Sky Hunter (14 page)

The squad moved into a slightly more
aggressive formation as the cruiser approached the jumpsite without
slowing as was expected in this area.

“
Well, he’s not talking to us,” Boker
said after repeating his request for identification.
“Tower?”

“
We’ve notified Soliet,” came the reply
from the carrier. “Do not engage. Stand by.”

“
I feel they are definitely lacking
respect and common good manners,” Boker grumbled but stood down to
let the cruiser pass. Without permission from Bellac’s governors
none of them had the authority to waylay a traveler, even if the
captain chose to ignore a simple hail.

“
What did I just see?” Rolyn
yelled.

The others, too, took a moment to realize
that the large cruiser had disengaged two smaller ships, no bigger
than the Kites themselves. The main body veered and headed for the
relay construction, firing as it approached on a collision course.
The separated components streaked toward the jumpsite.

“
It’s going to try to ram the relay,”
the Air Boss transmitted. “We’ve got this. Engage the two
bogeys.”

Nova whipped her Kite around and raced after
the escaping ships.

“
Jumpsite is opening,” Boker said. “I’m
right behind you, Whiteside.”

Indeed, their systems warned them that
someone aboard the small enemy ships was powering up to incite the
breach in space to create an opening large enough to allow them to
enter.

“
Who the hell’s aboard this thing? What
fucking nerve!” Boker yelled. He fired into the lead ship’s
shields. The other plane, not busy with opening this gateway to
Magra, returned his fire and kept all of them dodging and weaving
in their wake.

“
Going in,” Nova said.

“
Shit,” Rolyn replied. They were all
aware of his aversion to travelling through sub-space. It was a
common phobia, even among pilots.

“
Stay here, Rolyn,” they now heard
Captain Dakad from the carrier. “Boker, Sulean, Nieri, Whiteside.
Go.”

Nova set her course to follow the lead ship
into the breach at ever-increasing velocity, letting them use up
their coolants to calculate the passage. Sulean’s guns streaked
past her and the second ship spun away, disabled. “Nice shot, we’re
going—”

Nova’s remaining words were only in her head.
They had passed the threshold into the ‘Big Empty’ and hurtled into
the frightening nothing-void of sub-space. She saw nothing, or at
least there was nothing that her brain seemed to recognize any
more. Felt nothing. Heard nothing. She was unable to move and only
her thoughts felt alive, reaching a panic state that, for some,
could cause lasting damage during a long jump.

This was not a long jump and the breach soon
spewed the ships back out into real space to scramble for bearings.
Nova’s neural interface grappled for the momentarily disrupted
controls and she wasted no time in scanning for their quarry. It
was also tumbling through space ahead of them and, as she watched,
steadied and changed course.

“
Battle cruiser ahead!” Boker
called.

“
I see it,” Nieri said. “Probably
thought we’d take the carrier through instead of the Kites.
Damn.”

“
We’ve got time,” Nova said. She
reached for her console to override the power management
system.

“
Time to get roasted, maybe,” Sulean
answered. “We’re in range.
Their
range.”

“
Whiteside…” Nieri began.

Nova punched every bit of power into her
Kite, shortcutting a few routines via her interface to coax more
speed from her plane. It raced ahead of the others, pushing the
limits of the machine to bring the enemy fighter into her gun
sights.

“
Should have just said hello when we
asked, assbucket!” Boker chortled when her guns took the ship down.
“Uh oh.”

“
Out of here!” Nova shouted and then
held her breath while her Kite seemed to make the turn back to the
jumpsite far too slowly. The cruiser had issued a swarm of Shrills
in retaliation, looking like angry insects around a hive. The other
three Union pilots fired past Nova to hold back the enemy planes as
she raced toward the jumpsite. “Going negative,” she warned as the
first to arrive there. She directed her ship’s processors toward
the site, feeding energy forward to create the opening.

“
Remind me, Whiteside, you do have your
chartjumper creds, right?” Sulean asked, somewhat
nervously.

