Project Starfighter (26 page)

“What are we looking at?” Chris
asked. “What kind of fighters?”

“The always-popular Talon,” Sid
said. “Lexx herself is piloting a Valkyrie.”

“How far away is she?” Chris
asked.

“The signal’s coming from Nerod,
one of the inner system planets. We would need to make an inner
system jump to reach her before she’s caught.”

“If she’s really there,” Chris
commented. “How long would the jump take?”

“Computer, from here, how long
would it take us to reach Nerod?” Sid asked.

“Eight minutes and thirty-eight
seconds,” the freighter replied.

“Enough time to get down to the
cargo hold and suit up,” Chris said. “Computer, have the bots
finished their work on the Firefly’s upgrades?”

“Upgrades have been completed.
Final testing is currently underway.”

“How long?”

“Tests are expected to finish in
the next two to three minutes.”

“Good. Prepare for launch in the
next ten minutes.”

“Are you sure this is wise?” Sid
asked, as Chris starting out of the bridge.

“We’ll have to accept the fact
that WEAPCO will be coming after us every day from now on,” Chris
said. “Might as well get used to it and get some practice in. Come
on, let’s check out the results of the upgrade.”

~

The
two men made their way down to the hold where the Firefly and the
Manx were berthed. Chris saw that the machines that had been
surrounding the Firefly as he and Sid had entered were now starting
to move away. It appeared as though the upgrade testing was complete.
He couldn’t see anything different about the cannons on first
inspection. Maybe it was something internal to the Firefly, or some
sort of extra coupling that wasn’t all that obvious.

“Looks exactly the same, doesn’t
it?” a female voice came. “Don’t worry, though. The upgrade has
happened, and it’s working fine.”

Chris started as a woman walked
around from the far side of the Firefly. She was tall and slender,
clothed in some sort of floaty white dress. Long, blonde hair
cascaded across her shoulders and midway down her back. Her skin was
a pale white, like porcelain or ivory. Her face was angular, her
cheek bones high, her eyes enhanced by the subtle make-up she was
wearing. Chris caught glimpses of her feet as she walked, seeing what
looked like gladiator sandals and an item of jewellery around her
left ankle. She was stunning. Chris gaped as the woman leaned up
against the Firefly.

“I thought you said the freighter
was empty?” he said to Sid.

“I did ... it
is
,” Sid
said, his jaw just as loose as Chris’. “Maybe she’s just come
out of suspended animation or something?”

“Who are you?” Chris demanded of
the woman. “How did you get on this ship?”

The woman smiled, and chuckled
lightly. “Chris, it’s me. It’s Athena.”

Chris took a step back, looking the
woman up and down. “No,
that’s
Athena.” He pointed at
the Firefly.

Another delicate laugh from the
woman, who was beaming widely. “No, I told you once before –
that
is a starfighter.
This
is me.
I
am Athena.”

Chris studied her again.
“Seriously?”

“Who’s Athena?” Sid wanted to
know.

“Athena’s the name the Firefly
was given during its development and construction. The AI decided to
hold onto it, because it liked it,” Chris told Sid.

“I’m not an AI,” Athena
responded, having clearly heard every word, despite Chris speaking
under his breath. “We’ve already had this conversation, too. I’m
sentient, alive. I might be a machine, but ...” She swept her hands
over her form. “This is me.”

“How are you doing that?” Chris
asked. “Is it a projection of some kind?” He noticed that the
woman wasn’t straying far from the Firefly.

“It’s a type of hologram,”
Athena said. “A solid-state projection, a
solid
-gram, if you
will.”

“So, you can touch things? And
things can touch you?” Chris asked.

“Yes,” she said, still smiling.
She looked very pleased with herself.

“She looks like an angel,” Sid
hissed in Chris’ ear.

Yes. Yes, she did. He was still
finding it difficult to tear his eyes off her. She was exceptionally
attractive. He then shook the thought away. It wasn’t real, it was
just a projection.

“Come here and have a look,”
Athena enticed him. “I won’t bite.”

“Hey, I’m not going,” Sid
said, as Chris cast in his direction. “You were the one who was
keen to pick her up from that storage box.” He shoved Chris
forward.

