“Okay. When you sit down, put the two small round devices on your temples.”
Sarah nodded and climbed the steps, sliding into her cockpit as Chase did the same. When she sat down, she noticed there wasn’t much left over from the F-14. There was just a stick, a pad to enter numbers, and the two little round devices Chase had mentioned. She put them on her temples as instructed.
What happened next was nothing short of extraordinary.
As soon as they touched her skin they stuck there, and an entire holographic HUD appeared. Controls, gauges, monitors, radar…the whole shebang projected inside her brain.
“Wow! How is this possible?”
Chase’s voice answered from inside her mind, like a radio, but it didn’t come from the interior of the craft. And while it was definitely handy, it would take some getting used to.
Chase “mind-spoke” as if he was sitting right next to her. “These little devices access the visual and audio cortex of your brain and project the information relayed by pretty much every sensor and piece of equipment aboard these craft. Also, the computer AI responds to vocal commands. You’ll be able to pre-program some commands and use them later on. That’s what I used to remote control the squadron.”
“That’s…so cool!”
“That’s just part of it. I’ve asked for a neuronal interface to be installed on these as well, so if you want, you can touch the purple button at the far right of your HUD, and you’ll switch into neuronal control mode.”
“What’s that?”
“In simple terms: what you think, the ship does. It’s still in the experimental phase. We’ve used it in other applications but never in combat as it requires a very disciplined mind. That’s why I’ve installed it as a toggle, so it can be toggled on and off at will. We may try it later on when we reach target practice, or you can use it now to try to get off this base.”
“Hell yeah!” she cried. “But this is a little overwhelming. I’m used to flying with stick, thrusters, and rudder. I feel like a kid who turned on a PlayStation for the first time.”
“What’s a PlayStation?”
“So there are things you don’t know,” she laughed teasingly. “No worries. I’ll show you one when we get back from the test flight.”
“Alright, let’s get these started. Touch the—”
But before Chase could finish his sentence, Sarah activated the neuro-link, got off the ground, retracted the stands, and was flying toward the sky.
“Wooooohooooo!” she cried as she lifted through the clouds.
Chase blinked then hurried to comply. “Alright then!” He touched the neuro-link toggle and joined her in the sky, positioning beside her in formation like a normal wingman.
“Chase,” she sounded breathless, “this is the weirdest and most exceptional thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’m literally piloting this thing just by thinking it. It’s amazing!”
Chase grinned but cautioned her. “Just keep in mind that the neuronal link is tiring after a while and, if you lose concentration or get lost in emotional turmoil, the results can be unpredictable. If that happens, toggle it off immediately; don’t wait until you feel like you’re losing control. As an additional measure, I’ve programmed the onboard AI to turn the neuro-link off as soon as it detects something is wrong in our vital signs. But that’s never been tested so I don’t know how sensitive it will be.”
“Roger that. For now, it handles like a dream. It’s not more tiring than watching an IMAX movie in 3-D.”
“A what?”
“Yeah sorry,” she apologized. “I keep referencing day-to-day Earth technologies; I’ll catch you up on that later.”
“And I thought I had learned all there was to learn about Earth technology.”
“Oh I don’t doubt you did for the military stuff, but we love recreation here, maybe too much. Sometimes I wonder if that’s what prevented us from evolving as fast as we should have as a species. Anyway, that’s a good conversation topic to save for the date.”
“Alright, I look forward to it. What do you say we punch these babies through the atmosphere?”
“You sure do know how to talk to me, Lieutenant Commander.”
And with the blink of an eye, both F-140s accelerated to max speed, became fireballs in the sky and, a few moments later, were orbiting the Earth.
“Oh…my…god!” Sarah exclaimed.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. I’m better than fine. In fact, I don’t know if I can find adequate words to describe how fine I feel right now. I’ve dreamed of this day my entire life, but since I didn’t choose a career as an astronaut I never thought it would come. I’ve seen movies and pictures, but to experience this first hand…? It’s simply magical. Thank you, Chase.”
“You’re perfectly welcome. Enjoy the view; we’re not in a hurry.”
“Thanks. How much fuel do we have, in terms of time?”
“Fuel? Oh, quadrinium doesn’t deplete nearly as fast as fossil fuels do. It all depends on how we tax the systems. So for our test flight, unless we encounter heavy resistance, we could use the ships for the entire day or even more before we’d need to reload. The ship also has secondary power, which is a system similar to what you call batteries. But it has a lighter design and a much higher energy storage capacity. It’s linked to the shields and recharges when they aren’t being taxed.”
“Amazing! Is there anything this ship can’t do?”
“It doesn’t make breakfast.”
There was a pause.
“…Um…that was a joke, Commander. A really dumb joke,” he muttered to himself.
“Roger that,” said Sarah playfully.
