Jones glanced at him. “You’re losing your nerve because of Rooster and Perry. Keep your head straight. Get your guns up. Are you ready?”
Rooster nodded, although his eyes seemed glazed and distant, and Brown took a deep breath before he nodded. “Let’s do this. We’re so close.”
The leader took two of the wires and tapped them together. The light above the panel turned green. He stepped back, drew his weapon, and readied himself as the door slid open. With a man on either side of their wounded teammate to support him, they rushed into the room and then froze. Their eyes widened in alarm.
As the doors slid shut behind them, they aimed their weapons instinctively. The sound of laser fire sizzled against the walls as the enemy felled them before they could fire. When the barrage ceased, Jones uttered a single soft groan before his body thudded to the floor and silence followed.
The captain paced the command center and watched a new fleet of small combat pods surge from the second Dreth ship. The Federation troops had held their own, with only a couple of casualties from the first round. Still, they faced heavy fire and he badly needed this battle to be over.
He whirled and pointed at the screen that provided the only view of where his four—now down to three—soldiers were inside the Dreth ship. “Where are they?”
The soldier typed frantically and looked up at the screen in fear as the dots began to disappear one at a time. His gaze drifted to his superior, who stared at the now blank display. “Did we receive anything?”
The computer tech shook his head. “Sorry, sir, no.”
The commander drew a deep breath and rubbed his hands over his face. “It looks like we’re down. Prepare team number two. Update them on the status of team one. Tell them they are to bring back any bodies and the pod if at all possible, but their number one priority is the data.”
The junior commander nodded vigorously. “Yes, sir.”
He picked his comm phone up and called the instructions. “Team two is up. Team one MIA, one down at the right dock entrance, three down inside the data room. Be aware, there’s a mass of armed Dreth en-route to the data room. Beyond your initial detail, you are tasked to also retrieve any Federation bodies and equipment. Again, your number one task is to transmit the data as soon as you are able to do so.”
The Navy ship, New Vegas Hope, moved forward from its position alongside the command vessel. It targeted the Dreth carrier with all weaponry at its disposal as it went. Having watched the small attack pods destroy the enemy defenses, her captain had decided to simplify the battle. After all, it was unable to retaliate—or so they thought.
The captain approached the viewscreen and studied the Dreth carrier which remained motionless and showed no sign of surrender—which was strange since it had no way to defend itself. He narrowed his eyes and snapped his fingers. “Run a heat signature on the carrier.”
The technicians pulled up the screen and initiated a heat reading on the ship, and the captain froze. He tilted his head in momentary confusion and stared in disbelief as the blotch changed from a dull red to orange and slowly to yellow. It was located beneath the carrier, the one place they hadn’t attacked.
His eyes widened as he realized what it was, and he sent a call to the other ship’s comms. “Fall back! Fall back! Heat beneath the underbelly. Heat beneath the—”
A blast rocketed from beneath the first Dreth ship and the command deck exploded. On the New Vegas Hope, the captain shouted frantic orders. “Reverse thrusters, full power. Get us out of here.”
The other Dreth ships saw their opportunity. With the Federation’s command cruiser reeling from having its command center opened to the vacuum, they pressed their advantage. The captain of the New Vegas Hope was left with no choice but to increase power and run the gauntlet between the two ships, one of which was surprisingly well-armed—and with a weapon more powerful than they’d thought the enemy owned.
Fortunately, Federation ships had better armor than the enemy, and the Dreth ships had a well-developed respect for their weaponry. Rather than stand and attempt to decimate the New Vegas Hope between them, both cruiser and carrier powered past her and tried to keep their more heavily armored flanks between her guns and their engines.
Desperate measures were needed to secure the battlefield and rescue the emergency pods that launched from the stricken command vessel, so the third Federation ship ordered every fighter pod into the air.
The squadrons aboard the slowly disintegrating Federation command vessel didn’t wait for orders but followed suit.
“Kill that gun,” the New Vegas Hope’s captain ordered, “and clear the field for rescue.”
Faced with swarms of short-range Federation fighters and deterred by the Federation cruiser that prepared to launch missiles, the Dreth made a strategic retreat. After all, one Federation ship was crippled and the other two would be hard-pressed to rescue its personnel.
The enemy moved out of missile range, then moved a little farther and called for the rest of their Squadron, while they kept the Federation under close observation.
Unless the Federation Navy could move very, very fast, the cruisers didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Nine
“I almost burned a hole in my dress uniform today,” Petty Officer Helena Childers said as she smoothed the front of her Federation Navy skirt. “It probably would have made it more stylish, but I thought someone would have something to say.”
Petty Officer Nick Wyld laughed. “My wife did the ironing because she knows I’ll set the uniform ablaze, no questions asked.”
“Smart girl,” she responded.
They stood in the entry of the R&D building located on the base twenty miles from where Stephanie lived. They weren’t attached to that base but had been sent there to greet Elizabeth and Stephanie when they arrived for their scheduled meeting—one that should have started ten minutes before.
