Cutlass Sharpened (64 page)

It didn’t take long for Oliver to place his
palm on the reader to open the Flare’s hatch. Sails folded as the
clear lid lifted and he easily climbed in the forward seat. Soft
blue leather creaked as weight settled in. Oliver’s knees were a
bit too close to his chest till he listened to Satellite explain
where the seat adjustment was and moved it back to a comfortable
arrangement. A single stick came up between Oliver’s knees as he
pressed petals down below that would regulate speed and breaks. A
simple gray coated finger trigger would activate blasters when one
depressed the red button on top with a pressed thumb over the
control stick. A holographic display lit up along the smooth
interior showing the green light for every function of the ship. He
read through the abilities and saw the filters were new and would
recycle a supply of air for five years outside of a cryogenic
stasis. Contained an emergency cryogenic stasis function if need
be.. Had a year’s worth of regular rations. As he saw that
Satellite said “For other people you may need to feed. The food is
good for about five decades.” Emergency supplies included wire,
rope, clear filament for three collapsed fishing poles, fishing
tackle, a knife with a handsaw teeth on the other edge, tinder,
several Inferno logs that would easily ignite and burn for days,
accelerant, warped mirrors that can both be used as a primitive
signaling device as well as a light focuser, flint to make sparks.
Also on the list was long range communications, a link to the
Dorgenox, a beacon tracer to not get lost, surface scanners and
other bells and whistles. Last found was psionic fuel which was
nearly full.

“
Did you guys fill the power
reserves?”

“
The six of us pooled our
strength these past three weeks.” Told Visor. “You’re still a class
four who can barely make a spark let alone charge up a ship this
size during flight. Just keep a hold on the stick, it will act as
the conduit to keep energy always in reserve. We topped it off in
event we find trouble when we drop out of FTL. You’ll be good for
about ten minutes of continuous cannon fire, but a level four won’t
be able to replenish enough to keep constant flight with what you
can give before tiring. If you set down it’ll take a good twelve to
fourteen weeks to fully charge up from what the six of us gave
over. So when we leave, test her out and get a feel, but don’t get
in a fire fight unless we need you to keep our feathers from being
plucked.”

“
Then I should keep adding
till the charge cannot hold any more.” Oliver grabbed the handle
and opened the mental valve wider to Gather. From the gathering, he
focused it down his left hand to seep into the wooden flight stick
which absorbed the power and funneled it down into the batteries.
Oliver learned how metal was the perfect conduit to store
electrical energy within special batteries capable of storing great
quantities of biological electricity which then powers crystals to
release as plasma for thrust and shielding. Renee though taught him
how to pass the energies into objects and it worked much like when
he creates a slicing wave with the sword. It absorbed and released
as needed. And was efficiently distributed. But much of the power
would be dedicated to sublight engines, dampeners, gravity
manipulators and life support. “What other little tricks can this
creation do?”

“
Nothing I’m afraid. Aside
from a reentry barrier, it is like any fighter.” Deegen
admitted.

“
And what have we here?!”
Piped Renee’s curious voice as she, Sparky, Jessica, Stephanie and
the short Jacob Wrench exited the elevator together.

“
No WAY!” Stephanie in a
blue and green flight suit that hugged every asset of her tone and
voluptuous body could offer, yelled and hopped in the lower gravity
when she wanted to run. “A Flare!” she said breathlessly as she
made it over and her bright blue eyes roved it like a lover she
hadn’t laid eyes on and wanted badly. “Where did it come
from?”

“
Jake had the guys fix it up
for me.” Oliver grinned, that queasy feeling was left in the past
the moment he understood the reason for secrecy.

“
I didn’t know Jake
had
a Flare among all his
other toys. Does he have the other two prototypes?” The
archeologist was in love at first sight.

“
He said one was destroyed
and the other went to another collector.” Stone said from what was
explained to him.

