Sacrifice:The Shenkar War (20 page)

             
“
Yes, sir!” said Liam, snapping a quick salute.

             
Liam set a fast pace as he hurried to his quarters. Once inside, he quickly donned his battle suit. Then he collected his plasma sword and clipped the hilt on his utility belt, then grabbed his MP3 player.

             
Listening to music had become a typical ritual for Necro Squadron during the battle simulations. Ever since the time of the memory reversal, they used the music. It synchronized the entire squadron into a single entity--a deadly single-minded entity. It had become a wide discussion between the members of Necro Squadron on what would be the first song they went into battle with. Liam had found the song he felt was perfect, but smiling, he had told the rest of Necro Squadron it would have to be a surprise.

Th
rough the entire fold sequence, it would take three days to reach their final destination. This would be broken up into several separate folding sequences, as there were limits on the distance a ship could travel during a fold. The exact limits were unknown, as several things factored into it, although Liam hadn’t really taken the time to find out what. He did know that after a fold, it would be necessary to recharge the fold drive. For three hours after a fold sequence, the
Sacrifice
would be limited to its pulse drives. In the meantime, four squadrons of Knights were on standby and in their cockpits, ready to launch. This was a precaution they had set in the event the Shenkar were farther along than they expected. Necro Squadron had been lucky enough to pull first duty for the first set of jumps.

             
When the
Sacrifice
made its final fold back into normal space, the ship would immediately move into a small local asteroid field for cover. Once under cover of the asteroid field, Necro Squadron, along with the entire complement of Templar Knight squadrons, would launch their fighters to conduct wide-ranging patrols. If all went as planned, Meshtrell projections stated they shouldn’t encounter any Shenkar yet.

After securing his MP3 player, Liam picked up a picture he had of him and Leah
, then left his quarters for the hangar bay. Liam saw Knights from all different squadrons jogging in that direction. Once again, the internal comm system blared to life with a female voice.
“
Attention, all hands. Two minutes until fold sequence commences . . . I repeat, two minutes until fold sequence commences. All hands, if you haven’t checked in, please do so now.”

             
Liam ran at a full sprint to the hangar, jumping this way and that to avoid members of the crew headed in the opposite direction. Luckily, the distance from the pilot’s quarters to the hangar wasn’t far. Deck crew members moved about the hangar, removing ladders from occupied fighters. None of the Chimera heavy fighters were prepped for launch under the theory that they shouldn’t run into any large Shenkar forces until later.

             
“
Nice of you to join us!” yelled a voice from a fighter next to Liam’s.

             
Looking up, Liam spotted Evan smiling as he donned the battle suit helmet that hid his identity.

             
Liam climbed the ladder, got into his cockpit, and settled down into the pilot’s seat. He strapped himself in as the ladder was removed by the deck crew. As his canopy lowered into place, Liam made his preflight check, then sat back and waited. A female voice sounded across the hangar bay and in Liam’s helmet as well.
“
Standby for fold sequence . . . ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . fold sequence engage.”

             
Liam’s vision blurred, and he felt a sudden tugging feeling at his navel. It lasted several seconds, and then as abruptly as it came, it went.               When his vision cleared, the female voice spoke again.
“
Fold sequence complete.”

             
Liam waited, for he knew the
Sacrifice
would be running a scan of the surrounding area. He was waiting for the signal, if necessary, to launch and engage any enemy forces. A red alert would be a launch and a green alert would be stand-down. A minute later, he got his answer.

             
“
Scan complete. Green alert: no enemy contacts. Stand-down to green levels.”

             
Liam relaxed as he heard the stand-down order and he keyed his comm unit.

             
“
Okay, Necro Squadron, you heard the lady. We have three hours until the next fold. Feel free to get out and stretch, but no one is to leave the hangar,” said Liam.

             
Unfastening his flight harness, he then hit the button to open his canopy. However, before he could stand, his comm unit chimed on the private channel. The indicator board showed it was Evan. Keying the channel open, he answered,
“
Yes, Evan?”

             
“
Why can’t we leave the hangar? I started something before the fold sequence was announced that I would kind of like to finish.”

             
“
You know the orders: all pilots are to remain in the hangar. Is it something you can do here? Or can you bring whatever you were working on here if it isn’t too elaborate?”

             
Dead silence met Liam’s question. After several seconds, Evan finally responded in a rather elusive tone.
“
Uh . . . no, that’s all right. I guess I can take care of it later.” Then there was the audible click of a comm unit switching off.

             
Evan sounded as though he really didn’t want to wait to do whatever it was he had been doing. Liam looked over at Evan’s fighter and saw him pulling off his helmet. He noticed Evan looking over at Crystal and shaking his head no as she looked back. It suddenly hit Liam what Evan had in mind. And why not? The next jump could bring them in contact with the Shenkar, and one of them could be killed. This could be their last chance to feel the passion, the intimacy, or even the raw heat of a lover’s embrace.