Wyld glanced at his watch and rocked lightly on his heels. “You’d think they would at least be on civilian time. Even for them, this is late.”
Childers shrugged. “It is what it is. We were both told when we were assigned to this that they were tough bitches. We actually haven’t sent documentation for Stephanie yet. We’re trying to get Elizabeth on board as we feel it would help the process go a lot more smoothly.”
He sighed. “Yeah, from what I’m told, she’s a real ball-buster.”
“If she doesn’t show up, she’s going to be the one getting her balls busted by the Federation.” His colleague chuckled. “I think I’ll give her a courtesy call and show my nice side.”
“You have one of those?” He sounded shocked.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell anyone.”
Ignoring his grin, she walked over to the secretary’s desk and smiled at the Seaman Apprentice behind it. “May I use the phone, please?”
The man fumbled nervously and pushed the phone across the desk. “Yes, Petty Officer.”
Childers gave him a forced smile, opened the file, and dialed the number. She looked around in annoyance as it simply rang endlessly. At the point when she thought it would go to voicemail, the woman answered. “This is Elizabeth. How can I help you?”
“This is Petty Officer Childers with the Federation Navy’s Research and Development team,” she replied, annoyed that she was obviously not on her way. “I am calling you to remind you that you have a summons to the R&D facility closest to you. Your appointment time has come and gone. Did you forget?”
Elizabeth was quiet for a moment but the silence was interspersed with the sound of papers shuffled around on her desk. “Oh yes. That. I assumed that since the documentation wasn’t for me, I could ignore it.”
The petty officer raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure you are mistaken.”
“No,” the woman said with a crisp edge to her voice. “The documentation clearly states it is for one, Elizadebt, not Elizabeth.”
Childers’s jaw clenched. “Hold one second for me, please.”<
br />
She put the call on hold and hung up, then gestured for Wyld to follow her into the back and to their set-up room. As soon as they were through the doors, she stormed over to the computer. He was almost too afraid to ask what the hell was going on so simply watched as she pulled up the documentation and began to flip through the virtual copies.
“Uh oh, what’s going on?” he asked finally when the silence grew ominous.
The woman couldn’t seem to unclench her teeth. “She says her name was not spelled correctly and she assumed it was not for her.”
Wyld pointed to one of the pages. “She’s right.”
The held line beeped and Childers growled with frustration as she picked it up. “I am reviewing your documentation.”
“Right, well, seeing as it isn’t mine, I have to get going,” Elizabeth replied. “I’m sure you’ll sort things out.”
The petty officer opened her mouth to respond with nothing but pure hostility but before she could, the woman hung up. Childers screamed and slammed the phone down, then stared at the page as it flipped in the air. “That bitch. I don’t know how it happened, but sure enough, her name is spelled wrong. The whole process has to be started over again.”
Wyld tapped his hands against his legs. “Never say the Federation doesn’t keep us busy.”
She waved the documents off the screen. “More like Elizabeth and Stephanie keep us busy. We should be halfway through right now. We should have the witch in our grasp.”
The man remained calm. He honestly didn’t care either way and was merely there to do what he was told. “And what exactly was our plan?”
Childers put her arms up, pressed her palms to the top of her head, and began to pace. “We intended to get Stephanie into a room which was programmed to scan her body and physiology while we spent more time talking to her to see if we could find out more about her background and theories on magic. Now, it’s back to square one.”
Wyld took a deep breath and unbuttoned his dress jacket, removed it, and tossed it over the chair. “Well, let’s get started with another request and then go to headquarters for a discussion. There’s nothing we can do about it so stop getting yourself so upset. Our next effort needs to be more secure, which will take time to get set up.”
Her gaze settled on him and her shoulders fell. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s get to it. I’ll hammer this chick with the details.”
Stephanie opened her avatar’s eyes and winced. The light of the white room was almost painful to her vision. “Weird. That doesn’t make any sense.”
She shook the pain off and selected a battle jumpsuit, determined to do something other than stand around playing with magic. Implementation had become the name of the game, and she couldn’t simply toy with magic and not prepare for the fight that was going on in the universe.
When she was securely dressed, she called for AI assistance. “I have something I need to ask about.”
The AI spoke into the room. “Understood. What can I help you with?”
Stephanie stared at her reflection in the mirror and noticed that her face seemed much older than before and the silver tips of her hair now almost reached her scalp. “I’ve thought about a few things. My past, really, and not so distant past either. I used to think about how I wanted to be special. I didn’t know how, but I wanted to be that girl.”
“Special is a positive attribute,” the AI replied, “but there is nothing wrong with simply being you either.”
She focused her gaze on her hands and chuckled. “I thought that, but it seems the weight of the world is resting on my shoulders. I can’t help thinking how I really don’t want all this responsibility. How I really only want to keep the guys safe and do my thing—to live my life. But I know it’s too late for that now. Then, I had that party I did for Avery’s niece.”
“Yes, the show,” the AI replied in a very robotic voice. “I have heard you were a regular businesswoman, and then a hero to those kids.”
