by L. E. Thomas
*****
“All right—here she is,” Ryker said over the gamma wave. “Move into your positions.”
The Sanctuary curved in ten-thousand MUs from the carrier. Austin pulled into standard escort formation. Reaper’s Trident settled in on his left, Star on his right. They moved quickly in close formation, heading directly for the space in front of the supply ship. A green rectangle appeared on his HUD, displaying his final escort destination. The other Tridents shot toward their positions, flying with precision. The supply ship rapidly approached, appearing as a massive cylinder with running lights along each side. The dark gray hull covered in scratches and dents showed the vessel’s age.
In the event the Wraith was planning to make an appearance, the Formidable had fired a system disruptor. The disruptor eliminated all sensors within the vicinity of the science station. It was the same tactic the Legion used to fool Earth into thinking a solar flare blinded their radars. If the Wraith were truly invisible, they would try to scramble its sensors in hopes they could level the playing field.
Austin swallowed, watching the MUs drop as he closed on his position at the front of the convoy. When he reached his escort position, he dropped his speed to zero and spun around to await the order to move out. Reaper and Star settled in on each side of him, their Tridents facing the Ramelle in the distance.
Alternating his focus from the sensors to the black of space out of habit, Austin cracked his knuckles and leaned forward in the cockpit. If the Wraith was watching, the most valuable target in the entire system just curved in and made itself known. He scanned the blackness, knowing he wouldn’t be able to react fast enough if the Zahlian stealth ship appeared.
His time in the sims without the use of sensors had not gone well. He found he could still dogfight—and even take down some of his classmates—but he was still struggling when a bandit got on his six. Of course, there had to be someone to tell him he had a bandit behind him. Otherwise, his simulation ended with an unwelcome flash.
“All Tridents in position,” Ryker announced. “Let’s move it Tizona. Rock, take the lead.”
“Roger.”
Austin glanced at Reaper, and then Star. He eased forward on the throttle, his eyes wide. The Trident escort moved forward at the best speed of the Sanctuary, the entire group moving slower than Austin would have liked. He felt like they had a target pasted on the back of their fighters.
A flash. His breathing increased.
“Keep your eyes on your left, Reaper,” Austin said on the short range gamma wave. “Thought I saw a flicker.”
“Copy, Rock,” Reaper grumbled. “Debris off my forward shields.”
“Roger.” Austin glanced to his right. “Star, report.”
“Nothing, Rock. Nothing but black space.”
Austin smirked. We’ll see about that.
Ten minutes into the flight—ten to go. A few Star Runners called out phantoms in the blackness, fears materializing from their minds. The science station filled his forward view. The tension in his chest eased. Perhaps they would be all right after all. The Sanctuary would dock and—
He didn’t see the laser fire, the explosion of yellow and orange fire filling the right side of his canopy. Star’s Trident vaporized, the fighter’s structure disintegrating before he could turn his head. The fighter’s nose, the only remnants of the Trident, spun up and out of sight. In the darkness, Austin saw something dark shoot over his canopy like a bat in the dark of night. He instinctively ducked, then yanked the stick to the left to pursue.
“I’m hit!” Reaper yelled.
Austin caught a glimpse of laser bolts splattering off of Reaper’s tail as he dove away from the group. Austin leveled out. He blinked and froze for what felt like an eternity. There, in front of him, a silhouette of a ship formed. The Ramelle emitted a halo of light behind it.
The Wraith.
Clenching his teeth, he pushed his throttle forward, bringing his crosshairs on the bandit. He squeezed off three bolts. The Wraith evaded, faster than anything Austin had seen before—faster than he could react. The fighter looped back, shot over Austin’s Trident, heading for the supply ship. Austin hit the reverse thrusters, pulled back and brought his fighter right on the Wraith’s tail.
Silently thanking his Trident, Austin pulled the trigger and spit laser fire into the rear of the Wraith. Austin couldn’t tell, but he thought two of the bolts hit. The Wraith fired two missiles into the front of the supply ship. The first eradicated the shields. The second smashed into the nose of the Sanctuary. A straight plume of fire shot like a geyser to the right of Austin’s wing as his Trident zipped past the damaged vessel.
