Authors: Doug J. Cooper
“The defense array didn’t see the scout,” she said. “So we
know the cloak works. Do you think it hides us from the Kardish?”
“I’d say yes. On their inbound flight, we passed so close
they practically hit us. They either didn’t see us or ignored us.” Sid checked
the time. “Lucy’s been flying toward the dreadnaught, and we’re about three
hours out. Since we’re still alive, I’d say they can’t see us coming.”
Sid activated a wall panel, and they studied the Kardish
flagship together. Menacing in its silent presence, the huge black tapered
cylinder, devoid of external features, orbited their home world.
A swarm of drones, apparently having returned from Earth,
approached the vessel. A massive hangar door, midway down the length of the
dreadnaught, lumbered open to greet them. The drones flew through, and the
hangar door slid closed.
“How are you and Lenny going to get inside?” She couldn’t
begin to imagine how that might work.
“I’m more worried about how long he and I can survive once
we’re in, and if we can figure out a way to take them out if you don’t make it
back in time.”
Listening to their conversation,
Lenny paused in his work to picture Cheryl stepping from the shower. The hot
and cramped conditions of the engine room thwarted his imagination from
providing details of the scene the way he liked it. Disappointed at the lost
opportunity, he resolved to place the camball in Sid’s compartment when he had
the chance.
Standing on a toolbox, he leaned forward to get a better
look at a fitting. He’d attached a cubby seat to one drone and was finishing up
on a second. Sid hadn’t given him a reason for the task. The brute had issued
the “request” in his usual manner, and Lenny was too intimidated to ask for a
reason, let alone refuse to help.
He understood from what he’d heard that Sid wanted him as
his partner in the adventures to come. He was flattered until he heard that
Cheryl would fly the scout back to Earth alone. Given this, his mind rushed to
a frightening conclusion.
The crazy bastard plans on riding a drone onto the
dreadnaught. And he thinks I will too.
He looked at the two death machines, each modestly bigger
than he was and fitted with a cubby seat, sitting ready for deployment. Fear
flooded through him.
At that moment, Lenny toyed with a philosophy that might
guide his future.
Never participate in anything that ends in certain death
.
He believed it should be one of his core principles, yet he found himself
putting final touches on the second cubby seat anyway. If nothing else, it kept
his hands busy while his mind drifted.
Without consciously directing his thoughts, he dissected the
words in the conversation he’d heard. They first seemed to be talking about the
new direct ground support technology Sid had mentioned. Yet they spoke as if it
was a single male—having Juice get “him” back in the game, and Cheryl using the
scout to retrieve “him.”
They aren’t talking about a collection of people and
crystals. This is the super AI. And apparently “his” name is Criss.
He considered his options and acknowledged he faced a
lose-lose situation. He once had a professor who asked questions with no good
answers. He’d hated that class because he thought the idea foolish.
There’s
always a best answer
. He now realized how naive he’d been.
Sticking with Cheryl and the scout seemed like the best
opportunity to get his hands on this Criss AI. But the Kardish wreaked havoc on
Earth. If they weren’t stopped, his quest for wealth and power would be
pointless. Criss needed to join the fight, and soon, or Lenny would have no
family, friends, school, career, or semblance of a society to return to.
Scans indicated that drones flew sorties near the Crystal
Research complex and points nearby. If he went with Cheryl on the scout, he’d
be flying into the middle of a hot zone.
It’s one thing to risk failing his
courses to get the super crystal. Dying for it falls squarely into the category
of “lose.”
So maybe he should help Sid. But did the guy really plan to
strap himself to a drone and ride across open space to attack an alien vessel
the size of a mountain? Words like “lunatic” and “insane” flashed through his
mind.
Yet he’d watched Sid rescue Cheryl. The guy had never
hesitated or showed a moment of doubt. He’d jumped from the ship with the
confidence of someone who did that sort of thing every day, and, bam, minutes
later had ridden the line out of the hole with the girl in his arms. Lenny
hadn’t seen a vid that thrilling in forever. His mind drifted to different
words, like “heroic” and “fearless.”
But what is Sid’s endgame? If Cheryl flies away, how is
he going to get the drones inside the dreadnaught? And if he does get on board,
what happens next? Is he going to fight the whole ship by himself? Or hide
until the pretty girl shows up with the super AI?
