by Saxon Andrew
“Since my second year in the Academy,” she answered meekly.
“ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU’VE BEEN LISTENING TO MY PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS WITH FLEET AND THE COLONIES?!”
Candy sighed and nodded. Taffy jumped in, “And our personal discussions as well!?!”
Candy raised her left shoulder, “Not all of them.”
“Oh, and which one’s have you left out?”
“I don’t listen to you when you…well… you know?”
“NO, I DON’T!” Taffy yelled.
“Well, when you and Dad get Uhhh… lovey dovey, I shut it down.”
“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” Taffy demanded.
Candy’s face showed her disgust as she looked up at Taffy, “Gross, Mom. Who’d want to hear their parents doing that!”
Rory burst out laughing and, after a moment, Grady joined him. Candy raised her hands, “It’s your fault!” Grady’s smile disappeared. Candy quickly continued, “You’ve told me since I took that first trip out with you in the Rex Hare that I should be with you so that I could see everything you do. Right?”
Grady continued to stare at Candy, but Taffy replied forcefully, “That has nothing to do with spying on us!”
“Once I entered the Academy, you stopped including me in everything; you stopped discussing things in my presence. You told me that one day I would become a leader on New Britannia and it was important that I be around you to see and hear everything you do. You stopped doing that for some reason.”
“That’s not true, Candy!” Grady replied.
“You’re not the one that always sent me to my room, Dad.”
Grady’s eyes closed slightly, and Taffy sat down, “She’s right, Grady.” Grady turned to Taffy. “I stopped including her in our discussions and meetings when she entered the Academy.”
“Why?” Taffy shook her head and took a deep breath. “Why, Taffy?” Grady pressed.
“I was losing my little girl, Grady. She was growing up and I saw her slipping away from me. I couldn’t take it and I wanted to slow it down. I didn’t want to lose her.”
Candy’s tears started, and she ran to Taffy, sat on her lap, and hugged her neck, “Mom, you will never lose me!”
Taffy started crying, “Yes I will. One day you’ll fall in love, get married, and start your own life away from me. I can’t prevent it happening, but I thought I could possibly slow it down.”
Grady lowered his head and started shaking it. Rory and Abby remained silent and listened to the Henricks. Candy lifted her head and looked at Grady, “I’m sorry about putting you in an impossible situation earlier. You’re right; I need to make my own way without you handing me a ship. I’ll do a good job in intelligence and work hard to get back on a warship.”
Taffy was weeping softly with her eyes closed and Candy turned to her, “Mom, you need to have another baby.”
Taffy’s eyes flew open, “Are you out of your mind?!”
“Mom, you’re going to live to be over a hundred and forty. You’re just in your forties and another baby will fill the void in your heart.”
Candy! You’re…”
“Right!” Grady interrupted. Taffy and Candy turned to him. “Another child is exactly what we need, Taffy.” Taffy stared at him and Grady’s eyes softened, “You are such a wonderful mother.”
Rory looked at Abby and saw her staring into his eyes. He raised an eyebrow and she nodded. Rory turned to Taffy and said, “That is outstanding advice, Candy; Abby and I are going to take it.” Rory stood up and pulled Abby out of her chair.
“Where are you going?” Grady asked.
“There’s no time like the present to get started. See you later.”
The Dunhans rushed out and Grady turned to Taffy. Candy saw his expression and she rolled her eyes, “Gross.” She stood up and headed toward her room. Taffy went to Grady’s lap and he smiled, “I think Rory has the right idea.” Taffy smiled and stood up.
Candy sat in her room and felt her excitement level rise. A new brother or sister. That was outstanding. Now she’d have another sibling as well as RJ.
• • •
Glen Merriman looked at Scotty Robinson on his monitor, “Is your wing ready to go?”
“Yes. Martha is having a quick repair done on her missile box, but she should be here in a few minutes. What about you?”
“We’re scheduled to leave in an hour. I have to tell you I’m worried about not having any blasters on the new scouts, Scotty.”
