Star Runners (22 page)

"Yeah."

Using his fork, Josh pointed back toward Skylar and Bear. "You'll have to introduce me."

His friends from Tizona checked through the food line and made their way toward the table.

"Sure," Austin said as he saw Skylar smiling at him from a distance.

Something outside caught his eye. The star field wavered to the left of the remaining freighters. Austin blinked. It almost looked like the surface of a still pond disturbed by a pebble.

"What is that?" Austin asked, pressing against the

window.

Josh following his stare. "Probably just the freighters prepping for a curve."

"No," Austin said, shaking his head. "Off to the left? Away from the freighters."

The lights of the station went dark, replaced by a fierce red glow covering the borders of every viewport in the mess hall. An alarm hammered into his ears.

"What is it?" Austin yelled.

Josh leaned over the table. "Code red alert. We're under attack!"

Austin's heart tightened. "Attack?"

The space wavered again and dozens of smaller craft materialized through the curve. The angular craft bristled with weaponry. The dark space burst with flashes of light streaking across the sky.

"
All pilots to their stations. All pilots to their stations."

Josh slapped Austin's shoulder and ran away from the table. Austin watched his friend sprint out of the mess hall followed by several other Lobera students. Recruits ran to the edge of the room, knocking over tables and dropping trays. Soon, recruits pressed against the view port, shoulders touching, gasping as the space blazed beyond.

The attackers swarmed around the nearest freighter, pelting it with laser and missile fire. Clouds of fire and gas plumed throughout the freighter before being extinguished by the vacuum of space. Tridents already on patrol rushed into action. Two spun off away from the fray, hot on the tail of one of the strange fighters. Two attackers plunged into the rear of a freighter, their noses piercing the hull.

A hand pressed against Austin's shoulder. "What's going on?" Skylar asked.

"They came out of nowhere."

"Who are they?" one student asked.

"Pirates," answered another.

Bear stood on the other side of Austin. "Must be Dax Rodon's men."

Two more missiles crashed into the nearest freighter. The explosions filled the mess hall with a yellow and orange light. Austin thought of the hundreds of recruits on board the freighter. They were excited about discovering a new life. They had just been in the auditorium. He saw the explosions, imagined the fire filling the freighter's cabin.

Another explosion rocked the freighter closest to the station. The freighter's running lights dimmed, flickered and went dark. It drifted out of position. The hull broke apart and debris spilled out in the nothingness of space. Austin blinked. It wasn't debris. It was people. He saw arms and legs gyrating and twitching.

"Oh my God," Skylar breathed in his ear. "Those people."

A moment later, the freighter blew apart in a fiery wreck.

"We have to do something!" another student yelled.

But there was nothing to do.

Austin stared at the carnage, his fists clenched. A droplet of cold sweat slid down his back.

Two freighters pressed hard for a new shimmering sector of space. They must have opened their own curve. With several attacking fighters piercing the rear hull, the remaining freighter drifted aimlessly. Eight more Tridents zipped away from the station and toward the battle. Austin wondered if Josh piloted one of the fighters, but then remembered what he had said about earning the right to fly solo. The new Tridents mopped up the enemy fighters who had grown bold enough to attack the two freighters now driving hard for the exit.

"Why don't they attack those?" Skylar asked, pointing at the enemy fighters protruding out of the rear of the closest freighter.

Austin shook his head. "They must have boarded the freighter?"

As if responding to his statement, light flashed from the passenger windows on the freighter. A battle must be raging inside over control of the space craft.

The dogfight shifted away from the station as the Tridents tried to protect the remaining freighters. The freighter in front of the station changed direction.

"The pirates have control of it!" one student yelled.

The star field before the captured freighter shimmered and wavered.

"Why don't they do something?" Skylar asked.

