Valishnu Rising

by Chogan Swan

  Tiana inclined her head to acknowledge the question. “Before we revealed ourselves to the world in general, we had already made allies of many individuals who we had come to trust. It might come as a surprise to those who attacked us this morning, that I knew the 16th president of the United States personally. Yes, I am talking about President Abraham Lincoln. I have in my personal possession a signed and authenticated document wherein he recognized the Federation and approved my status as an ambassador to the United States of America. We were allies once. It pains me to think of how sad he would be if he could see the state of the Union now. I would like to hope that it could rise again from the ashes to a new birth of freedom, having learned how difficult it can be to maintain a union of the people, by the people and for the people when the powerful want it to be only for them. I can only pray that it shall not perish from the Earth forever.”

  She paused, letting the silence speak. “Our other allies have publically announced their support: Mexico, the Federation of North American Tribal Nations and Iceland. I have signed many non-aggression pacts and agreements in principle, but no other nations have come forward to recognize us yet. I suspect the reason for that reluctance has something to do with the power behind the attack this morning.”

  She paused again. “And, I’m sorry to say, the follow-up attack that I’ve just now learned about from my security team.

  “I don’t have all the details this new attack in progress yet, but I do know the coalition behind the military coup that took over the United States has launched another incursion into Mexico’s airspace. “I won’t be able to tell you anything more about that right now. So, concerning the reluctance I spoke of, perhaps our potential allies feel an unrestrained military power with thermonuclear weapons is a much more compelling argument for fear than a few aliens who have no proof of anything other than recommendations from historic dead people and extra appendages.

  I’m sorry to have to cut this short, but since this embassy may soon be under attack. It would be irresponsible of me to encourage you to linger here under the circumstances. Thank you all for coming. Please depart in an orderly manner. My staff will be helping those with mobility restraints as much as possible.”

  She remained standing at the podium, watching the crowd. Two men from her security team stepped up on either side of her and waited with her as the press evacuated the room.

  Kest turned from the screen to see where Ayleana was leading him. She stopped and stuck her head into HumanaH’s command center, a 4-meter-square cubicle lined with display screens and a vast communications array. Kest peeked around her shoulder.

  Without looking at them, HumanaH held her hand up—forestalling any questions—and spoke into her headset microphone. “All pilots and co-pilots, please prepare for an extended time in the cockpit. Eat. drink. Use the bathrooms. It looks like we’ll be flying consecutive combat sorties for a long time.”

  CHAPTER 40 – TEAM ROCKET

  The F-16 pilot in Kest’s sights had a habit of telegraphing his turns, but Kest’s Falcon fighter-drone only had 2 of its Talon air-to-air missiles left. His drone was more nimble and faster than the general-purpose F-16 fighter. Partly because it helped when you didn’t have to worry about pulling too many Gs in the turns, but another contributing factor was that it had never been intended for air-to-ground attacks. It didn’t need the extra muscle to carry extra-heavy bombs or missiles.

  He’d been fighting from one drone or another for three hours without a break. HumanaH kept cycling the drones to where they needed to go and timing it so they could keep rolling control over from one dogfight to the next.

  The F-16’s center hardpoint emptied as the missile parked below the fuselage separated from the fighter. The F-16 rolled right and went into a dive.

  If I go after the missile, he’ll be on my tail.

  “Command, this is 3. My bandit just launched a cruise missile. We’re 900 klicks from the target site. The F-16 is vectoring away but still headed toward VC. Do I go after the missile or the bandit?”

  “Command,” Amber broke in. “Our sensor says it’s one of the JASSM cruise family. It might be the extended-range variety.”

  “2,” HumanaH said. “Split the difference for a moment, but keep the missile in range.”

  Kest kept going, trailing the missile but keeping in reach of the fighter. A few seconds later, the F-16 tumbled from the sky, whirling like a pinwheel.

  “Look at that,” said Amber. “HumanaH must have HERFed the poor bastard. Those three DEWs they set up on the coast actually work.”

  “Yeah, but it takes a while to charge each capacitor back up. We don’t have enough of them to take out every threat. They can only make about three shots an hour with the capacitors we have available.”

  Kest took the initiative, veering back toward the missile. He hit the throttle, racing down the missile’s trail, climbing to get above it.

  A short rocket plume separated from the F-16 cockpit and a parachute bloomed above the tumbling jet.

  “I’ll tag the location for the Mexican Coastguard.” Amber banged on a keyboard and finished with a tap of the ‘Enter’ key.

  “2, this is Command. Take out the missile now.”

  “Roger that, Command.”

  “Well, it’s a sure bet it won’t be shooting at you, anyway,” Amber said.

