Star runners, p.20
Star Runners, page 20
Austin frowned and stared out of the view port as another freighter flew through its curve. “I really haven’t talked to them. My mom said they were doing fine. They missed you and wondered why you didn’t get to come home this summer.”
“I really wish I could have. Missing Christmas, too.”
He shook his head. “I know. Christmas is next week!”
“Yep.”
“Wow.”
Josh frowned. “Seriously, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you about this. After Kadyn left for school, it must have been tough.”
“You’ve talked to Kadyn?”
His face turned a shade of dark red. “Just a couple short emails. She wrote me when she left for Savannah. I knew at that time you were on your own at home. She wrote me earlier today when you canceled on riding back with her.”
Austin nodded. “Yeah. I felt bad about that, but I would have missed out on this. Until I got recruited at the last minute, I thought I was going to have to work for a year to save up for college or just go into debt taking a few classes at the community college.”
“Your loans never came through?”
“Not like I had hoped.” He sighed. “Mom and I didn’t think we could afford it.”
They took a few bites in silence.
“Sure is beautiful here,” Austin said, gazing at the nebula.
“Yeah, I stare out there all the time and I haven’t really ever gotten used to it.”
“So the game is really real?” Austin said in a quiet voice.
He nodded. “In good ways and bad.”
“What do you mean? What could be bad about this?”
Josh gazed at the nebula, his eyes lingering without focus. “It’s dangerous.”
Austin frowned. “I’m sure it is.”
Near the hatch entrance of the mess hall, Skylar and Bear lined up for food. She waved at Austin.
“Who’s that?” Josh asked when Austin waved. “She’s hot.”
He winced. “She’s my friend from school.”
“Your friend, eh?” Josh nodded, still staring at Skylar. “Nice to have friends.”
“So anyway,” he said, “what’s life like on this station?”
“Drills, training, class, drills, drills, class. You still get to spend a lot of time in the sims. If you’re lucky, you get to fly in the trainers every now and then, so that makes the boredom worth it.”
“Can you believe this is happening?”
Josh smiled. “Not really. I still wake up in my bunk and can’t believe it.”
“I’m happy to see you, really, I am. But I don’t know about this.”
“What do you mean?”
“School’s one thing, but the military? I mean, they’ve been at war here, Josh.”
“Wars go on all the time back home, too.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have to fight in those.”
“Somebody does.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone.”
“I’m sure it’s the same for those guys back home.” Josh shrugged. “That probably won’t happen anyway. Just think about it. You get to fly the Trident for a living. They’re not even at war out here. Biggest problem I’ve heard the seasoned pilots talk about is smuggling, Tyral Pirates, and their leader, Dax Rodon.”
“Tyral Pirates? From the game?”
“Yeah,” Josh said, munching on a piece of bread. “They’re a big problem in this part of space.”
“You mean Dax Rodon, the bad guy in the graphic novel you gave me for Christmas. He’s real?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Unbelievable.” Austin thought of the freighters, full of students like him about to venture out on their own personal discoveries. “Where are the other recruits going?”
“Who knows? So much traffic comes through here I stopped caring about six months back. There’s a big galaxy out there, man, and you and I are going to get to know all about it. Crazy, huh?”
“Yeah.”
Using his fork, Josh pointed back toward Skylar and Bear. “You’ll have to introduce me.”
His friends from Tizona checked through the food line and made their way toward the table.
“Sure,” Austin said as he saw Skylar smiling at him from a distance.
Something outside caught his eye. The star field wavered to the left of the remaining freighters. Austin blinked. It almost looked like the surface of a still pond disturbed by a pebble.
“What is that?” he asked.
Josh following his gaze. “Probably just the freighters prepping for a curve.”
“No,” Austin said, shaking his head. “Off to the left? Away from the freighters.”
The lights of the station went dark, replaced by a fierce red glow covering the borders of every view port in the mess hall. An alarm hammered into his ears.
“What is it?” Austin yelled.
Josh leaned over the table. “Code red alert. We’re under attack!”
His heart tightened. “Attack?”
The space wavered again, and dozens of smaller craft materialized through the curve. The angular craft bristled with weaponry. The dark space burst with flashes of light streaking across the sky.
“All pilots to their stations. All pilots to their stations.”
Josh slapped Austin’s shoulder and ran away from the table. Austin watched his friend sprint out of the mess hall followed by several other Lobera students. Recruits ran to the edge of the cafeteria, knocking over tables and dropping trays. Soon, they were pressed against the view port, shoulders touching, gasping as the space blazed beyond.
The attackers swarmed around the nearest freighter, pelting it with laser and missile fire. Clouds of fire and gas plumed throughout the ship before being extinguished by the vacuum of space. Tridents already on patrol rushed into action. Two spun off away from the fray, hot on the tail of one of the attackers. Two plunged into the rear of a freighter, their noses piercing the hull.
A hand pressed against Austin’s shoulder. “What’s going on?” Skylar asked.
“They came out of nowhere.”
“Who are they?” one student asked.
“Pirates,” answered another.
