So this is the second and long half-3637 words-of a science fiction story I started last week.
He was about to fail spectacularly
Enjoy:
A quick study of his options showed him that he needed to slip in-between the ship that had just cut him off and the planet to get to where he wanted to be. He breaths came harder, because his stress levels were up. His AI reminded him that it knew of stress reducing techniques but he didn’t have time to listen. Besides stress can be used.
He thought he smelled his own sweat but that had to be his imagination, the fighter would have cleansed all of that out of the air, even if he wasn’t wearing his flight suit.
Carlos watched his speed, he worked with the planet’s gravity. Tried to ride it like a gravity board rider. He dived toward the planet letting his ship pick up speed for a few seconds. When he reached the correct position he executed another curving turn; this time making it an easy curve to port.
His ship scooted by very close to the atmosphere of the planet but not yet touching it. This close though there was no clear beginning. His fighter jerked every so slightly when he ran through a puff of air that reached a bit further. One eye stayed on the range sensor. If he went too deep into the atmosphere he could start to heat up. He would be in no danger of burning up but anyone in the civilian craft who looked in his direction probably would see his ship start to glow. And of course warships would sense the heat. That would not be good.
He made it by the civilian ship and continued on.
Two deep breaths in relief and two patrol ships appeared on his screen. He held in a curse word, for this would be recorded. Both maneuvered closer to the planet and it looked like they would soon be near his course. Too near, he would have to maneuver around them and their “wakes” could effect his course. Bounce him which would slow his fighter and change its course for a second. That could be on purpose.
For a moment he wanted to panic, when the thought that he had been seen went through his mind. However a deep breath and a heartbeat later Carlos realized that their course would not directly intercept him after all. He would have to change his course again, but he could do that. And still make it, if his speed didn’t drop too much.
If he closed in to the atmosphere again he would need to knife through the beginning of the atmosphere. His ship had been designed to minimize how much heat it gave off. That was one reason for its shape. Mankind still designed streamlined ships because they liked the shape even though most vessels would never enter an atmosphere. His, however, had been designed that way on purpose, to allow it to fly through air. It would still produce a heat signature through and he needed a way to keep it from doing that. At the same time he needed a way to increase his speed without using his drives. The thrusters did not have enough power for that.
Sweat dripped into his eyes and he couldn’t wipe it out. Hopefully his bio helmet would soak it out. He chewed on his tongue and for a heartbeat thought he had bitten it, but that wasn’t the metallic taste of blood. After a few seconds of desperation an idea to do both came to his mind. Very dangerous and it was taking an extreme chance but he needed extreme to finish this mission.
He again used gravity to adjust his course, allowing his ship to be pulled closer to the planet. They were given so many warnings that when a ship entered an atmosphere it had to dive into the air just right or there was a danger that it could impact the atmosphere, even as lite as it was, in a way that would bounce the ship away. At the usual speeds that would be disastrous.
Carlos used the thrusters in tiny bursts to slow the fighter down, while waiting for his little craft to hit the upper atmosphere. He wanted to hit it just right. He finally hit with a thump. He used the force of the impact to propel his ship back up and forward. The fighter traveled out and forward for a few seconds then was pulled back down by the gravity, He bumped the air again and again the impact drove him away from the atmosphere. He used the bumps to move his ship forward. He thought that the small slaps against the atmosphere would not produce a heat signature significant enough to be noticed. Or so he hoped anyway.
Carlos continued to walk toward his goal in this manner. As he did started to sweat even harder. This was not shaping up as expected. Too many unexpected variables. While in training he had been warned that missions hardly ever shook out as planned but this one had looked so well thought out. Everything had been taken into account. Intelligence had seemed so sure. Only there were more ships, both military and civilian, than they had reported there would be. Then there was his mistake. He had turned the wrong way to avoid that civilian ship.
Stress built. Add to his problems what he was doing now, walking, like a one legged man, across a mine field. God, he wanted to spit but couldn’t. Saliva continued to build in his mouth. He thought he heard the bumps but wasn’t sure.
He had to watch and calculate his every move. He had to hit just right to move his craft up and forward at the same time. He had to hit everyone just right. Even with the AI during most of the calculations this had become a strain on his mind and body. A little too deep and he could catch a gust at the wrong angle. Too shallow and he wouldn’t get a hard enough slap. Too slow, the same thing. Too fast and or if he hit at the wrong angle and he could be sent in a different direction-into another ship. If his angle of impact was wrong, specifically if his nose was down too much, or if he hit a gust at another wrong angle, he could be sent into the atmosphere out of control. If that did happened he probably could regain control enough so that he would survive the experience since the ship was made for atmospheric flight but it would ruin his mission and probably ruin his career. Plus his survival wasn’t guaranteed. He tried to relax as he made minute adjustments to his maneuvering.
At one point he glanced at his time piece and realized, on top of everything else, that he was behind his schedule. He had taken too long making up the distance after that wrong way turn. His ordinance had to be launched on time so that it would hit it’s target at a certain time. More then a few seconds either way and his mission would be a bust, not to mention him being extremely embarrassed.
He had to figure out some way of speeding up. A few seconds
later he noticed something on his passive sensors, he thought he
could use. It was another civilian vessel moving. If it continued on the course it now was on and it looked like it was going to, he could use it. He changed course slightly, now a couple degrees to one side. The civilian ship was moving slowly and he caught up with it at the point he had predicted. He carefully bumped into the atmosphere one more time and on the way up he ignited his wing thrusters for a three-second burn. That raised him enough to allow him to enter the “wake” of the ship as it passed above him.
The wake of ship is a series of radioactive and magnetic energy streamers which were produced by a vessel’s drives. They flowed behind the ship. The shielding and armor starfighters were made out of would protect him for a few seconds, maybe a full minute. In most cases this maneuver would be avoided at almost any cost because the wake can create a turbulence that can cause a ship to spin out of control. The streamers could also damage various systems on that ship.
Once in the wake the magnetic waves started to pull his ship up, down and sideways. He was glad this wasn’t a larger warship and that they won’t running the drives at full power. He managed, somehow, to use the waves to pull himself in a little closer. The increased temperature he felt had to be his imagination or his own body heat. His underarms felt soaked, without the suit he would smell his own sweat instead of this clean air. He might even be able to taste it in the air.
When he thought he was in deep enough, he fed power to his drives. The flares of his fighter’s drives should be covered by the drives of the larger ship. The extra flare might be spotted but it wasn’t really that big of a chance.
His passive sensors were having problems reading though the
interference caused by the radiation waves however. At the moment space seemed clear around the larger ship he gunned his drives for three-seconds. When the clock ticked the third second Carlos steered his ship out of the wake. There would be no radioactive flare for sensors to pick up that way. It also gave him a good size dose of inertia. Even as the fighter left the radiation waves he saw that he ha hit it close enough. After a slight course adjustment using his wing thrusters, he breathed a sigh of relief. He still wasn’t done with the mission and any number of things could go wrong but he was very close to being on time. And there was his target almost the right distance.
His special ordinance wasn’t a ship killer missile because it had no drives. No propulsion system of any type, not even a rocket engine. It also had no flight computer. There was nothing that could portray its presence. Its outer case was even more stealth then his fighter was. It could sail right past a porthole and anyone looking though the porthole would not see it. Supposedly that is, Carlos wondered how it would work in real life conditions like this. The missile was also a different shape. It had a blunt nose and the front half tapered down to half the size of the rear.
He could launch it now, however, because of all the extra ships, some of which were continually moving, he thought he should get in even closer. He adjusted his course slightly again, this time nosing the fighter up according to his prospective. After a few seconds he leveled his craft out and headed in. He was aiming right above a patrol ship that was acting as a guard. It was parked at a permanent station, near his target.
After a few seconds he angled his nose down, focusing on a
point near the bow of his target ship. Since his ordinance had no targeting computer, he had to aim it just using the passive
sensors and his sight. He coasted in determined to time it just right.
He started to sweat again as he whispered , “Not yet, not yet,” out loud every couple of seconds. He had to be careful since he had make sure it hit the right target. There were other ships around that it could impact on. Any other hit would be bad but an impact on a civilian ship would be the worst. He would really get yelled at if it did, for good reason.
Finally he said, “yet.” He then pulled a lever next to his left side that would manually lower the ordinance. Once a red light came on to signify that it sat in the correct position, he pressed the large button that would release his payload. He heard the clamps slip into their recesses in the belly of his fighter. He continued forward a bit longer. Since the ordinance would be using the inertia it had picked up when it was a part of his ship, it would it traveled the same speed as his ship. He had to very gently use his thrusters to slow his fighter. He had to do it very carefully to make sure neither any part of his ship nor any amount of exhaust from his thrusters touched the missile. If any did it would send it off course. Even a tiny course change could cause it to miss altogether or to hit some where other then the correct place. Not as bad as a miss but still not good.