  Kest snorted. “I’m just glad that model is subsonic.” She was right though. Without the directed energy weapon this could have gone a lot worse. The pilot of the F-16 had made a smart move. It just hadn’t worked out.

  “Now if I can just tag the missile without having to collide with it.”

  Two minutes later, he still had one A2A missile left on the wing, and a new cloud—albeit a smoky one—was fading from the sky. “Nice shot, Captain Tight Pants,” said Amber. “If you’ll just hand control to me, I’ll send this one home by way of the next skirmish. HumanaH already sent me the coordinates. Thinks are getting even hotter north of us.”

  Kest reached for an energy drink, opened the twist top and slammed down a few swallows.

  “Command, this is 2. I’m ready for the next mission.”

  “2, this is command. Your screens should be up now with 4 targets already selected.”

  He ran his eyes over his sensor data.

  Sweet Ordering Principle! What a mess.

  “Confirming that command. I’m taking control now.”

  The targets were F-16s. Two were tag-teaming a Falcon with ShwydH’s #1 icon glowing green above it. The other two were trying to corner Ayleana.

  “Bandits on your six already, Kest,” said Amber.

  Kest rolled the Falcon into a twisting dive, popping off two missiles at the closest targets—both of them rolled away and dropped chaff, taking out the missiles, but at least 1 and 3 now only had one bandit apiece for a little while. Aylie managed to use the opportunity to take out ShwydH’s other pursuer, and ShwydH banked left hard to pull behind the two on Kest’s tail.

  Kest saw a clear path behind him.

  Bet you can’t do this.

  Kest popped the Falcon’s nose up, using the wind resistance on the bottom of the aircraft to slam on the brakes at what was probably over 30 Gs of deceleration. He dropped the flaps and pulled in behind ShwydH. The other F-16 had shot past Kest, and he sent an A2A winging after it.

  “What the actual hell?” Amber shouted.

  “I was wondering if that would work in the real world,” Kest said.

  The A2A impacted the F-16’s turbo jet, and Kest had to roll aside to avoid the debris. He looked back to see if the pilot had ejected, but all he could see now was smoke and falling metal.

  “Well,” Amber said. “It’s a good thing the simulator is only 1% away from real world conditions. I wouldn’t have thought that move would be in the 99% though.”

  “Well, now we know,” Kest muttered. He couldn’t stop looking at the rear view for a parachute until ShwhdH gave him another target to pursue. It was getting
harder to push away the fact that the targets weren’t just part of a simulation.

  The dogfight continued to escalate. Bandits kept showing up faster than he could make them disappear.

  Kest fired his last two A2As and dove for the deck, juking and sliding above the waves and dropping countermeasures every time a missile-lock warning sounded.

  “Prepare for trouble,” shouted a child’s voice over his headset, and the F-15X Super Eagle behind him disappeared in a towering wave of seawater and smoke.

  “Make it double,” responded another voice almost exactly like the first.

  “Oh my God!” Amber yelled. “Aphrodite, what are you doing here?”

  “Protecting the world from devastation and waiting for Kest to get out of my seat.”

  “2, this is Command. You are clear from pursuit. Hit auto-return and bail out immediately. You are relieved.”

  Though the voice from the command channel had not been HumanaH’s. Kest obeyed, rolling out of the seat and collapsing on the floor. He had no idea what was going on, but he was long past ready to stop fighting. He pulled his knees to his chest and closed his eyes, focusing on breathing.

  “You don’t need to stay in the co-pilot seat, momma. I can take it from here.”

  “Team Rocket,” Amber whispered. “I should have known.”

  Kest closed his eyes, shivering, unsure exactly when he had lost touch with reality. He knew it had been after he’d stopped trying to keep track of the number of people he’d shot down who hadn’t ejected.

  It’s someone else’s fight now.… Breathe.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  At the back of his awareness, he heard Amber and Ayleana nearby, talking in soft voices. He felt a tickle slide across his scalp and face, and a pressure and suction on his neck.

  “His stress toxins are running really high. I’m giving him some compounds that will help him dump them out of his system, but what he really needs is a nice long run. Sitting in one place for hours under heavy stress and no way to work it off is the cause. Let’s get him up and walk him around the warehouse while I keep checking his blood.”

  Strong hands lifted him like a rag doll and stood him on his feet, propping him up when his knees sagged.

  A camelbak mouthpiece slid between his teeth.

  “Drink some water, Kest.”

  Amber.

  He pulled at the bite tip and swallowed. Then swallowed some more.

  “We’re going for a walk, love. Can you move your feet for me?”

  I guess I can try.

  By stages, he felt his body come back to him. He wasn’t sure where it had gone, but he hoped it didn’t go there again. He forced his eyes open and squinted at the sunlight on his face. They were in the warehouse. The cargo doors stood open allowing air to circulate, but a squad of soldiers in uniforms of the Mexican Naval Infantry guarded the entrance from behind heavy concrete barricades set up to protect a heavy machine gun emplacement just inside the building.

