Project Starfighter (18 page)

The group continued through the
corridors, entering a lift and descending several levels. There were
a few more checkpoints, but none of the drones they encountered
reacted to Kethlan or the woman’s presence, all acting as though
everything was normal. A few more drones were added to their party.

Lexx suddenly stumbled. She stopped
walking, swaying a little where she stood.

Kethlan eyed the drones that came
with them, though none reacted. They remained as obedient as ever.

“Tired?” Kethlan asked.

“I’ve warned you already,”
Lexx snapped, putting a hand to her forehead and waiting for the
feeling to pass. “Don’t talk, just keep walking. Are we nearly
there?”

“Yes,” Kethlan said.

“Good,” she said, and pointed
him onward.

He complied, wondering whether
Lexx’s light-headedness was a result of trying to control too many
drones at once, or because of her recent exit from the hibernation
chamber. Probably a combination of both. Another lift, and finally
they were at the docking bay. Lexx gave a sigh of relief as she saw
the vessels that were resting here.

“Which is your ship?” she
demanded to know. “I’m assuming that you don’t actually live or
work here, and only come here when you need to.”

Kethlan nodded. “That one,” he
said, gesturing to the shuttle that had brought him to the Zetaman
Facility.

“Good, I’m taking it,” Lexx
said. “You can wait here until ...” She stopped talking, swaying
once again, returning her hand to her head. She looked as though she
was going to tip over at any minute. “You can stay here until
someone comes to get you,” she finished. “Watch him,” she told
the drones as she made for Kethlan’s shuttle.

“You won’t get very far,”
Kethlan called to her.

“I got this far, didn’t I?”
Lexx glared at him.

“Do you have any further
instructions for Ms Lexx, Commander?” the drone that had initially
served in the woman’s containment room then asked. “Or should I
return her to storage?”

Lexx’s look of confidence fled her
face at that moment, taking the colour with it. She looked at the
other drones that were now turning about themselves, seeming a little
confused as to what had happened.

“Stun her! Now!” Kethlan shouted
to the drone that had asked the question.

The drone did so and, Lexx collapsed
to the floor. She tried to stand, couldn’t, so began to pull
herself along until her strength failed her completely. There she lay
on the floor of the docking bay, her breathing quite audible.

Kethlan crouched down next to her,
brushing the hair out of her face. “Nice try, Lexx,” he said.
“But don’t get too excited – I could’ve stopped you at any
time. I was just ... testing you.” He looked at the drones. “Pick
her up and put her back in the tube. This incident is not to be
reported.”

“Commander, all incidents
occurring at this facility must be reported to the Upper Circle,”
one of the drones responded.

Kethlan fell back once again on his
override command. Skillman didn’t need to know about this,
especially since there were more important matters that were
demanding his attention. Kethlan watched the drones Lexx had brought
with her pick the woman up with suspension fields and take her to the
lift, to return her to her holding chamber.

“Earlier, you said that there was
a problem with Mission 3412,” he said to the drone that had been
working Lexx’s room.

“Yes, Commander. You were to be
made aware that the mercenary groups stationed in the Alpaca Group
have attacked the Corporation’s base of operations on Ceradse, and
have taken down the Spire,” the drone said, repeating its previous
statement. “Erik Overlook is recommending that we immediately
dispatch a Star Killer-class frigate to the Spirit system, to counter
the mercenaries’ anticipated use of
Centurion
.”

“Is the
Centurion
complete?”

A holographic image appeared above
the drone’s head, detailing the massive battleship. “Based on
collected information, yes,” the drone confirmed.

“Then we must destroy it,”
Kethlan said. “Why does Overlook suggest the use of a Star Killer?”

“The Spirit system can be safety
eliminated without impact to the Corporation’s influence. The
planets there are poor on raw resources, and the system itself has
been underperforming in recent years. It was also the origin of the
recent uprising that threatened the safety of those who work for the
Corporation.”