He applied power to his thrusters again, after three-seconds of slowing he decided he could leave. He pivoted the stealth fighter until it was aimed forty degrees from his original heading. He slowly increased the power to the thrusters to full. It wouldn’t be quite so bad if he was detected now, but it still wouldn’t be good even though his mission was accomplished. So he hoped anyway. He had no way of checking to make sure his payload was headed in the right direction. Even this close his passive sensors would not detect it and he would not be to see it though his view window. As far as he knew it could still be under his belly. He just had to trust that it was acting like it was supposed to.
A patrol ship swung around in near him and he decided to use its wake. This patrol ship was small and was maneuvering at a slow speed. He managed to slip into the magnetic and radioactive waves streaming behind it. He then scooted closer to the ship and quickly fed power to his drives. They had been on stand by again so it took only a second for them to start producing thrust. He increased speed to match the patrol ship’s and followed it for a while. At one point it increased speed and the turbulence got worst. It was almost like riding a bucking horse, or what he imagined what one would feel like anyway. He watched his time piece as it counted down the time till the ordnance he had released would hit its target. It was going to be late, but only by two point six seconds. That should be close enough not to matter. If nothing else went wrong, that is.
He decided it was time to leave. He repeated the same procedure as last time. He fed full power to his drives then coasted out of the patrol ship’s radioactive streams of energy. There was more chance that the patrol ship would spot him this close to it but as before it did matter so much and now he was far enough away so he could probably escape.
He was not spotted and used his inertia to head away from the planet. His speed kept decreasing as the planet’s gravity pulled him back but it should get him out among the numerous ships in far orbit. Then if he lit off his drives they would just be another set among many. He could also turn on his full sensors. As he fled he watched the timer. He was disappointed that he would not be able to see it hit. and he knew there would be very little shock wave produced by it so he would not even feel it. Two point six seconds after the original time there was an explosion of light behind him. Multicolored light produced by his special ordnance reflected off his view window. Right on time which meant that it probably was right on target.
He raised one hand in a clenched fist and shouted. “Yea!”
Suddenly his exuberance turned to shock as another civilian ship made a sudden turn right in front of him, probably to see the sight better. Right above his fighter another large ship with a large drive wake quickly going to full came even with him. Below him were two small shuttles. He was boxed in and his thrusters would not have enough push to get him to turn in time. All he could do was ride his flight as it zoomed straight for that vessel. Now he would definitely be getting a closer look at its paint job, then he wanted.
*********
Four hours later he marched into the base Commander’s office for his debriefing. He had landed and after a quick shower and a change to a clean uniform he had come straight here. Colonel James Hiker was seated behind his desk looking at a computer monitor. John, stood at attention, saluted then waited.
He had to wait only for three seconds before Colonel Hiker
returned the salute and told him at ease then to be seated. Carlos sat in the only chair in front of the desk. The place had a slight smell of cleaning products and a stronger after shave odor. The last had to be from the Colonel.
The Colonel spoke, “I have been scanning the data from your mission. That was a close call at the end, when those ships had
you boxed in.”
Carlos said, “Yes sir, it was. I remembered, just in time that I was far enough away to light my drives.”
To himself he added, “Barely remembered that is.”
Inside he shuddered a bit as an image flashed in his mind, of the hull of the ship filling his view window as he had started his drives. Good thing they had been on stand by, but he still had had to pull up before they were completely engaged. Not good for the drives nor for his blood pressure. He had been so close to that civilian ship that he had thought he was going to scrap it as he flew up its side. He had bit his cheek hard enough to make it bleed while he waited for the fighter to respond to the drives. Sweat popped out of his underarms at the thought.
His attention slipped back to the Commander who was speaking, “You accomplished your mission as planned. Or almost as planned. The Secretary of Defense finished his dedication speech two-seconds early. And since you were a touch late he had to wait over four-seconds after he said, ‘I christen you the Flying Warrior’. It was one of the longest four-seconds I have every had to wait, standing next to him as I was. I was just starting to think that you had failed when space lit up with a rainbow of light. It was so magnificent that the Secretary forgot about having to wait. The designers of that dedication ‘bottle’ deserves kudos. It was some of the best fireworks, I have ever seen in space. You deserve congratulations also for carrying out your mission so successfully. You got in, released your payload and got out without detection. And you did it on time, or close enough to it.”
Trying not to smile like a foolish rookie Carlos said, “Thank you sir”.
The Commander was not done though, “I do have some bad news
for you. It seems like there are no berths opened at the moment, so there is no assignment for you.”
John’s mind went blank, his heart dropped, No berths opened? That meant he was still a cadet, even after all that.
He fought not to show his shock so he did not notice the Commander shove a small box across his desk. He finally looked down at it as it reached his half of the desk.
His eyes went wide and his mouth twitched, he couldn’t help it for that looked like a specific type of box. One he had worked for longer then the four years he had spent at the Academy. He just stared at it for what seemed like a too long period of time.
Hiker most of thought he was taking too long also because he said, “Go ahead and take it. It’s for you.”
John looked up at him stupefied, then mentally shook himself and reached out to pick it up. He reverently took off the lid and as the lid cleared the opening enough for him to see the contents his eyes went wide again. For sitting in the center of
the box were two lieutenant signatures.
He looked at the officer and said, “But, you just said there were no berths for me, sir.”
The Commander smiled and said, “You would not be the first cadet to be promoted without a place to go. It happens rarely but with your marks at the academy and your successfully accomplished mission, while at the same time successfully testing our new stealth fighter under real world conditions, you have earned the right to join their ranks. Now though you are dismissed. You have packing to do.”
When the new lieutenant looked puzzled Hiker continued, “You need to move from the academy to the officer’s quarters.”
Carlos said, “Yes sir,” and jumped up.
He practically ran to the door, but as he was going though it Hiker spoke again.
“One more thing lieutenant, evidently your mission was rougher then predicted. I would apologize for that, but it is something you will need to get used to.”
Carlos said, “Yes sir, I will but, begging the Colonel’s pardon,” here he smiled and finished with, “this mission was a piece of cake,” then headed though the door.
The end
Showing posts with label space opera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label space opera. Show all posts
Saturday, September 2, 2017
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Part one of "Piece of Cake", a Science Fiction tale
As I promised a Sci fI tale and as the header says this os part one of two. This is also the shortest as in 2,225 words.
Could have revised more but I did this l late afternoon, and I am tried. The rest of it will hopefully be in a couple of days.
This is another old story of mine-over six years old-and one my favorites. I realized it's a little hard to revise these older stories with all I have learned about writing since I first wrote them. But it's more readable and enjoyable than the original version.
Piece Of Cake By L. E. Doggett
The tiny, one man ship slid through the clear section of space quietly. Nothing orbited even close to him, that included other ships. The tightness of his piloting space didn’t bother him, nor did the heavier than normal clothing of his flight suit.
Carlos Manqué had been told that that his ship would blend in with the surrounding space if anyone glanced its way. That would be equally true if they used their physical eyes or electronic eyes. He almost believed them. The lights on his control panel would not reach outside the ship even if he opened his blacked out cockpit cover. The comm band he used, for extreme emergencies only, didn’t squrk or hiss with back ground radiation. No way could it be picked up. His AI could talk to him, but only through the device in his skull.
The pilot glanced through his cockpit window at the surrounding space. He shivered but he knew that any cold he felt was his mind only. No way could he feel any cold with his flight suit on and inside the temperture controlled fighter. Even the air in this improved fighter tasted clear and very close to planet normal.
He could, however really see the hundreds of pinpoints of light with yellow dots and nickel size disks mixed in that bordered the system he was flying through. Those stars provided significant light for this region.
Carlos was proud he was able to fly this new ship. It was a streamlined, state of the art craft. A craft so new this was its first mission. Its paint actually was a special light absorbing material so black it was difficult to make it out even with the number of suns shining around it. He had seen it disappear in a darken hanger. He had known it sat in front of him but no shadow or dark blob gave it away. They had demonstrated how it even absorbed lidar blips and other sensor radiations.
He flew not only with radio silence but dark, all of his running were lights off. The cockpit was located on top right along the center beam, one quarter of the way back from the blunt nose.
Carlos sat in the cockpit encased in a thicker then normal flight suit. It was more of an armored extra vehicle suit then a flight suit, but that is what they called it. His suit’s helmet had a light amplifying feature, so he could make out everything around him-it even had very short range lidar and three separate lights.