Bear stood on the other side of Austin. “Must be Dax Rodon’s men.”
Two more missiles crashed into the nearest freighter. The explosions filled the mess hall with a yellow and orange light. Austin thought of the hundreds of passengers on board. They were excited about discovering a new life. They had just been in the auditorium at the orientation. He saw the explosions, imagined the fire filling the freighter’s cabin.
Another explosion rocked the freighter closest to the station. The running lights dimmed, flickered, and went dark. It drifted out of position. The hull broke apart, and debris spilled out in the nothingness of space. Austin blinked. It wasn’t debris. It was people. He saw arms and legs gyrating and twitching.
“Oh my God,” Skylar breathed in his ear. “Those people.”
A moment later, the freighter blew apart in a fiery wreck.
“We have to do something!” another student yelled.
But there was nothing to do.
Austin stared at the carnage, his fists clenched. A droplet of cold sweat slid down his back.
Two freighters pressed hard for a new shimmering sector of space. They must have opened their own curve. With several attacking craft piercing the rear hull, the remaining freighter drifted aimlessly. Eight more Tridents zipped away from the station and toward the battle. Austin wondered if Josh piloted one of the fighters, but then remembered what he had said about earning the right to fly solo. The new Tridents mopped up the enemy fighters who had grown bold enough to attack the two freighters now driving hard for the exit.
“Why don’t they attack those?” Skylar asked, pointing at the enemy fighters protruding out of the rear of the closest freighter.
“They must have boarded the freighter?”
As if responding to his statement, a light flashed from the passenger windows on the freighter. A battle must be raging inside over control of the spacecraft.
The dogfight shifted away from the station as the Tridents tried to protect the remaining freighters. The freighter in front of the station changed direction.
“The pirates have control of it!” one student yelled.
The star field before the captured freighter wavered.
“Why don’t they do something?” Skylar asked.
Two Tridents broke off from the main fight and shot back toward the captured freighter, their laser guns blasting into the freighter’s engines. One engine exploded as the Tridents completed their first pass, and the freighter drifted off course. The pirates adjusted accordingly, righting the course of their lumbering prize. The front of the freighter dissipated into the curve, and a moment later the entire ship disappeared.
Debris swirled as the recruits pressed against the glass. Off in the distance, the two remaining freighters still under Legion control passed through their curves. Sporadic fire sparked and popped as the Tridents mopped up what was left of the rabble. Clumps of dead passengers floated in the space where the freighter used to be. Austin turned away.
The red lights lifted, replaced once again by bright white.
Austin looked at the floor before turning to Skylar. She stared at him, her bottom lip trembling and her eyes moist. She pursed her lips over and over as if she wanted to speak.
“Those...” she breathed. “Those...”
“I...”
His voice cracked. He didn’t have the words. Instead, he reached out and hugged her.
She buried her face into his shoulder and neck, gripping him tight.
Hundreds of recruits and crew had died a few thousand yards from their dinner tables. Austin no longer had an appetite.
15
The door slid up, and Austin entered his quarters. It closed behind him, shutting out the activity in the hallway.
The bunk situated on the top right of the small room was about the size of his tiny closet back home. A workstation with a laptop was anchored in a nook underneath the bed. On the left, a compartment remained open with a bar across to hang clothing, although all he would be wearing would be Tizona blue.
At the end of the room, a small window the size of a plate revealed the star field. The space outside crept past as the station rotated. The red outer edges of the nebula soon glowed through the cramped quarters. He collapsed into the seat in front of his new laptop. He cracked open the orientation packet and read the instructions of how to send emails, communicate face-to-face, and other details of conversing with those still on Earth.
Still on Earth...
He stared at the blackness of space. The gentle hum of the space station’s operations lulled his eyelids shut. He leaned back in his seat.
The image of bodies floating in the vacuum of space remained attached to his mind. He couldn’t shake it. As the attack broke out, Josh had rushed off like it was part of the job and Austin hadn’t seen him since the alarms.
According to his orientation packet, his first flight class was scheduled to begin early tomorrow.
A soft ping rang. When Austin glanced at the laptop and around the room, the ping repeated. He stepped to the door and pressed a green button to his right.
The opening slid up with a hiss.
“Skylar?”
She stood in a blue shirt and shorts, her arms folded across her chest. “Can I come in?”
“Uh, sure.”
She walked in and paused in front of the window. Her hands were clasped in front of her when she turned around.
He shut the door. “Hey, you.”
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, her lips tasting like cherries. After a moment, she parted and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Did we make a mistake coming here?” she whispered. “Tell me we didn’t. Tell me we didn’t and I’ll never bring it up again.”
He fought to control his breathing, his heart pounding in his ears. Her hair smelled like flowers.
“I don’t know,” he mumbled.
“Those people are dead.”
“I know.” He tried to move so he could look her in the eye, but she tightened her grip.
“Just stand here a little longer. Please.”
He squeezed back and looked past her to the window. The nebula sent a crimson glow into his quarters. She took deep breaths, continuing her embrace.
