Dauntless- Exploration Class

by Robert Wagner

  Virgil took two steps towards the landing gear when Dauntless shook so rapidly and with such force that he went flying off the ship. The tether jerked him to a stop before he went a few feet.

  "Damn it, Herra!" Virgil pulled himself back up and clamped on.

  "Virgil, that wasn't me. The alien ship, it's going up." Herra sounded genuinely panicked, which made Virgil worried.

  He brought the laser cutter out, along with the grabbing arm. Virgil didn't work with any of his usual skill. He chopped at the metal hook holding them back like a butcher. Ragged pieces he pulled apart to drift off into space. Bouncing like a wild animal, Dauntless danced beneath his feet. His arms began to ache, hanging on to the tether. With a soundless clunk, the landing gear closed. Dauntless moved forward at low speed.

  "I got it Her-"

  Virgil lost the ability to speak as the alien ship went explosive. Dauntless flipped tail over cockpit. His eyes closed to try to stave off vertigo, Virgil rose into space, then found himself pulled back down. He slammed off the hull and jerked to a stop at the edge of the tether. The skeletal remains of the opening into the alien ship rushed up to smash Virgil in between it and the Dauntless. Virgil scrambled back down to the skin of the Dauntless and hung on to the first thing he could wrap his hands around. An alien support beam came to a stop mere inches from his face. He could feel the shift and the strain of the Dauntless beneath him as Herra fought for control.

  Dauntless spun away in a controlled manner. Virgil was up and almost sprinting back to the ramp as the starship accelerated. He could see the alien ship falling away. The insides of it were blowing outwards and bright flashes lit up its interior. He cursed at it in his mind. What a pile of bad luck.

  Several things thudded into his back, knocking him flat. Virgil pushed back up to his feet and turned around. The ship weaved and dodged, but there was even more debris than when they came in. It peppered the hull and a bigger piece must've been what hit him. Herra wouldn't be able to get the shields up until he got inside. Not without frying him.

  Virgil's eyes widened as a huge chunk of twisted metal fused together with beams sticking out at odd angles flew towards him. Virgil turned and moved as fast as he could. He jumped off the edge of the Dauntless. He could feel the lump of metal rush past him. The tether yanked him to a stop. Virgil watched the fighter sized piece of debris sail on. He looked back over his shoulder. The metal chunk had left grooves in the hull of the Dauntless where he had just been standing.

  "You going to come inside Virgil or do you plan on riding on the outside through the wormhole?" Herra sounded upset. "I'd like no more dents in my ship. Don't make me put up the shields."

  Virgil couldn't believe her. "You're welcome." Virgil called back, not hiding the sarcasm in his voice.

  The ship wagged up and down, and along with it, Virgil. When he finished bouncing up and down, he called Herra every foul name he had ever heard in every spaceport and dive bar in his life.

  She actually laughed. "Don't forget you're speaking to your commander. Now, get in here. Unless you'd like me to do a few barrel rolls first?"

  Virgil smacked at the controls on his gauntlet to remotely activated the tether's wench. The machine pulled him along to the ramp. He shut off the wench, stomped the rest of the way in, and closed the hatch.

  "When you're inside, Virgil, stop by my office. I have some antiseptic solution I can clean your mouth out with," Sanford said over the comm as Virgil watched the ramp close. The rest of the crew snickered in his ear.

  "You have a real humorous bedside manner, you know that Sanford? How many years of medical school did it take for you to learn that?" Virgil wasn't really mad. In fact, he felt grateful to still be alive and in one piece. His back in between his shoulder blades ached and were probably bruised. If that's all he got for the stunt he just pulled, that was a big win.

  Dauntless slammed upwards as something impacted with the ship. Virgil looked around for the damage. Something that could rock the ship that hard had to have blown a hole through the hull. Then he realized Herra must have gotten the shields up in time.

  "If the coffee break is over now, I could really use your help up here Virgil," Herra called.

  "What's this? Herra's asking for my help? Maybe I did die out there on the outside of the ship and I've arrived in Heaven."