At the moment his drives were on stand by, as were most of his controls, including full sensors and the few weapons he had. He was cruising with only passive sensors to cut his chance of detection. If the need arouse he could have full operation mode in a two seconds after the touch of three touch points. The new gravitiaonal thrusters steered his craft with little escaped radiation or gravity anomilies.
So far everything was going as planned. He glanced at the diagram of the ship set in the control panel; streamlined yet stocky looking. The ship was small, three feet shorter then the jet fighters from the Twenty-first century, he had studied in flight school. It was however twice as wider and twice as thick as the fuselage of the same air craft. He studied the outline again. It was a nice looking ship. The new fighter’s wings were stubby running most the length of each side. He had to step on one to exit the fighter. The section of the wing that connected the ship’s hull was half as thick as the craft. As they swept backwards their thickness narrowed to half its original.
He sat there calm, without a trace of sweat or nervous butterflies. Back when he received the assignment he had predicted to his friends-without even hinting at what he would fly or do with it, that it would be a piece of cake. He recalled the moment he had announced his special assignment. As usual his friends had been sitting at a table in the academy’s canteen. He and his friends were still considered cadets even though they had graduated from the space force academy a few weeks earlier. That meant, among other things, that they could not be in the officers canteen, or lounge and they did not belong in the enlisted men’s canteen. They were in a sort of no man’s land, not officially belonging to any group. So like most of those previous to them they stayed around the academy, while waiting for assignments where they could advance to the next level, full fledged officers.
Carlos had come rushing over to their table, barely able to contain himself. He had felt like jumping up and down, as well shouting. That would have caused a scene, as well as being non officer like, so he restrained himself. They were expected to act like full officers. After arriving at the table he just stood there, until someone asked him what was happening. He had answered by saying that nothing much was happening, he had just been to the bases’ commander's office.
That had taken a few seconds to sink in. Finally three of the six heads spun his way. Jacqueline had asked if that was what it sounded like, or had he gotten into trouble. He had broken into a large grin and Tony had said that by that smile it was what they thought. Everyone had started to talk at once, some congratulating him with others asking him what the assignment was and others asking if the outfit he had been assigned to needed any one else. When they had quieted down he looked around to make sure no one else was close, bent down over the table and spoke in a low voice explaining that he had been given a special assignment piloting a new experimental craft.
Brittany said that those assignments were always the toughest. He replied that he was the best pilot in their
graduating class and therefore it would be a piece of cake for him. They had gone to a real restaurant that night to celebrate. Three days later he had been called back to the commander's office and the full assignment had been explained to him. It was top secret so he had to keep his mouth shut tighter than a locked up flight computer. All he told his friends was that he had leave to be trained for his new assignment but that for him, it would be a piece of cake.
Two days later he left and was taken to another base for training in this new craft. He had been surprised how small it was. It wasn’t the first one man fighter he had flown but it was definitely the smallest. Years of research had gone into condensing various components. They had even changed the shape of some so that they would fit into the space left for them. That was one thing he didn’t like about the ship. Every bit of space was crammed full of electronics and such. If part of one system blew up, it could take two or three other components with it. He had been assured that certain parts had been modified to make sure they would not explode and that others had an armored covering which should protect them if something next to them fragmented or blew up. He didn’t like the words “should” and “make sure they would not explode”. Devices and humans had a bad habit of doing things they should not.
The ship did not have much in the way of weapons just two double lasers and a larger maser just a little bigger then the lasers. The maser was on a turret located on the belly. The lasers were stationary and located at the front portion of each wing. It did have strong shielding though and dozens of anti-missile rockets and electronic defenses. He would have the shields turned off for the mission however. The little ship’s main ordinance was located on its belly. Usually it would carry four ship killer missiles, or eight of the smaller ones, but this time it had something special.
The design and building of this prototype had finished significantly ahead of schedule for a change, so High Admiral Jackson had decided to use it for this. It would show what the new fighter could do. How it could be used. That was why after just the basics of training, mostly simulators and actually piloting the ship three times, he now piloted it in stealth mode.
Even with passive sensors he could see his target sitting in a parking orbit. There were a lot of smaller craft flitting around it. Some were patrol ships guarding the new ship, while others probably were cargo shuttles. There were also civilian craft and other patrol ships on guard paths further out. With just the passive sensors it was hard to be sure which ships were which at this range though. This was true with his eyes also since even with the magnification mode on his helmet, the ships were just moving pinpoints of light at this distance. He would be able to tell with full sensors of course but they would be able to detect it if he “painted” the target with them. With so many other ships, including quite a few civilian ships, it might be a little hard to detect just another set of sensors but with the heighten security around the target bit would not be worth the chance. Also his would be military grade sensors which would attract even more attention. Some alert sensor officer could follow the beams back to their source, him. That would not do at all.
His mission was deceptively simple, get in launch his special ordinance at this new ship about to begin its maiden cruise and get out all without being detected. A piece of cake, as he had told everyone. That was why he had started this mission a large distance from the planet and after building up his speed he had turned off the drives. They could not be detected if they were on stand by. Now he was coasting using his inertia and the planet’s gravity to get him in on time. Not only did he have to get in without being detected or seen but he had to be at the launch point at a certain time. This was so his ordinance would hit its target at a certain time. He had allowed himself just a few seconds leeway since, as he had kept saying, this was a piece of cake.
A few minutes later he adjusted his course slightly. It just got harder; he couldn’t approach too close to the target since there was the heighten security and since there were a number of other ships around it. Some were stationed in one location while others were moving along certain courses. A few of the ships further out were zipping this way and that as if their pilots could not make up their minds where they wanted to be.
After another minute one of the small ships zipping about suddenly cut him off. It just came out of no where, zipped right in front of him, slowed down quickly then stopped. One second his front window looked clear and then it was full of ship. He had to make a sudden turn to his right to avoid running into it. He used the thrusters located on his wing tips to make the turn. He gently fed power to the thrusters at the same time he banked. As his small craft curved to starboard, he got a close look, though his view screen, of the paint job on the civilian vessel. It looked kind of neat actually with reds, greens and a
certain round red and yellow logo painted here and there. It, however, was a closer look then he wanted.
When his ship came out of the curve and straighten out his course he thought about the close call there. Not what he had expected. Two-seconds later he jerked as the realization hit that he hadn’t turned off the thrusters and that his ship still moved in the wrong direction. Or had he? He thought he remembered doing it. Whatever, he reached for the control, ran his fingers down the virtual power control too fast and his finger went past the end, almost hitting another control. That would not have been good.
He spent a second hoping the longer thruster run did not attract anyone’s attention. The energy produced by thrusters that small should not be easily seen unless someone with powerful sensors happened to be looking straight at him. With the security as tight as it was around here that could have happened. Than again with so many thrusters and drives in action his could go undetected.
Nothing he could do about it through, so he decided to ignore the possibility until and if it was proven true. He had to get back to his course. He pivoted the ship until its nose pointed toward the planet. He let the gravity do the work for his drives.
end segment
Could have revised more but I did this l late afternoon, and I am tried. The rest of it will hopefully be in a couple of days.
This is another old story of mine-over six years old-and one my favorites. I realized it's a little hard to revise these older stories with all I have learned about writing since I first wrote them. But it's more readable and enjoyable than the original version.
Piece Of Cake By L. E. Doggett
The tiny, one man ship slid through the clear section of space quietly. Nothing orbited even close to him, that included other ships. The tightness of his piloting space didn’t bother him, nor did the heavier than normal clothing of his flight suit.
Carlos Manqué had been told that that his ship would blend in with the surrounding space if anyone glanced its way. That would be equally true if they used their physical eyes or electronic eyes. He almost believed them. The lights on his control panel would not reach outside the ship even if he opened his blacked out cockpit cover. The comm band he used, for extreme emergencies only, didn’t squrk or hiss with back ground radiation. No way could it be picked up. His AI could talk to him, but only through the device in his skull.
The pilot glanced through his cockpit window at the surrounding space. He shivered but he knew that any cold he felt was his mind only. No way could he feel any cold with his flight suit on and inside the temperture controlled fighter. Even the air in this improved fighter tasted clear and very close to planet normal.
He could, however really see the hundreds of pinpoints of light with yellow dots and nickel size disks mixed in that bordered the system he was flying through. Those stars provided significant light for this region.
Carlos was proud he was able to fly this new ship. It was a streamlined, state of the art craft. A craft so new this was its first mission. Its paint actually was a special light absorbing material so black it was difficult to make it out even with the number of suns shining around it. He had seen it disappear in a darken hanger. He had known it sat in front of him but no shadow or dark blob gave it away. They had demonstrated how it even absorbed lidar blips and other sensor radiations.