“Eyes on enemy,” Austin managed to say, his voice straining. “Above our prize. Heading to the rear of our formation.”
He fired until his energy banks drained. The Wraith twisted and rolled across his view. It was like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands. A drop of sweat rolled down Austin’s cheek. He stayed on the Wraith’s tail. The other Tridents closed on the Sanctuary, apparently unable to see the enemy.
“Rock, Scorpion—where are you?”
“To the rear of the formation—he’s heading away.”
Austin needed to redirect all the power to his engines just to keep up with the Wraith. He smiled. He might not be able to defeat this guy, but he was driving him away from the supply ship.
Three-hundred MUs out from the supply ship. Five-hundred.
“Stay with the ship,” Austin said, negotiating a dive to keep on the Wraith’s tail. “Finish the mission.”
“Copy, Rock,” Scorpion said. “Cheetah, you and PowPow see if you can assist.”
“Copy, boss,” Skylar said.
Austin stayed on the Wraith’s tail, waiting for his laser banks to recharge. After a few minutes the banks were charged enough for one shot, he squinted as the burning blue circles of the Wraith’s engines shot in and out of his crosshairs.
Come on, come on.
There!
He fired, two bolts, unleashing murderous energy into the darkness. One bolt sizzled into the shields. The Wraith spun around on its axis and turned to face Austin.
Oh no.
Two missiles shot from beneath the Wraith’s wing.
Austin gasped, pulling back on the stick.
A cobalt shockwave erupted in the darkness, filling the space around him with electricity. Austin felt the stunner’s wave crash into the belly of his Trident, the controls igniting like a firecracker. His systems went dark. Stars spun. His helmet smashed into the side of his canopy hard enough his vision darkened.
He shook his head and looked at the dark control board, his vision still blurry. Using his maneuvering thrusters, Austin slowed his spin. He brought the Trident to a stop.
In the distance, laser bolts illuminated the darkness. He knew Skyler and Shelbi battled against the Wraith. He couldn’t see exactly where they were, but he saw the flashes of laser fire.
He smacked the side of his canopy with his fist. He shouldn’t have followed so closely, should have waited for backup. But if he had done that, he might have lost the Wraith. He took a deep breath, realizing for the first time how fortunate he had been. The Wraith could have fired something other than a stunner. That means he was probably saving his other missiles—if he had any—for the resupply ship.
Two minutes passed. Three. Four.
How long did he have without power before his life support would run out?
A flurry of laser fire appeared in the distance, much closer to the resupply ship. The laser bolts ignited the darkness like fireworks. The Wraith was attacking.
The control board flickered. Voices burst through his ears like an explosion of screams mixed with static.
“—out of there!” the gamma wave came to life. “He’s right behind you!”
“I can’t see him—he’s—”
“Sketch’s hit! He’s spinning off—”
“Can it! Bogey’s coming around,” Scorpion’s t
ension-laced voice cut through the barrage of Star Runner chatter. “Boiler, Fancy, cut away from your position—try and cut him off!”
“Roger, Scorpion!”
The Trident’s controls felt sluggish, but his fighter slowly came back to life. If the Wraith hadn’t used the primary missiles in an attempt to take out the resupply ship, Austin would be … he shook his head. Don’t think about it.
With the system disruptor still scrambling sensors in the area, Austin relied on what he could see in the distance. Laser fire surrounded the supply ship, flying off in different directions as the Star Runners tried to fight an enemy they could barely see. He coaxed the power back into his fighter, slowly increasing speed as he headed back into the fray.
“He’s breaking away, heading below and away from our position,” Scorpion said. “Break off the pursuit—let him leave. Stay with the Sanctuary. Tower, Scorpion. We need Kardas out here for rescue operations. Three Tridents down.”