“I understand removing them and embedding the hull with the coating material will make our scouts almost impossible to detect.” Glen shrugged. “Besides, we still have the missile boxes loaded with seventy mini-missiles. A blaster beam can be seen but the coated missiles can’t.”
“Scotty, I believe fleet removed the blasters to make sure we wouldn’t use them.”
“I’ve heard the same thing. Not having them will make us be a lot more careful about going into bad situations. You need to be careful of the stealth scouts around Earth.”
“The new passive scanners have been installed in my ships. They can now see a minute source of energy and even if their stealth scouts are powered down, they’ll still have to keep their environmental systems on line. We should be able to detect them. Do you have the new scanners?”
“I do. However, the Fagan don’t have stealth scouts.”
“No, but I’m sure they have warships that are powered down, Glen.”
“They’ll be a lot easier to detect than the stealth scouts. Good luck and stay safe.”
Glen nodded, and the monitor went dark as Glen looked at his six scouts formed up around his ship. It had been almost two decades since the enemy civilizations closest to the colonies had been scouted. It was time to go out and take a close look at what was going on.
• • •
RJ sat at the simulator working on his piloting skills. He whipped the ship hard left and found twenty enemy ships opening fire on him. The enemy warships couldn’t see his ship, but they saw a blaster beam fired and opened up with a wide spread of blaster beams and missiles. RJ realized too late that he couldn’t avoid being hit and his King Hare Warship erupted in brilliant flashes of missile and blaster hits. Twenty Planet Killers saw RJ’s ship and joined in on the barrage. The simulator beeped and ‘Simulation Failed’ appeared on the monitor. RJ lowered his eyes and shook his head, “You should have gone vertical,” he heard behind him.
RJ turned his chair around and saw a female cadet looking over his shoulder. “Excuse me, what are you doing here?” RJ asked with a frustrated tone.
“I was told you were here, and I came to talk with you,” the woman replied. RJ glared at her and she put out her hand, “I’m Angelica Coronado.” RJ continued to glare at her in silence and she put her hand down. “I want to offer some assistance in teaching you how to pilot the new warship.”
“And just who are you to do that?” RJ asked testily.
The woman shrugged, “I’m currently the highest rated cadet in pilot simulations.” RJ blinked. “But I’m failing at operating the weapons systems. I’ve looked up the standings on weapon simulators and you’re currently ranked number one. I decided to come and see if we can help each other.”
“How did you find me here?”
The woman chuckled, “I was told that you’re here every day after hours. I decided to see if that was true.” RJ sat back in his chair and the woman pulled up a chair from the table behind him, “Look, I know you’re number one in your class and, from what I’ve been told, you don’t give help to anyone or accept it either. However, you and I both have an issue in operating the new Hare Warships and I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. So, here I am. What about it?” RJ searched his memories and didn’t remember ever seeing the woman. The woman smiled, “I’ve been in three classes with you, but you put all of your attention on the professors. I don’t think you’ve spoken to most of your classmates.” RJ shrugged. “I guess that comes with being number one in your c
lass. However, I don’t want to get assistance from the second-ranked cadet on using the weapons systems. I prefer to go to the best.”
“Flattery doesn’t work with me.”
“I’m not flattering you; I’m simply stating facts. Flattery would be saying you should be number one instead of number two.”
“If you’re so good at piloting, just how would you have handled the simulation?” RJ asked.
“Is this your first time trying to pass that simulation?”
RJ frowned, “No, I’ve been working on it for a week.”
“If I can get you to pass that simulation the next time you attempt it, will you work with me?”
“I’ll consider it. But I won’t promise anything.”
The woman shrugged, “Call me Angel. Start the simulation and stop it when you found your vessel surrounded.” RJ fast-forwarded the simulation and stopped it just before he had whipped the ship hard left. Angel lifted the pilot’s helmet off the back of his chair and said, “Put this on.”
“I don’t use a helmet.”