He flew not only with radio silence but dark, all of his running were lights off. The cockpit was located on top right along the center beam, one quarter of the way back from the blunt nose.
Carlos sat in the cockpit encased in a thicker then normal flight suit. It was more of an armored extra vehicle suit then a flight suit, but that is what they called it. His suit’s helmet had a light amplifying feature, so he could make out everything around him-it even had very short range lidar and three separate lights.
At the moment his drives were on stand by, as were most of his controls, including full sensors and the few weapons he had. He was cruising with only passive sensors to cut his chance of detection. If the need arouse he could have full operation mode in a two seconds after the touch of three touch points. The new gravitiaonal thrusters steered his craft with little escaped radiation or gravity anomilies.
So far everything was going as planned. He glanced at the diagram of the ship set in the control panel; streamlined yet stocky looking. The ship was small, three feet shorter then the jet fighters from the Twenty-first century, he had studied in flight school. It was however twice as wider and twice as thick as the fuselage of the same air craft. He studied the outline again. It was a nice looking ship. The new fighter’s wings were stubby running most the length of each side. He had to step on one to exit the fighter. The section of the wing that connected the ship’s hull was half as thick as the craft. As they swept backwards their thickness narrowed to half its original.
He sat there calm, without a trace of sweat or nervous butterflies. Back when he received the assignment he had predicted to his friends-without even hinting at what he would fly or do with it, that it would be a piece of cake. He recalled the moment he had announced his special assignment. As usual his friends had been sitting at a table in the academy’s canteen. He and his friends were still considered cadets even though they had graduated from the space force academy a few weeks earlier. That meant, among other things, that they could not be in the officers canteen, or lounge and they did not belong in the enlisted men’s canteen. They were in a sort of no man’s land, not officially belonging to any group. So like most of those previous to them they stayed around the academy, while waiting for assignments where they could advance to the next level, full fledged officers.
Carlos had come rushing over to their table, barely able to contain himself. He had felt like jumping up and down, as well shouting. That would have caused a scene, as well as being non officer like, so he restrained himself. They were expected to act like full officers. After arriving at the table he just stood there, until someone asked him what was happening. He had answered by saying that nothing much was happening, he had just been to the bases’ commander's office.
That had taken a few seconds to sink in. Finally three of the six heads spun his way. Jacqueline had asked if that was what it sounded like, or had he gotten into trouble. He had broken into a large grin and Tony had said that by that smile it was what they thought. Everyone had started to talk at once, some congratulating him with others asking him what the assignment was and others asking if the outfit he had been assigned to needed any one else. When they had quieted down he looked around to make sure no one else was close, bent down over the table and spoke in a low voice explaining that he had been given a special assignment piloting a new experimental craft.
Brittany said that those assignments were always the toughest. He replied that he was the best pilot in their
graduating class and therefore it would be a piece of cake for him. They had gone to a real restaurant that night to celebrate. Three days later he had been called back to the commander's office and the full assignment had been explained to him. It was top secret so he had to keep his mouth shut tighter than a locked up flight computer. All he told his friends was that he had leave to be trained for his new assignment but that for him, it would be a piece of cake.
Two days later he left and was taken to another base for training in this new craft. He had been surprised how small it was. It wasn’t the first one man fighter he had flown but it was definitely the smallest. Years of research had gone into condensing various components. They had even changed the shape of some so that they would fit into the space left for them. That was one thing he didn’t like about the ship. Every bit of space was crammed full of electronics and such. If part of one system blew up, it could take two or three other components with it. He had been assured that certain parts had been modified to make sure they would not explode and that others had an armored covering which should protect them if something next to them fragmented or blew up. He didn’t like the words “should” and “make sure they would not explode”. Devices and humans had a bad habit of doing things they should not.
The ship did not have much in the way of weapons just two double lasers and a larger maser just a little bigger then the lasers. The maser was on a turret located on the belly. The lasers were stationary and located at the front portion of each wing. It did have strong shielding though and dozens of anti-missile rockets and electronic defenses. He would have the shields turned off for the mission however. The little ship’s main ordinance was located on its belly. Usually it would carry four ship killer missiles, or eight of the smaller ones, but this time it had something special.
The design and building of this prototype had finished significantly ahead of schedule for a change, so High Admiral Jackson had decided to use it for this. It would show what the new fighter could do. How it could be used. That was why after just the basics of training, mostly simulators and actually piloting the ship three times, he now piloted it in stealth mode.
Even with passive sensors he could see his target sitting in a parking orbit. There were a lot of smaller craft flitting around it. Some were patrol ships guarding the new ship, while others probably were cargo shuttles. There were also civilian craft and other patrol ships on guard paths further out. With just the passive sensors it was hard to be sure which ships were which at this range though. This was true with his eyes also since even with the magnification mode on his helmet, the ships were just moving pinpoints of light at this distance. He would be able to tell with full sensors of course but they would be able to detect it if he “painted” the target with them. With so many other ships, including quite a few civilian ships, it might be a little hard to detect just another set of sensors but with the heighten security around the target bit would not be worth the chance. Also his would be military grade sensors which would attract even more attention. Some alert sensor officer could follow the beams back to their source, him. That would not do at all.
His mission was deceptively simple, get in launch his special ordinance at this new ship about to begin its maiden cruise and get out all without being detected. A piece of cake, as he had told everyone. That was why he had started this mission a large distance from the planet and after building up his speed he had turned off the drives. They could not be detected if they were on stand by. Now he was coasting using his inertia and the planet’s gravity to get him in on time. Not only did he have to get in without being detected or seen but he had to be at the launch point at a certain time. This was so his ordinance would hit its target at a certain time. He had allowed himself just a few seconds leeway since, as he had kept saying, this was a piece of cake.
A few minutes later he adjusted his course slightly. It just got harder; he couldn’t approach too close to the target since there was the heighten security and since there were a number of other ships around it. Some were stationed in one location while others were moving along certain courses. A few of the ships further out were zipping this way and that as if their pilots could not make up their minds where they wanted to be.
After another minute one of the small ships zipping about suddenly cut him off. It just came out of no where, zipped right in front of him, slowed down quickly then stopped. One second his front window looked clear and then it was full of ship. He had to make a sudden turn to his right to avoid running into it. He used the thrusters located on his wing tips to make the turn. He gently fed power to the thrusters at the same time he banked. As his small craft curved to starboard, he got a close look, though his view screen, of the paint job on the civilian vessel. It looked kind of neat actually with reds, greens and a
certain round red and yellow logo painted here and there. It, however, was a closer look then he wanted.
When his ship came out of the curve and straighten out his course he thought about the close call there. Not what he had expected. Two-seconds later he jerked as the realization hit that he hadn’t turned off the thrusters and that his ship still moved in the wrong direction. Or had he? He thought he remembered doing it. Whatever, he reached for the control, ran his fingers down the virtual power control too fast and his finger went past the end, almost hitting another control. That would not have been good.
He spent a second hoping the longer thruster run did not attract anyone’s attention. The energy produced by thrusters that small should not be easily seen unless someone with powerful sensors happened to be looking straight at him. With the security as tight as it was around here that could have happened. Than again with so many thrusters and drives in action his could go undetected.
Nothing he could do about it through, so he decided to ignore the possibility until and if it was proven true. He had to get back to his course. He pivoted the ship until its nose pointed toward the planet. He let the gravity do the work for his drives.
end segment
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Short story serial-Science Fiction tale Fourth and last segment
March 26
Last segment of the Roller Coaster Ride. 2,751 words. Next week might be another story revised like this one was. I have two or four others I would like to share. But I also have excerpts from a new book or two.
To this story:
Did they escape? Get blasted or their cargo taken? And what were those pirates after?
Great readers' fun. :)
No way to move the Ant out of the way, Mantiee felt useless and almost dead. A movement, he glanced at Jonathan. He motioned with his hands above his control panel. Mantiee couldn’t see the image he was adjusting-a recording of his last will and testament going out with a last love letter to his wife?
No, a slight noise from outside on the hull. Jonathan must have quickly adjusted the other turret and triggered a very short shot. Two beams short term beams shot out. Both hit the bubble, it popped and the explosion inside triggered. Jonathan fired another shot at another bubble with the same result. Next he grabbed the tractor beam controls and used its beam to grab another bubble on its way to them. He brought it closer then up and over them. It hit the wall right above them exploding.
As pieces of armor rained down on them Mantiee first let out a breath-told his heart to calm and said, ”What are you doing?”
“I am trying to use them to knock us loose.”
“By careful man those things are powerful.”
“I am. I want to make it home. It wouldn’t be good if my wife killed you because we didn’t make it back.”
Mantiee looked at him and just said, “Good.”
