Chapter 2
February 26th, 2279
February 26th, 2279
Mars Orbit – Deimos II Space Station
Sergeant-Major Michaels and Cadets
“Welcome to space! Well, as close to space you’re going to get until you receive your postings. From here on out, you’ll be training in low-G and zero-G environments. You’ll also be piloting the Swift trainer. The Swift is a little larger than the Fangs you’ve become accustomed to, so get yourselves familiar with it.” Michaels was leading the class of cadets from reception through the commons area of the gravity ring. The station was rather old, and had been built before gravity generators had been invented, so still used spinning rings to generate false gravity. It was disorienting, but got the job done.
It had been two weeks since Shyla had stepped out of the simulator to a cheering crowd. Everything had changed for her since then. Sasha didn’t leave the simulator for a long time, and when she did, she immediately proclaimed that Shyla had somehow cheated. The crowd laughed at her and Sasha left the room with tears streaming down her face; her fan club nowhere to be found. Shyla found that she was suddenly quite popular for taking down the Academy idol in such a spectacular showing. But the biggest change for Shyla, was the fact that she had indeed found her back-seater. She knew it when she got out of the simulator and saw his smiling face. It was a shock that a man she so despised was the same person she’d been looking for, for so long. Even so, Nate still irritated the hell out of her. Arguments were numerous in number, but their teamwork was nothing short of amazing.
Since then, she and Nate had been inseparable, training together in the simulators and in the real Fangs. Not surprisingly, rumors erupted of a love affair between them, which were so untrue they were comical. Still, the time they spent together training gave credence to the rumors and they flourished. Sasha wasn’t idle either during the last two weeks. She flung herself into her training. She was hardly seen, and if she was, it was always in a holo-manual or the training simulator. Sasha had no intention of letting Shyla remain the victor any longer than she had to, and trained for the day she could challenge her again. Shyla wasn’t oblivious to Sasha’s intent, but didn’t see anything further she could do about the situation, so she concentrated on her own work.
For the last month of training, the cadets were moved to Deimos II. It was an old space station that shared the same orbit as its namesake, the moon Deimos. The station was used to train cadets in zero-G combat and maneuvers. Since the majority of the cadets were destined for careers in the UTF Space Navy, this training was a must. Most cadets usually preferred this part of the course as well seeing the obvious uses. The UTF had severely increased its number of Space Naval vessels in the last twenty-five years, and so was always requesting more pilots for the carriers. Shyla’s class was just one of fifteen from Melas Chasma Academy
“Your dorms are in the blue-block. Yes, I know, that’s not part of the gravity ring. That’s on purpose, trainees,” Michaels continued as they walked along. “Gravity is something everyone takes for granted and is sorely missed once it’s gone. Therefore, you all will learn how to eat, sleep, bathe, and shit in zero-G. It’ll be fun, trust me. Oh, and ladies, complimentary bottles of hair spray have been provided. Use it to keep your hair in place, or get it cut, your choice.” The cadets had been groaning over the zero-G living conditions, and now a wave of disgust rose from the female cadets. Many, like Sasha, had refused the close cut that was still a requirement for men, keeping their long locks. The thought of using hair spray for them was revolting, but getting their hair cut was worse. Shyla could care less either way, but it was simpler to just spray it and be done.
“Alright, room assignments are posted on the walls of the dorm, if you have any complaints, don’t bring them to me. Space launch and ‘death course’ training begins tomorrow oh-dark-thirty. You’re released for today. Explore the ship, get settled. See you all tomorrow in Launching Bay 13. Dismissed.” Michaels saluted and walked off in the direction of the Station Manager’s office to check in, leaving the cadets to fret over his so-called ‘death course’. Nate came up behind Shyla as was his custom; her mighty shadow.
“I hear Earth should be coming up in a bit. Should be an impressive sight. I haven’t seen home in almost a year, would you like to come see it?” Nate asked. Shyla, being born on Mars, sometimes forgot Nate was Terran, and not only was away from home training, but was completely off-planet doing so.
“Sure, Nate. Let’s take a look,” she said after a moment. She didn’t have anything better to do, but wasn’t quite sure why Nate wanted to take her along. He had plenty of friends from Earth, and more than a few were woman. Shyla almost felt like he should be asking one of them. But her desire to learn more about her enigmatic EWO proved stronger.
11-13-07
Shyla followed Nate up to the observatory deck. They had to cross into the non-gravity section of the station as the observatory was situated at the top of the station and didn’t rotate. They floated through the large circular entranceway and grabbed onto a railing. Shyla was still getting used to maneuvering in micro-gravity and ended up giving herself too much momentum. She had to struggle against the railing to keep from plowing into a wall.
“Woh, you alright?” Nate said with a laugh.
“Yeah, just peachy,” she said, blushing a bit. Some of the other observers were concealing grins and chuckles, and none very well.