Two Tridents broke off from the main fight and shot back toward the captured freighter, their laser guns blasting into the freighter's engines. One engine exploded as the Tridents completed their first pass, and the freighter drifted off course. The pirates adjusted accordingly, righting the course of their lumbering prize. The front of the freighter dissipated into the curve and a moment later it disappeared.

Debris twirled as the recruits pressed against the glass. Off in the distance, the two remaining freighters still under Legion control passed through their curves. Sporadic fire sparked and popped as the Tridents mopped up what was left of the rabble. Clumps of students floated in the space where the freighter used to be, so Austin turned away.

The red lights lifted, replaced once again by bright white lights.

Austin looked at the floor before turning to Skylar. She stared at him, her bottom lip trembling and her eyes moist. She pursed her lips over and over as if she wanted to speak.

"Those ..." she breathed. "Those ..."

"I ..."

His voice cracked. He didn't have the words. Instead, he reached out and hugged her.

She buried her face into his shoulder and neck, gripping him tight.

Hundreds of recruits and crew died a few thousand

yards from their dinner tables.

Austin no longer had an appetite.

The door slid up, and Austin entered his quarters. The door shut behind him, shutting out the activity in the hallway.

The bunk situated on the top right of the small room was about the size of a closet. A workstation with a laptop was anchored in a nook underneath the bed. On the left, a compartment remained open with a bar across to hang clothing, although all he would be wearing would be Tizona blue.

At the end of the room, a small window the size of a plate revealed the star field. The space outside crept past as the station rotated. The red outer edges of the nebulae soon glowed through the room. He collapsed into the seat in front of his new laptop. He cracked open the orientation packet and read the instructions of how to send emails, communicate face-to-face, and other details of conversing with those still on Earth.

Still on Earth...

He shook his head and stared at the blackness of space. The gentle hum of the space station's operations lulled his eyelids shut. He leaned back in his seat.

The image of bodies floating in the vacuum of space remained attached to his mind's eye. He couldn't shake it. As the attack broke out, Josh had rushed off like it was part of the job and Austin hadn't seen him since the alarms.

According to his orientation packet, his first flight class was scheduled to begin early tomorrow.

A soft ping rang in the room. When Austin glanced at the laptop and around the room, the ping repeated. He stepped to the door and pressed a green button to his right of the door.

The door slid up with a hiss.

"Skylar?"

She stood in a blue shirt and shorts, her arms folded across her chest. "Can I come in?"

"Uh, sure." 

Skylar walked into the room and paused in front of the window. Her hands were clasped in front of her when she turned around.

Austin shut the door. "Hey, you."

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, her lips tasting like cherries. After a moment, she parted and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Did we make a mistake coming here?" she whispered. "Tell me we didn't. Tell me we didn't and I'll never bring it up again."

Austin controlled his breathing, his heart pounding in his ears. Her hair smelled like flowers.

"I don't know," he mumbled.

"Those people are dead."

"I know." He tried to move so he could look her in the eye, but she tightened her grip.

"Just stand here a little longer. Please."

He squeezed back and looked past her to the window. The nebulae sent a crimson glow into his quarters. She took deep breaths, continuing her embrace.

After several minutes, Skylar broke away. He still felt her warmth on his chest. She looked at him, smiled and stared at the floor.  "I'll see you in class tomorrow."

She left the room.

Austin stared at the door long after she had gone.

*****

Ten students filled the small classroom, their shoulders touching as they wedged into the three rows of chairs. Austin took a seat on the back row and tried to wake up.

He hadn't slept the first night on Tarton's Junction. It had been the same way his first night in the dorm. He tossed and turned, dreaming of home and Mom's pancakes dripping with butter and maple syrup next to the crisp bacon. Once he jolted out of a power nap close to his wake up time, unsure what had woken him, he didn't recognize his surroundings until he saw the red glow and stars outside the window. He realized once again this was all really happening.

After four hours of napping in intervals, he had decided to get up. His closet rotated and produced the smallest shower he had ever seen, but at least he didn't have to share the dorm bathroom anymore.