“That’s why you’re failing this simulation. Put the helmet on and take a moment to look at the tactical monitor.”
“I can see the tactical monitor on the wall!”
“Then tell me what you’re seeing.”
“My ship has just been surrounded by a hundred Britannia Alien Warships.”
“Anything else?”
“What else is there?!” RJ asked testily.
“Look at the enemy warships to the left and right of your ship,” Angel responded. RJ looked to the right and left of the large tactical monitor and saw large enemy formations moving in toward the ships surrounding his vessel. “Now put the helmet on and tell me what you see.”
RJ jerked the helmet out of her hand, put it on, and pressed the button on the side of it to activate it. He glanced at the small tactical monitor on his faceplate and saw the ships surrounding him as well as the two large groups of enemy ships approaching from the left and right. He heard Angel ask, “What is the biggest advantage of our Hares over the alien warships?”
RJ raised his faceplate, “They can’t see or detect us.”
“Exactly right! Those ships surrounding you don’t see you. But you fired on one of them that was moving in close to your ship and that exposed your presence. Once you did that, all of them opened fire at the source of the blaster beam. I’m not going to tell you what to do but the only thing you can use from this point forward is the stealth ability of your ship. Give it a try.”
RJ pulled the faceplate down, looked at the tactical monitor again, and started the simulation. RJ saw the alien warship come roaring in on his ship and he reversed the gravity drive moving his ship out of the path of the incoming warship. He kept his eyes on the tactical and saw a break in the enemy’s formation directly below him. He used the gravity drive to immediately drop the ship and turn the bow toward the opening. It started to close but he went to second-stage thrusters and blew through the opening before it closed. He then slowed the ship, released a barrage of coated mini-missiles at the warships above him, and moved out of the huge concentration of warships. Alien warships began exploding on the monitor and thousands of alien warships came roaring in toward the explosions. He stopped the simulation and raised his face plate, and he saw Angel shaking her head.
“I put myself right back into the situation I just escaped,” RJ noted.
“Yes, you did. If you had continued working your way out, you could have launched an attack once you were clear and escaped.” The corner of RJ’s mouth tightened, and she added, “I suspect your first instinct is to fire your weapons whenever the opportunity presents itself, right?”
“I guess.”
Angel commented, “We all tend to use the best talents we possess. I keep failing my weapon simulations because I’m reluctant to use my weapons for fear of being discovered,”
“I’m not sure what you mean by that.” RJ replied.
“What are the pilot’s primary responsibilities?”
RJ thought about it and said, “To keep the ship out of harm’s way and put it in position to destroy as many enemy ships as possible.”
“That is exactly word for word what the textbook says. Real pilots heed the first part of that and avoid being put in hazardous situations. Real weapon operators are always looking for a target. It’s hard to make both of those things happen in harmony. So far, I’ve been unable to do it.”
RJ thought about what she was saying and then asked, “What are you recommending?”
“We go to the crew simulators and we work to pass them together. You’ll pilot the simulation and I’ll operate the weapons and then we’ll swap. We’ll discuss after each simulation the mistakes we made and, this is important, not take the criticism personally. I think both of us will improve our skills using that process.”
“We’ll have to start over at the first simulation on the crew simulators. It will drop both of us in the standings.”
“I know, RJ. But what’s more important to you, high standings or being able to master the King Hare warships?” RJ hesitated, and Angel smiled, “Hey, simulator rankings don’t affect class rank. You’ll remain number one in your class.”
RJ stared at Angel and wondered how she had blue eyes with black hair; most of the people he knew with Latino ancestry had brown eyes. She was short, a few inches over five feet tall but she possessed a strong sense of presence. He held out his hand and said, “We’ll start tomorrow after classes.”
Angel smiled, “Now was that so hard? I’ll see you tomorrow.” She turned and walked out of the simulator room. RJ watched her leave and hated that he needed help but knew that piloting a ship wasn’t something he did well. If he graduated number one in his class, he would be given command of a King Hare Warship and he worried he wouldn’t be ready. But that was something he would keep to himself. Showing weakness wasn’t something he’d ever do.