Austin heard the relief in her voice. He tilted his fighter forward, hoping to get another shot at the Wraith. Two seconds later, the amber flash of a Zahlian Lutimite Drive firing two-thousand MUs below the Sanctuary signified the Wraith had fled the scene.
“Scorpion, Rock.”
There was a pause. “Rock?” Scorpion breathed. “Report in.”
“The Wraith has fled.”
“Copy. What’s your SITREP?”
“Ship got burned pretty good now,” he said, glancing at his controls, “but she’s flying.”
“Stunner?”
“Affirmative. Hit me up close, too.”
“All right. You have permission to break formation and head back to the Formidable.”
“It’ll be all right—”
“It’s an order, Rock.”
Austin pressed his lips together, staring at the supply ship for a long moment. He wanted to get back in formation in the event the Wraith tried to return. The familiar unsettling feeling of allowing unfinished business to escape through his fingers filled his gut. It reminded him of the times Dax Rodon narrowly escaped his crosshairs, and he didn’t like how it felt then, either.
“Roger, Scorpion,” he said with a sigh. “Heading home.”
*****
A shower of sparks shot from his dashboard as he brought the Trident to settle on the landing deck of the Formidable. The old girl had been through quite an ordeal during its tussle with the Wraith. The controls felt sluggish, a noticeable delay in the maneuvering thrusters during the landing procedure. Austin’s muscles and joints ached. Even with the cool metallic air rushing around him from the fighter’s life support system, his flight suit filled with perspiration and felt slick against his skin.
During his landing, he listened to the Star Runners complete the mission of escorting the supply ship to the science station. The Wraith had disappeared, taking at least one more Star Runner with it. Even though Austin felt the secret Zahlian super fighter would return, nothing more occurred during the docking procedure. He snorted. If it had, he wouldn’t do much good here on the landing deck.
The carrier’s roof closed, the landing deck’s lights transitioning from crimson to white. The crew rushed out onto the deck like worker bees. Austin opened the canopy, the servos whining with the movement. A crewman pushed the ladder to the side of Austin’s Trident.
“Hell of a fight, Lieutenant.”
Austin turned his helmet, releasing a quick hiss of gasses. “I guess you could call it that.”
“Are you all right, sir?” the crewman asked, his tone laced with concern.
“Sure.” Austin shrugged, twisting around to descend to the deck. “Why?”
The crewman released a sound that must have been a laugh. “Check out your fighter when you get down.”
Austin hit the deck, his helmet in his left hand and his flight tablet in the other. As he stepped around to the front of his Trident, he stared at the blackened hull. Streaks of dark bands covered the surface, erasing the blue Tizona insignia. He rubbed his gloved hand across the nose, the reality of the situation settling in. Fatigue washed over him, and his eyelids suddenly felt very heavy.
Thank you for bringing me home, he thought as he tapped the Trident’s nose once more.
The crew studied the fighter, ascertaining the best way to carry out repairs. Austin ripped off his gloves and tossed them into his helmet. The Wraith nearly killed him like it had the others—and there was nothing the Legion seemed to be able to do about it. Seething, he stared at the fighter a moment longer before marching across the deck and toward the Star Runner locker room.
Austin hurled his helmet at his locker. He spun around and slid against the steel door to the floor, burying his head in his hands. He thought of Gan, the shy pilot he’d never see again. Gan’s cold body remained on a steel slab in the ship morgue because the Formidable could not afford to risk a funeral at the moment. Lieutenant Akiko Kato or “Crusher,” had already been killed on this tour. Carlin “Star” Lively and Tarek “Reaper” Mongo died today—Austin had been close enough to the explosion of Star’s Trident to blind him before he pursued the Wraith through the convoy. Bear had a close call as well.
Austin leaned his head back against the locker, feeling the cool of the steel against his head. The hum of the ship surrounded him. He had the locker room all to himself.
He stripped off his flight suit and took a shower, the hot water streaming around him. The water allotment ran out long before Austin was ready, but he took what he could get. He changed into his uniform, picked his helmet up off the floor and strolled into the debriefing room.