On the way to class, he grabbed a ration bar for breakfast from one of the robotic carts roaming the busy hallways. The bar tasted chalky like the protein bars he used to eat before class in high school.

Being the first to arrive in class, Austin grabbed a seat on the back row. He leaned back and closed his eyes as he waited for class to begin. As they arrived, students whispered in different languages. Austin searched his pockets and found the translator. Following a loud ping in his ear, the voices in the room transitioned to English.

Bear stepped in the room and sat in front of Austin. He yawned and turned half way around.

"Morning," he mumbled.

Austin grumbled back. "You sleep at all?"

"Are you kidding? These beds are for the tiny."

Skylar entered the room shortly after Bear. Austin smiled when their eyes met, but she looked away and sat in the front row. An uneasy feeling burned in his stomach.

Loud footsteps pounded in the doorway. "Attention," a female voice said. "Quiet."

Austin turned. A young woman with dark hair stood at the front of the class, clad in a black uniform with silver buttons the size of quarters across her well-shaped chest. She gazed over the class with an air of confidence, her chin tilted back. She adjusted the translator in her ear, brushing back a strand of night black hair. He tried not to stare, but the woman looked like she stepped out of a catalog. She was fit, with flawless mocha skin.

She marched before the front row, a tablet in her hand. She snapped around when she reached the desk and clasped her hands behind her back, her movements precise and calculated as a robot.

"I'd like to start off with a moment of silence for our fallen comrades who died honorably yesterday." She bowed her head. No one made a sound. When she raised her head, a fire appeared in her doll-like eyes. "The Tyral Pirates, led by the coward Dax Rodon, attack Quadrant Eight. They kill without feeling, pillage without meaning. They steal our freighters and our fighters have to protect them. That is why we need all of you. Soon, you will go after those who carried out this attack, but not before you finish your training."

The other students looked around the room.

"Okay," the instructor said, "welcome to basic flight, day one. I will be your instructor for the next few weeks. I am Lieutenant Ryker Zyan. Some of you know me by my call sign, Scorpion."

Bear spun around with his eyes wide. He mouthed the word, "Scorpion."

"Is there a problem?" Scorpion asked.

"No, ma'am," Bear said.

"I'd hate to toss you out on your first day," she said.

Austin stared at her and blinked.

Scorpion was a beautiful woman. He remembered thinking such a good pilot in the game had to be some nerd in his parent's basement.

She keyed her tablet and a blue hologram appeared in the space above her desk, flashed once and materialized into an image of an altered Trident starfighter. The wings folded in the parked position and the nose was slightly longer with a second canopy behind the first.

"Take a good look recruits. This should look familiar."

The Trident hologram's wings dropped into attack position and flew around the room over their heads.

"This is the Bren-8 X4-T model you will be flying in next week. Same specs as the X4 and X4-B, but rigged with two cockpits; one for the recruit and one for the trainer."

The hologram floated past Austin's seat, but he stared at his instructor. She was much younger than he would have thought an instructor would have been. His mouth was dry and it wasn't from the protein bar.

"Today, I will be handing out your tablets. This is for notes during class, exams and reading outside of class. Ask questions. Don't suffer in silence because you will only hurt your chances on gaining points later." She opened the white desk, pulled out small tablets and began handing them out as she spoke. "Create your password and these will be yours as you progress through flight training."

Austin watched Zyan's mouth and noticed the movement did not match her voice. She must be speaking another language. Does that mean she's from another planet?

"Welcome to the 32nd Tizona Squadron. Consider yourselves lucky. With the possible exception of the 88th Excalibur Squadron, we are the best. And I plan on you all being better than Excalibur, understood?"

The students mumbled an affirmative and Scorpion launched into her orientation.

The class progressed for two hours covering the basics of the Trident. Everything from how it was handled to emergency life support. Zyan stressed it was important to start with basics on day one. After the mid-morning break, she promised the class would head to the hangar to see the Tridents up close. Some students yawned and looked bored, but Austin didn't think he had ever paid more attention during a class.