The odds were stacked so high against Sid’s success that,
even with a crazy hero leading the charge, it, too, ended in certain death. No
matter how Lenny looked at it, his choices were lose and lose.
Do the noble thing
, he scolded himself. Sid was the
one person taking the fight to the enemy’s door. The idealist in Lenny wanted
to help, but what did he have to offer? And how could he overcome his
petrifying fear to provide any help at all?
He tested the cinch straps that held the riders to the seats
during flight and, satisfied he’d done the best he could, plopped his butt down
on the toolbox. Rubbing his temples, he struggled to find a best answer. He
tasted bile and grimaced.
* * *
Sid entered the engine room to find
Lenny clutching his stomach and rocking back and forth. “You all right, bud?”
he asked. His eyes shifted to the drones and he smiled. He grabbed one of the
cubby seats and tugged on it, his biceps bulging through his clothes from the
effort.
“Nice work.” He crossed his arms and leaned back against
some pipes as he studied the young man.
“Please tell me you’ve thought this through,” Lenny said in
a plaintive bleat.
The brainstorm of riding a drone onto the dreadnaught had
gelled for Sid in two steps. He had the virtual experience of riding one as it
worked its way through Lunar Base during Cheryl’s rescue. That planted the seed
of the idea. Later, as he’d watched swarms of drones fly through the hangar
door of the Kardish vessel, he’d thought of a way on board the alien ship.
His plan, to the extent he’d thought it through, was to have
Cheryl fly the scout behind a returning swarm. She’d release the two drones
into the midst of the pack and make a hasty exit in case the Kardish detected
something amiss.
Cheryl would take the scout on a mad dash to Earth to get
the rest of the team. He and Lenny, strapped to the drones, would blend in with
the swarm. Lenny’s job was to pilot them both through the hangar door and onto
the dreadnaught.
“These are Kardish drones you’ve been working on, so they
won’t be viewed as intruders by the dreadnaught defense systems.” He didn’t
mention that Criss had reprogrammed the drone crystals. He hoped that enough of
their original identity remained to make the statement true.
“So in this fantasy,” said Lenny, “we swoop onto the Kardish
ship. Then what?”
“We land.”
“And then what?”
“We find cover and hide.”
Lenny clutched his stomach and resumed rocking.
“Look, Len. I don’t have everything worked out. But if the
two of us can get inside, we set the stage for changing the game. Two against
thousands isn’t where I’m headed. We land. We hide. And then we find a way to
muck up the works.” He squatted down so he was at eye level with Lenny. “Trust
me on this one. Breaking stuff is a whole lot easier than keeping it working.”
A tear rolled down Lenny’s cheek. “I can’t do it.” He
blinked rapidly and looked at his feet.
Sid stood up and looked at the top of Lenny’s head. “Sure
you can. You flew like an ace when you piloted through Lunar Base. This is
easier. Just follow the crowd.”
Lenny looked up at him, his face streaked with tears. “I get
sick. Okay? Hell, I throw up on sim rides. And this is a whole lot scarier.” He
tossed a ring seal he’d been fidgeting with onto the deck. “I can’t do what
you’re asking.”
Sid turned to face the pipes he’d been leaning against.
Propping his arms on a cross pipe, he cradled his chin and looked absently into
the works of the engine room, searching for a solution.
He planned on navigating from one drone while Lenny piloted
them both. He’d scan the scene, identify opportunities as they presented
themselves, and tell Lenny where to fly. He couldn’t navigate and pilot by
himself.
“You know what blinders are?” asked Sid.
“Some sort of sim game from back when you were a kid?”
Sid laughed. He turned to Lenny and leaned back against the
duct. “Older than that. Horse blinders. As in the animal?” He lifted his hands,
fingers straight up, and pushed them on either side of his face next to his
eyes. “We’ll shroud your space hood so your field of view is narrow. You won’t
be able to see anything but your com, and that’s all you need to pilot.”
Sid pointed to the scout’s bulkhead. “The scary sights are
out there right now. But the walls hide them so they don’t bother you. Let’s
build on that.”
Lenny shook his head. “I’ll still know. I’ve tried the mind-over-fear
thing before. It doesn’t help.”