Jonathan asked, “What happened to the shark?”
After a quick check Mantiee said, “Two of the bubbles in that group you sent their way hit them. They blasted two others before they pivoted around and took off around the corner with the left overs and two new ones chasing them.”
“Good, now rock this baby and lets get loose before any more show up.”
Mantiee said, “Sounds good to me,“ pressed his hands into the image before him. The Ant began to rock up and down.
The drives started to over heat after a few second so he cut back.
Jonathan said, “Try reversing course but keep it as level as you can and slow at first.”
After a thirty-second cool down he did just that. He tried that is. He slowly brought up the drives to half power but no movement.
Jonathan said, “Try again. Line us up at the same angle we came in on. Go slow again and keep it level.”
Mantiee said, “I’m trying to.”
After another try and failure he angled the ship slightly and tried once more. The cockpit was becoming warm or so it seemed to him. Maybe the environmental controls had been damaged. No time to check. With the drives back on it had all the power it needed.
Despite his thoughts he kept a rock steady hand on the controls. This time with a screech of metal the runabout moved backwards. Mantiee managed to back it up while keeping his eye on the level readout on his control panel. It usually didn’t matter that much if he kept the little ship on a completely level course or not but now he was sweating as he kept barely touching four different touch points.
He shook his head, hoped the head’s controls stayed up. He needed to pee again and he would need a long hot shower when this was done. Not to mention an extra hot wash for the clothes he wore.
He watched the level. A green line on top of a red one showed the Ant’s relationship to the crack it had gotten jammed in. When a tiny bit of red showed he gave the 3-D image the tiniest of touches. Finally the runabout’s wing arrived in the wider part of the crack, probably the section it had slipped into while he had been paying attention to something else. He stared at that crack for a long moment. Space armor didn’t split like that. Dent maybe but not that. He wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of whatever weapon did that. Not even that shark could handle it.
He noticed Jonathan get up. His turn to use the head? Getting a snake? No time to think on it, he wiped sweat from his eyes.
Five-seconds more and he stopped the backward movement of the Ant. He let loose a breath and breathed in deep three times. A moment later he slid the craft sideways until the wing was all the way out. He sighed, wanted to faint.
His friend clipped him on the shoulder and said, “Very good, that's almost as good as I could have done. Now lets get out of here.”
That almost startled Mantiee for he hadn’t noticed that Jonathan had come back. Something tapped the front of his right shoulder. He reached up and felt cold. What? A bottle? He looked at the container he now held. Frizzy water: cold. It contained electrolytes and other good stuff. It tasted just a bit like limes. Before he knew he had moved his other hand he had the top twisted off and drank a third of it. Ohhh that was good.
Jonathan said, “Lets go.”
Mantiee nodded raised the Ant above the large piece they had been stuck in. Just as they cleared the wreckage Mantiee saw something ahead, stared-his lips narrowed, then suddenly he sent the ship down nose first.
Jonathan said, “What? More bubbles?” “No, a missile orienting on us,” came the tense answer.
“A missile? One of those round globe shape ones? I haven’t seen one of those.”
“No, a long straight human type.”
“What? How would one of those survive? If it was launched it would go for some target even if it couldn’t find its main target.”
“I don’t know,” Mantiee said as he steered the craft up followed by a very short hop over a round fat huge canister piece of debris. He dropped down then zipped under a patrol ship with a shuttle design. It was listing to one side so they could see a series of holes blasted along it side. Five, all of which were the same size and the same distance apart. Each hole was just a bit wider then the runabout. He drove the ship up and up way past the patrol craft.
He dived the runabout again and said, “Maybe that missile was knocked out of its tube before it could be launched but after it had been armed. Whatever it’s coming closer fast and I cannot shake it.”
Jonathan said, “Up again and when I say now go back the way we came,“ as he fired the grassers at the missile.
He fired two sets of double short duration beams every couple of seconds. They all missed. It was one smart missile. The missile either moved up and down to avoid the shots or ignored them as they missed on their own. Many hit pieces of debris, sometimes with spectacular results. Mantiee directed the runabout along the underside of a big ship, probably a cruiser, then up as Jonathan had said. Instead of going straight up he steered them on a curving course going to port as well as up.
Finally his partner said now and he flipped the ship over on its back and zoomed back the way they had come. Seconds later the missile crested the piece the had just come over and followed them. Jonathan watched his sensors and directed Mantiee to go to port then starboard. They went though the top potion of that debris field made up of many small pieces of many different ships. Tiny bits sparkled on the Ant’s shields. The missile, however, avoided every piece. Three bubbles started after it but the runabout and missile were going too fast. It would catch them before they would catch it.
Finally Jonathan said to go over this upcoming fragment then down. Mantiee did that with the missile in hot pursuit and closing fast. He thought this ship looked familiar but thought it must be a second one. Seconds later though he saw he had been right. It was the ship with that long crack in it for there flew the second spinner they had fought. It now had its drives going. Jonathan said to aim straight at them. When he glanced at his sensor screen he added something about emergency power.
Mantiee said, “That would use the power for the air and heat.”
Jonathan said, “It will but if we don’t do something we won’t be needing the environmental circuits.”
Mantiee frowned, nodded, switched to emergency power. Jonathan meanwhile had been adjusting his controls so he added power from the rear shields, the grassers and comm to the drives. This amount of power could burn out the drives real fast but they would only need it for a few seconds. He fired the front weapons at the spinner as suddenly their craft acted like it had been kicked and doubled its speed. They zoomed toward the other ship aiming at its center. The ship reacted and fired at it but the shots that hit were absorbed by the shields. Jonathan kept up his firing and soon Mantiee executed a very fast zig to port going around the round ship. It continued to fire. Probably its gunner thought they had been on a suicide run therefore was slow on the uptake that they were no longer in front of it. The Ant continued on along the side of the spinner, then Mantiee zagged back to the center Jonathan said to cut emergency speed as he quickly reestablished the rear shields. Seconds later there was an explosion on the other side of the spinner. The blast easily overwhelmed what was left of that ship’s shields then began to eat into the ship itself. It vaporized much of the front of the spinner while sending small pieces tumbling away. Some of the pieces went flying after the runabout impacting on its rear shields. None were large and none did any damage.
Mantiee said, “Whew, scratch one missile and one pirate.”
Jonathan said, “That missile’s computer most have been damaged. Since it targeted on us I was hoping it would also consider the spinner an appropriate target.”
“It did and good thing it did. That thing was fast but as you said earlier lets get out of here.” “Sounds good to me. Go up I think I know of a way out.”
“Good but what about the shark?”
“I saw some explosions on the sensors in the same direction
it ran. Hopefully it has been taken care of, but we will keep a
sharp eye out for it.”
Mantiee nodded and followed Jonathan’s directions and soon they were skimming along the top of the manmade debris field. After just a minute Jonathan told him to go higher, to pivot the runabout in a certain direction and to slow. Mantiee did that and soon they were watching three ships headed away from the field. One had the unmistakable shape of the shark. On the side they could see it had two holes in it. One was about midships on the shark and the other was back toward the stern. That one was significantly bigger then the other and had very jagged edges. The small warship was leaking air from that hole. It was not traveling at full speed either. The two other ships were spinners. One was untouched as far as they could see but the other one had smaller holes toward the front and a gash along one side. It was the one they had originally hit which had gone spinning away. By the looks of it had hit something probably a jagged piece of some blasted ship. It might have been leaking air also but it was too far away to tell for sure.
Mantiee made the runabout execute a smart looking about face and before it zoomed away at its top speed. Six hours later they were at the outpost and had unloaded their cargo. The outpost was a small station near an area of space not populated or even traveled though much. Miners and other such worked in the area. Just the perfect location to delivery cargo no one should know about. Hopefully there were no pirates there.
The two important items were now in the appropriate hands. Jonathan had warned about the pirates and were told they would watch for them.
They both now walked back to their landing bay with money and credit chips in their pockets. Stores and cafes brought people from all around the station but it wasn’t wall to wall people yet. The smells made Mantiee remember that he hadn’t eaten for a while. They stopped for three different types of meat on a stick and cold water. They had changed and bathed already so Mantiee, and anyone else, only smelled the food. He had placed the bottle in a pocket and it froze his thigh but he could take it for the walk back to the Ant.
After a few bites Mantiee said, “I think I know how those bubbles were able to move.”
He watched Jonathan raise his eyebrows and say, “Oh?”
“Yes, as you discovered they oriented on our drives. I believe that the Zoonu now include something in the make up of the bubbles so that they would be attracted to a certain radiation. The type drives produced. Much like a magnate is attracted to metal.”