“Let’s see,” Nate said as he pulled up a holo-display. “Earth should be,” he paused reading the star chart, “over by that window.”
They floated over to the empty window and maglocked their boots to the deck. Like all persons aboard the station, the cadets were required to wear their locksuits. The built-in maglocks on the boots were controlled via the suits’ built-in combracer.
Nate had pulled the holo-display with him and punched in a few keys. A small square appeared at the side of the window, giving a partial magnification to the starfield there. It was merely a bright star to the naked eye, but with the magnification, they could see the beautiful blue world coming into view in all its glory. Still small, but the light reflecting off the oceans gave it a light brilliance, like a shiny stone sparkling under water.
Shyla watched Nate as he stared at the globe, obviously a little homesick. Shyla had been born on Mars and had never been to Earth, even though she’d served for a stint at the Luna Naval Academy
“Where are you from, back on Earth, Nate?” she asked.
“Home?” he said distractedly, still watching the planet meander across the window. “It’s a small place, not much really, and it had a different name a long time ago, but now it’s called Fawke’s Retreat. But it is beautiful. It had been one of the first to be rebuilt and re-terraformed after the war, so nature has come back full force there. It’s lush and green, with a small river running through the backyard. Even has fish,” he chuckled. Shyla had never seen a fish, except for in a book.
“Sounds beautiful. I’d like to see it sometime,” she began. She doubted she ever would, but it would be nice to see Earth once. She hadn’t noticed, but she’d moved in closer to Nate as he’d been talking and staring at his home. She was barely a finger’s width away.
“Next time we’re on Earth, you have an open invitation. Your always welcome-“ he was rudely interrupted as the deck rumbled and the lights went out throwing them into darkness illuminated by the ruddy hue of Mars below. An alarm claxon began blaring, and protective armor plating rolled up covering the windows. Red emergency lights kicked in and the other observers began to panic. A few military personnel left for their posts. Nate tapped his combracer, cool as ever, and pulled up the station log.
“There’s been an accident,” he said coolly. “Looks like part of the gravity ring’s been hit by debris and purged. The purge was automatic, and unfortunately people were still in the section. Damage crews have launched, but the rescue vehicles are coming from the other side. The momentum of the section is enough to launch it spaceward. They’ll be hard pressed to catch up,” Nate finished up his report and looked at Shyla.
“And you want us to break regulations and take a fighter out there?” she said with a hand on her hip.
Nate punched the button on his extender ring and locked his mask in place with a snap. After the pressurization he said, “Yep. And when was breaking regulations an issue with you?” he asked with a coy smile.
“Good point,” she conceded as she locked her own suit and disengaged the maglocks. They floated down out of the observatory and into the central spire, heading for the large hangar section of the station. Shyla bluffed their away around a frazzled technician sent to watch the door and gained access to the Swift hangar. She followed Nate through the air, lazily gliding in a controlled spin to keep herself on target. She managed to judge the distance right this time and came right on target to the pilot hatch. She placed her palm on the panel and the cockpit opened. Nate followed right behind into his seat at her back.
They did away with most of the pre-flight checks and called up Flight Control on the channel. It had taken them a little less than two minutes to get to their seats.
“Deimos Control, this is Swift-“ she paused then called behind her, “Which number are we, Nate?”
“One-two,” he answered back.
“This is Swift-one-two responding to emergency. We are ready to launch and can rendezvous with stranded section in,” she paused to pull up her navigation display. “In niner-zero seconds, over.”
“Who is this? Get off the radio, this is an emergency situation and damage response teams are handling it,” the Controller sounded slightly panicked.
“Control, please confirm: rescue flight shows ETA of ten-zero-minus, is that correct, please confirm. We can ETA section in niner-zero, over.”
“Get off the line, Swift-one-two. Everything is under co-“ the controller went silent.
“You’d better be damned sure of that timing Redding
“That’s an affirm,” Nate called, and Shyla stifled a small smile.
“Figured. Alright, go play hero, we’ll talk after.” Warning lights began to flash in the bay warning of immediate depressurization. The bay was empty other than the two pilots in their Swift. The airlocks sealed and the lights dimmed. There was a sudden rush of air and Shyla watched the gauge on her display quickly disappear, and then the large hangar bay doors began to creep open.
“Swift-one-two go for hands-on launch. Good luck,” the controller came back on all professional.
Shyla placed her fingers into the control plane and tilted the verniers, giving them a boost of power. The Swift lifted gently from her moorings. Shyla expertly swung the nose around and applied power to the engines. The Swift accelerated out of the bay and into the vastness of space. Nate was on the radar and already tracking the segment. It wasn’t too hard to find, something of that size and shape. He pushed the coordinates up to Shyla’s navigation screen. Shyla pointed the ship in the direction and gave the engines a burn.
“Real space-flight what you predicted?” Nate asked from behind her.
“Mostly. The simulator missed some of the finer nuances though,” she said distractedly, most of her concentration focused on her controls.
