Starstorm (Starstorm Saga) (20 page)

“I’m not going to execute you. I should, but I’m not. If I wasn’t so shorthanded on experienced pilots right now I would. You are demoted to Squad Member and I will see to it that you are at the spearhead of all future engagements. Maybe the enemy will get you this time. If you survive, then I will discharge you when we return to Zidia and I will forget you ever existed. You no longer have a place in the fleet. You are dismissed, Squad Member”

Brel exited Akdon’s chambers. He wasn’t going to be executed, but he had disgraced himself. He had no idea how he would face his family. Suddenly, he found himself wishing he was going to be executed. Maybe the humans would end his misery for him.  

Chapter Seventeen

C
aptain Doran peered out of the forward view ports. In front of them the planet Mars loomed like a bright orange and red sphere.

“Take us into orbit,” ordered Captain Doran.

“Captain, I have made contact with Olympus Mons City,” reported April. “They say that the Admiral is waiting to speak with you.”

“Very well, Commander. I’ll head down. Have Mr. Gray....” the Captain stopped short. He had nearly forgotten. His best shuttle pilot, Sam Grayson, had been killed. Just one of hundreds lost to the searing heat of battle. “Have a shuttle ready to go down within the hour.”

“Yes, sir. I‘ll keep things running on track up here.”

“I’m not facing that brass hat alone. You’re coming with me,” said Doran in a very serious voice. “I’ll need you to present the tactical report and to help plan Mars’s defense. Besides, the enemy is still in orbit around Saturn and have made no new movements.”

“Very well, sir.”

Despite the fact that she would have to endure the debriefing, April was glad for the chance to go down to the surface. At least Mars had gravity. The Captain turned back to April

“On second thought I’ll arrange the shuttle. You contact Lieutenant Thunder and Lt Commander Knight. Have them prepare to go down as well. The Admiral wanted a firsthand report well...he’s about to get one.”

Jack was semiconscious and strapped into his bunk. The lights were out so it was totally dark in his cabin. He was approaching the end of his sleep period and still had yet to get any real rest. Then the door buzzer went off. Jack shook himself awake and hit the lights. They came on bright and merciless. He shut his eyes and then slowly opened them. The door buzzed again.

“I’m coming,” he said in a blurred voice and un-strapped himself from his bunk.

He pulled on a sleeveless shirt, and then slowly moved himself over to the doorway. He hit the switch and the door swung open. Standing there was Commander Kelley. She giggled for he did look quite silly. His hair was a mess and he was still squinting to see. He was also floating and holding on to the door way.

“Rise and shine, sleepy head. Sorry, I forgot that it was your sleep period but we’ve reached Mars. The Captain wants you and Mr. Knight in the shuttle hangar in forty minutes. Get ready and then get yourself something to eat.”

She then strode off, and Jack was left to get ready. He threw on a clean duty uniform and got into his magnetic boots. He straightened his hair and went out the door nearly bumping into Trey.

“Hey, Jack.”

“Morning, Trey.”

It never was actually morning in space. For Jack it was just a figure of speech to be used after waking up.

“Let’s get something to eat and then get to the shuttle hanger.”

After a quick meal in the rec center, they made their way down to the shuttle hangar. Captain Doran and Commander Kelley were waiting on them.

“Ah my two finest pilots,” said Captain Doran. Both Jack and Trey waived off their Captain’s praise but appreciated it all the same. Doran admired their humbleness.

“I suggest we get going,” said April.

“But of course you are right, Commander. Let’s get on board.” They boarded the shuttle. It was one of the Space Force’s older models. It was not nearly as big as the one Jack had ridden from Earth to the Saratoga. It was very cramped on the inside. Only the four of them were in the shuttle. There was no sign of a shuttle pilot. Jack, April, and Trey were surprised to see that Captain Doran had taken the pilot’s seat.

“I’ve decided to pilot the shuttle myself. I haven’t had the chance to fly a spacecraft for quite a long while. I’m a little out of practice. It will be a good time for me to get back into the habit.” The Captain noticed their faces. Jack and April looked a little uneasy while Trey had an expression of total amusement on his face. “Mr. Thunder you take the co-pilot’s seat.”

“Yes, sir,” said Jack and strapped himself into the seat next to Captain Doran. April and Trey seated themselves behind the Captain and Jack.