Jonathan started to say something but Mantiee raised his hand and said, “Yes, I know steel is attracted to it but if you were to let a small magnate loose and brought a heavy piece of metal to it the magnate would move not the metal. Same thing with those new bubbles.”
“So the faster you go running away the faster they would move after you?”
Mantiee nodded and Jonathan continued, “And the bigger the drive unit the more they would be attracted to you.”
Mantiee nodded and said, “Makes sense to me.”
Jonathan said, “Hmmm, and do you know which cargo the pirates were after?” “I think so,” came the response, “They probably were after something we didn’t have.”
“Oh?” came Jonathan’s surprised response.
“Yes, just before we left the Beta dram station some of the people we had drinks with were hauling a Thrumer treasure chest.”
“One never knows for sure what is in those chests but the Techno terrorists like them.”
“Exactly, back when they were terrorists before they became the guardians of that double system, they had some good finds with a couple of treasure chests. Now they go after each one they can.”
Jonathan said, “That would explain what they were doing
around these parts. They most have caught wind of the find,” he
shook his head then continued, “All of that destruction and lose of lives for something we didn’t even have.”
They walked further and two minutes later Mantiee spoke again.
He said, “Hey, if you want to increase the speed on that runabout of yours I know where you can get a couple of Jaguar drives.”
“Those things are expensive and hard to come by. They would be fast though.”
“I know where you can get some for free. I know someone who knows where a jaguar crashed. Its on a planet that is difficult to get to. All he wants is the star navigation computer and some info in its main terminal. I saw a picture of it. At least two of the auxiliary drives survived the crash. They should be about the right size for your little ship.”
“He would be willing to give those up?” “He doesn’t have much money so they would be your payment.” “I would have to rework the power converter and maybe put in a better power source but those drives could also up the shield power and…”
Mantiee smiled because he knew his friend and knew he would go for it. He also smiled for he had learned that he was a better pilot than he had thought, with a little help from Jonathan he had saved their butts. That made this trip worth it but he would still keep his share.
He continued, “After we go home to pick up your freighter of course. We can back track though that battle field, I still want that power converter cylinder. Your tractor beam should be able to handle it.” They went on arguing about the dangers and benefits of going back into that armed debris field, all the way back to their runabout.
THE END
Last segment of the Roller Coaster Ride. 2,751 words. Next week might be another story revised like this one was. I have two or four others I would like to share. But I also have excerpts from a new book or two.
To this story:
Did they escape? Get blasted or their cargo taken? And what were those pirates after?
Great readers' fun. :)
No way to move the Ant out of the way, Mantiee felt useless and almost dead. A movement, he glanced at Jonathan. He motioned with his hands above his control panel. Mantiee couldn’t see the image he was adjusting-a recording of his last will and testament going out with a last love letter to his wife?
No, a slight noise from outside on the hull. Jonathan must have quickly adjusted the other turret and triggered a very short shot. Two beams short term beams shot out. Both hit the bubble, it popped and the explosion inside triggered. Jonathan fired another shot at another bubble with the same result. Next he grabbed the tractor beam controls and used its beam to grab another bubble on its way to them. He brought it closer then up and over them. It hit the wall right above them exploding.
As pieces of armor rained down on them Mantiee first let out a breath-told his heart to calm and said, ”What are you doing?”
“I am trying to use them to knock us loose.”
“By careful man those things are powerful.”
“I am. I want to make it home. It wouldn’t be good if my wife killed you because we didn’t make it back.”
Mantiee looked at him and just said, “Good.”
Jonathan asked, “What happened to the shark?”
After a quick check Mantiee said, “Two of the bubbles in that group you sent their way hit them. They blasted two others before they pivoted around and took off around the corner with the left overs and two new ones chasing them.”
“Good, now rock this baby and lets get loose before any more show up.”
Mantiee said, “Sounds good to me,“ pressed his hands into the image before him. The Ant began to rock up and down.
The drives started to over heat after a few second so he cut back.
Jonathan said, “Try reversing course but keep it as level as you can and slow at first.”
After a thirty-second cool down he did just that. He tried that is. He slowly brought up the drives to half power but no movement.
Jonathan said, “Try again. Line us up at the same angle we came in on. Go slow again and keep it level.”
Mantiee said, “I’m trying to.”
After another try and failure he angled the ship slightly and tried once more. The cockpit was becoming warm or so it seemed to him. Maybe the environmental controls had been damaged. No time to check. With the drives back on it had all the power it needed.
Despite his thoughts he kept a rock steady hand on the controls. This time with a screech of metal the runabout moved backwards. Mantiee managed to back it up while keeping his eye on the level readout on his control panel. It usually didn’t matter that much if he kept the little ship on a completely level course or not but now he was sweating as he kept barely touching four different touch points.
He shook his head, hoped the head’s controls stayed up. He needed to pee again and he would need a long hot shower when this was done. Not to mention an extra hot wash for the clothes he wore.
He watched the level. A green line on top of a red one showed the Ant’s relationship to the crack it had gotten jammed in. When a tiny bit of red showed he gave the 3-D image the tiniest of touches. Finally the runabout’s wing arrived in the wider part of the crack, probably the section it had slipped into while he had been paying attention to something else. He stared at that crack for a long moment. Space armor didn’t split like that. Dent maybe but not that. He wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of whatever weapon did that. Not even that shark could handle it.
He noticed Jonathan get up. His turn to use the head? Getting a snake? No time to think on it, he wiped sweat from his eyes.
Five-seconds more and he stopped the backward movement of the Ant. He let loose a breath and breathed in deep three times. A moment later he slid the craft sideways until the wing was all the way out. He sighed, wanted to faint.
His friend clipped him on the shoulder and said, “Very good, that's almost as good as I could have done. Now lets get out of here.”
That almost startled Mantiee for he hadn’t noticed that Jonathan had come back. Something tapped the front of his right shoulder. He reached up and felt cold. What? A bottle? He looked at the container he now held. Frizzy water: cold. It contained electrolytes and other good stuff. It tasted just a bit like limes. Before he knew he had moved his other hand he had the top twisted off and drank a third of it. Ohhh that was good.
Jonathan said, “Lets go.”
Mantiee nodded raised the Ant above the large piece they had been stuck in. Just as they cleared the wreckage Mantiee saw something ahead, stared-his lips narrowed, then suddenly he sent the ship down nose first.
Jonathan said, “What? More bubbles?” “No, a missile orienting on us,” came the tense answer.
“A missile? One of those round globe shape ones? I haven’t seen one of those.”
“No, a long straight human type.”
“What? How would one of those survive? If it was launched it would go for some target even if it couldn’t find its main target.”
“I don’t know,” Mantiee said as he steered the craft up followed by a very short hop over a round fat huge canister piece of debris. He dropped down then zipped under a patrol ship with a shuttle design. It was listing to one side so they could see a series of holes blasted along it side. Five, all of which were the same size and the same distance apart. Each hole was just a bit wider then the runabout. He drove the ship up and up way past the patrol craft.
He dived the runabout again and said, “Maybe that missile was knocked out of its tube before it could be launched but after it had been armed. Whatever it’s coming closer fast and I cannot shake it.”
Jonathan said, “Up again and when I say now go back the way we came,“ as he fired the grassers at the missile.
He fired two sets of double short duration beams every couple of seconds. They all missed. It was one smart missile. The missile either moved up and down to avoid the shots or ignored them as they missed on their own. Many hit pieces of debris, sometimes with spectacular results. Mantiee directed the runabout along the underside of a big ship, probably a cruiser, then up as Jonathan had said. Instead of going straight up he steered them on a curving course going to port as well as up.
Finally his partner said now and he flipped the ship over on its back and zoomed back the way they had come. Seconds later the missile crested the piece the had just come over and followed them. Jonathan watched his sensors and directed Mantiee to go to port then starboard. They went though the top potion of that debris field made up of many small pieces of many different ships. Tiny bits sparkled on the Ant’s shields. The missile, however, avoided every piece. Three bubbles started after it but the runabout and missile were going too fast. It would catch them before they would catch it.
Finally Jonathan said to go over this upcoming fragment then down. Mantiee did that with the missile in hot pursuit and closing fast. He thought this ship looked familiar but thought it must be a second one. Seconds later though he saw he had been right. It was the ship with that long crack in it for there flew the second spinner they had fought. It now had its drives going. Jonathan said to aim straight at them. When he glanced at his sensor screen he added something about emergency power.
Mantiee said, “That would use the power for the air and heat.”
Jonathan said, “It will but if we don’t do something we won’t be needing the environmental circuits.”