Chapter Four
Candy sat at her desk in Fleet Intelligence and was pretty much ignored by the other officers around her. Everyone knew she was the Supreme Admiral’s daughter and was just biding time until she would leave to rejoin the Navy. None of them would run the risk of doing something that would be reported to her father. So, she sat at her desk looking over old recordings. Candy was bored stiff, and she finally decided to do something to keep her mind active. She went to Bob one night and said, “Bob, do you have a copy of the recording my parents made of the Britannia Alien’s territory?”
“I do.”
“I want you to download it to a data-core.”
“I am not allowed to do that without direct permission from Admiral Henricks.”
Candy thought about it and then said, “Authorization Adelle Infinity Candice.”
Candy waited and, after a minute she heard, “Insert data-core.”
Candy inserted the data-core into Bob’s chest and saw it illuminate. She waited until the small light went out and said, “Do not report my taking this information.”
“I am instructed to report if this file is copied.”
“Adelle Infinity Candice. You will not report this.”
“Order acknowledged.”
Candy smiled and went to Admiral McArdle the next morning, “Sir, I’m interested in doing some ‘What If’ simulations on a computer. I don’t want to put all the garbage I come up with in the computers; is there a way I can do this?”
McArdle smiled, “There’s a computer that’s not connected to the system at the rear of the room over there,” he pointed toward a desk that was isolated next to the back wall. “We use that for studies that we don’t want downloaded into the database.”
“Would you mind if I use it, Sir.”
“No, you may use it as long as you want.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Candy went to the computer and spent two hours setting it up such that nothing she did on it remained on the computer’s drive after she signed out. She inserted the data-core into the reader
and began looking at the Britannia Alien’s territory.
• • •
RJ turned the ship vertical as Angel launched a huge barrage of mini-missiles ahead of the ship. She launched three heavy-stealth missiles at three warships rushing in from behind them and explosions filled the monitor. RJ flew under the massive explosions ahead of him and then whipped the ship hard left into an opening in the enemy’s formation. He pushed the thruster handle to the first-stage-gravity drive and the ship flew out of the giant formation surrounding them. The monitor beeped and ‘Simulation Completed Successfully’ appeared on it. Angel smiled, “I think that makes us number one and two in the pilot and weapons ranking.”
RJ shook his head, “I never thought we would be able to complete all the simulations in the short time remaining.”
Angel laughed, “It’s because we’re unbeatable together, RJ; congratulations.”
“Same to you, Angel. Thank you for convincing me to do this.”
Angel stood up and shrugged, “I almost hate this is coming to an end; I’ve really enjoyed doing this. Finals start in three days and then you’re graduating. I’m going to miss having you around.”
“Thank you. You’ll graduate in less than a year and join me in fleet. Maybe we’ll serve in the same unit.”
Angel laughed, “The chances of that happening are remote, RJ, and you know it. But I’ll see you around.” RJ nodded, and Angel left the simulator room. RJ watched her leave and sighed. He had been pretty much a loner before Angel appeared. Now… he missed the interactions between them and she was just leaving. He blew out a breath and left the simulation center to study for finals.
• • •
Three weeks later, RJ graduated number one in his class and the Henricks, Dunhans, and Angel was present to witness it. RJ didn’t see Angel in the crowd but his parents along with Grady, Taffy, and Candy were sitting in the front row. Once the ceremony was complete, the Commandant moved to the podium and smiled, “Will the following Cadets report to the stage; Rory Dunhan Jr., Abigale Montgomery, Kenneth Boyle, Johnathan Taylor, and Margaret Chee. The five cadets walked to the stage and went to attention. The Commandant faced the audience, “These are the top five graduates in this class and they will be promoted to the rank of captain and be given a new King Hare Warship to command.” The Commandant turned and smiled at the cadets, “Congratulations and I know you’re going to make New Britannia proud.”