He stopped.
Commander Mitchem Horace stood at the front of the room facing Austin, his hands clasped behind his back. Captain Ty Braddock stood next to the Commander, his chiseled face grim.
Austin swallowed, wondering if he had done something wrong in his pursuit of the Wraith. Or perhaps they knew of his visit with the counselor? Were they going to ground him until he stabilized? He instinctively snapped to attention and saluted.
“At ease, Lieutenant,” Braddock breathed. He locked eyes with Austin for a moment, then turned to Commander Horace. “Anything you’d like to start with Commander?”
Horace shook his head sharply. “Let’s just get started.”
“Very well.” Braddock stared at Austin. “You seem angry, Lieutenant?”
“Sir, if this is about me throwing the helmet in the locker room, I apologize and—”
“It’s not about that,” Braddock snapped, “but you should control your emotions. They have no place out here on the border. Outbursts could get you and your fellow Star Runners killed.”
“I understand, sir. I just feel like we’re nothing but targets out here. Firing the disruptor seemed to help, but we’re all blind out there. The Wraith’s too good and too fast. It’s frustrating, sir.”
“That’s enough.”
Austin sighed, still standing at attention. “How is this happening?”
“What’s that, Lieutenant?” Horace asked.
Austin shook his head, wishing he had kept his mouth shut. “It feels like we’re on the losing side. And I thought this was the right side.”
Commander Horace crossed his arms, but when Austin met his piercing eyes, there was no anger behind them.
“Throughout history, the victor of any conflict is never decided by the one who is right or the one exhibiting more sincere morals than the rest.” Horace’s gaze narrowed. “The victory is decided by the powerful, by the one able to wield their power effectively. And right now, we are not the powerful.”
Braddock took a deep breath. “You told me recently that you would be willing to do anything to help if the time ever came. Is that still true?”
Austin nodded, unsure where the Major was going with this conversation. “Of course, sir.”
Braddock folded his muscular arms across his chest. “I’m not going to mince words. Whether you accept it or not, Stone, you are the best Star Runner on this
carrier. Maybe even the best in the Legion Navy, but you lack confidence.”
He sighed, staring at the floor for a prolonged moment. Glancing at Horace, he continued speaking in a low voice.
“Your experience and natural talent mixed with our carrier’s proximity to the target area make you a prime candidate.” He eyed Commander Horace. “I see no alternative.”
“Pardon me, sir,” Austin said, his weight shifting on his feet, “but a prime candidate for what?”
Braddock sighed. “Close the hatch behind you and lock it.”
Captain Ryker Zyan marched through the nearly empty halls of the Formidable, the reason for the late night summons plaguing her mind. Major Ty Braddock had been brief in his call, the sound of the incoming transmission waking her from a restless sleep.
Her mind instead lingered on Austin. She would never tell him so, but she had heard he had been to visit the ship’s counselor several times over the past months. You couldn’t hide anything on a ship, but she hoped the visits to the counselor hadn’t been because of anything she had done. Surely he understood why they had to put their relationship on hold. It simply couldn’t work while they were on tour.
But there was the fact she treated him awful and tried to disguise and hide their relationship from the rest of the ship. She missed Austin terribly.
Perhaps his visits to the counselor were about the nightmares he mentioned during their leave on Oma? She knew the ordeal had taken a greater toll on him than anyone else understood. Instead, the other Star Runners whispered about the heroic Rock and his victories against the Tyral Pirate scourge. If they only knew, he hated the attention.
She nodded at a crewman who passed, bringing her thoughts back to the present. The man seemed determined to get to wherever he was going, a concerned look on his face. Everyone seemed concerned lately, the fog of uncertainty and dread had fallen over the ship in the past weeks. Regular patrols were scheduled around the science station, policing the blackness for any sign of the mysterious and lethal Wraith. But with all their diligence, all the extra hours spent in the sim pods fighting without sensors, Star Runners were being killed.