Test of Magnitude (The Torian Reclamation) (30 page)

A crew member stood at a corridor entrance at the far end of the hangar deck, waving a red light in his hand. Everyone followed his signal and filed through the doorway. They passed several closed rooms before coming to a large cabin in the center of the ship. It reminded Brandon of his favorite cocktail lounge back home. Some sections were under blue light and some under white light. Small tables were positioned between the seats, which swiveled 360 degrees and were arranged in groups of different sizes. Some sections were on higher levels than others. There were large video screens on the two far walls. It was quite luxurious. There were enough seats for everyone in the main cabin. Brandon, Mip7, and the other five humans all sat in the same section, somewhere in the middle.

When everyone was seated, Olut6 walked through the cabin and began speaking.

“This is going to be a very short trip, so don’t get too comfortable. What takes us two minutes would take two days by normal propulsion methods, so it’s necessary for us to travel this way.

“Now, it is true that our interstellar transport fleet is rather old. They are all still in good working order, however, as you can see. As we speak, some of them are being refurbished for us, including modifications for docking one ITF1 craft in the hangar, if need be. That means each transport ship has the potential to carry five landing craft, or ten conventional fighters, or any combination thereof, leaving open the possibility of also having to carry home one damaged ITF1.”

The screens on the walls came on with live feeds of the fore and aft views from the ship. A low humming sound also began to permeate throughout.

“We’re ready to go,” Olut6 said, “so stay in your seats.” He sat down as well.

The ship could be felt moving slightly. The forward screen in the cabin was then overlaid with a web-map made of very thin white lines. There was a yellow dot within the map lines that began blinking. A red dot appeared out in the space before them on the viewer. The position of the ship shifted until the blinking yellow light lined up perfectly with the red one, and stopped blinking. The low humming sound intensified, the web map vanished from the screen, and suddenly the stars were moving by.

“We’re moving!” Joseph said.

“Technically no,” Mip7 said. “Space around us is being distorted, bent out of our way, and we are pushing it behind us.”

“Right,” Joseph said. “That’s what I meant.”

The ride lasted a little more than ninety seconds by Brandon’s calculation. The space that was moving past them slowed down as a planet came into view. When they pulled into orbit, everything stopped moving and the humming sound died.

“We have arrived at Niptil,” a voice on the overhead speaker said. “Please make your way back to the landing craft for the flight to the Niptil space station.”

Niptil was a reddish-brown planet that resembled Mars, but with no polar caps. Two moons could be seen in the distance on the forward screen, quite far away. There was another object close by in orbit over Niptil. That must be the space station. It was still too far off to see clearly. Everyone in the cabin got back in line to re-board the landing crafts.

The journey from the transport ship to the Niptil station took longer than the journey from Cardinal-4 to Niptil. The space station here was tiny compared to Cardinal-4, only three or four levels high. It was rectangular in shape but had arms extending out from one side of it where ships were docked, which could only be the ITF1’s. The pilots couldn’t get a good look at them from the landing craft window, however, as they approached from the back side and landed in a small hangar, even smaller than the one on the transport ship. The shape of the station reminded Brandon of an airport terminal back home, except of course this one was floating in space.

When the station hangar pressurized, they exited the landing craft and entered a narrow corridor where they could walk no more than three wide. It led to a stairwell, then down to another corridor. Brandon and the Earthlings just followed the backs of the big lizard-men, figuring whoever was in front knew where they were going.

They all ended up in a large room with tables and chairs. There was a big window across the far wall with a view of the front side of the station. Everyone was squeezing up against the window to get a view of the IFT1 fighters. Brandon found a spot and nudged his way in.

There they were, just below, docked to the boarding bridges that extended from the station. Interstellar Transport Fighters, the instruments they had been training for, the vehicles that would engage the enemy in foreign space. From what Brandon could see of them from up here, they were big—much bigger than the standard fighters. They reminded him of jet planes back home, except for the dag in place of the wings, the weapon mounts, and the rear turret.

Brandon then noticed there were only five of them. Weren’t there supposed to be six?

