SECTOR 64: Ambush (15 page)

"Oh lords!" exclaimed the admiral, standing as a sinking feeling struck his gut. "Deploy Third Carrier Group and three attack squadrons to sector Sixty-Four immediately!"

"I don't understand, sir. The Zoxyth only attack Argonian systems, there are none in that sector."

Ignoring the commander, he said, "Tell Admiral Thoyd Feyhdyak he'll have his deployment orders once they're underway. Have all other commanders report to the briefing arena in one hour. If they can't be there, their holograms had better be."

"Yes, sir," the commander said.

Wondering how they knew, hoping he was wrong, but knowing he wasn't, Admiral Tekamah monitored the orders cycling through his EON.

Gods, please let Thoyd get there in time.

The outside world blurred the instant Jake applied upward pressure on the flight controller. As if it anticipated his intentions, the ship rocketed up like a homesick heavenly elevator, almost before he commanded it. The artificial intelligence's instantaneous interpretation of his rapid input made the AI seem prescient.

The ship lifted so quickly Jake's knees buckled under the visually perceived G-forces. He saw Vic respond the same. While Jake had felt no acceleration, the visual input through the view-wall convinced his mind, tripping the instinctive response.

The scene outside was astounding. Under shocking acceleration, the airfield and then the surrounding mountains rapidly shrank below their line of site.

Looking up at the brightening stars, Jake applied slight backpressure to the controls. The ship responded by gently pitching up. Continuing to apply accelerative pressure on the flight controller, he ushered the ship upward, nose first.

Like a swimmer coming up from the depths, the ship broke free of the planet's ocean of air. Shining in more colors than he imagined possible, stars morphed from soft twinkling lights to crisp points. Jake had never seen pictures, videos, or even cinematic special effects that approached the level of beauty he was witnessing.

"Now neutralize all pressure," Richard said, pointing at the controller.

Jake slowly relaxed his hand. From this altitude, unknown miles above the planet's surface, with only stars filling the view-wall, nothing seemed to change. Applying a slight forward pressure on the controller, the stars slid up as the ship pitched forward.

His heart soared as an incredible sunset rose into view. With the beautiful panorama filling the view-wall, he released the controller, freezing the scene.

Watching the day's second sunset from an apparent altitude of a hundred miles above North America's West Coast, the three Officers stared in silent reverence. Peeking over the distant horizon, the sun's beautiful rays streaked across the Pacific Ocean. The golden river of light flowed around towering cumulus clouds. Like fingers in the stream, their long shadows stretched into the east's encroaching darkness.

I can't believe I'm here. Wish you could have seen this, dad,
he thought, sending a prayer to his deceased father. It was he who had nurtured Jake's love of aviation. Ron Giard had taken his son to countless air shows and Space Shuttle launches. Jake could still see the awe in his father's eyes at the first launch they had attended. Jake had found it infectious and ultimately irresistible.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, the atmosphere flashed with golden brilliance, its thin life-supporting blanket glowing brighter than the underlying surface.

A few poignant moments later, they turned away from the panorama. Stifling sniffs, they coughed, looking anywhere but at each other.

"Let's not hang at this altitude too long," Richard said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Even the light-absorbing skin can't soak up this much sunlight. We might be visible." Richard pointed at something beyond the view-wall's right side. "Why don't you take us over there?"

Following Richard's gaze, Jake grabbed the controller. As he rotated the
Turtle
eastward, a half-lit orb slid into view at the far right end of the ship-spanning panoramic display.

Victor drew a sharp breath.

A huge smile spread across Jake's face. "The Moon?"

Visible along the left side of the view-wall, Earth's night-darkened curved horizon spanned from floor to ceiling. Much smaller, only occupying a small portion of the vertical field, the first quarter or half-moon hung near the right side of the panorama.

Without answering, Richard stepped next to Jake. He toggled a command into the panel's interface and a glowing three-dimensional model of their ship coalesced at eye level.

Sticking his thumb and forefinger into the holographic Turtle and spreading them apart, Richard magnified the display. Repeating the movement, spreading his fingers apart as you would on a smartphone, caused the rendered ship to grow in size and detail.