"Alright, so those are the emergency steps required when you lose atmo in the cockpit. The details are being downloaded to your tablets. Study them. Know them by heart. I hope this doesn't happen to any of you. You do not want to be caught in the vacuum." She glanced at the tablet. "Any questions? No? Class is dismissed. Be back here in one hour."

Bear turned around as the other students stood to walk out of the class. "You see how hot she is?"

"No, Bear, I'm blind," Austin said.

"Still can't believe you shot her down."

Austin shook his head as he stood. "Wouldn't do it again, that's for sure."

"You wanna get some food?"

"No, I'll wait till lunch."

"I'm starving. I'll catch up with Skylar. See you in a bit."

Austin walked to the front of the class where Scorpion typed into her tablet.

"A question already?" she asked not looking up from the screen.

"Not really. I just wanted, well, I thought I'd introduce myself."

She looked up, her dark eyes surrounded by flawless white. "Austin Stone. Call sign: Rock. Planet: Earth. Tizona Squadron. Recruit."

Austin bit his lip. "Well, yes."

Scorpion pulled the right sleeve down on her uniform. Austin saw the hint of a tattoo before she slid the sleeve over her wrist. "I know very well who you are, recruit. I went on the Earth servers to test upcoming talent and provide reports to command. You have a good instinct for flying, real raw talent."

His face warmed. "Thank you."

"You're also brash, arrogant and fly in guns blazing without using any finesse. Sometimes, a more subtle action can achieve the same effect."

"Yes, ma'am."

He lingered at the front of class.

"Was there something else, Stone?" she asked, her expression softening to allow a smile.

"No. Thank you for chatting with me. See you after the break."

*****

Austin slapped a spoonful of green noodles on his plate. They squished around while he walked back to the table with the other Tizona students. The food looked like dog vomit, and smelled worse.

After an entire day of lectures and holographic presentations, the mess hall was louder for dinner than it had been at lunch. Bear and Skylar sat at the end of the table, engrossed in conversation while looking at their tablets. The only opening at the table was on the other end next to students he hadn't met. To his left, a dark skinned male recruit grinned as he approached. Across from the open seat sat a young girl with her red hair pulled back in a ponytail.

"Mind if I sit?" Austin asked.

"Go ahead." The male recruit motioned to the chair. "I hear you shot our teacher down."

Austin laughed as he sat. "I guess I did. My name's Austin."

"I'm Gan." He pointed at the girl across the table. "That's Etti."

Austin nodded, noticing Gan's mouth didn't match his words.

"You guys aren't from Earth?"

"No," Etti said, her lips moving opposite of her words.

A memory popped. "I remember you now. You're from Pacar and have flight experience, right?"

She nodded. Etti, with her porcelain white skin peppered with freckles, looked thirteen-years-old. How young did the Legion recruit pilots?

Over the course of dinner, Austin discovered Gan was from Dizon, a dark world like Earth. He spoke of life there as if it were just another high school, not another planet. Austin asked him questions until he felt he was interrogating the guy. After all, it was the first person his age he had met from another planet. Gan went to a private academy and had started playing his planet's version of
Star Runners
a few years ago. Like Austin, he was one of the top pilots on his server. Gan asked similar questions of Earth and they had more in common than Austin would have thought.

Etti Mar, on the other hand, had a much different situation.

"What do you think of class, Etti?"

"Elementary so far. We have to learn this from birth on Pacar. Flying is a way of life. We have to fly from our planet to the moon on a regular basis."

Austin blinked. "Why?"

"Why not?" Etti shot back. "We have businesses there. Family. All of my friends went to school on Pacar and lived on the moon. It’s the way things are. Did you work on Searth?"

"You mean Earth?"

"Whatever."

"Yeah, we work. My commute was much shorter than yours, though."