  The chuckles on the comm were now for him. Virgil cut off Herra's retort. "I'm on my way. "

  The ride out will be bumpier than the ride going in. That was the only thought Herra had time for as she twisted, pushed, and pulled the flight sticks. The space around the Dauntless was not only clogged with the debris that was there when they came in, but also the high velocity pieces of the ship exploding behind them. Not to mention the energy wave that was pushing her ship along.

  She had just reached over with one hand and gotten the shields up before they were hit by a chunk big enough to bring Dauntless down. Herra flipped the ship end over end then tilted her sideways, squeezing between two pieces of the alien ship the size of houses. She didn't entirely make it as the board next to hers sparked as the force field scraped the pieces. Its integrity dropped, but it still held.

  Herra seethed as Virgil walked in all nonchalant. Who did he think he is, talking about her like that? And over the comm in front of her crew! She took out her frustration on the minefield of pieces in front of her. She jerked the sticks hard forward and back. Left to right. She had Dauntless make one crazy maneuver after another to avoid impacting anything to large for the shields to handle.

  Virgil was back in his seat before he spoke to her. "Miss me?"

  She didn't have time for a retort. Sweat was steaming up her exosuits helmet. She could feel the pull as the dampeners couldn't handle all the stress of the snap roll to the right she performed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Virgil cling on to his console to keep from falling out of his seat. He grumbled at her, accusing her of doing that on purpose. That pleased her a little. The two Dauntless sized pieces she narrowly avoided crashed into each other to the left of the ship. Dauntless shivered with the impact of the smaller particles spraying along the shields. Herra kept her steady. They were almost clear. Herra's hands danced with the sticks. Dauntless did a wide, lazy roll. That allowed her to line up the ship with an opening she was anticipating. Once she saw her chance Herra hit the thrusters to maximum. Dauntless shot forward. The engines whined. Again she could feel the G forces. In a blink they were out of field and she could feel the wave of energy pushing against them lessen. She cut back the engines to cruising speed and popped off her helmet. The cool air felt good. Virgil looked at her and even though he tried to hide it, she could see he was impressed.

  <> <> <>

  Sanford struggled to get Chen on the medical bed as the Dauntless shifted faster than he could anticipate. One time, he almost fell on top of her. How embarrassing that would that have been. He did get her down and strapped in. Once his readout told him the life support system had cycled and the Dauntless now had its atmosphere back, Sanford snapped off his helmet. He took off the clumsy feeling gloves and stepped out of the rest of his suit. He put it all neatly in a pile in the corner, stumbling as again the Dauntless temporarily lost inertial dampers. He thought Herra must have made some extraordinary maneuvers for that to happen. Whatever was going on in the cockpit and outside the ship was beyond him. Helping Chen was all he could do now.

  "Chen. Hui." Sanford spoke low and calm, what he called his doctor voice. "Sorry about all the bouncing around. I'm going to have to remove your suit now so I can fix your leg. Is that okay?"

  He could hear the grimace in her voice along with seeing it in her face as he peered down at her. "Yes, Sanford, and thank you."

  Sanford took off her suit, only partially unstrapping her, first at the top, and then switching to the bottom. He piled the suit up beside his. Now that he was able to, he turned on his monitoring equipment. Her blood pressure was low, but her other vitals were steady. Sanford dipped his hands
into the liquid polymer that would seal itself into skin tight gloves around his fingers. He cut away her the leg of her trouser right above where the wound was with a pair of scissors. The blue material was now a dark black.

  "Would you like a local anesthetic for this, or would you like a nap?"

  Chen closed her eyes. "Local will be fine. I don't want my mind to be any more muddled than it already is."

  After giving her an injection to numb her body from the waist down, Sanford went across the room to his cabinets to collect his tools. He had his more precise laser scalpel, a blood pack, and his antiseptic wand. Carrying them back over to the table, Sanford almost dropped them when Zayan burst in. The ship rolled Zayan right into him. Stumbling, Sanford was able to steady himself with one hand on the wall.

  Sanford put the tray down. He laid his hands on top of his equipment. He turned to Zayan, who was holding his helmet in his hands. His normally dark skin was looking ashen.