Vic looked duly impressed. "They didn't use it like that last time."

"I'm just demonstrating its capabilities," Richard said as the ship grew to fill the space available.

Not interested in the large virtual model of the
Turtle
, Jake walked to the view-wall. The illuminated right side of the Moon was blindingly bright. Without the dulling effect of the atmosphere, craters and mountains stood in stark relief.

Dragging his eyes from the incredible scene, Jake turned back to his wingmen. He looked through the translucent computer-rendered ship at Richard and Vic's hologram-illuminated green faces. "The Moon?"

Still ignoring him, Richard slid his open hand into the hologram. This time he pinched his fingers together. As it would on a smartphone, the gesture reversed the magnification process. The faster he made the movement, the farther the display zoomed out. A couple of gestures later, the
Turtle
shrank to a tiny point of light as Earth's curved surface slid into the bottom of the scene.

A particulate haze floated over the planet's arcing surface. Following curved paths, pixels of light seemed to drift in every direction. Jake pointed. "Satellites?"

Richard nodded.

"There's so many of them," Vic said. Bending over, he lowered his face into the display. Tiny green dots appeared to pass in and out of his head. With child-like wide-eyed amazement, Victor watched them zip about like a swarm of flies.

Impatient and apparently irritated, Richard elbowed the young Lieutenant out of the display. Grinning, he winked at Jake.

"The Moon?" Jake persisted.

Richard's grin morphed into a frown. Spreading his arms apart like he was trying to grab a large beach ball, he reached into the hologram. "Watch this." He brought his hands together. The image quickly zoomed out, Earth shrinking while the comparatively small Moon slid into view.

"And, now for my next trick…" Richard said. He walked to the miniature Moon. With his face mere inches from the glowing sphere, Richard raised his right hand. After a dramatic pause, he extended his index finger and poked the cratered surface.

Ripples and a loud pop emanated from the point of Richard's touch. Moving like pond water disturbed by a tossed pebble, the surface undulated as concentric rings radiated across the virtual Moon.

After toggling another command into the control panel, Richard leaned back. A chair rose from the floor, smoothly capturing his falling physique. Reclining, he laced fingers behind his head. "That's it."

"What's it?" Vic asked.

"We're on our way," Richard said, pulling a hand from behind his head and pointing through the view-wall.

Jake turned to see Earth's horizon sliding out of sight as the Moon moved to the center of the star-filled panorama.

The ship was starting the two hundred twenty-five thousand mile journey.

Shocked and trembling with adrenaline, Jake surrendered to the ship's gravity field and plopped down next to Richard. He mouthed a silent thank you when a chair rose to support him.

Speechless, Vic did the same.

"This is amazing," Jake whispered. He patted Richard on the shoulder. "Buddy, I have to admit, I didn't see this coming … ever." Leaning closer, he asked, "Are we going to land?"

"No, our flight plan doesn't allow for that. Speaking of." Richard leaned forward and toggled the comm panel. "Space Control, this is Turtle One, over."

"Turtle One, this is Space Control. Radar contact, report lunar orbital insertion."

"Roger, Control, talk to you in a few minutes."

"A few minutes?" Jake asked. "There's no way we—" His protest died mid-sentence as he looked outside.

The Moon now filled half the view-wall. In the few minutes they'd been underway, the Moon's apparent size had quadrupled.

Crisper and clearer than any picture, the vision of its cratered surface along with the stark contrast of the ancient lava seas lapping against their ringing mountain ranges left him breathless.

Again, he sat in shocked silence.

Their ship closed at such tremendous velocity that the Moon grew visibly while Jake studied the scene.

Unable to tear his eyes from the incredible sight, Jake tapped Richard's arm. "How fast is this thing? The Apollo missions took days. I figured the
Turtle
would be faster … but this…" he trailed off, shaking his head.

"We could explore the Solar System with this thing," Vic said in an awed tone.

Richard gave him a meaningful glance. "What makes you think we haven't?"

He turned to Jake. "Not so fast you could reasonably travel to the stars without the light-drive capability, but it has opened the Solar System to us."