“Approaching target. Five-four seconds and counting,” he reported. “I just had a thought, how are we going to stop the segment?”
“We can’t, obviously,” Shyla said. “We just need to slow it down for the rescue vehicles to catch up.”
“Right. This…” he paused, a grin spreading across his face that she knew was there even though she couldn’t see him,” is going to require shooting at it, isn’t it?”
“Yep.”
“Rollin’.”
The Swift reached the stranded section just two seconds off of their original estimate. Shyla flipped the Swift on end, breaking out of standard flight orientation, while at the same time leaving the Swift on a course that arced over the station so that they ended up in front of it, facing it, and moving in the same direction and speed as the station. Nate loaded up two of the dummy warhead projectiles and aimed at the large docking collars extending off the sides of the segment. They were unpopulated sections, and were designed as load-bearing structures. Nate fired off the rounds and they buried into the heavy structures. The impact on both sides didn’t seem to phase the section’s momentum in the least.
“We’re going to need another idea,” he said after watching the disappointing results.
“How much of a load is the docking clamp rated for?” Shyla asked while keeping an eye on her relative position to the segment.
“Umm, quite a bit,” Nate said while starting to pull up design specs. “Wait, you’re not thinking of doing what I think you’re going to do, right? Because, well, that could go badly.”
“It was your idea to come out here Nate. What’s the load rating?”
Nate was already doing calculations. “Probably enough. My concern is the station hull. If it doesn’t hold, it won’t matter.”
“Well, let’s give it a try.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?”
“Yep.” Shyla kicked the fighter nose up with the belly towards the segment. She adjusted her relative velocity and eased it towards the segment. With a soft thud, she made contact and retracted the docking claws on the belly of her Swift. The clamp locked in place securing them to the station.
“Ok, here we go. Here’s to bad ideas,” she said the diverted all power to her verniers and pointed all of them straight up relative to the Swift. There was an immediately protesting and groaning of metal, but Shyla kept the throttle maxed.
“It’s not enough, Shyla,” Nate said after a moment of solid thrusting. “We just don’t have enough power to counter the mass of this thing.”
“So we need more thrust.” Shyla opened up the communications line. “Can anybody on the station segment hear me? Is anyone there?”
She waited a few moments and repeated the message. After another moment, a voice came back, “Yes, we can hear you. This is Ensign Fisher. I’ve got a portable communicator on my combracer. Are you the rescue party?”
“Not quite, we’re the advanced party you could say. What’s the condition inside?”
“Stable. I have everyone bunched up in the center section. Everyone has locksuits sealed, so we’re good on O2 for right now.”
“Ok, I want you to seal off the left and right wings of your segment. The airlock systems still working?”
“Yes, ma’am. Give me a minute and we’ll get them sealed off.”
“Excellent,” and then to Nate, “undock us. I have another idea. We have live ammo on this bird right?”
“Oh no.”
“Oh yeah.” The Swift released the clamp and drifted forward a bit. Shyla brought her verniers around and powered out some distance between her and the segment. “We’re going to make a racket. Left and right sides.”
“Yeah, I got you. Locking on the sections. Birds one and two are up and ready.”
“Fisher, everything ready?”
“Yes, ma’am. We’re sealed in the center section.”
“Alright, have everyone brace for a little jolt.”
“Little jolt, ma’am, what are you planning on, wait, oh holy crap. Everyone, brace for impact! Hold onto any railings or pillar supports as best you can!” and the ensign killed his commline.
“I guess they’re ready. Let loose, EWO!”
Nate depressed his trigger and both missiles fired from their tubes running hot and true. They hit precisely on target exploding on impact. Nate had dulled down the yield for a more precise demolition, and to ensure that the explosion wouldn’t breach the center section. Immediately, air exploded out into space with amazing force. The segment shuddered and stalled. Shyla had to redirect her verniers to reverse speed to keep up with the rapidly slowing station. Nate started laughing.
“Hot damn it worked! The segment has stopped its acceleration and is slowing down. Deimos Navigation shows that the rescue vehicles will be able to catch up in the next ten minutes.”
“Swift-one-two to Ensign Fisher, are you still there?” Shyla called out.
“Yes ma’am. A little banged up, but we’re definitely still living. And ma’am, just between you and me, I think our definitions of ‘little jolt’ are in complete disagreement.”
Shyla laughed, “Roger that, Ensign. Swift-one-two out.”
“Swift-one-two, this is Deimos control,” said the same panicky controller from before, but had since regained composure. “We’re showing sufficient slowing in the segment’s velocity to allow for rescue operation. Sergeant-Major Michaels says that congratulations are in order, but you don’t deserve them. He’s going on about something about damages to station property and to report to his office as soon as you return. May God have mercy on your souls Swift-one-two.”
Nate began laughing. “I’d say this was a good first day in space. I can see this partnership is going to be most interesting!”
Shyla had nothing to add, but couldn’t help from laughing as well.
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