James was in the cargo bay of the
Aurora,
playing with Kira. He was feeling frustrated at being unable to throw the triangular disc for Kira to chase. It would not travel very far or go in the direction he wanted it to.
‘James, Londuo has finished her duties in
Lonori
engineering and is on her way over,’ Kalrea said over the
Aurora’s
address system.
‘Can you tell her I’m in the cargo bay, please?’
‘Will do.’
‘Kira, let go!’ James said, trying to get the disc from her mouth. ‘I’ll stop playing with you, Kira. Let go!’
Kira pulled the disc from his hands and sprinted across the room.
‘Kira, come back here,’ he said and then thought,
why does she ignore me? With Londuo she is just the opposite.
The lift opened into the cargo bay, and Kira ran over to it with the triangular disc in her mouth. Londuo exited and bent down to take it from her. She then rubbed the side of Kira’s head.
‘Hello, Kira,’ Londuo said. ‘Are you pleased to see me?’
Kira brushed her head against Londuo’s legs, as James walked over.
‘I’ve been trying to throw that thing for the last ten minutes,’ James said, pointing to the triangular disc in Londuo’s hand.
‘Any thoughts on where you’d like to go?’ Londuo said, standing up.
She threw the triangle into the centre of the cargo bay.
‘I don’t mind,’ James replied.
He watched Kira sprint after the triangle.
‘How do you get it to travel so far?’
‘It’s all in the angle you throw it.’
Londuo paused and began to think of potential places to go.
‘The communal area is about the only section of the ship that isn’t set aside for the military, but you have already seen it. Why not begin with a look around the port fighter bays, which are nearby? This will also give me the opportunity to show you the observation platform, which I can assure you, will be a nice surprise.’
‘That’s fine with me,’ James replied.
Kira returned, dropping the triangular disc at their feet. She looked up at James and Londuo expectantly. James glanced at Londuo and they tacitly agreed to stay a little longer to play with Kira.
‘Come on, then,’ Londuo replied, picking up the triangle once more.
She jogged into the centre of the room, with Kira following very close behind.
Londuo and James played with Kira, throwing the triangle to each other so Kira would run after it. However, James found that he couldn’t get the triangle to fly straight or far enough to reach Londuo, which made her chuckle each time.
‘I’m no good at this,’ he said. ‘It just frustrates me.’
‘It’s all in the way you throw it, James,’ Londuo repeated, before moving over to him.
‘Kira,’ she said. ‘Come on; bring it here. Good girl.’
Londuo gave Kira a fuss, and then she passed the triangle to James.
‘Let me see how you’re throwing it.’
James did a practice swing.
‘That’s not bad,’ Londuo said. ‘Here, let me try and help you,’ she said, moving behind him.
She looked over his left shoulder and took hold of his hand, with the triangle in it.
James suddenly felt butterflies inside his stomach.
What is this strange feeling?
‘Let me guide you.’
Londuo pulled James’ hand across his waist, and then moved it away in an ark, lifting his hand as she pushed it away.
‘And again,’ Londuo said.
I’ve never felt like this before. Why do I feel this way?
James thought.
They went through the motions once more. James could feel Londuo’s heart pounding.
Her heart’s beating fast. So is mine. Is this what love feels like?
‘Now you try,’ Londuo said.
James repeated the movement as close as he could, but his mind was elsewhere. The triangle left his hand and flew straight across the room.
‘How was that?’ James said, feeling pleased and then looked around at Londuo.
She smiled and nodded. James looked into her eyes, and they stared at each other for a moment.
James thought,
I think I could be in love with you, Londuo. I wonder if you feel the same way.
‘We’d better make a move,’ Londuo said suddenly, when Kira brushed up against her legs.
‘Yes… Yes of course,’ James replied, as Londuo moved away.
‘Sorry Kira, we have to go now, but Kalrea will play with you,’ James said, bending down and stroking her back.
Londuo and James descended three levels of the
Lonori
.
They approached a large blast door, which was guarded by four security personnel, who were all carrying laser rifles and small side arms. One of the guards raised his rifle, and another pointed a small grey box at James and Londuo. They passed the security guards and entered the access room to the main fighter bay.
James asked curiously,
‘What was that device?’
‘You mean the Security Authorisation Scanner?’ Londuo asked. ‘They were checking if we have clearance to be in this section of the ship.’
James looked down the long slim room, which stretched far into the distance. He noticed the left wall was tilted at an angle and had large metal doors at regular intervals along its length. Two shiny strips of metal ran the length of the room in the floor. A fighter was standing on a large metal platform in front of him.
‘This is where my squadron is stationed,’ Londuo said proudly. ‘They’re launched from these bays,’ she said, pointing to the large metal doors.
James looked down the wall.
‘How many fighters does the
Lonori
have?’ James asked.
They started to walk slowly down the centre of the room.
‘We can launch fifteen from this side and eleven from the other,’ Londuo replied. ‘There’s about another twenty-three onboard. Each has its own platform, like that one, for loading into the bays.’
They stopped at an open bay door. James could see it was hinged at its base and rested neatly on the floor of the launch bay. He looked inside it. A fighter stood on a large ramp that extended for thirty meters, and at the end of it there was another door.
‘The far door tilts down to form the last part of the ramp. This door…,’ Londuo said, pointing down at her feet, ‘closes before the fighter starts the pre-burn drive tests, which is the reason why it is so blackened. We used to have the drives powered on exit, but after all the bays on the
Horopila
were destroyed, we are now propelled out into space before we start the drive.’