Kethlan nodded, and authorised the
immediate launch of the
Grand Vizier
. One of the most powerful
and prized warships in the WEAPCO navy, it was virtually invincible.

No one would stop it. No one was
capable.

T
he
Grand Vizier
was a behemoth of a frigate. It was larger than
almost any warships of its type that Chris had ever seen. This was a
so-called Star Killer, dispatched by WEAPCO for one purpose and one
purpose only – to destroy Spirit.

Chris was once again flying
alongside the mercenaries, although this time in a far more powerful
craft. He was also flying alongside a much larger squadron than on
his previous outings. Back then, when he had been tasked with
repelling Mal’s cultists, there had been five of them in the team.
Now, there were well over eighty. Even so, he felt as though he was
merely tagging along, joining them as a casual observer and nothing
more.

WEAPCO fighters approaching on
intercept vectors
, the Firefly told him.

“Sid, I need some strategy
advice,” Chris communicated to the man, who was holding position
outside Ceradse’s orbital station, in the acquired Manx, quite a
distance away.

“It’s not really my speciality,”
Sid responded.

“Sure, but I just want to bounce
some ideas off you. I also need you to find out what you can about
the
Grand Vizier
– structural weak points, that sort of
stuff. Taking this thing down could prove difficult, if not
impossible, without it. I’m going to transmit the schematics and
details over to you to look at.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Firefly,” Chris addressed the
fighter, “we’re going to engage the frigate’s fighter escort
first, and then work our way over to the
Vizier
.”

I have a name
, the Firefly
answered him.

“Pardon?”

I said, I have a name.

Chris started. What did that have to
do with anything? “Look, we really don’t have time. Prepare to
engage targets,” he said, ignoring the Firefly’s words for now.
“Give me access to that timeslip thing. Can you translate my
thoughts into transmissions and vice versa, to Sid and everyone
else?”

Yes.

“Good. Do so. I won’t be able to
talk to anyone once I’m under, and coordinating this battle will be
tricky.”

Indeed.

Was it him, or was the Firefly being
deliberately short with him? Was it sulking because he hadn’t
bothered to ask it its name? Chris shook the thought away. What a
stupid notion. “Activate the timeslip,” he commanded.

As before, Chris felt the world
around him begin to slow, the presence of something else – another
consciousness? – slipping in alongside his mind. He began to move
the fighter’s joystick, before remembering that it was better now
to take control using his mind. He increased his perception to the
maximum safe limit that the Firefly’s AI would allow him, taking
some time to gather information about his opponents.

Here were WEAPCO Talons, the same
type of fighter that had attacked him and Sid as they had left New
Chile. This time, however, they were also accompanied by a new type
of fighter that he had never seen before. ‘Mirage’ was the given
identifier. The Firefly had information on all of WEAPCO’s craft
and many others besides.

The Talons were basic, light-class
fighters, equipped with nothing but a pair of plasma cannons and a
couple of missiles or rockets each. The Mirages were also light-class
fighters, but with some upgrades – three guns, instead of two, four
missiles, rather than three. They were also faster, better armoured,
and a little larger. Chris gave only a passing consideration as to
whether or not they had been constructed as successors and
replacements to the Talons. They did look quite similar.

This battle could prove much more
dangerous than the last
, the Firefly cautioned him.
Would you
like me to help you with the offensive and defensive power weighting?

Uh ... yes
, Chris agreed. The
need to fiddle with the power distribution, moving energy from the
weapons to the shields to preserve one’s life, and then move it
back after the danger was passed was something that he had been
taught, but not something he had spent a great deal of time
practising. The shield weights could be shifted into four major
points around the Firefly in the simplest configuration, six in the
advanced setup, and up to ten using the expert settings. He would let
the AI handle that for the most part. So long as he was able to fire
the guns, had power to the engines to manoeuvre, and enough energy to
the shields to fend off major attacks, he was happy.

You are free to make manual
adjustments as you see fit, but I may still override them if I think
that our lives are in danger and it is appropriate for me to take
action.

