Sky Hunter (17 page)

“
Ah,” she grinned. “You got this intel
out of the crew. The techs have to be in on this.” The moon called
Old Man by Bellac’s people had served as a base for microgravity
exercises before. Setting a transport down on its surface was the
easiest way to establish a livable environment for those monitoring
the action. Still, placing the rally points and game beacons
required more than just landing a ship.

“
What? No. I seduced the Air Boss.
Honest. She let it all spill in the throes of passion.”

“
Yah, right. Last time I saw you two
together she asked you if you were better at cleaning latrines than
landing your plane.”

“
It’s all a front,” he said. “She’s mad
about me.”

Rolyn reached over and scrubbed Boker’s
closely-cropped head with his knuckles. “The boy is
delusional.”

Nova was not the only pilot thrilled that
Boker and Rolyn’s gossip turned out to be unusually accurate. Two
days of rising excitement and endless speculation later, a cruiser
from Bellac arrived, bringing with it General Patrina Ausan and a
delegation of native governors and civilian engineers. Air
Command’s defensive measures up here on the orbiter were not the
focus of their visit and, after an inspection of the pilots and
soldiers in formal attendance, they were hustled into the grow
rings to admire their future source of food and profits.

It was nearly time to turn in for the night
when a last-minute assembly was called and the pilots gathered in
the upper fighter craft hanger. Nova joined Boker, Rolyn and
Lieutenants Nieri and Sulean to await the longed-for announcement.
She gave a quick thumbs-up to her roommate Jianna, a member of Caga
squad. Some of the technicians loitered near the back to watch.

The hall fell silent when Lieutenant Colonel
Thedris, commander of Skyranch Twelve, and General Ausan, commander
of all Air Command operations on Bellac, stepped onto a repair
platform at the end of the hangar. The general made a brief speech
that could probably apply to any military outfit doing its job on
any of a dozen Union planets. But, finally, she announced the
exercise and did not mind when the cheers from the pilots
interrupted the presentation.

Each of the squadron leaders stepped forward
to assign roles to their pilots. Seven Cagas and six Cet squad
members were to fly defense, along with six of Nova’s squad.
Captain Dakad took his turn last. “I seem to have been elected to
command the ‘rebel’ wing this time,” he said, awkward with the
informality of the moment. He glanced over his data sleeve.

Boker gripped Nova’s elbow. When they were
named to fly the quick, highly unstable enemy Shrills, both of them
jumped up at once. More names were announced but she heard none of
that.

“
I’ll never say anything mean about
Dakad ever again,” Boker said.

“
You just hope those Shrills are glued
together properly.” Rolyn sounded worried. “Those are captured
enemy planes. Junk, in other words.”

“
Have some faith in our techs,” Boker
said. “And hope they remembered to take the fire out of those guns,
‘cause I’m going to climb all over your six, brother!”

Nova pinched him to shut him up as Dakad gave
instructions. “The Red team leaves after breakfast for the Old Man.
The shuttle will be on Deck Two. Green team is taking the Kites
directly. You’ll get parking instructions upon arrival. Video
coverage will be shown in the lounges. General Ausan will join us
on the moon as well.” He seemed to pick Boker out of the crowd. “So
behave yourselves.”

* * *

Nova was keyed up and ready to fly when she
stepped through the door separating the pilots’ quarters from the
lower of the two combat flight decks long before any of them really
needed to be there. As always, she felt the strange sense of
displacement when she moved from the sound-baffled, muted corridors
into the noisy, echoing clamor of the hangars. She walked down the
long by-way, passing the closed chutes used by the Kites to the air
locks designed for larger ships. Some of the other pilots were also
already out here, impatient to head to the moon.

“
Nova!”

She stopped to look around for the familiar
voice. “Djari?” She waited while he hurried toward her. Oddly, it
felt like she was seeing someone she had known for a long time. Had
he really been on her mind that much? She smiled tentatively. “What
are you doing up here?”

He held up a package, still out of breath.
“New seeds just came in.”

She groped for words, unsure of the moment
and unprepared for this meeting. Ahead of her, Lieutenant Sool had
turned to wait for her. She waved him onward.