“Alright, back on topic and your original question. The Thunderbolt actually misses a few things. The life support isn’t redundant, neither are the engines or shields. We also only managed to install first-generation particle cannons. Our own ships are more advanced in terms of firepower and redundancy in the critical systems; they’re also smaller, faster, and more maneuverable than these. But because of its size, the F-140 has a stronger armor and a much bigger quadrinium chamber. Therefore, it can do longer missions, and probably take a bigger beating, armor- and shield-wise. It’s just that if we lose a primary system like shields, it will need repairs on Earth. There isn’t any self-repairing circuitry. Not yet anyway. We were in a hurry and had to sacrifice on installing some systems.”
“Alright so…no. These craft are amazing, notwithstanding all the techno-babble you just threw at a girl in awe of seeing her planet for the first time. It’s amazing to think this was once an F-14 Tomcat.”
“Yep, there’s not much left. But we kept the seats and the stick.”
“I like it; gives it a retro feeling.”
Chase didn’t know what “retro” meant, but inferred from the context it probably meant something old. He would have to get used to the subtleties of the language. Both English and Universum were very similar, frighteningly so when one stopped to think about it, but just like dialects could make things sound different, that’s how Chase felt about English. It was a dialect. Sometimes familiar, sometimes rather distant.
“I’m glad you like it, Sarah.”
“So what do we do next?”
“Now the fun begins. On the left of your HUD, I’ve marked a point on your radar with a blinking blue dot, do you see it?”
“Yes, what do I do?”
“You either touch it or think about going there.”
Before she could confirm, her ship jumped. Chase thought about the destination and the AI engaged his jump engine as well. Stars became lines in the frontal view of the canopy for just an instant before they returned to stars. Then Chase’s ship jumped out of hyperspace beside Sarah’s.
“Did we just make a jump?!” Sarah was unable to contain her excitement.
“Yes, the neuro-link will choose the fastest way to achieve a goal. Since you thought about going there, it decided to jump. You should se
e a countdown on your HUD going down from three hundred. That’s the time it will take for the jump engines to be available again.”
“Incredible. How long would it have taken to come here at full burn?”
“A little under three minutes.”
“Oh…so jumping wasn’t really necessary?”
“No it wasn’t. But it was fun, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, that it was! So next time I should think about flying there slower?”
“Like I said, the neuro-link requires a very disciplined mind. Yours seems to handle it quite well but, because you don’t know the capabilities of your craft, it’s bound to create some quirks like this one. I’m just hoping any other unpredictable quirks won’t put pilots in danger.”
“I think we’ll be fine. That doesn’t answer my question though.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. So you could use your HUD, and when you press the target on it, it will ask what method of travel you want to use – burn or jump.”
“Roger that. So where’s that targeting field? I want to blow stuff up.”
“It’s right ahead of our position, just a few thousand miles. The targets should show as red dots on your radar.”
“They do. Cool. There’s close to a hundred at first sight. May I?”
“By all means, have fun. You can either think and acquire your targets mentally, or line them up and shoot manually.”
“Great! I love the neuro interface; I want to see how it handles in a fight. Are the targets firing back?”
“Only if you want them to. They can fire low energy discharges that will simply light up the shields to inform you when you get hit.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” She nodded. “Let’s set them up that way.”
“Done.”
“Thanks. Time to have some real fun.”
And with that, Sarah’s F-140 went full burn toward the targeting field. They started firing from all over the place and she soon saw a few impacts on her shields. Thinking fast, she entered a whirlwind dance of evasive maneuvers, trying to get hit by as few probes as possible. The more she practiced, the less probes managed to score her shields. It was quite impressive, considering how outnumbered she was by opponents, and Chase watched her appreciatively. She was one hell of a pilot and, coming from him that meant something.
“Why aren’t you firing back?” he eventually inquired.
“I’m just testing the maneuverability of this thing; it’s amazing. Will my shots destroy the probes?”
“Only if you wish them to.”
“And can I? Isn’t that a waste of training resources?”
“I guess… Tell you what, blow up a few for the fun of it and then switch to training weapons. Then the hits will only disable the probes and turn them off.”
“Deal! Thanks!”
And the laser show began. Sarah blew a good five probes with real lasers, crying out with the sheer joy of it, before she switched her weaponry to practice mode and started turning the probes off one after another with impressive ease and at an even more impressive rate. A few moments later, they were all disabled.
“That was FUN!” she cheered.
“What about a real fight now? Against a human opponent?”
“I thought you’d never ask. But let’s make sure we have those training weapons on. I don’t think it would look good on my rap sheet if I blew you out of the sky on the first day.”
Chase couldn’t help but smile. Her attitude was very similar to his. Aggressive and witty with a naturally playful arrogance. He liked that about her. Very much.
“Let’s not get too cocky; I’m no dumb probe.”
“Oh Lieutenant Commander, I’m counting on that fact very much.”
Without another word of warning, the fight began.
In just a few moments, Chase was already on Sarah’s six. He opened fire and scored a few wing hits, although the damage simulator translated that they barely would have impacted ten percent of the shields in a real fight situation. As the chase progressed, Sarah became more and more evasive, and even managed to catch him off guard by decelerating abruptly, a maneuver he both used himself and loved.