‘
Our lives’
, Chris
thought. The machine truly believed that it was alive.

Chris adjusted the timeslip a
little, to permit the incoming WEAPCO fighters to reach him faster.
He saw that a couple of mercenary ships were pulling up alongside
him, the emblems of their group painted on the sides. Here were the
Blue Moons and the Unseen Shadows. He had had little to do with them
while he had been a guest at New Chile, but was grateful to see them
here now. Both groups were fierce, a little crazy, but deadly and
efficient. All the better for him.

Weapons ranges were met, Chris
opening fire on the nearest fighters to him, spraying the group
indiscriminately, before making a course adjustment to avoid a
potential collision. Having mostly evaded the incoming fire, he began
a pursuit of the WEAPCO fighter that had suffered the most in his
opening volley of fire, and set to work finishing it off. By his own
reckoning, he was not allowing his perception to exceed ten percent
of the real speed of the world around him, strongly aware that to do
so could result in disaster.

“That was even faster than the
last time!” Sid exclaimed.

“How long was that?” Chris
asked.

“Just over a minute.”

“Felt like ten.” Chris eased off
the timeslip, feeling the world around him speed back up. It was
almost like emerging from the depths of an ocean, the light from the
sun above growing stronger, the sounds above gradually increasing in
volume and becoming clearer. He checked the standings again. There
were still a significant number of WEAPCO fighters buzzing about,
laser and plasma fire exchanging between the mercenaries and their
opponents.

Chris wondered just why the Star
Killer was here and hadn’t moved closer to Spirit’s star, its
primary target. Was it a feint? Was the thing actually even capable
of destroying a star and causing a supernova? Maybe there was
something it had to do first, before it fired? Or maybe the name
‘Star Killer’ was just that – a name. It was probably only
capable of destroying a star on paper. But if that was the case, the
thing would be very, very well armed, and therefore extremely hard to
take down. It would have some nasty tricks up its sleeve, of that
Chris was certain.

“Is that you, boy?” a
familiar-sounding voice then came over his comms. Tyler.

“It is,” Chris answered,
proudly.

“And that’s
you
flying
that ship? Or are you letting it do all the work for you?”

“All me.”

“That’s impossible,” Eve’s
voice followed. “No one can react that fast.”

“I have ... assistance,” Chris
said, smiling to himself.

He located Eve and Tyler on his
radar, reducing the timeslip and flying up alongside them, before
proceeding to demonstrate the abilities granted to him by the
Firefly. A group of Talons approached, the three WEAPCO fighters
powering towards Tyler and Eve. As they engaged their targets, Chris
declared the conditions under which he was fighting – chiefly, a
lack of a full timeslip.

Both Eve and Tyler took note of how
his flying skills seemed to have deteriorated significantly, compared
to just a few moments ago, with Chris unable to fully exploit the
flight patterns of his opponents or stay on them long enough to
dispatch them in a timely manner. The Talons, too, were able to land
several more shots on him than before.

“Sloppy,” Eve commented, as
Chris failed to take any of them down on his third pass. “Even
without the help, you normally fly better than that.”

“You must be becoming overly
dependent on whatever voodoo it is you’re using,” Tyler added.

Chris said nothing and restored the
timeslip, taking time to assess the standings and figure out who he
wanted to shoot. He then arced up and around, loosing several shots
against the Talon that had so far evaded him, taking it down swiftly.
He carried on through the motion, bringing a fighter into view that
was tailing Eve and blasting it to pieces. He did the same with a
fighter that had been chasing after Tyler. In a few minutes – much
longer from Chris’ own point of view – the group had been
dispatched, leaving the three allies to face nothing but a cloud of
debris.

“See?” Chris said, resurfacing.
“I don’t need your help at all.”

“Don’t get cocky, boy,” Tyler
said.

Seconded
, the Firefly said to
him.
I’m glad that you had fun and were able to show off to your
friends, but I am reinstating the hard limits on the system. This is,
once again, for my protection, as well as your own.