“I’d forgotten that you were a pilot, sir.”

“Yes, I was once a fighter pilot the same as yourself and Mr. Knight.”

“That was a long time ago, Captain,” interjected April. “In all the time I’ve known you, I have not seen you act as a pilot once.”

“You’re not nervous are you, Commander?” asked the Captain with a wry smile as he prepared the shuttle for launch.

“I have every confidence in you, Captain,” said Trey. Doran continued to smile to himself. “Don’t worry, if anything goes wrong, I have the Lieutenant here to handle it.”

“Actually, Captain...” said Jack. “I’m inclined to think that flying is in a person’s blood. Once they have it in them, they never lose it.”

Once the shuttle was prepared, the doors above them opened and the lift pushed them up into the hull. Then the doors closed beneath the shuttle and another set of doors opened above them and they emerged outside the hull of the Saratoga. Captain Doran signaled the bridge.

“Saratoga, I’m ready to depart.”

“Very good, Captain.” came the response. “You’re clear to launch, sir,” said the controller respectfully.

Doran manipulated the controls and the shuttle’s after burner ignited and the shuttle shot forward, away from Saratoga and toward the red planet. Doran was a little off course at first, but quickly got the hang of it.

“How am I doing?”

“Oh excellent,” said Jack instantly.

Trey followed immediately with “Nice flying Captain.”

“Brown nosers,” said April with false sarcasm.

“Come now, Commander, surely my flying isn’t that bad.”

“Well I’ve certainly experienced worse. Like that time Styler took our shuttle into…”

Trey elbowed April. She then remembered Jack was sitting right there. At first she was afraid she might have upset him but he gave no sign of it. There was a long, awkward moment of silence which was broken by Doran.

“You know, Mr. Thunder, in my youth I was also a bit of a daredevil.”

“I believe it sir,” said Jack.

Jack did truly believe it. Because of the way Doran had fought the battles of Neptune and Saturn, Jack had seen how daring Doran could be. His gambles had cost the enemy dearly. But the price had been heavy. Only time would tell if it was worth it.

“In fact...” continued the Captain looking back at April. “...I was also known to occasionally upset my commanding officer with some silly stunt.”

“I imagine you were quite brash,” said April smiling back at him. She didn’t really think Doran had been quite as wild as he was now remembering. However if it gave him pleasure to remember his youth with a little extra flare, then so be it.

She was certain he had had plenty of excitement. After all it was Doran’s generation that rebuilt the devastation of World War III and colonized the Solar System. With the exception of the Pirate Wars, the world had known almost total peace. During the war, America, Japan, and Russia had only lost a few major cities. After the war they had rebuilt quickly and started to concentrate on their massive new space programs.  Africa and South America, despite massive overcrowding do to population explosions, had begun to be much better developed due to foreign aid and the fact that they had been neutral in the war.

Every major city in Europe had been destroyed during the war. In 2120 Europe was still only just getting on its feet. The middle east had been hit with more nuclear weapons than any other region during the war. To that day, the middle east was an uninhabited, barren, radioactive, wasteland. China and the rest of South East Asia were in much the same condition as Europe. Once raw materials had started coming in from space, the world had begun to experience unheard of prosperity.

As they drew nearer to the planet, a squadron of small one engine fighters flew past them.

“Those would be Martian Colonial Fighters,” stated Doran. April was looking at a large space liner that was pulling out of an orbiting dockyard.

“It’s undoubtedly filled with terrified colonist fleeing the planet.”

Jack gazed at the large number of space liners docked at the orbital dock yard and the large number of shuttles ferrying people up. He felt a sudden sense of irony. He had wanted to be a liner pilot. If there had been an opening, he would probably be flying back and forth between Earth and Mars evacuating as many people possible. He would be a nobody in the middle of the greatest event of human history. But here he was, on his way to meet a Space Force Admiral to give him his opinions and advice on the situation from a fighter pilots perspective. He only wished his opinions were a little bit more optimistic.

Finally, Doran started their decent to the planet below. The trip through the atmosphere was quite bumpy at first, but eventually it smoothed out as they decelerated. Jack immediately felt the force of gravity pulling on him. He’d been in space for quite a while now. Of course he had exercised daily in the ships gym as per regulations. He like everyone else in the Space force had also taken the ultra-powerful vitamins that scientists had developed to help keep muscles from deteriorating the weightless environment of space.

