On Silver Wings (34 page)
Authors: Evan Currie
“There she is, Captain! I’ve got her on my screen, coming in from the second moon!”
“Send data to Commander Ashley!”
“Aye Cap!”
“Locking… Locking…” Ashley said, “God damn we’re close, and that is a big ship.”
“We are closer than anyone else who has lived, Commander. Kill that sookin syn before it kills us.” Alexi ordered tightly.
“Locked! Hard lock! Sir, Permission to…”
“Just shoot them!!” Alexi snapped, irritated by the seemingly interminable steps involved in having such a simple thing done.
“Aye Aye,” Ashley sounded a little put out at having his procedures interrupted, “Firing all tubes on external magazines. Firing all tubes!”
The Socrates shuddered as the full hundred and fifty missile load exploded from her box launchers, jumping out ahead of the ship and accelerating hard into orbit. At better than a hundred gravities of acceleration, they crossed the space between the two ships in seconds instead of minutes. The alien craft had no chance to turn, nor even open fire with its point defense as the entire salvo slammed home.
“Shields!” Alexi called as he saw the missiles hit, knowing that one way or another it was all over.
The screens went dead again as the heat shields slammed back into place, leaving them blind as the Socrates continued to climb into Hayden orbit. A few moments later the big ship bucked hard, as if slapped, but when they didn’t die from it the crew started to breathe again.
“External temperatures dropping. They’re reaching safe margins, Sir.”
“Retract shields.”
Everyone waited with bated breath as the screens flickered back to life, eyes searching for evidence of the alien cruiser. Any evidence.
“There… We got it…” Someone said, pointing, “We got it!”
Cheers went up and then down the length of the ship as people realized they weren’t about to die, but Alexi didn’t join them. His heart was slowing again as he examined the screens. Where the ship had been there was now nothing but expanding plasma and flying debris. They’d hit it with many times the power needed to kill it, he was sure of that. Streaks of fire marked the debris passing into Hayden’s atmosphere, burning up as it passed the Socrates on its way down.
Alexi leaned back, swallowing hard.
It took him several long moments, but he managed to find his voice finally, “Do we have Task Force Three on any of our long range screens?”
There was a long pause before anyone responded.
“No Sir.”
Alexi sighed, eyes closing for a moment. Shepherd had been a friend for a long time, and this was no way to die.
“Order the Nicola Tesla to pick up the shuttle.” He said finally, eyes coming open again.
He stared out at the curve of the planet, and into the depths of space beyond for a long time.
“Tell them to be quick about it, if you please? I desire very much to be gone from here.”
The USV Socrates cut back its engines, flying into a ballistic orbit of Hayden as shooting stars colored the planet scene behind.
*****
“It’s almost beautiful, until you know what it is.” Sorilla said as she leaned back in her bolster, eyes on the shooting stars crisscrossing the sky above them.
“The Nicky is inbound. ETA five minutes.” Jace said, his heart rate now back to normal.
“Alright, leveling out. Send me the plot.” Sterling replied.
“On your board.”
The shuttle twisted around, its scramjet thrust bringing it to hypersonic speed as it made for the pickup point. Sorilla found herself looking out at the curvature of the planet, and the two moons beyond. The shooting stars made by the destruction of the alien ship completed the picture, a surreal moment in time. She didn’t stop staring until the USV Nicola Tesla rumbled over them, snagging the shuttle in flight with a carbon tether hoot, and pulled them up and into its belly.
Hayden was gone for her then, a slice of the past. There would be more jungles in the future, Sorilla knew, more fighting, more dying. If she could help a few more people the way she felt she’d helped the colonists on Hayden, then she would be fine with that.
It was the only way she could live, the only way she wanted to live.
De Opresso Liber.
Hayden Hua.
Evan Currie is the self-published author of three books, Thermals, On Silver Wings, and Odyssey One. A long time fan of science fiction, his love of epic storylines led him to put several million words onto the net in the pursuit of fanfiction stories, and eventually led to the novel you just finished.
You can connect with Evan Currie online at :
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