Commander Olut6’s voice boomed through the room.

“Keep watching out there, boys. Is there anyone who can’t see well?”

No one answered, but Perry pressed himself up against Brandon to get a better view.

“Good,” Olut6 said. “Keep watching.”

Suddenly, the missing IFT1 appeared before the window, right in the space before them, quite close. It was, in a word, impressive. The design of the ship, its lines, and the way it instantly appeared out of distortion-drive so close to the station. There must have been a good pilot in that thing. Sounds of approval and excited mumbling filled the room.

“Keep watching,” Olut6 said.

The ship vanished as suddenly as it appeared. Then, it reappeared, off in the distance some, and performed a 45° turn before promptly vanishing again. Then it appeared on the left side of the window, facing the station, but vanished again quickly. A few seconds later, it was on the right side of the station, facing left. It then did a long, slow fly-by in front of the window. The room erupted in cheering.

“Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout,” Perry said. “Woo, she is one bad-ass machine, isn’t she? Glad you guys aren’t gonna be fighting from a mini-van.”

“No,” Brandon said. “We’ll be fighting from …my Corvette.”

* * *

“Vector clear target five,” the cockpit speaker crackled. That was Brandon and Mip7’s queue.

“Aston moving on target six,” Mip7 radioed.

Brandon hit the dag drive. The transport ship in the distance was brought right before them in seconds. Then the stars stopped moving and the panel lights flashed green, signaling to Brandon and Mip7 that they had stopped distorting space. To onlookers, they would have just popped up out of nowhere right next to the transport ship.

Their ITF1 was a little out of position for hitting target six, however. Brandon was off this time, but not by much. It didn’t seem to matter to the laser gunner in the lower turret. He was on it immediately. The harmless nondestructive red laser connected to the hull of the ship right next to the target, needing only a slight adjustment before being dead on. Brandon fired the rear side thrusters and adjusted their angle slightly. Mip7 had the missile targeting screen locking in as they turned. A rapid chirping sound came on in the cockpit, confirming missile lock, and Mip7 fired straightaway. The mock missiles bounced off the hull of the transport ship like two bunches of rolled-up socks, right on target. Brandon already had the exit coordinates aligned and hit the dag drive. Off they went.

“Aston clear target six,” Mip7 radioed. They came to a stop a short distance from where they started the run.

“Good job Aston,” the speaker voice said. “Target six confirmed destroyed. Proceed to Reep exercise nine. Repeat. Proceed to Reep exercise nine.”

Olut6’s voice now came on the speaker.

“This will be your last practice shot boys, so make it a good one. In a couple days, you’ll be shooting at the real thing.”

“Yes sir,” Mip7 replied. “Aston moving on Reep exercise nine.”

Four additional days of intense military flight training was about to end, hopefully with a bang. The Reep exercises were executed on a small fleet of decrepit old cargo ships placed in orbit around Niptil’s two moons. Brandon’s crew was the last in procession. Vector could be seen docking at the space station in the distance, done for the day. There was one human in that crew—Stu, the Chinese guy, who held the pilot2 position.

There was one other human in Brandon’s crew. Jack, the artist kid, was the Reep gunner in the rear turret. He was about to go on stage. Command saved the big freighters for the last day of exercises, and all the crews had been looking forward to it. Aston’s target was on the far side of the far moon. Command was watching from a video screen on the station, along with the rest of the crews by now, no doubt. Vector crew would probably de-board in time to watch Aston’s performance as well.

Aston. Brandon liked their name. Brandon was pilot1, and Mip7 was next to him in the cockpit at pilot2. Doing a darn good job, too. Olut6 had decided not to break the two of them up after further reviews of the Cardinal-4 battle. The kid was in the rear turret, a Banorian gunner in the lower turret, and two Amulite technicians were in the main hull of the ship making sure everything kept working properly. Command had decided the optimal ITF1 crew size for this mission was six.

