yeah, I know," he gritted, clearly not in
agreement with Nik's choice."

  "Look, just because I'm a 'Terry', it doesn't mean I can't fly, Mister." Starfire raised her voice slightly and then looked down, cheeks reddening.

  "I know how good a pilot you are, Lieutenant," Raan said, softly.

  "Then what the hell is it? Sir!" She added the title as an afterthought, suddenly realising that he outranked her.

  "You held him back." Raan clenched his fists in anger. "He would have been a Colonel if he didn't have a 'Terry' for a sidekick. He was a good man."

  "Do you think I don't know that?" Starfire looked up at him, suppressing her anger. "I tried to get transferred but he wouldn't hear of it." Raan looked quickly away and made a visible effort gain control of his emotions. When he looked back at Starfire, he could see the anguish in her eyes and cursed himself for being all kinds of a fool.

  "Damn it, I'm sorry, Lieutenant," he began softly, "I shouldn't have said that; I spoke out of line." He raised his hand to touch hers but Starfire batted it away and they sat facing in each other in grim silence. She suddenly realised that Nik had been her only friend in the Marines and now she was truly alone. A large tear of self pity slid down her cheek and she hastily knuckled it aside, not wanting to let the Captain see she had been crying.

  The aircar swerved and swooped until it slowed to a halt and the panel lit up to show two minutes waiting time unless they had higher priority. Raan entered a higher code and the shuttle started moving again, going around the other waiting cars by a quicker route. Starfire caught his eye in an unspoken question.

  "It's a master code and has top priority and privacy clearance. I don't like to use if too often in case they change it," explained Raan. "I kind of acquired it."

  "Won it in a Pan game, more like!" The words popped out of Starfire's mouth before she could stop them. He threw her a weak grin and the hard lines left his face for a moment. Auria, Raan's home planet, had a red sun and all Aurians had the same distinctive honey coloured skin, chestnut red hair and amber eyes but he still looked shocked and pale.

  The aircar swerved suddenly and Starfire grabbed the loop strap above her head. Raan smiled again and she could see that the descriptions applied to Captain Raan by Commander Nikal had every possibility of being true. He was said to be a gambler of considerable note and had supposedly bedded every available female in the sector. Starfire had to admit that he came well equipped for that task, possessing a perfectly proportioned body that looked lithe and supple under the Captain's grey and red uniform. It was topped with a fine head possessing very handsome features and a smile that would melt a miser's heart. A standard Marine issue blaster hung low at his right side and Starfire could see that the holster flap was cut away to allow easier access to the weapon. Nik always called him 'Captain Cliché' and said he was a waster, a disgrace to the Uniform and he would have made Major by now if he hadn't been such a dick. Starfire's thoughts turned to Nik again and she bit her lip, caught sight of the Captain watching her and looked quickly away.

  Raan was using his own system to appraise Starfire and worked from the feet up. He saw knee length boots, into which were tucked the legs of a plain grey flying suit, festooned with Marine patches that showed her accomplishments. In pride of place was the insignia on her left breast which stated 'Lt. Starfire PT Five'. The small 'Five' was embroidered in gold and meant she was a top class pilot. Only a handful of serving flyers attained the 'Pilot Five' accolade and she was the only non Aurian to have the classification. Her face looked like it was made for laughing and didn't suit the tense, tragic expression it currently wore. A small hand laser nestled in a forward facing holster at her left side and she wore a non regulation, leather thong around her neck with her dog tags dangling from it. Chin length brown hair framed a face that looked unnaturally pale to Raan. Her eyes were a strange combination of brown and green, something that he believed Terrellians called 'hazel'. He thought she would have been pretty if her eyes weren't red and puffy from crying. Those red, puffy eyes swivelled in his direction for a second and quickly turned away. The aircar slowed and the light over the entrance door changed from red to amber and the aircar stopped.

  "We're here," announced Raan pointlessly.

  "Where is here?" asked Starfire, rising from her seat.

  "The freighter that Nik's flight was riding shotgun on is due to dock. Word has it that the General's son flew it in."

  "Must have had something important on board," mused Starfire, "besides him of course," she added as an afterthought.

  "Replacement troopers," began Raan. "These pirate raids are getting worse by the week." He clenched his fists and gritted, "It's bad enough being posted to this god forsaken rock in space, but to have to play nursemaid to a bunch of fraggin' Terrys…" He caught Starfire's eye, had the good grace to look embarrassed and tailed off.