They flew over the red, rocky, Martian landscape.

“So Jack, is this is your first time on Mars?” asked April.

“It is,” stated Jack.

“I’m sure you’ll find it very interesting,” said Doran.

Jack looked out the cockpit at the terrain behind him. He saw a long deep and jagged canyon that was so big it made the Grand Canyon on Earth look like a crack in a side walk. They were passing over a large rock ridden plain.

“That area directly below us is where the Viking probe landed over one hundred years ago,” said Trey.

Ahead of them on the horizon, they saw a massive volcano.

“That’s it,” said Doran. “Olympus Mons. It is the largest mountain in the entire Solar System. Its base is roughly the size of the state of Arizona. Olympus Mons City is on the other side.”

“They built it at the base of a giant volcano?!” asked Jack.

“It’s an extinct volcano,” said Doran.

“That’s good,” said Jack and wondered why man always decided to build his greatest wonders in the shadow of things like Mars’ giant mountain.

As they climbed higher so as to be able to pass over the mountain, Jack wondered at the blue Martian sky which stood in contrast to the rusty red landscape below. It was common knowledge that Mars was the planet most like Earth in the solar system. Other than the sky, Jack didn’t notice anything familiar. The instruments in front of him told him that it was colder than Antarctica outside and that there was more carbon dioxide in the air than oxygen.

The shuttle passed over the deep crater of the volcano and then they saw it. It was spread out before them on the other side of the massive mountain. Under one massive bio-dome and dozens of smaller ones that branched out from it was Olympus Mons City. Jack stared at it in awe.

“How long did it take to build?” he asked in amazement.

“They’re still building it,” said Doran. It started out as a surface outpost established by the first people to land here. Over the years, as more and more people have come here seeking a new life it has grown.

The radio cracked. “Shuttle 5 you are clear to land on platform 23.”

Unlike the larger shuttles which required a runway, the small shuttle that they were on possessed jet thrusters strong enough to bring the craft to a brief hover and then set it down on a small landing pad. The location of platform 23 became electronically marked on Doran’s navigational screen.

“Understood, flight control,” replied Doran. “I’m starting my approach.” Doran piloted the shuttle on its new vector. Far ahead of them, the sun was getting low on the horizon.

“In a few hours, it will be night and the temperature will drop even lower,” said Doran. The shuttle headed straight for platform 23 which was lit up by green lights so that it could be noticed amongst all the others. Doran came in a little fast and almost over shot his target, but he managed decelerate just in time to set the shuttle down rather hard on the platform. He then disengaged all the shuttles engines and they were lowered down into the hangar.

Once everything was clear, they climbed out of the shuttle. A Space Force Ensign was waiting to meet them. He saluted Doran.

“Captain, sir. I’ve been instructed to take you and your party to City Hall.

“Very well, Ensign. Lead the way.”

They followed the Ensign out of the hangar. They found themselves in one of the smaller bio-domes. It was about a mile in circumference and was filled with small buildings such as cargo ware houses and areas designed to hold and entertain people waiting to board outgoing shuttles. One had a sign that said baggage check. There was even a customs station through which all new civilian arrivals had to pass.

There were many exits from the dome that led to other hangars and also to departure terminals. It had fairly wide streets through which people and a small number of electric buggies moved. The ensign motioned to a waiting buggy and they all climbed on the small vehicle. It did not go exceptionally fast, but it was much quicker than walking and much easier. They were all weak from being in space for so long. Now they had to cope with gravity.

The bio dome was very crowded due to the large number of people seeking transportation to Earth. Despite this, it took them less than twelve minutes to reach the other side of the bio dome and the turbo car station which was a large platform. They got off the buggy and headed for the top of the platform. Once there, they found a turbo car waiting for them at the edge of the platform which was a lot like an old train stop. Instead of a track, there was a narrow, long, and curved pit above which floated the turbo car. The turbo car itself was about the size of a regular automobile. It was shaped like a half cylinder. Its lower portion contoured perfectly with the pit beneath it. There was a reverse polarity field which repulsed the car from the pit. The surface of the pit and the bottom of the car were separated by mere inches. Since there would be no friction, the turbo car would be able to go very fast. It was a topless car but had a large windshield in the front. It had two front seats and a large seat for three in the back just like any other car.