  "Let me guess. Nausea?"

  "I threw up in my helmet. I've never-"

  Sanford cut him off. "I don't need your helmet contaminating my room. Put it in the sink over there." Sanford pointed with his free hand. "Then I want you to sit in that chair next to it. I'll be with you shortly."

  Zayan visibly shrunk his shoulders down and walked meekly over to the sink. Sanford didn't think he was that harsh. He didn't have time to worry about Zayan's feelings now. He needed to work on fixing Chen's leg before the anesthetic wore off. Last thing he wanted to hear was Herra lecturing him about waste again.

  Placing a magnifying optical over his right eye, Sanford hit the control with his foot and the table rose. He bent over Chen's leg. Steadying his hand, he hoped that Herra had finished with her crazy maneuvers. Sanford guided the scapel to reopened the wound and cleaned it out with his wand.

  "Take the sticks for a sec." Herra stood and stripped out of her exosuit, revealing her flight suit again. Her tongue felt thick and dusty in her throat and her stomach rumbled.

  It had been hours since this whole fiasco started and she needed a break. They all needed a break. She didn't think they were going to get one though. Ignoring the needs of her body for now, Herra settled back into her chair and took back the controls.

  "Virgil, keep your eyes peeled. Extend those sensors as far as you can. I saw the fighters attacking the big ship. They could still be out here."

  Virgil was obviously confused. "You what? How?" He stopped his line of questioning and worked over his panel, doing what she asked.

  "Zayan. I need you up in the bridge," she called over the ship's intercom system. She waited for a reply. Thirty seconds later she called again.

  The disgusting sounds of someone throwing up filled her cabin. "Sorry Commander. I'm not too feeling well."

  She was about to reply to Zayan, telling him to suck it up and get up here anyway, when Virgil interjected. "Herra. We've got two ships, coming up fast. At least I think they are. Signatures are unknown."

  Blast it!

  "Commander," came the docile tones of Sanford. "Right now I'm seeing to Chen's leg. It would be appreciative if we could possibly have the ship be steady for the next few minutes. After that I will administer Zayan anti nausea medicine and will send him up to you."

  Herra almost laughed in spite of herself and the danger flying up their tailpipes.

  "Signatures coming up fast. Damn the little buggers can move."

  Herra increased engine output to one hundred percent. She pointed the Dauntless' nose at the wormhole. "Do you need to do that now, doctor?"

  "I think Chen would like her blood vessels, muscles, and ligaments reattached as soon as possible. She wouldn't be happy losing her leg."

  "Well, doctor. I'll try to tell the ships following us not to shoot us with their lasers for a five more minutes. At minute six, then they can blast us. Get Zayan up here soon as you can." Herra turned off the ship's comm. "How's it looking, Virgil?"

  Dauntless rocked beneath her with a hit from the pursuing ships as her answer. "That well, huh?" Again the Dauntless listed and shook and blue light briefly filled her viewport.

  "Shields down to seventy one percent," Virgil reported. "They pack a good punch too, for their size. They're holding a steady pace. Obviously they're within their ships firing range."

  "Obviously." Herra tried juking the ship to the left then immediately to the right, trying to fake them out. Yellow bolts of energy exploded in space around them.

  The multifaceted colors of the wormhole loomed larger and larger ahead. Herra tried to pilot the ship as gently as she could while avoiding her attackers. They scored two more hits.

  "Fifty percent." Virgil looked over to her, worried. "Sixteen minutes until we reach the wormhole."

  Herra eased off the power just at the end of what the dampers could handle. One of the pursuers matched her deceleration. The other did not and shot by her. She poured power back into the engines. She could see the fighter was one of the odd flower shaped ones from before.

  "Well, you did shoot at me first. Told you I'd pay you back." Herra squeezed the triggers, letting fly her own green laser blasts in return.

  The first salvo missed and the flower ship corkscrewed down. Herra followed, in the flow now. Her and the Dauntless were one. She wasn't going to let the fighter get behind her again. The other one that still followed spit out bolt after bolt. None of them connected with their target.