Wary of his next option but short on time, Sid took the
chance. “We have military meds on board that eliminate vertigo and give you a
boost of confidence. The medical unit can tailor the stuff to your body. You’ll
feel like Attila the Hun leading a conquest.”
“Yeah?” Lenny lifted his head. He sat for a moment, then
said, “I want to try it before we go. I need to know it works. If I lock up out
there, we’re both dead.”
Sid smiled. “Let’s go meet Cheryl. You two haven’t been
properly introduced.”
* * *
Lenny followed Sid onto the scout’s
bridge. Cheryl sat in the pilot’s seat, and he could see the back of her head.
But he wasn’t looking at her. He was fascinated by the way she’d arranged her
displays. She stacked them in an arcing formation, just like he did.
Sure, he would’ve put the course projection maps on the left
side. Then he saw her swipe, swipe, tap.
Wow, I gotta try that next time I’m
in the seat.
She kept a running dialogue with Lucy as she laid out a flight
plan. Her hands moved with confidence. She didn’t hesitate. She never tweaked.
She just…flew.
And in the seconds he stood there watching, she used a trick
he’d never seen before to line up their approach vector. His stomach
flip-flopped in a way he’d never felt before, and he thought it might be love.
“Hi, boys,” she said without turning around.
Swipe. Tap.
The displays vanished and a projected image of the Kardish
vessel appeared. Its looming presence, stark and ominous, sent a chill down the
back of his neck.
She stood, turned to them, and smiled. His attention shifted
from the dreadnaught to her. Smitten by her classic beauty, his mouth fell
open. Sid, standing next to him, reached over and lifted it shut.
He felt a pinch on his neck. A jolt ran from the top of his
head, down to his toes, and back up, flooding his body with a surge of power.
He turned to look at Sid and saw an empty meds ampule in his hand. Like
awakening from a coma, he felt alive and aware.
He shifted his stance to face Sid.
I can take you, old
man. Wanna fight for the girl?
* * *
Cheryl watched and waited after Sid
dosed Lenny. They needed him focused and in the game because there was no plan
B. Most people reacted well to the drug. But being a military tool, most recipients
were trained soldiers.
Lenny lifted his hand to his neck and looked at Sid,
remained motionless with a dazed expression for a brief period, then sucked in
his stomach and tried to swell his lean chest. Squaring up to Sid, he moved a
foot back and centered his weight.
Cheryl took this moment to make his acquaintance. “You must
be Lenny.” She stepped forward and held out her hand. “Thanks for rescuing me.”
She chose to classify his response as a confident smile instead of a creepy
leer.
His voice sounded deeper than she remembered when she’d seen
him on the vid. “There’re drones swarming all over Crystal Research. You really
think you can land, get the AI on board, and get back here in time to help us?”
He looked at Sid and winked. “Not that we’ll need it.”
She nodded while she considered his words. Glancing at Sid,
she asked with her eyes,
How does he know about Criss?
Sid twitched his
shoulders in a half shrug.
Her analytical mind told her Sid’s plan was lunacy. She
wanted to be optimistic, but several miracles had to align, one after another,
for the three of them to survive the next twenty-four hours. To succeed in
stopping the Kardish, the sequence of miracles stretched beyond the horizon.
She fought her doubts by reminding herself that Sid was the
guy the government turned to when odds were long and hope had dimmed. Criss
used Sid to brainstorm solutions to problems that required audacious thought
processes. Hell, he’d just drilled a hole in the moon, dove through it, and
lifted her to safety moments before her certain death.
The world needed a champion, and Sid was the one stepping
up. She’d stand by him and do everything in her power to help.
Lucy interrupted her thoughts. “We will be synced behind the
returning swarm in twenty minutes.”
“Time to suit up and strap in,” said Sid. “Come on, Attila.”
He took Lenny’s arm in a firm grasp and led him back to the drones.
Lenny jerked his arm forward to pull out of Sid’s grasp.
Though he had the will, he didn’t have the strength. “You’re okay,” Sid reassured
him.
Cheryl sat back in the pilot’s chair, brought up the
displays, and looked at the Kardish vessel. She took a deep breath and exhaled
slowly, trying to keep her foreboding from turning into fear.