Djari hesitated and the moment grew more
awkward. “I hadn’t expected to see you here, either,” he said
finally.

“
What, on the flight deck? I work
here.”

He blinked. “I meant now. Don’t you do the
later shift?”

“
Special exercise.” She gestured to the
transparent wall between the airlocks where the shuttle as well as
General Ausan’s cruiser stood ready for departure. “We’re going to
the moon.”

“
Can I talk to you?”

She looked to the ships again and then back
at him, undecided.

“
Please,” he said. “I… I’ve been
wanting to… apologize, I guess. Just give me a few
minutes.”

Nova peered into his face and something there
seemed so miserable and urgent that she relented. The planes were
not yet ready to leave, anyway. She followed Djari into one of the
ready rooms overlooking the busy air lock area. “I’m not angry with
you,” she said to him. “You have reason for the way you feel.”

He shook his head. “No. I was wrong to treat
you like that. You’re not like the others. I saw that on Shon Gat.
I have no right to talk to you that way. Been losing sleep over
it.” He smiled crookedly. “So I talked to… to some people. I was
wrong and I’m sorry. I wanted you to know that.”

She smiled back at him. He did seem to be
more his old self again, the way she had met him. She resisted the
impulse to reach up to brush aside that rebellious shock of hair
that seemed to constantly fall over his eyes. “You’re not trained
for… this. I’d be bitter, too, after what happened.”

“
I’m glad I ran into you. I was afraid
to call on you. I didn’t think you’d ever talk to me
again.”

“
I don’t hold a grudge,” she said.
“Been kind of worried about you.” She frowned when she looked past
him through the open door and over the deck. Outside, the general’s
shuttle had moved away from the lock where it halted to await
departure clearance. But it seemed strangely off-kilter, as if it
were slowly rolling over; an unlikely maneuver while still within
the station’s gravity well. Someone ran toward the lock. Something
flew past the window.

Nova lunged forward and threw herself at
Djari to shove him backward and over a short podium step to the
floor. A massive explosion roared through the open hangar space,
muted only by the internal shielding. Its pressure wave was enough
to shatter the window and collapse the doorframe of the ready room,
showering them with shards and twisted pieces of metal. Nova
pressed her face to Djari’s chest until the noise had subsided.
Alarms brayed into the brief silence that followed.

She came to her feet to look out into the
devastated hangar. The locks that had just moments ago supported
the two ships were gone. Massive, warped metal shapes littering the
interior reminded of some familiar parts. Casualties, mostly hangar
jockeys and a few soldiers, were scattered among the wreckage.
Overhead lights had turned orange as soon as the shield generators
had detected the change of pressure. Already, security personnel
arrived to assess the situation. “Gods, the shuttle!” she gasped,
frantically trying to remember which of her wing mates had already
boarded. Sool, maybe also Drayson and Xiachiu. She hoped Boker was
running late as usual.

“
Djari?” she turned back to him. He was
still on the floor and still clutching his package of seeds. There
was blood on it. “Djari!”

He groaned. A piece of the window
transparency had cut deep into his shoulder. “I think I hit my
head.”

“
Lie still. I’ll get some
help.”

“
I’ll be all right. You?”

“
Not even a scratch.” She went outside
to flag down a medic before returning to his side.

“
You know, maybe we shouldn’t keep
meeting like this,” he said through clenched teeth as he sat up.
Blood poured from his wound and he twisted to try to get a look at
it. “Do you ever have a quiet day or something?”

“
All pilots to scramble,” they heard
the Air Boss snap over the com unit at her wrist. “Roof deck is a
go.”

“
They didn’t get all of the decks,” she
translated as she tapped her com unit. “Whiteside able.”

“
They? You think that was an
attack?”

“
We always think that.” She stood aside
when someone arrived with a med kit. “Shuttles don’t just blow up.
We’ll talk later.”

She raced to a companionway at the end of the
platform, dodging damaged equipment and harried personnel along the
way. Two other pilots followed her to the upper deck, also not
bothering to wait for the lift which might not even be operational.
She stopped near the supply shed to pick up an appropriate helmet.
It did not fit as well as her own, already waiting for her in the
Shrill she was supposed to have used today, but the interface
matched and that was all that mattered.