‘What happened to the
Horopila
?’ James asked curiously.
‘The Treitans changed their tactics and started to ram the fighter bays, if they managed to get close enough. On the
Horopila
they caught three of our fighters. The explosion of the charged drives destroyed the whole of the port launch bays. Since then, we’re not allowed to run the drives up until we exit the bay.’
‘What do you do if the drive doesn’t start when you clear the ship?’ James asked.
‘There’s not a lot you can do, I’m afraid. After a few attempts it may fire; if not, you wait for a shuttle to grapple your fighter and tow you back onboard.
James was concerned.
‘It’s never happened to me, yet,’ she smiled. ‘Come on! I’ll show you the cockpit.’
They walked into the launch bay.
‘The fighters aren’t very big,’ James remarked, studying the dark-grey fighter, which was about size of a small aircraft and was standing on three thin retractable landing legs.
They walked past a flat delta-shaped wing that extended out from just beneath the drive unit, which had an open access panel in its side. Five instruments were neatly arranged on the wing and wires extended from two of them into the access panel. On the side of the drive were some symbols and the word ‘GAMMA2’. They reached the front of the fighter, which was wrapped with a yellow, orange and green brightly painted dragon-like beast.
‘The one plasma drive is capable of zero point eight-two phase now,’ Londuo said. ‘The Treitan fighters are slightly faster, about point eight-four, but ours are about two-thirds the weight of a Treitan fighter and can easily outmanoeuvre them.’
‘What about the design on the front?’ James asked. ‘When you and Gulino landed onboard the
Aurora,
I can’t remember seeing one of those.’
‘No,’ Londuo replied. ‘We were assigned those from Brinoli, instead of using our fighters onboard the
Lonori
. It is unusual to be assigned “Mark Five” fighters, but now I know the objective of the mission, all becomes clear,’ Londuo said quietly.
James looked puzzled.
‘They’re a lot lighter than other versions,’ Londuo continued, ‘being configured for optimum atmospheric performance and ideal for planetary combat situations. These—,’ Londuo pointed to the fighter, ‘—are used for combat in space.’
‘Is yours in one of these launch-bays, then?’ James asked.
‘No, when the fighters are not in use they are moved down into a storage area.’
‘Does your fighter… have a design on it?’ James asked, smiling.
‘All the fighters stationed on the
Lonori
are personalised like that,’ Londuo said, looking at the design. ‘It’s just something that happened over a period of time. I suppose it made us feel lucky. This one belongs to Frasin.’
‘What’s painted on the front of yours?’ James asked.
‘I call it the planet of fire,’ Londuo smiled. ‘There’s a huge ucapion claw.’
What’s an ucapion?
James thought.
‘It’s like the one you see here on Frasin’s, holding a bright-blue fiery planet. It stretches from this side of the ship and across the top. The fire reaches out to cover the front of my ship.’
James nodded, trying to visualise it, before commenting,
‘You like claws, don’t you?’
‘Yes, I suppose, I do,’ Londuo replied and chuckled.
‘I can’t see any weapons,’ James remarked.
‘They’re mounted in the nose and up there behind the cockpit,’ Londuo said, pointing at them. ‘Frasin’s a Mark seven, so it has four front-facing pulse lasers and one rear-mounted multi-directional laser.’
‘Like the
Aurora’s?
’
‘No, the
Aurora’s
lasers are probably about twenty to thirty times more powerful.’
‘Really?’ James replied.
Londuo reached up and pressed a large button just underneath the blacked out windows of the cockpit that then opened. James climbed up the foot-holds in the side of the fighter and peered inside. There was a plain dark-grey padded seat with belts to hold the pilot in place. A black slanted console circled the seat, and a small monitor was positioned directly in front. A helmet was lying on the seat.
‘There’s not much to see, really,’ Londuo said.
‘It’s similar to an aircraft on Earth,’ James commented. ‘Except… that’s odd!’
‘What?’ Londuo questioned.
‘There are no controls. No joystick. How… do you control it?’
‘Through the helmet,’ Londuo replied. ‘It’s similar technology to what you use to instruct Kalrea, except this is far more bulky.’
James picked up the helmet.
‘It’s heavy,’ he said with surprise.
‘Oh, yes. I forgot about that,’ Londuo replied.
‘How can you forget something this heavy?’ James replied cheerfully.
‘It’s not heavy when you put it on,’ Londuo replied. ‘There are hover attachments near the neck, so you hardly notice it.’
‘What happens if your fighter gets hit? You know, if they have to get out.’
‘We eject. The whole cockpit is a self-contained pod, which can be fired away from the fighter.’
‘Sounds very dangerous.’
‘It’s better than being blown up.’
‘What do you think you two are doing here?’ a loud voice suddenly said.
Londuo and James turned around.
‘Gulino,’ Londuo looked pleasantly surprised.
‘Hi, Londuo, James,’ Gulino said, with a large grin across his face.
James handed the helmet to Londuo and climbed down from the fighter. She stretched up and closed the cockpit, while James walked out of the bay and over to where Gulino and a young woman were standing.
She’s tall! Very tall,
James thought, looking at the woman. Her long black hair was tied in a bun on top of her head, which made her look even taller than Londuo.
‘How are you two getting on?’ Gulino asked James, while Londuo was still in the fighter bay.
‘Very well,’ James replied, his voice lowered.
Londuo walked over.
‘Hello Frasin.’
‘Hi, Londuo,’ Frasin replied. ‘This must be James,’ she said. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you.’