She did not reply, too focused on the mental
connection with her plane. Once again, they plunged into the
breach, losing all senses until they had crossed the unimaginable
distance between Magra and Bellac Tau.

The other ships awaiting them veered out of
the way to let the four Kites right themselves.

“
Might be some Shrills coming through,
team,” Nieri said, unruffled by any of this. “Do we still have a
relay?”

“
Everyone’s accounted for, Lieutenant,”
the Air Boss transmitted. “That delivery didn’t make it. Salvage
team is on the way. Return to base, Sulean. You’re reading a little
jittery. Status, Nieri.”

“
Enemy battle cruiser over there,” the
pilot said. “Complement unknown. We took down the bogey.
Whiteside’s probably a little short on coolant.”

“
Heard. We’ll alert Magra. Resume
patrol pattern. We’ll send replacements early.”

The squad hovered around the jumpsite,
waiting for any sign that it might be opening to admit the enemy
Shrills, perhaps even the battle cruiser, into Bellac space. It
didn’t happen. Whoever had awaited the two rebels over there had
decided to cut their losses.

“
Too scared to come over here with
their fancy cruiser and engage properly,” Nieri guessed.

“
Just think,” Boker said, sounding
meditative. “We were almost home there for about a minute or two.
Hard to imagine.”

“
Where’s home, Heiko?” Nova
asked.

“
Got family on Zera. And here I am,
back on the other side of Trans-Targon again. Should have dropped
by to say hello.”

She chuckled. “It’s another jump from Magra
to that sub-sector. And about five days in real space between
jumpsites to get there.”

“
Well, still closer than this blip on
the map.”

“
Where’s home for you, Nova?” Rolyn
asked.

She looked up from her controls and out into
space. “Right now right here, I guess.”

“
Oh,” he said. “Well…”

An hour later a trader came through, somewhat
startled by the squad’s battle-ready formation, to inform them that
there was no one near the jumpsite terminus on the other side.

“
Boys and girl, our relief is here,”
Boker announced not long after that. “Gather round, another busy,
busy day in the service of our glorious Commonwealth Union is about
to conclude with a considerable imbibement of glorious grain
spirits personally smuggled from Bellac by your role model,
Lieutenant Heiko Boker.”

“
You are such a drunk, Boker,” Nova
said and moved to formation.

“
Role model for my pet churry, maybe,”
another pilot said.

“
Imbibement-whatever you said isn’t
even a word,” Rolyn added.

“
Don’t grief me, Rolie,” Boker shouted.
“We’re on the brink of three days’ worth of downtime. Admire my
stupendous splendicity or I’ll go to Siolet without
you.”

“
Nice work, Rolie!” Nova said. “Three
days having your quarters all to yourself.”

“
Wait a minute…” Boker said.

“
What’s your count now, Whiteside?”
Lieutenant Nieri asked. So far, Nova had not been able to
accumulate many of the sort of flight hours needed for her Hunter
Class minimum. For the most part, they had cruised around, mindful
of Captain Dakad’s complaints about wasting fuel, and harassed the
tourists. What she needed to qualify was documented precision
flying or combat.

“
This little jaunt’s going to buy me
four points, at least,” Nova said. “Five if I’m lucky.” Jumping in
a Kite through sub-space, even just via a charted breach, certainly
counted. “We need to start a brawl like this every day.”

“
Why five?”

“
Depends on Dakad’s mood,” Boker
supplied. He drawled his words as if that somehow made him sound
more like a Centauri. “If he says: ‘That was damn bold, Whiteside,
good job,’ she’s got the point. If he starts yelling about chasing
bogeys
toward
an enemy battle cruiser stuffed with Shrills
she can forget about it.”

The last of the Kites, except for Lieutenant
Sool currently on his way to the surface with the disgruntled
would-be smuggler, had joined formation and they now swooped past
their arriving replacements to head back to the carrier.