Chris approached Athena, who held
out her hand, a finger extended a little further invited him to touch
it. He did so gingerly. It was solid, as she had promised. The
texture, too, was surprisingly soft. It felt real.

“Ha,” Chris said.

“I was searching for a form that
you might appreciate,” Athena said, grinning. “I remember sensing
someone like this when we first joined our consciousnesses. I know I
promised not to delve below the surface, but this image, or one like
it, was quite prominent at the time. I thought that you might find it
pleasing and non-threatening.”

“Eve.” Chris nodded to himself.
She had been at the forefront of his mind for a time. His first
flight in the Firefly had come not long after his encounter with the
tattooed mercenary woman. He wondered what had become of her. Had she
been killed during that battle against the
Grand Vizier
? He
had not heard much from her during the battle at all.

“Eve? Was that her name?” Athena
asked, tilting her head to the side.

“She was one of the mercenaries
that Sid and I were spending time with,” Chris confirmed.

Athena looked past Chris to the
black-haired man that stood behind him. “Oh, sorry,” Chris said,
and introduced the pair. “Sid, the Firef ... Athena. Athena, Sid.”

“Nice to meet you, Sid,” Athena
said, holding out her hand to him.

Sid remained where he was, and only
waved.

“Okay, not to worry,” Athena
said, dropping her hand. “Eve. I remember her. She and I had a very
brief talk. She wore the helmet in the cockpit for a little while.
Well, I say brief talk, it was more like she panicked, swore at me,
and took off.”

“So, you chose to look like that
because you thought I would like it?” Chris asked, gesturing at her
appearance.

“Not only that,” Athena said. “I
am actually appearing as one of the popular portrayals of my
namesake. Athena was commonly dressed in sandals and a pure white
chiton.”

“Um ... I’m sure that Athena
also carried a shield, a helmet, and a spear,” Sid said.

Athena smiled, and walked beside the
Firefly. “Spear,” she patted one of the cannons. “Helmet,”
she pointed in the direction of the cockpit, to where Chris knew the
AI-interface helmet rested on the seat. “Shield.” She ran her
hands through the air in front of her; Chris saw the visible shimmer
of the fighter’s protective energy field as she did so. It
deactivated a moment later.

“Fair enough,” Sid said.

“Arriving at Nerod,” the
Dodger
’s AI computer voice came over the ship’s PA.

“Athena, this is all very nice,”
Chris said. “But there is something we need to do. We received an
SOS from a woman in this system, who is under attack by a squadron of
WEAPCO fighters. We need to get out there and help her. I don’t
know if she can hold out for much longer, so we need to do whatever
we can.”

“Why are WEAPCO attacking her?”
Athena asked.

“We don’t know,” Chris said.
“Maybe she’s pissed them off somehow, or perhaps she’s part of
a mercenary gang. We won’t know until we get to her. One thing’s
for sure – there are a lot of ships after her.”

Athena nodded. “Then we should
help her. Get in and let’s go.” The projection of the woman
vanished as soon as she finished speaking.

Chris made his way over to the
Firefly, the console in the cockpit lighting up as the system began
to initialize itself. He sat down in the seat, taking up the helmet.

“Is everything working?” Sid
asked.

“Yes,” Chris answered. The
console readout was displaying statics and numbers for the fighter’s
cannons that indicated that they had benefited from the work done to
them. The power output was higher than he remembered, and the rate of
cooling had also increased. All in all, it led to faster firing, more
powerful guns.

“Good, I’ll talk to you from the
bridge,” Sid said.

Are you ready?
Athena asked
Chris.

“Ready,” Chris said.

With that, the Firefly raised itself
off the floor of the hold, and sped from the
Dodger
.

~

How
is she doing that?
Chris wondered, as he hurtled towards Phoebe
Lexx’s Valkyrie. There must have been close to thirty WEAPCO
fighters circling her, Talons, Mirages, and a number of other craft.
Yet none of them was opening fire. A little way behind, a cluster of
other WEAPCO fighters could be seen approaching, dispatching from a
warship.