The only other human in a pilot1 position was the Dutch kid, Joseph. No surprise there. His ship, Lotus crew, was to lead the attack. Joseph’s copilot was the second high scorer in the simulation games, a bright-skinned Amulite named Jol2. Everyone was expecting miracles from that ship. Matthew, the remaining human, was a laser gunner in one of the other crews. Perry wasn’t part of an ITF1 crew, but there were other jobs to be done. At first, Brandon had hoped all the humans would be together in one crew—but in the end, he conceded the way Olut6 arranged them by abilities and compatibly was wiser. Tomorrow they would begin the trek to Milura to bring retribution upon the invaders.

Right now, they had one last task to perform here in Tora space. Mip7 mapped out the target and Brandon turned the ship, little by little, until the position locator locked on. He hit the dag drive and made their approach. Mip7 loaded the weapons systems with live ammunition during the flight.

They whizzed by the first moon and then the second one became big outside the cockpit window. The target freighter was in a shallow orbit and Brandon wanted to come in underneath it, so they were flying low. It came into view and they drew close.

Brandon came out of distortion just below the target and fired lasers—the real ones this time—from the upper cockpit guns at several structures across the near side. The gunner in the lower turret joined in with the big beam and focused on a target on the bottom of the freighter. There were some explosions.

Then the return fire started.

The rumors proved to be true. It had leaked among the crews that on final exercise day the freighters would be shooting back, with nondestructive lasers of course, via remote controls from the space station. Brandon was ready for it, however, and dagged out before they could lock on to him. He came out on the far side, safely out of effective laser range. He then turned the ship to face the freighter and started another run.

“Are you going to pop up right before them, or go beyond and take the Reep shot now?” Mip7 asked.

“They’ll be expecting it either way,” Brandon said, “so let’s try something else.”

 “Is there something else to try?”

“Just watch. Lay off the missiles, too. I want to see what the Reep gun can really do.”

Brandon dagged well past freighter, all the way to the opposite safe side. He needed to pop up in order to make a tight turn, however. So he came out of distortion, turned the ship as fast as he could with the thrusters, targeted a spot just above the freighter, and dagged back in towards it.

“They might not have seen that,” Mip7 said.

“Yeah, they’re probably wondering where we are right about now. I bet they aren’t expecting us to show up right smack on top of them, though. And that looks like a great place to break this thing in half.”

Mip7 shook his head. “If you pull this off, it will be a great motivation to everyone watching back there. Should send us all off with confidence.”

“Then that’s what we need to do. Here we go.”

Brandon hit the ship intercom. “Jack, get ready!”

He dagged out directly above the freighter, maybe a little too close. Now he had to adjust his position. That took precious seconds of working the forward thrusters. Lasers began firing up alongside the IFT1 as he pulled it perpendicular with the freighter and hit manual propulsion. They ascended directly upward from it. The return fire came closer.

“Jack, go!”

A small sonic boom reverberated within the ship causing Mip7 to cock his head. Brandon hit the dag again, but went only a short distance before coming out. He turned the ship back to face the freighter, just in time to watch it literally break in two.

“Just like the Titanic,” Brandon said.

“The what?” Mip7 asked.

“Hey, you came out of it faster this time. Great.”

“Yeah,” Mip7 said. “Guess I’m getting used to it. Extat, look at that!”

The entire freighter went up in a spectacular series of explosions.

“That had to be rigged,” Brandon said.

Mip7 laughed. “Yes, I’m sure it was. Maybe that’s why we’re last. Olut6 must have figured we would get it, and wanted everyone to have this fireworks show to end our training.”

Brandon turned the ITF1 until they got a map fix on the Niptil space station. They were back in a matter of seconds. Mip7 docked the ship.

“Well, now the real combat begins,” Brandon said.

“Now the real combat begins,” Mip7 echoed.

Back in the station, the mood was jovial. Everyone loved the finale that Aston crew had provided. Other crewmembers kept coming up and congratulating them. They were the only ones to make such a complete and utter destruction of the last target. It was a proper way to wrap things up. Two Torian pilots confessed to Brandon that they were the ones shooting at him, using remote controls here on the station. They commended him on his flying.