Self-consciously closing his gaping mouth, Jake nodded.

Studying the Moon's nearing surface, he saw craters, within craters, within craters. "This is so cool."

When the Moon expanded to fill the entire view-wall, he saw their speed drop dramatically. Traversing its surface from west to east, the
Turtle
entered a counterclockwise orbit around the Moon.

Richard activated the comm panel. "Space Control, Turtle One entered orbit at zero-six-thirty hours Zulu."

Jake checked his watch. While it was 10:30 PM back home, in Greenwich, England, it was 6:30 AM or half-six as the Brits called it.

The thought triggered an idea. Shooting to his feet, he turned to Richard. "Hey, can you turn the ship toward Earth?"

"Yeah, but you won't be able to see it much longer. We'll be passing behind the Moon soon."

"Exactly! That's what I want to see."

Smiling, Richard nodded. He grabbed the control pad with one hand and actuated the comm panel with the other. "Control, we're about to pass out of radio range. We'll talk to you on the other side."

"Roger, Turtle One, catch you in forty-five."

Responding to Richard's inputs, the ship began to rotate about its vertical axis. It transitioned from facing east to north and then to the west. As they flew backward, toward the Moon's far side, the desolate surface slid away below them.

Moving closer to the view-wall, standing three-abreast, they watched Buzz Aldrin's
splendid desolation
spool out under their feet. Earth's vibrant globe loomed-large over the monochromatic cratered horizon. North America, barely discernible by its city lights, shone from the dark-side. Farther east, across the Atlantic, the sun-lit side formed a beautiful crescent, Europe and the islands of Great Britain visible as they greeted the morning sun.

Continuing their mute vigil, they watched as Earth touched the Moon's horizon. In an existential moment, Jake considered how fragile and insignificant their home looked. Raising his outstretched arm, he bracketed Earth with his thumb and forefinger. "All of mankind lives on that little rock," he said, breaking the silence. One eye closed, he watched the pinched world slowly slip behind the Moon.

Then, it was gone.

From the bridge of the newly renamed flagship,
Forebearer's Revenge
, Commodore Salyth watched his fleet of dreadnoughts plow through the interstellar void. Looking ahead of the formation, he studied the relativistically compressed multicolored spherical star field.

The fleet's faster-than-light speed squeezed the incoming photons streaming from the stars abeam and forward of the fleet into a fish-eyed cluster of light. Within the glowing ball, concentric rings of color surrounded a blindingly brilliant point. From its ultra-violet center, the visible spectrum of light shifted through the full rainbow of colors, finally fading into a red-shifted outer ring. At the perimeter of the visible light lay a razor thin infrared ring. Salyth's heat sensitive reptilian eyes could just detect it against the absolute cold that was the universe outside that sphere. The rest was a virtual black hole, the light from stars behind them unable to catch up with the fleet's superluminal velocity.

Parallel-space outside the central ball of stars was so completely devoid of light that it wasn't difficult to imagine it the domain of innumerable and unimaginable evils. It was a place in which Salyth—and Zoxyth in general—felt at home.

He imagined the ancient Forebearers staring back at him from that dark Valhalla.

Salyth glowered into the abyss.
Today, I bring your vengeance to the enemy.

Pivoting with a grace belying his massive bulk, he turned and stomped back to his cathedra. The enormous stone throne was the same size as the one that dominated the bridge of Lord Thrakst's command ship,
Tidor Drof
. Because of his superior genetics, Salyth was the largest Zoxyth specimen in his fleet. However, as the spacious accommodations of this seat of power demonstrated all too well, he still hadn't attained the domineering mass of Lord Thrakst.

Glancing self-consciously at the large gaps between his leg scales and the cathedra's sides, Salyth stood. After a quick scan of the bridge personnel revealed no appraising stares, Salyth marched to the communications console. Knocking aside the officer standing over it, the commodore activated a fleet-wide call. "All ships, drop out of parallel-space at the designated space-time coordinates and proceed to your pre-assigned attack positions."

Moments after receiving Salyth's order, the fleet dropped back into real-space.