After several minutes, she broke away. He still felt her warmth on his chest. She looked at him, smiled, and then stared at the floor. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”
She left.
Austin stared at the door long after she had gone.
* * *
He had a hard time sleeping the first night on Tarton’s Junction. It had been the same way his first night in the dorm. He tossed and turned, dreaming of home and Mom’s pancakes dripping with butter and maple syrup next to the crisp bacon. Once he jolted out of a power nap close to his wake up time, unsure what had woken him. He didn’t recognize his surroundings at first, until he saw the red glow and stars outside the window. He realized once again this was all really happening.
After four hours of napping in intervals, he decided to get up. His closet revolved and produced the smallest shower he had ever seen, but at least he didn’t have to share the dorm bathroom anymore.
On the way to class, he grabbed a ration bar for breakfast from one of the robotic carts roaming the busy hallways. The bar tasted chalky, like the protein bars he used to eat before class in high school.
Ten students filled the small classroom, their shoulders touching as they wedged into the three rows of chairs. Austin took a seat on the back row and tried to wake up.
He leaned back and closed his eyes as he waited for class to begin. As they arrived, students whispered in different languages. He searched his pockets and found the translator. Following a loud ping in his ear, the voices in the room transitioned to English.
Bear stepped in the classroom and sat in front of Austin. He yawned and turned halfway around.
“Morning,” he mumbled.
Austin grumbled back. “You sleep at all?”
“Are you kidding? These beds are for the tiny, I can barely fit.”
Skylar entered shortly after Bear. Austin smiled when their eyes met, but she looked away and sat in the front row. An uneasy feeling burned in his stomach.
Loud footsteps pounded in the doorway. “Attention,” a female voice said. “Quiet.”
Austin turned. A young woman with dark hair stood marched into the room. She wore a dark blue uniform with silver buttons the size of quarters across her well-shaped chest. She gazed over the recruits with an air of confidence, her chin tilted back. She adjusted the translator in her ear, brushing back a strand of night-black hair. He tried not to stare, but the woman looked like she’d stepped out of a catalog. She was fit, with flawless tanned skin.
She marched before the front row, a tablet in her hand. She snapped around when she reached the desk and clasped her hands behind her back, her movements precise and calculated as a robot.
“I’d like to start off with a moment of silence for our fallen comrades who died honorably yesterday.” She bowed her head. No one made a sound. When she looked up, a fire appeared in her doll-like eyes. “The Tyral Pirates, led by the coward Dax Rodon, attacked Quadrant Eight once again. They kill without feeling, pillage without meaning. They try to steal our freighters and our fighters have to protect them. That is why we need all of you. Soon, you will go after those who carried out this attack, but not before you finish your training.”
The other students looked around the room.
“Okay,” the instructor said, “welcome to Basic Flight, Day One. I will be your instructor for the next few weeks. I am Lieutenant Ryker Zyan. Some of you know me by my call sign, Scorpion.”
Bear spun around with his eyes wide. He mouthed the word, “Scorpion.”
“Is there a problem?” Ryker asked.
“No, ma’am,” Bear said, slumping into his seat.
“I’d hate to toss you out on your first day,” she said.
Austin stared at her.
Scorpion was a beautiful woman. He remembered thinking such a good pilot in the game had to be some nerd in his parent’s basement.
She keyed her tablet and a blue hologram appeared in the space above her desk, flashed once, and materialized into an image of an altered Trident star fighter. The wings folded in the parked position and the nose was slightly longer with a second canopy behind the first.
“Take a good look, Recruits. This should look familiar.”
The Trident hologram’s wings dropped into the attack position and flew around the room over their heads.
“This is the Bren-8 X4-T model you will be flying next week. Same specs as the X4 and X4-B, but rigged with two cockpits; one for the recruit and one for the trainer.”
The hologram floated past Austin’s seat, but he stared at his instructor. She was much younger than he thought an instructor would have been. His mouth was dry and it wasn’t from the protein bar.
“Today, I will be handing out your flight tablets. For now, this is for notes during class, exams, and reading outside of class. Later, it will dock with your Trident’s onboard computer. Ask questions. Don’t suffer in silence because you will only hurt your chances of gaining points later on.” She opened the white desk, pulled out a box filled with small tablets, and began handing them out as she spoke. “Create your password and these will be yours as you progress through flight training.”
Austin watched Zyan’s mouth and noticed the movement did not match her voice. She must be speaking another language. Does that mean she’s from another planet?
“Welcome to the 32nd Tizona Squadron,” she said as she finished distributing the tablets. “Consider yourselves lucky. With the possible exception of the 88th Excalibur Squadron, we are the best currently active. And I plan on you all being better than Excalibur, understood?”
The students mumbled an affirmative and Ryker launched into her orientation.
The class progressed for two hours covering the basics of the Trident. Everything from how it was handled to emergency life support. She stressed it was important to start with the basics on day one. After a few sessions, she promised the class would head to the hangar to see the Tridents up close. Some students yawned and looked bored, but Austin didn’t think he had ever paid more attention during a class.