Nova was not particularly eager for time off.
She did not care to join the others in whatever carousing they had
in mind for their time in the capital. There was nothing for her at
the base and remaining aboard the carrier just meant that someone
would surely find work for her to do. She listened silently to her
squadron mates’ artless banter while they slipped their Kites into
the carrier’s narrow chutes to be turned over to the hangar
crew.

The daily debrief was of course focused on
the mysterious and, as usual, random rebel attack on their carrier.
Reports about the battle cruiser in the Magran sub-sector had not
yet been forwarded. Nova pulled her head between her shoulders when
her Kite’s recordings of the last part of the chase were displayed.
Captain Dakad pinned Boker with a violet glower when he said, “Good
job, Whiteside.” Rolyn gave her a congratulatory punch on the
shoulder.

Finally, Dakad held up a hand when the pilots
started to shift in their seats, expecting dismissal. “One more
thing,” he said. “We’re a go for rotation. We’ll transfer to the
skyranch for a couple of sets so you can get familiar with the
place. Have your quarters cleared before downtime – we’ll be
billeted on the orbiter.” He looked meaningfully at some of his
men. “I want those cabins left spotless. I want you ready to clear
out the moment we dock. What you do then with your downtime is up
to you. You can take the shuttle to Siolet or stay on the
skyranch.”

“
Yesss,” Nova whispered happily.
Although the orbiter was still very much under construction, she
had been eager for a chance to look around. No doubt some of the
others were also rethinking their plans. Her memories of a few
years spent on a skyranch were happy ones. Routines and rules were
less stringent than those on the bases where she had lived and she
had found friends among the other children. Somehow there had
always been something to do between the lessons and chores designed
to keep them all out of trouble.

She also looked forward to joining up with
Caga squad, part of her wing and already stationed at the skyranch.
Unlike her own, that squadron included several female pilots and
Nova looked forward to gentler company, perhaps even an interesting
roommate.

But something else was foremost on her mind.
Had Djari made it up to the ranch? During these past few weeks of
duty aboard the carrier, she had heard nothing more about him or
any of the others that had survived the Shon Gat siege. Memories of
that one sweet moment they had shared kept returning to her but
when she recalled his face she saw only the reproachful look he had
given her before he disappeared.

She had been tempted to make inquiries or to
pull up personnel files but then decided not to. Looking up a
fellow captive of the Shon Gat siege might just catch the attention
of her counselors who still monitored her post-trauma state.

Dakad tugged on his nose, something he did
when putting his words together. “Whiteside. Stay a moment. The
rest of you are dismissed.”

The others filed out, not without throwing a
few curious glances in Nova’s direction. Boker rolled his eyes and
gave her a smile meant to encourage. Dakad rarely dealt with his
pilots individually. It was usually a sign of trouble.

The captain tipped his head toward the exit
and waited for her to get up and join him. Puzzled, she walked with
him around the clearance of the landing chutes and then into the
interior corridor of the carrier. “Whiteside, I want to give you
some notice about the rotation to the skyranch,” he said
finally.

“
Sir?”

“
We’ve had noise about rebel movements
and there was some evidence found to assume sabotage attempts on
the station.”

“
I’m aware, sir.”

“
General Ausan decided to provide
Skyranch Twelve with additional security units. In fact, she’s
rotating the current skyranch and elevator security personnel to
the base and vice versa to give everyone a change of
scenery.”

Nova winced. “Major Trakkas is coming up
here?”

“
No. He’s going to command the Shon Gat
garrison at the elevator base. The skyranch is commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel Thedris until we turn it over, so we’ll be
working under him. We’ll make the announcement
tomorrow.”

“
I don’t suppose Major Trakkas is very
happy about that.” Nova peered up at him, suddenly realizing why he
was telling her this now. “Ausan transferred the ground units up,
too, didn’t she? Beryl and his thugs.”

“
Yes. She doesn’t want to use pilots
where ground pounders will do. They’re providing security around
the loading docks up there. Patrolling the construction sites.
They’ve been there a while and I wanted to give you some warning. I
don’t have to tell you…” he trailed off as if he actually planned
to say nothing further.