Mantiee frowned, nodded, switched to emergency power. Jonathan meanwhile had been adjusting his controls so he added power from the rear shields, the grassers and comm to the drives. This amount of power could burn out the drives real fast but they would only need it for a few seconds. He fired the front weapons at the spinner as suddenly their craft acted like it had been kicked and doubled its speed. They zoomed toward the other ship aiming at its center. The ship reacted and fired at it but the shots that hit were absorbed by the shields. Jonathan kept up his firing and soon Mantiee executed a very fast zig to port going around the round ship. It continued to fire. Probably its gunner thought they had been on a suicide run therefore was slow on the uptake that they were no longer in front of it. The Ant continued on along the side of the spinner, then Mantiee zagged back to the center Jonathan said to cut emergency speed as he quickly reestablished the rear shields. Seconds later there was an explosion on the other side of the spinner. The blast easily overwhelmed what was left of that ship’s shields then began to eat into the ship itself. It vaporized much of the front of the spinner while sending small pieces tumbling away. Some of the pieces went flying after the runabout impacting on its rear shields. None were large and none did any damage.
Mantiee said, “Whew, scratch one missile and one pirate.”
Jonathan said, “That missile’s computer most have been damaged. Since it targeted on us I was hoping it would also consider the spinner an appropriate target.”
“It did and good thing it did. That thing was fast but as you said earlier lets get out of here.” “Sounds good to me. Go up I think I know of a way out.”
“Good but what about the shark?”
“I saw some explosions on the sensors in the same direction
it ran. Hopefully it has been taken care of, but we will keep a
sharp eye out for it.”
Mantiee nodded and followed Jonathan’s directions and soon they were skimming along the top of the manmade debris field. After just a minute Jonathan told him to go higher, to pivot the runabout in a certain direction and to slow. Mantiee did that and soon they were watching three ships headed away from the field. One had the unmistakable shape of the shark. On the side they could see it had two holes in it. One was about midships on the shark and the other was back toward the stern. That one was significantly bigger then the other and had very jagged edges. The small warship was leaking air from that hole. It was not traveling at full speed either. The two other ships were spinners. One was untouched as far as they could see but the other one had smaller holes toward the front and a gash along one side. It was the one they had originally hit which had gone spinning away. By the looks of it had hit something probably a jagged piece of some blasted ship. It might have been leaking air also but it was too far away to tell for sure.
Mantiee made the runabout execute a smart looking about face and before it zoomed away at its top speed. Six hours later they were at the outpost and had unloaded their cargo. The outpost was a small station near an area of space not populated or even traveled though much. Miners and other such worked in the area. Just the perfect location to delivery cargo no one should know about. Hopefully there were no pirates there.
The two important items were now in the appropriate hands. Jonathan had warned about the pirates and were told they would watch for them.
They both now walked back to their landing bay with money and credit chips in their pockets. Stores and cafes brought people from all around the station but it wasn’t wall to wall people yet. The smells made Mantiee remember that he hadn’t eaten for a while. They stopped for three different types of meat on a stick and cold water. They had changed and bathed already so Mantiee, and anyone else, only smelled the food. He had placed the bottle in a pocket and it froze his thigh but he could take it for the walk back to the Ant.
After a few bites Mantiee said, “I think I know how those bubbles were able to move.”
He watched Jonathan raise his eyebrows and say, “Oh?”
“Yes, as you discovered they oriented on our drives. I believe that the Zoonu now include something in the make up of the bubbles so that they would be attracted to a certain radiation. The type drives produced. Much like a magnate is attracted to metal.”
Jonathan started to say something but Mantiee raised his hand and said, “Yes, I know steel is attracted to it but if you were to let a small magnate loose and brought a heavy piece of metal to it the magnate would move not the metal. Same thing with those new bubbles.”
“So the faster you go running away the faster they would move after you?”
Mantiee nodded and Jonathan continued, “And the bigger the drive unit the more they would be attracted to you.”
Mantiee nodded and said, “Makes sense to me.”
Jonathan said, “Hmmm, and do you know which cargo the pirates were after?” “I think so,” came the response, “They probably were after something we didn’t have.”
“Oh?” came Jonathan’s surprised response.
“Yes, just before we left the Beta dram station some of the people we had drinks with were hauling a Thrumer treasure chest.”
“One never knows for sure what is in those chests but the Techno terrorists like them.”
“Exactly, back when they were terrorists before they became the guardians of that double system, they had some good finds with a couple of treasure chests. Now they go after each one they can.”
Jonathan said, “That would explain what they were doing
around these parts. They most have caught wind of the find,” he
shook his head then continued, “All of that destruction and lose of lives for something we didn’t even have.”
They walked further and two minutes later Mantiee spoke again.
He said, “Hey, if you want to increase the speed on that runabout of yours I know where you can get a couple of Jaguar drives.”
“Those things are expensive and hard to come by. They would be fast though.”
“I know where you can get some for free. I know someone who knows where a jaguar crashed. Its on a planet that is difficult to get to. All he wants is the star navigation computer and some info in its main terminal. I saw a picture of it. At least two of the auxiliary drives survived the crash. They should be about the right size for your little ship.”
“He would be willing to give those up?” “He doesn’t have much money so they would be your payment.” “I would have to rework the power converter and maybe put in a better power source but those drives could also up the shield power and…”
Mantiee smiled because he knew his friend and knew he would go for it. He also smiled for he had learned that he was a better pilot than he had thought, with a little help from Jonathan he had saved their butts. That made this trip worth it but he would still keep his share.
He continued, “After we go home to pick up your freighter of course. We can back track though that battle field, I still want that power converter cylinder. Your tractor beam should be able to handle it.” They went on arguing about the dangers and benefits of going back into that armed debris field, all the way back to their runabout.
THE END
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Short story serial: Science Fiction tale part three
March 19
This week I am doing part three of Roller Coaster Ride. A Science Fiction thriller as in will they escape or not. As I mentioned in earlier post I am revising this old story as I go, I believe this week's segment is the best so far in regards to the writing. I got myself to spend some extra time on it plus it didn't need quite as much work as the previous segments.
For those who may not have seen the first two parts two friends in a small runabout are on the run from a gang of pirates. Jonathan was delivering two very important cargos when the two sets of pirates came up them. Mantiee who was along for the ride happened to be piloting. He ran for a huge debris field from a space battle only a few days before this. So far he hasn't been able to lose the chasers. And they found out that some of the weapons in the debris field are still hot.
This is the longest segment at 2,500 and a few words. And obviously there will be four parts to this story after all.
So:
Jonathan pressed a button projected in front of him. Raised a hand and made a motion as if he twisted a dial.
He said, “Got it with the tractor beam.”
Mantiee said a little loud, “Tractor beam? It’s already coming our way on its own.”
“Just head toward those others and when I say dive fast.”
Mantiee steered the little craft toward the group of bubbles and as he did the bubbles moved closer to them.
He started to say something but Jonathan beat him to it, “I know. Its what I expected, just keep going.”
Mantiee looked at his friend like he was mad but kept going.
Seconds later Jonathan said, “Dive!”
Mantiee immediately pressed a double switch and a second one nearby. The ship’s nose dipped down suddenly. As it did Jonathan manipulated the controls for the tractor beam. As the ship dived the bubble kept going controlled by the tractor beam. It ran smack into a piece of debris drifting nearby. The piece happened to by in front of the group headed their way. As the bubble popped it released the explosive force inside it. The explosion broke up the piece of debris and sent pieces of it flying in three directions. One of those directions was toward the oncoming bubbles. Some of those popped when hit by slivers. Those not hit were sent flying every way. Most ended up hitting something and popping.
Mantiee said, “So you did know what you were doing. Man, if just one of those things had hit us, at the very least, it would have taken out our shields leaving us naked and it probably would have damaged other systems.”
He leveled off then dived under a small something or another floating right in front of them. As they came from underneath it he steered the ship up. Up further then the point he had started the dive from. Next he leveled off for a count of ten then sank for a few seconds. He steered in between two huge ship fragments that Jonathan pointed to. As they came out from in-between the two pieces they almost ran into a spinner coming to investigate the explosions. Mantiee let Jonathan fire three asteroid clearers and one set from both of the small double grasser turrets. These produced a beam only 6 cm wide. There was a turret located under each wing very close to where the wing met the fuselage.
The crew of the other ship most have been just as surprise as they were since it took them a couple of seconds to react. When they did the first weapon they fired was the gamma plasma cannons. On this modal of this spinner there were eight sets. The barrels stuck out of slight bulges in the base.
A part of Mantiee’s mid insisted on telling him that instead of being full turrets these were slots that allowed the barrels to go up and down only. They could fire almost straight up, straight down and any where in between.