“This is an SOS distress call from
Phoebe Lexx, of the Eyananth system,” the woman’s broadcast
repeated once again.

“This is Chris Bainfield of the
Resistance,” Chris responded, as he closed in on the woman’s
position. “How can I help?”

“Oh, thank God!” Lexx responded.
“I thought I was a goner! I’ve managed to convince some of them
to stand down, but the others are ignoring me. The ones that are
standing down won’t help me fight back, either.”

“What do you mean, they won’t
help you?” Chris asked.

I think we should concentrate on
assisting Lexx
, Athena prompted Chris.
We can discuss things
later.

“I agree,” Lexx added.

Chris started. Was Athena
broadcasting publicly? It didn’t seem so. He wasn’t even sure if
it was possible for the Firefly to do so. He then saw the fighters
closing on Lexx’s position give a sudden burst of speed, before
spreading out and moving into attack formations.

“Here they come!” Lexx called.

“I’ll have you out of there in a
couple of minutes,” Chris answered.

He accelerated, speeding past the
Talons and Mirages circling Lexx’s Valkyrie. Something told him he
didn’t need to worry about those. For the time being at least. He
heard the blare of a warning siren as a number of locks were acquired
against him. He activated the timeslip the next moment, feeling
Athena move in close to him. She felt warmer than normal, if that was
possible. He seemed to think she was smiling.

I will deal with the shield
distribution and the power weightings
, Athena told him.
You do
the rest
.

Got it.

But first I’ll take these down
,
Athena said.

The – very slowly – approaching
missiles that had just been loosed from the Talons exploded in a hail
of fireworks, puffing and dispersing. Chris adjusted his perception
of the world until the WEAPCO fighters were as close as he wanted,
before opening fire. The plasma bolts that issued from the Firefly’s
cannons were visibly brighter and denser than before. They were also
issuing at a noticeably faster rate than before; not as fast as he
might have liked, not so that the rate of fire was enough to floor
him, but it was still an improvement over what it had been. The first
pair of bolts struck their intended target, penetrating the fighter’s
shields, and battering the armour beneath. A third bolt connected a
few seconds later, and the Talon went up.

Impressive
, Athena said.

Yes. Much better
, Chris
responded.

The remaining squadron began to peel
off and Chris adjusted his flight path to go after them. He was
finding that at the increased speed at which he perceived the world
he was able to anticipate the direction that his opponents would go.
He only wished the Firefly was able to move as fast as he could
think.

The WEAPCO fighters fell just as
fast as in his first engagement, perhaps far faster, due to the
increased power of his armaments. Return fire found its way towards
him, Athena making the subtle shield weighting adjustments as
necessary, to keep the plasma and particle bolts from defeating the
Firefly’s shields. At times, Athena would take over the control of
the Firefly, sensing that Chris was about to put them into danger or
set up a potential collision. Chris did not argue against or
contradict her decisions.

“Wh ... How did you do that?”
Lexx’s voice came over Chris’ comms. It was a question that he
was growing quite used to now. It would likely never cease coming
while he was under the influence of the timeslip.

“I’ll tell you once this is
over,” Chris responded, knowing that his words would reach the
woman the same instant she had finished speaking. “And then you can
tell me what
you’re
doing.”

“Agreed,” Lexx said.

Chris returned his attention to the
fight, seeing only a handful of WEAPCO fighters now remaining,
hanging close to the warship. He relaxed the timeslip for the moment,
the speed of the world around him returning to normal.

“What kind of ship is that?” he
asked Sid.

“It’s a corvette,” Sid
responded. “One of the smaller ones, according to the freighter’s
records. I’m just getting the data on it. It’s called the
Duke
of Wellington
. It’s been in service for quite some time, about
forty years. Its main armaments consist of plasma cannons, laser
guns, missiles, and torpedoes.”

“So, the usual suspects,” Chris
said.

“The cannons are steepled about
the port and starboard sides, across the top and bottom, and can
rotate through three-sixty degrees, as well as elevate themselves.
Basically, it means you can’t hit it from the rear, as that will be
covered by the rotation.”