  Fingers poised over the trigger Herra watch the fighter still spiraling down. A split second before it stopped and pulled straight up, Herra did the same, anticipating its move. Dauntless splat out beams from its overpowered twin guns, hitting the mark. The attacker had become the attacked. The flower ship was hit and went up in a brief but bright explosion. The Dauntless shot through its wreckage.

  "Woah. That thing must not have any shields," Virgil remarked.

  Wordlessly, Herra got back on course to the wormhole. When she hit the mark instead of her viewscreen filling up with the looming sight of her escape, a huge dark shape obscured the wormhole behind it. Around the shape she could still see flickering colors of its presence.

  "We might be in trouble," she said.

  From the shape of its profile and the sensor readouts Virgil fed to her, Herra was pretty sure the new, large ship in front of them was like the one they had just been on. Except this one was intact and barreling straight towards them.

  Herra mumbled to herself. "I hope Sanford and Chen can forgive me."

  She jerked the sticks hard and cut off engine power completely, which threw her against the seat restraints. Dauntless flipped on its axis. The back end now faced the wormhole and the new incoming ship. She fired up the engines and hit them to maximum thrust, hoping that the Dauntless didn't explode or vibrate itself apart with the sudden stress she was putting it through.

  Hearing the engine whine all the way in the bridge scared her. The previous maneuver flung her forward, this one pushed her back into the chair. The last flower ship pursuing them shot by like a flash. Zayan had come through the hallway, but was now flat on his back on the floor. He moaned in pain. Dauntless held together but Herra thought she could smell smoke. Warning flashes lit up her control screen. Still she held the ship steady as it rocketed away.

  One long continuous laser beam of yellow light cut across the top of Herra's view. She had never seen a weapon like that before. Continuous fire laser beams, like on a scalpel that Sanford used, it was thought impossible to make work at such a large scale. The power needed to fire one like that from a ship would be astronomical. Yet, she was seeing it with her own eyes. Herra didn't want to find out what would happen if that thing hit her ship.

  "H-Herra," Virgil struggled to get out. "That big ship is launching m-more fighters."

  No! It wasn't fair. They had almost made it to the wormhole. Herra racked her brain. She wasn't going to give up. Maybe they could flip again, go up and over the big ship and hit the wormhole. The whine of the engines being pushed beyond their limi
ts grew to an ear splitting pitch. Herra eased up on the speed just the tiniest bit and juked the Dauntless to the left. The nebulae swung by the viewport. The nebulae!

  "Zayan, you need to get up into the science station quick! Virgil, how many fighters incoming?"

  "A full dozen. Plus the one from before. They're be in range in four minutes."

  Herra started her mental clock ticking. "At least tell me we're leaving the big boy behind." Another cutter beam sliced diagonal from the top of the screen to out of her sight. She flipped the Dauntless the other way. "Nevermind."

  Virgil answered anyway. "We are putting distance between us but that weapon must have a hell of a range."

  Three minutes. "Zayan, you up in the station yet?" Herra juked back to the right while still heading for the nebula.

  "Yyy-yes Commander." Herra could hear the tension and fear in his voice.

  "Start scanning that nebula. I want to know what to expect before we plunge into it. What will it do to the Dauntless. You have one minute."

  Flashes of light illuminated the cockpit. Herra turned the ship perpendicular to their pursuers. Hoping to give them less of a target to hit.

  Two minutes.

  Virgil updated her. "The little ships are gaining on us. I think we might finally be out of the big ones range."

  "Virgil. Any trickery to boost power, boost our shields. Any advantage you can give us, now's the time." Herra called over the comm. "How are you and Chen doing back there?"

  Sanford's voice came back, still as smooth as silk. "Fine. No thanks to your flying Herra. You're lucky you have such a fine doctor on board."

  "Why Sanford, how did you know I found you attractive?"

  Herra heard him snort over the comm. Chen chimed in. "I'm doing well, Commander. Already you can't tell I even injured my leg. I've been out of it though. Can you tell me what's going on? It's not like you to give us such a bumpy ride."