Three sets were in the right position to fire at him and his friend. Six streams of plasma shot out from the bottom of the spinner toward the little craft. Just the fact that they were streams of plasma straight from the drives would have been bad enough but these had been charged with gamma radiation. That made them stronger without increasing their power needs much. Two sets hit the ship as Mantiee frantically tried to turn the runabout faster than it should. His fingers punched at the control images hard enough for him to feel the power of the projection field. That was not a good thing.
Even though Mantiee and Jonathan wore safety straps both were almost shaken out of their seats when the beams hit them. As the runabout finished the turn another stream impacted their shields. Something sparked in the back. Mantiee hoped it was nothing important, but he smelled burnt fiber optics.
The spinner had been turning in the opposite direction the runabout had taken but it took them only seconds to reverse the direction. Too soon they were ready to fire again. His sensor showed him that it had been hit by at least two of the grasser shots as well as two of the rockets Jonathan had fired. No damage. They can’t get lucky all the time.
Jonathan told Mantiee to pivot the ship when he said now.
Mantiee just nodded since he was trying to run from the spinner and at the same time keep from bumping into the side of the very large fragment they were zipping by. It was a long piece and had protrusions sticking out every now and then. Jonathan was continually firing the grassers managing to hit the spinner a number of times. It still caught up with them and pulled along side.
Jonathan said, “Now!”
Mantiee pivoted the runabout toward the attacking ship right where a depression appeared. It must be for docking or repairs Mantiee thought. The suddenness of the move surprised the other ship. Jonathan hit it with two rounds from the blasters. All eight energy balls hit. He next fired the grassers once more and as he did their foe shot back with its GP cannons and two of the mini-missiles they liked to carry. This time two streams hit quickly followed by one mini-missile. The impact of the combined strike sent the runabout spinning away. The view window spun around, Mantiee had to close his eyes or his last meal would come up. Bile had already.
The shields fluctuated just as Mantiee managed to get the runabout’s course straighten out. A sudden grinding metal against metal sound made him “yip”. Jonathan cursed which made Mantiee want to stare at him for a half second. Before he could decide what they had run into a kind of crunching noise happened. The forward movement of the ship stopped abruptly. Mantiee was jerked into the seat belts, then back into his seat. His head felt like it hit something hard dissipate the seat padding.
A buzz sounded loud. Oh oh that was the structural integrity alarm. A readout warned, “starboard wing was in danger of separating from the main hull”
Mantiee shut the drives down even as Jonathan said to, just as another readout showed that the drives were overheating. He waved his hand in front of him to bring the sensor images closer.
The spinner drifted away. From the damage the sensors showed The first set of ion bolstered blaster shots accompanied by four grasser beams had brought down its shields. The next set had hit the bare metal of the ship. One of those punched though a patch. Air came out. Another one must have landed on one of their turrets. It did not damaged it much but the ion charge had disrupted its electronics so it could not fire. One grasser turret had been aimed just right so its two beams dug into the base of the attacking ship. One of those found a drive unit burning a pencil thin hole though it. That might be why the ship was now drifting. Its helmsman had had to shut down the other two drives, Mantiee thought, because they had started to push the ship out of control.
A sigh, then he sat back, Mantiee said, “I think we are stuck.”
Jonathan said, “Yes, I figured that.”
Mantiee said, “What is the chance of that happening though? Its got to be huge.”
“Whatever it is, we did it. We can celebrate later. Try reverse.”
“I have already, but I can try again as I wiggle the runabout.”
He did, then tried again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his partner startle. He bent forward and adjusted controls.
Without turning Jonathan said, “Stop the drives now! Turn them off.”
His warning had such a urgent tone that Mantiee immediately obeyed.
He asked, “You see something?”
Jonathan said, “Take a look out the side view window.”
Mantiee did and as he saw, what his partner had seen on his sensors, he paled. Three of the energy globes they had had trouble with were floating by. They were quite a distance from them but evidently could still come their way.
Jonathan explained that he had notice them on his sensor screen. They had come around the corner of the piece they were stuck to. It seemed like something was pulling them. There was more then just the three Mantiee had seen.
They sat there for a two and a half minutes.
Mantiee spoke up, “They still there?”
“Yes. One might be out of reach but the others are still drifting by as slow as bubbles in a slow breeze.”
“If they stay around for much longer I am going to have to use the head.”
“Well, it looks like we will be here a while and the head is working so go ahead.”
Mantiee unstrapped himself and was just standing when Jonathan spoke.
He said, “Turn everything off now,” he started flipping every power switch in reach. He had used that urgent tone again so Mantiee dropped back down in his seat and started turning off every power control.
Jonathan said, “I mean every thing. The lights and environmental controls also.”
Mantiee looked at him funny but he touched the power controls images, one by one. When he was done he turned to Jonathan.
He asked, “What more bubbles?”
Jonathan just pointed out the view window again. This time Mantiee saw a more deadly sight then the energy globes. It was the shark coasting on by. It was small looking because of the distance but he knew it was deadly. They would not be able to bring down its shields as easy as they had the spinners. Its design was typical for sharks: two narrow triangles set base to base. The second one was much shorter and slanted downward a little. Two nacelles rested near the sides underneath the rear triangle. These were where the drives were located and if it was the same as the other sharks Mantiee had seen the forward end of each tube like nacelle had four blaster barrels sticking out of it. Two were the largest size for that style of blaster and two were the size under that. He shook his head, they probably won’t be ion charged but there were big enough to cause big problems for the little runabout even so.
Along each side of the front triangle were three larger double laser turrets. They would be at 25 cms. It also would have two turrets with more of the full size blasters. The aft had four gamma plasma cannon emplacements and two more lasers. These would be twice the size as the ones the spinners used. The side lasers and the GPCs were in slots so the barrels could elevate up and down but not sideways.
Mantiee spoke, “Oh oh. But they will be able to detect us. Our life signs will show up easily around here.”
“I am betting that they will be looking for drives and other energy signatures not life signs. If they detect our batteries they will hopefully think they are back up batteries still functioning in this wreckage. There probably are some still providing power to busted systems.” Jonathan answered.
“Sooner or later they will figure we are running silent and
check for life signs.”
“True but by then we will have to think of something and I think I know what.”
Mantiee looked where Jonathan was looking and said, “Uh huh, we are not going to surround ourselves with those energy bubbles. Way too dangerous.”
“I have another idea but that one has merit maybe we should do it instead.”
“No, no. Forget I thought of it. Your idea is better.”
“You don’t even know what it is.”
“Its got to be better then that because it would be safer.”
Jonathan smiled and said, “It is actually but you should have seen the look on your face when you thought the only reason we were going to do it was because you thought it up. Now we are going to have to time this right. We need to pre start the power source and aim the grasser turrets.”
“Aim the turrets? One can only shot at the piece we are stuck on.”
“I know but we may be able to use that one to weaken where our wing is stuck.”
They busied themselves for a while. The searching ship had moved on but it would be back. The spinner still seemed to be drifting. If they had completely blown that drive it might drift until someone came to help or the helmsman decided to control the spinner’s thrust with only two drives. He might be able to do it with both at half power. That would get them out of here and to one of their partners. The crew of the shark must not care if they survive or not or so Mantiee hoped.
Jonathan not only aimed the turrets were he wanted them but he used the tractor beam to move some of the free floating globes. Powered only by batteries the tractor beam was on low power but the globes were easy to move. He managed to arrange five of them before the shark came back. This time it was closer.
Mantiee said, “Why do I have a certain base line popping into my head at the moment?”
He watched Jonathan glance at him before he said, “Ok power up. Time for us to leave.”
Mantiee touched the controls for the power supply and seconds later started the drives. The shark turned suddenly and made a bee line for them. Jonathan used the tractor beam to give the cluster of deadly bubbles a push. He had moved five but five more had joined them which meant ten moved toward the shark.
He said, “Its drives were more powerful then the runabout’s so I think they would zero in on it instead of us especially with the push I just gave them.”
As he spoke Mantiee noticed that he adjusted the firing controls with a wave of his fingers. Finally he fired the grasser on the side of the fragment they were stuck to. He reached to the image and slowly rotated his hand which moved the turret as the two pencil thin beams cut though the armor of the ship fragment way too slow for Mantiee. Suddenly the computer chirped, Mantiee looked then squeaked out his friend’s name loudly. Sweat formed on his forehead and under his arms again. They were clammy enough already. He could smell his own sweat, Jonathan’s and burnt components with the environmental controls still off.
Jonathan turned and looked out the side view port. He must have seen what Mantiee and the computer had seen: a bubble coming straight at them. Mantiee was glad he had used the head after all for that one was close and moving in fast for a slow bubble. Mantiee took a second to think that some gum would be good for his last taste.
End segment
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