“
I call dibs as passenger!”
Jacob Wrench called out and climbed right in. Stephanie’s scowl
could have killed if it was able. “It’s comfortable to boot!” he
said tauntingly as he wiggled his butt in the second
chair.

“
Then I call ride home.”
Stephanie made sure before the small man could claim a round
trip.

“
Not too bad.” Renee said
and leaned over the lip. She winked as Oliver noticed her breasts
being lifted higher because of the ledge. “Papa does loves his
toys, but I bet this was under one of those sheets he never lets
anyone peek under. Don’t feel too bad, Steph, Papa didn’t show me
either. You know how he likes his secrets.”

“
Living a thousand years is
proof having secrets kept him alive so far. Isn’t that right,
Lizard.”

Sparky’s scales began to glow as he glared at
the taunting Steven.

“
Hold on…” Oliver didn’t
remove his hand as he turned to the long necked Drake. “Sparky, how
old are you?”

For spite he whipped his
hard tail against Steven’s armored ass before admitting
“Sixteen hundred give or take a decade. My kind
does not keep track like yours does. Drakes are a naturally long
lived race before humans found us and discovered a way to gift
immortality to my people. Naturally we can survive eight hundred to
a thousand if we were careful enough to die of old age through
cellular degradation.”

“
So that makes you eldest
aboard the ship.”

“
Indeed.”
Came the words put directly in a person’s
head.

Before they could keep going along that topic
came the ship-wide announcement. “Listen up!” Came Jake Dorgen’s
unmistakable voice. “In ten minutes we will exit FTL, Lads.
Remember, we are already deep in Keptl territory. Get to yer
stations to hold them off if we exit and find ourselves face to
face with those insatiable bastards. If the worst comes to pass
then we must hold them off to recalculate another route which will
take fifteen minutes minimum. Hopefully none of their living
Goliath carriers are in the area and moved on. In any event, the
risk is worth the reward. Hop to it ye dogs! Nine minutes seventeen
seconds remaining.” The alert ended.

“
Guess that is our cue.”
Jessica spoke in her own blue-gray matching flight suit like
Stephanie’s.

Oliver turned in his seat to say “Jacob, it
would be safer if you got out. If we exit free and clear I need to
learn just what the Flare can do. It’s been sitting for centuries
and even though it has been repaired, it hasn’t been tested at all
for safety under actual stress.”

“
Uh, then I better stick
with Renee’s Skipper. I’ll get a ride later for sure. If the
mission is time sensitive, I can’t afford to have you swing back
around to pick me up. It’ll take too much time.” He hopped out and
followed the others to the shuttle. Meanwhile Jessica was inside
and opened the hull door to the hanger to show the bright colors of
FTL.

At the countdown to zero the color just
completely vanished and was replaced by the blackness of space
dotted with starlight. It was a sorely missed view.

Up on the bridge Captain Dorged stood beside
Abdul at the helm. The moment the FTL drives turned off he said
“Begin long range scans.” One crewman down below did just that.

FTL calculations must be
specific and precise to the trillionth of a nanosecond. That is the
realistic need for that kind of travel. Since space is constantly
moving out and away since the birth of the universe, nothing
remains in one place. If one thought it did, they would end
up
far
from the
intended destination. Getting lost in the endless expanse was a
high possibility without computers to calculate star placement.
Getting lost was the best of a worst case scenario. One could
arrive inside a black hole, find themselves in the pathway of a
star, arrive in an asteroid field or even get blindsided by a rogue
planet flung from its home star system. The crash on Zerika was
proof as they had dropped out of FTL a hundredth of a nanosecond
too early when the final traces of oil were gone. The intent was to
exit on the other side of Zerika and use the planet’s long reach of
gravity help slow the ship, but that certainly didn’t
happen.

Out the photon clear window was a great deal
of space and starlight. To the untrained they were lost out in
nowhere.

Below a woman said “Captain, star drift
matches the charts you took passing through. Binary stars make this
system home and hold twelve planets and two dwarf planets in orbit.
Three are gas giants and the remaining planetary bodies are too hot
or cold to sustain flourishing life.”