“
Rally at Launch Three,” Dakad’s voice
came from her com sleeve.

She changed direction and ran along a row of
Kites to where he waited for his squad. Ground crew paced up and
down, scanning for explosives. “Rolie!” she cried out with relief
when she saw the young Lieutenant. His constant companion, Heiko
Boker, was not in sight. She did not dare to ask.

Dakad also wasted no time with roll call to
find out what was left of his squadron. The next explosion could
well happen on this level. “Let’s get these planes in the air,” he
snapped. “Section One: Whiteside lead for tether.” His eyes found
Rolyn and moved on to another pilot to assign her wingman and then
the rest of the unit. “I’ll lead the array defense. Rolie, you’re
with me.”

They scrambled to their assigned Kites and,
one by one, entered the chutes to launch into space.

From here protocol took over. Nova led her
flight around the station and down to the tether where they took up
defensive positions around the bottom of the ranch, its most
vulnerable part. The cargo pods had stopped and each level had been
sealed off from the next. She sent two Kites down to the halfway
point.

“
Nothing on sensors,” Sulean muttered
needlessly. They all saw that. While an enemy fighter could
conceivably slip past their eyes and make it to the station,
nothing with the power they had witnessed would easily approach the
skyranch without notice.

“
Tower concurs,” Dakad said from his
position above the solar arrays. “We’ll stay out until all decks
are cleared.”

“
What do you think—”

“
I want no chatter, no speculation, no
talk at all. Continue patrol pattern until all clear.”

They fell silent, sweeping the area with
sensors and eyes, swinging wide when a swarm of service shuttles
issued from the lower decks. The blast had been powerful enough for
some pieces to escape the orbiter’s gravity and a scatter of debris
slowly spread out from the site of the detonation. Suited-up ground
grew searched the exterior for bodies and evidence. The pilots felt
useless out here, doing little more than minding their expensive
planes without an enemy in their sights.

How many had they lost? Nova thought about
Sool, a quiet and polite Caspian who seemed to forever stumble over
his outsized feet. He had three mates, as far as she knew, but no
children yet. Where was Boker? Floating around out here in small
pieces? Still on the station, now perhaps in the medical center? Or
maybe in the small morgue where bodies and specimen were kept until
someone claimed them. She thought about Rolie, now in Dakad’s firm
grip, no doubt beside himself with worry about his friend.

And what about Djari? He had fought whatever
demons had followed him from Shon Gat to reach out to her only to
be quite literally knocked back down by the Union’s never-ending
conflicts. She watched a med-evac plane speed away from the
station; casualties too badly wounded to be treated up here.
Djari’s injuries had not been severe but she worried, anyway.

Hours passed before two cruisers arrived from
the planet, no doubt investigators from the base at Siolet. They
hovered briefly and then slipped into the upper landing bays.

Dakad’s voice rasped into her earpiece. “All
clear. Section One, return to base. Proceed to ready room and wait
for Section Two.”

They obeyed silently, filing into their
berths and then took their seats in the pilots’ lounge. Nova had
peeled out her flight suit down to her tights and body shirt and
huddled in her chair with her legs drawn tight to her body. There
was nothing to say. Nothing to do but wait.

Dakad arrived with his section and another
officer. He was still checking communications on his data sleeve.
Everyone’s eyes were on the door to see which of their comrades
were going to join them. Nova shifted over to sit with Lieutenant
Rolyn.

“
Men,” Dakad said with an apologetic
nod to Nova. “We have some info but they’ll be sifting the hangar
for a while. Initial reports say that the target was the general’s
cruiser. I regret to inform you that General Ausan and most of her
crew were lost. No explosives found so far but they have not ruled
out sabotage. The shuttle got in the way of the blast. We’ve got
eleven ground crew injured, two dead. Among the pilots, in the
vicinity were Tashti, Khateka and Whiteside. Tashti is down in the
med station.” He tugged on his nose before continuing. “All hands
aboard the shuttle were lost to explosive decompression due to a
large rupture of the starboard side of the ship. Shuttle pilot
Anina, three Caga squad pilots.” He glanced at Rolyn. “The other
four were ours: Drayson, Ash Ngava, Sool, and Boker. Their bodies
were recovered.”