Then the roles reversed. Chase was the prey and Sarah was the huntress.
She rained laser fire on his craft like there was no tomorrow and, while he went evasive himself, he got hit quite a few times on the rear shields. In a matter of seconds, they dropped to a virtual seventy percent. He tried executing a few of his pre-programmed evasive macros but they only worked with marginal success. However, the more she attacked, the more he studied her patterns. She had the tendency to try and anticipate his moves based on the repetition of his patterns, and he could use that to his advantage by throwing her a curve ball at a critical moment. But he decided that he wouldn’t try to show off just yet, and hit the afterburner and flew away rapidly instead.
It didn’t take long for Sarah to adjust her speed but that had given him enough time to make a full reverse and be nose to nose with her. They fired at each other at the same time and both took hits on their frontal shields. In a matter of seconds, they were on a collision course. Neither one would be the first to back down, and their ships’ computers beeped frantically warning of the coming impact. But at the very last moment, when they could each almost see the other smiling in the cockpit, they veered and rotated right, avoiding each other by mere feet.
“You’re holding out on me, Chase. Why?” Sarah asked over the comm.
“I thought you’d like time to adapt to the new ship. It’s your first space flight after all.”
“I’m not made of glass, and I have logged thousands of hours flying planes.”
“You’re right, I apologize. I won’t patronize you anymore; get ready for a full on assault.”
“Bring it on!”
Chase had seen enough of her fighting patterns that he let his brain take over and fly the fighter on pure instinct. It felt good to let go of every thought and become one with the fighter; it was a sensation like no other. Sarah came about and started shooting toward him, but he instinctively danced through the rain of lasers. After a few seconds of hitting nothing but void, Sarah laughed.
“Wow, you were REALLY letting me have fun before, weren’t you?”
“Not really, but I didn’t let myself fully ‘link in.’ Now, I’m completely focused.”
With that, his fighter reversed and he was firing at Sarah. She managed to avoid most of the hits but took some serious virtual damage nonetheless. That’s more like it, she thought. The longer they fought, the more balanced the fight became. But it was clear that Chase still held a clear advantage.
“What about missiles?” asked Sarah after a while. “There were a few moments I thought about using them, but nothing happened. I suppose it’s a safety measure?”
“That and the fact they haven’t been installed just yet. We’re still having issues integrating our missiles and torpedoes with the F-140 systems, but it shouldn’t be a problem for much longer. I hope...”
“What about putting our own missiles on the craft? Can they operate in space?”
“I suppose it’s possible…They seem to have crude targeting capabilities, but maybe we could fix that faster than trying to adapt our own missile technology. Still, simply releasing a heat source is enough to make them follow another target.”
“We call them flares or countermeasures since the missiles are seeking heat. They’re vital to Earth flying warfare.”
“So I understand. But our missiles and torpedoes have several types of sensors to lock onto an enemy. They should provide a better yield of impact during space combat.”
“Okay, bring in the toys when they’re ready. I can’t wait to see what they can do.”
“I guess we should stop dogfighting and go over some of the less interesting but important parts of flying these craft.”
“A little anti-climactic, but I had so much fun so I’m not going to argue.”
Chase then went on to explain the
navigation sensors, inertial dampeners, power distribution, and engine modes at length. The more he talked, the more Sarah was impressed by how far ahead the technology really was. Sometimes, it was almost an informational overload, but it was incredible to be the first human to learn all about it. Not to mention the fact that she could literally see the combat benefits while being instructed on how to use the various systems of this ship. The ship, which regardless of being technically inferior to Alliance ships in terms of firepower, was simply mind blowing. When Chase seemed to arrive near the end of his instructions, she asked the obvious question.
“How long will it take to convert an armada of these ships?”
Chase sighed. “That’s actually going to be an issue. We lack the required materials to make massive numbers. We could probably do about thirty ships with what we have, maybe even less.”
Sarah stared out at the vastness of space. “Is that going to be enough?”
“I’m not sure. We need to be careful with our reserves of quadrinium since it’s not a material that’s found on Earth and our attempts to replicate it by altering other minerals on your planet have been unsuccessful.”
“Where can we get more?”
“We’ve sent long-range probes in search of systems where we can replenish our stock, but we’re still waiting for a positive result.”
“I see.” She paused. “And how long do you think it will take for the enemy to return?”
That was the question of the day, wasn’t it?
“I have no idea. It could be in a few days, or it could happen today. Either way, it’s going to be a serious problem.”
Sarah bit her bottom lip. “We’re not going to be ready, are we?”
“If the next attack is bigger than the last… No, we won’t.”
There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes until Sarah broke it.
“Should we head back home? I suppose you’ll want to analyze the data from this test flight right away.”
“Yeah and make the necessary adjustments.”
“Adjustments? I didn’t feel that it needs any adjustments.”
“I’m sure it would feel that way to you, but I will undoubtedly find things to improve once I’ve analyzed the data.”
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 20