“
Abdul, rotate the ship for
a clearer view.” The wheel spun and the emptiness changed to show a
blue and a red star orbiting each other with the planets going
steadily around them. “Report on the first gas giant’s largest
moon?”

Another woman said “The
moon’s gravity is three percent less than standard, is thriving,
but hot due to volcanic vents from the gas giant during its
elliptical orbit which generate strong tidal eruptions from its
molten core. Methane levels make it impossible to breathe the toxic
atmosphere so helmets must be worn at all times. I’m reading five
Keptl bio-signatures around a twelve kilometer radius of a mountain
you marked as the downed ship. Also there are also two Salamander
signatures likely nesting
in
it. Remaining hostile signatures are a day’s
travel from the area by ground. No Goliath Keptl transports are
found around the moon, but a large hive dominates the continent.
Psionic readouts confirm a strong mind inside and they are aware of
our scan.”

“
Fine, we’ll keep the
bastards focused on us. Abdul, make it seem like we are simply
passing through and scan them so they know we are watching. Go
slow, but not too slow through this system so we don’t reveal our
hand. The controlling bastard may just be curious, but knows
without a space faring Keptl it can’t do anything against
us.”

“
Aye aye.” Abdul greatly
slowed the Dorgenox.

“
Give me a window of time
the team can have before we leave.”

“
At this rate… maximum time
without coming back is ninety six hours fourteen minutes. The Keptl
won’t see us directly for another eighteen hours.” Since light from
the twin stars had only just begun to reflect off Dorgenox’s body
and hadn’t yet had time to reach the moon in question.

Jake tapped his ear and activated the ship’s
speakers. “Wonderful news, Lads, no exceptional danger levels in
this system. Renee, ye have no more than ninety six hours from now
to get the job done, Lass. Ye should be getting data flashed to
ship computers. Everyone else, stay near yer quarters, but ease yer
minds.”

Renee got the data and transferred it to the
fighters. She contacted her father. “We’ll be back long before
then, Papa. Just keep them off our ass.”

“
Aye, but keep an eye on
yers and do not scan till ye are out of sight of the
hive.”

“
Yes, Papa.” She transferred
to video screens of the four fighter pilots and their companions.
“We got two Salamanders and five Keptl Trackers in the area we’re
heading to. Oliver, I’ll give you one hour to learn how to fly the
Flare, but then we got to sneak through the blind spot of the moon
as practiced. We’ll take out the Trackers first from the air, but
the Salamanders are
inside
our target area. Hunters, we’ll need to flush them
out and deal up close if they aren’t out when we arrive.” Heads
nodded. “Alright, let’s go hide behind that gas giant for that one
hour.”

Oliver was last to fly out the hanger and
found out quick that the Flare really was touchy. The slightest
pressure in any direction was read and responded to. Flying
straight wasn’t easy at first, but he gradually got the hang of it
and increased speed. When going in a single direction was no
problem, he floored the accelerator and everyone’s jaw dropped as
he rocketed faster than they had ever seen a fighter pick up speed.
It exceeded their estimations. Renee’s face was on the corner of
his screen and she asked “And why are you going so fast?”

“
You gave me an hour, I need
every second.” He explained, face set in concentration. In no time
he was on the dark side of a gigantic planet made mostly of dust
and gas. He had plenty of room for trial and error so decided to
not go easy. He jerked back on the stick at full throttle and the
nose lifted hard, doing a loop in under a second that shot plasma
in a bluish expanding ring. He jerked it left to roll and didn’t
let up. Before considering fine functions he made flying look
chaotic.

Steven said “Shit! Talk
about durability! It doesn’t look like its taking any strain to the
systems. Look at engine output.
No
vibrations. It may be a prototype, but damn!
Galicom’s pride on superior quality shows..”

“
Steven, you should be
looking at Oliver.” Renee said.