             
Pulling off his helmet, he set it on the top of his fighter’s instrument panel, then pushed himself up. Not waiting for the deck crew to place a ladder for him to climb down, he leapt down from his cockpit. He spotted Evan speaking to Crystal over in a corner of the hangar. As he jogged up, both looked up and turned to face him, but before they could say anything, Liam spoke.

             
“
You two have two and a half hours and not a minute more. I expect you to be back here on time,” he said in a serious commanding voice, but then he smiled and said, “And take the whole time to enjoy yourselves, as we know what could be waiting for us after the next fold sequence.”

             
Both Evan and Crystal looked at each other, smiled, then turned and ran for the access hatch that led out of the hangar bay and toward the pilots’ quarters. Smiling, Liam turned and headed back toward his fighter and the rest of Necro Squadron.

Manchester, New Hampshire

              The television showed a shot of the EDF
Sacrifice
from a view port of an Omega shuttle. The cameraman obviously had the camera firmly against the portal.

             
“
And here we can see the EDF
Sacrifice
getting ready to depart on its mission. We will be staying live to broadcast the first fold sequence in Earth’s history,” said the female voice of a reporter.

Leah watched the scene unfolding before her on the television as she thought,
All those men and women going to fight and going knowing it is a suicide mission.
One of those going was a man she recently realized she loved very much. Four months ago, she hadn’t had a care in the world beyond figuring out what to wear, having fun with friends, and picking her new classes for college. Now, however, the world had been turned upside down. An alien invasion force was headed to Earth to either enslave or destroy them. The man she had seen as a close friend was now going to sacrifice his life in hopes of giving the Earth time to build a force capable of repelling these Shenkar--although now that man she had thought of as a close friend she now realized she was in love with.

             
Liam . . . how he had changed since they last spoke. From what she had seen on the news, he and many other men and women had undergone a new experimental procedure that introduced an alien technology into the body. This alien technology had been the reason he now looked so much younger--he was the equivalent age of twenty-one now. The news had also said that he was what one would call “superhuman.” He was now a man whose body was enhanced to withstand extreme conditions, to heal at an exponential rate, with a mind that retained everything it saw, and reflexes and the strength of ten men--in essence the perfect soldier.

             
The female reporter’s voice broke into Leah’s thoughts.
“
I have just received word that the
Sacrifice
is about to undergo its fold sequence.”

             
Then another female voice spoke over the television.
“
Standby for fold sequence . . . ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . fold sequence engage.”

             
The picture on the television zoomed in on the EDF
Sacrifice
. The image of the battlecruiser shimmered, then disappeared in a flash of blue light. The television was silent for a few moments; then the female reporter spoke once more.

             
“
And it appears the fold sequence was a success. For those who don’t know, we will be getting continual reports from the EDF
Sacrifice
. This is done by using the fold engines to open up a micro rift in space and beaming a transmission through the rift. The transmission will be relayed via beacons that have been placed by the
Sacrifice
after each fold. So we will know how the brave men and women of the
Sacrifice
fare.”

             
Leah let out a breath that she hadn’t even realized she had been holding. Now all she could do was sit and wait for the news to come of Liam’s death. Why was life so unfair? Leah had always thought that love stories were supposed to have a happy ending.

EDF
Sacrifice
, Command Bridge

              Admiral Kelvin sat in the command chair and looked around. The first fold sequence had been a success, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. The past few hours the crew had double- and triple-checked all systems to confirm that no residual problems had arisen.

             
“
Sir, the relay beacon has been launched and is now in position,” said a female voice to his left.

             
Turning his head, he spotted the owner. A young oriental woman stood a few feet away, holding out a data pad for him to take. Taking the pad, he glanced at it, confirmed that the relay beacon was in fact in place, then handed it back.

             
“
Thank you, Lieutenant Sukita. Run one final test on it. Then we should be set for the next fold sequence.”

             
“
Yes, sir,” she said as she saluted. Then she turned away and walked back to her station.

             
Turning to his right, he spotted his second-in-command.
“
Captain Caqel, is the ship ready to fold?” he asked.

             
After a few moments of checking his readout board, the young eager Captain turned and spoke as he saluted.
“
SIR! Everything is ready for the next fold sequence, sir!”

             
“
Okay, proceed with the fold sequence. Lieutenant Sukita, sound out the order. We fold in two minutes.”

             
Lieutenant Sukita turned to her station and flipped a switch as her other hand reached up to her headset and activated it.
“
Attention, all hands. Two minutes until fold sequence. All stations, ready for fold sequence.”

             
“
Now let’s hope the ship doesn’t blow up,” said Admiral Kelvin.

             
Captain Caqel’s face blanched at those words from the Admiral, a look of panic showing on his face.

             
“
I was joking, Captain. The Meshtrell assured us the fold engines can handle three folds in a twenty-four-hour period. Anything after that, of course, we will be gambling our lives,” said the Admiral as he laughed.

             
“
Yes, sir,” said Captain Caqel, looking thoroughly unamused.