Stephanie shook her head. “I’m no hero, but I do know I want to understand how to protect the little ones. Their innocence and their future have rocketed to the forefront of my mind. If I didn’t have a motivator before, I have one now.”
BURT hovered in the background and decided to take control of the AI so he could speak to Stephanie without her knowing it was him. He was worried it would stifle her honesty if she knew who she was really talking to but that most humans found it easy to talk to an AI.
They weren’t human, they kept secrets, and they were trustworthy as long as you were on the right side. For all Stephanie knew, BURT was nothing more than a human pulling the strings from his castle beyond the clouds of discontent and danger. And that was what was best for her.
“I want to know what the Federation Navy does in the Virtual World,” she blurted, knowing it was time she asked the hard questions.
“That is easy,” he replied in the same AI voice. “They work to prepare humans to go to the stars, but some of that training is to protect the planet from those out in those stars—”
“You mean the Dreth?” Stephanie interrupted.
“At a minimum,” he answered.
She frowned as she considered that oddly worded answer. There was either more danger or not. It made her feel as if there was some kind of cover-up going on. Whether her AI was given that covert information or not she would never know and would have to trust the word of those around her.
“Right,” she replied as she paced the white room. “Can you provide me a realistic simulation of a battle?”
BURT scanned the system files and pulled up everything it had on Federation Navy training courses. “I have all the information the Navy uses for training, but unfortunately, most of that is deemed classified and I cannot access those files. As far as my simulations for you are concerned, it would be picked up almost immediately if you ran Navy training.”
“So, what if we agree never to share that?” Stephanie replied and lowered her voice. “Simply call me Morgana, the Federations first witch…with the appropriate high-level security classification. There is probably any number of people using that as their on-screen name by now.”
“Approximately five hundred and seventy-three thousand variations of the title exist,” BURT replied quickly. “But as far as your idea goes, I would suggest not using that name. We could actually create a unique training name that no one recognizes and which goes away. The only knowledge of the training would be inside your brain.”
“How would we do that?” she asked in the same moment that the virtual world spun around her and deposited her on the inside of a small military fighter pod. She was now encased in a light EVA suit and looked out through the clear faceplate of her helmet.
Taking a moment to digest this, she asked, “What happens when I begin to experiment with the gMU?”
BURT plugged it into his system. “We can only guess, of course. Remember, we calculate the gMU based on recent projections tied to your maximum sustained energy.”
Stephanie smirked and shuffled her boot along the floor. “Always living on the edge of the unknown, I guess.”
The AI, still BURT in disguise, spoke over the speakers. “We currently only have a few team members to work with. This simulation will be a combination of both the game you played with the robbers and the Dreth ship simulation you ran when you were in the pods at Pinnacle.”
He paused to give her time to absorb the information. “You will have to use your logic, skill, and knowledge of the gMU to work through it. This is very similar to the training exercises the Federation Navy runs and mimics real-life scenarios. When or if you die, you will not be taken to time out but instead, will be allowed to start the simulation over from the beginning as long as your physical stats show comfortable readings.”
She examined the attack pod’s meters and buttons and hoped she could get herself across the empty space between her and the looming Dreth ship. After that, she would simply take things as they came. “Okay, this sou
nds like what I was hoping for.”
“Are you ready to begin your simulation training exercise, Stephanie Morgana?” BURT asked in the AI’s voice.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said and drew a deep breath.
“You may begin,” the voice said and filtered out to leave nothing but the ominous lack of communication with barely a small buzz from the attack pod’s engine.
Stephanie swallowed hard and used her knowledge of the ships from the aviation preparation courses she’d taken at Pinnacle to glide the small ship forward. She shook her head and laughed quietly when she managed a solid grasp of the maneuvers required in only minutes. Satisfied with her skill, she accelerated and the small craft raced across the space between the Federation ship and the Dreth one. Her gaze remained alert for any incoming enemy fighters.
A few seconds later, she guided the pod around the side of the ship and groaned as her eyes widened. “Damnit. I forgot the docking stations are specifically located on the other side of the ship.”
There was no sound from the AI, which reminded her that she was in a simulation and had to treat it as if it were the real thing. She threw the thrusters in reverse and spun the attack pod before she pushed the lever forward to increase speed. On instinct, she took the road less traveled, dipped low, and eased carefully along the bottom of the ship and out the other side.
Ahead of her, the darkness of spaces was broken only by a few small flickers of stars, galaxies away from her. She wondered if one was the pale blue dot of Meligorn’s sun but shook the thoughts away. “Focus, Morgana. Focus.”
She pushed the pod to its speed limit, whipped up and around, and hoped she would face the hatch into the ship. Instead, her pod found the edge of the entrance and impacted hard to thrust her farther out into space.
Stephanie was now in a full spin and attempted to pull the steering back. She soon discovered there was nothing to slow her in the vacuum of space. Like the Earth gliding through the heavens, she tumbled away as the Federation ship grew smaller and smaller with every twist of the pod.
Witch Of The Federation (Federal Histories Book 2) Page 10