  Evidently, the street was blocked off as well since no cars or pedestrians moved on the street outside.

  The squadron ignored them, remaining focused and alert. He wondered if they’d been on duty all the time he’d been at the controls in the cockpit.

  How long was I in there?

  “Come on, handsome. Pick up your feet. Walk fast with me once around the building.”

  Kest shuffled forward, trying to focus on moving. “Did I imagine your daughters saving my ass?”

  “Your ass was in no danger. They did save the aircraft you were flying. But it shocked me too. Then I started putting things together, little hints they dropped on our phone calls.”

  “Protecting the world from devastation?” Kest tried to push himself to a jog.

  “You remember them always playing Team Rocket, right?”

  “I thought it was a phase. Acta Vila! How big are they now? How long has it been since we saw them last?”

  “They still come in varying sizes, as you should know. But, according to them, time is relative. Two years to us is like thirty years to them.”

  “How do they figure that?”

  Amber shook her head. “The Math was beyond me.”

  Kest untangled his arm from hers. “I think I’ve got this now. Starting to get my legs back. If you want to go be with your girls, I can do this.”

  “Actually, I kinda need to run too.”

  “Well, don’t let me hold you back.”

  “Thanks, sweet cheeks,” Amber said, patting him on the bottom.

  Kest watched her go ahead as she stepped up the pace.

  And she calls ME sweet cheeks!

  The thought made him feel marginally better.

  A few more laps around the room later, Kest was feeling close enough to normal to be curious about the fate of the world again. He cut across the room to catch up to Amber and nodded at the door to the Battle Room with a raised eyebrow.

  She turned with him and they walked to the door. Behind them, he heard one of the soldiers say, “¿Crees que ella es su hermana mayor?”

  Kest grinned.

  My older sister? Now that guy’s an optimist.

  He was still grinning when they reached the Battle Room.

  “What?” said Amber when she glanced at his face.

  “We may not manage to save the world, but that doesn’t mean I’m not the luckiest man in it.”

  “You are such an optimist.”

  “You only say that because you don’t know the man upstairs.”

  “God? What do you mean? Me and God, we’re like that.” She crossed her middle finger over her pointer on one hand.

  “No. I didn’t mean God, but I think his name could have been Jesús.”

  “Kest, you can be so weird sometimes.”

  Kest pulled her close and hugged her. “Thanks for putting up with me.”

  Though he hadn’t been tracking well enough to notice what was going on in the Battle Room when they’d left, the background noise was certainly quieter than it had been when he’d been fighting. He pulled Amber’s wrist up to see what time it was.

  17:30!

  They hurried to the far side of the room to the command post. As they went, Kest could see silent young girls occupying almost all the cockpits. He circled the room to look in on each.

  Adeline, Alabastra, Assegai, Astrid, Amaranda, Aryana, Aliyah, Abedabun (sitting on a pillow) Acacia, Adalwolfa, Alessandra, Azurine and Abigail (evidently laying down and taking a nap)

  He was glad to know he could still recognize them after almost two years.

  At station two where he’d spent the day, Aphrodite’s hands flew over the controls as she watched her screens with quiet attention.

  Why are they all so quiet?

  Amber had stopped to watch Aphrodite, but Kest continued to the command center. When he looked inside, Ayleana and ShwydH were standing relaxed against the wall. HumanaH was somewhere else, but a young-looking nii female—who reminded him of Ayleana before the change—occupied the command chair, monitoring all the inputs from 20 stations—though only 13 of them were active—and making occasional comments to …

  Ambrosia. That accounts for all of them.

  This was his first time to see the control center in action, and now he noticed a screen (larger than the rest) where it seemed as though green and red fireflies were slowly navigating.

  It’s a real-time extrapolation of the air space in a battle. The computer must be using input from all the sensors and cameras we have in the area. Having a picture like that available while you were fighting would be an incredible advantage if you could process it and fly too.

  He sighed.

  It’s too bad that information isn’t available in the cockpits yet….

  But the green fireflies were acting as if it was. He watched as four of the green dots dove together in a rapid, swirling spiral toward the ocean after a firing run. The position of the final ship in the spiral alternated with each turn so the last fighter could throw ou
t just enough counter measures to protect the whole spinning convoy. The green dots all acted in perfect 3-dimensional coordination to grind the red dots into falling dust. Then the entire display changed to a different scene—a new fight—and the dance started again. Throughout both battles, only one green dot had blinked out … in a crushing gambit maneuver.

  “Amber, is there something you’d like to tell me about your daughters?”

  Amber turned to him. “What do you mean?”