  "Don't worry about it, Captain," she said. "And just for the record, I am a fraggin' Terry and I think it's a miserable rock in space as well."

  "Anyway," Raan looked up at the aircar instrument panel to cover up his discomfiture, "let's go see what Nik gave his life to protect." The aircar swivelled to the left one hundred and eighty degrees, the console light changed from amber to green and the door slid open to reveal a huge, modern Starport lounge. The air was full of chatter as busy Aurians clustered around, talking in groups or lounged in the comfortable padded benches. To their left and right were several other aircar doors and far in front of them, a wall of glass showed yet more of the barren Terrellian landscape. "Come on Lieutenant," ordered Raan and he weaved his way through the crowd to stand alongside many other Marines who gazed out across the same dull, grey landscape. Slightly to their left, a six storey covered gangway jutted out from the side of the building. Spaced evenly along its length were modular cubes with small windows. A large stylised number 3 was stencilled in yellow every twenty feet on the side and roof of the structure. Starfire had seen these before on the many planets she had visited. They were temporary space ship docking ports and these, along with the few surface buildings around them, had been hastily erected by the Marine Corps a few years previously. One of the watching Marines pointed skyward.

  "Here she comes!" Starfire and Raan watched as the massive ship approached the base and slowly dropped out of the sky. It wobbled slightly and the nose struts touched the ground before the rear, its downward thrusters throwing up clouds of dust. It bounced twice before the engines wound down and it slowly sank down on its hydraulic legs. Raan and Starfire shared a glance as the dust cleared and they surveyed the damage it had sustained. Its turret cannons had been obliterated and scorch marks covered most of the hull. As they watched, giant hoses snaked out from the end module and covered the rear engines with foam.

  Even a few of the normally space shy Terrellians watched from behind glass for a brief look at the huge metal galleon as it squatted hissing steam and exhaust gasses on the concrete launch pad outside.

  Terrellians lived far beneath their planet in subterranean cities, built after a long forgotten disaster forced them from the surface. They were a race of severe agoraphobics and were treated with disdain by most of the other races. Their planet's yellow sun, coupled with their underground existence contrived to create a fair skinned race with hair colour ranging from brown to almost white and their eyes were mostly blue or green. Their skill in subterranean planet forming machines, gained after the destruction of their planet's surface, was their main export and they were renowned for it. Their problem was how to market and sell their skills as they flatly refused to travel anywhere off planet. The only way to communicate with them was either to go to Terrell or use holovis.

  Their products and expertise were so sought after that the other races put up with this inconvenience but developed a strange antipathy towards them. It was considered normal to perceive Terrellians as a second rate species and they were always the butt of jokes or the recipients of poor goods and services. It was as if they didn't really matter in the great scheme of things and their a
cceptance of this only seemed to make the aversion worse. They had reluctantly allowed the Aurian Space Marines to build a base in their upper levels and operate a space port but it was made perfectly clear that the Aurians were not wanted or welcome by most of the population.

  To see an off world Terrellian was rare and a Terrellian Marine unheard of but Starfire ignored the stares and points of a few Aurians as she and Raan leaned forward for a better view. Tubes snaked out from each of the four adjacent cube like modules and connected to air car doors for the passengers. In less than a minute, a good few of them emerged into the Starport lounge. They were businessmen and traders mostly, greeting their Terrellian counterparts like long lost friends, their prejudices forgotten in their haste for profit.

  Starfire took in the busy scene below as hover trolleys zoomed from the cargo holds, carrying cases and crates with baggage handlers bustling behind them. They disappeared from view below them and Starfire guessed the baggage would be brought up in a service lift. The noise in the arrival lounge rose as many of the passengers stood talking in small groups as they waited for their bags. Lines formed at the check in desks and a few excited Aurian children, probably from the families of the replacement troops, chased each other up and down the queues.

  "Come on Lieutenant, let's go down there." Raan motioned his head towards the top of the ship that was level with their gaze. They entered one of the aircars and Raan programmed it for the short ride to the ground. Starfire didn't say anything but she was wondering why this notorious Captain was so interested in her former commander. On the very rare occasions that his name cropped up, usually due to some dubious escapade or other, Nik was always critical of him, almost as if he had a personal grudge. Starfire wished now she had pushed him for more information, but her experience in dealing with Aurians had taught her that they usually ignored her and imparted information to their contemporaries as if she wasn't there. She learned a lot of stuff that way.