Chapter 35 Callie
thirty-five
Callie
The plan was simple.
We’d wait for Jack and her people to occupy the Unity Dreadnaught while the fighter squadrons dropped planetside to engage the Unity Insects in the air over the Tuanov capital city of Imyathume where they’d congregated most of their forces.
The Tuanov Queen and her Consort were mission critical, but Aga, Rathal and I were on special assignment to find Patty and Rema. We’d drop in, clear the city, and then fly directly to the palace where Patty and Rema’s last reported location was, extract them, and bring them aboard the Vengeance.
I’d been assigned to a larger four man fighter. I braced my hands on my hips while I looked her over. She wasn’t the sleek ultra advanced work of art that was a Fang, but she also wasn’t made of cobbled together spare parts either.
Shaped like an elongated manta ray, she was burnt orange in color, and—with twin gatling lasers mounted under her wings on either side and a blunt, ugly looking coil gun mounted on a turret along her belly—she was a mean bitch. I loved her on sight.
I think I’d name her Lyudmila.
Lyudmila’s narrow rear ramp was open and after a nod to Rathal and Aga, we boarded her.
Inside was cramped, with one seat situated in the cockpit surrounded by four long rectangles of glass view screens, and three seats behind the cockpit with only a narrow aisle between them.
I moved down the aisle and dropped into the pilot’s seat.
I took a deep breath before strapping in and then took a second to familiarize myself with the controls.
On a Fang, it's the neural link that actually operates the ship, but there are tactile controls to better focus your mind. The Rijiteran’s had found that if a pilot had a throttle and stick to actually touch and move, it helped their brain passageways make the connection faster.
That they were making the maneuvers via the neural link nanoseconds before their hands were was irrelevant.
Lyudmila wasn’t that sophisticated. There was no neural link or even the older neural halo.
It was just an old fashioned side stick, rudder pedals, and throttle.
I grinned, gripping the stick with my left hand and wrapping my other hand over the throttle before glancing back at the boys just as they were strapping themselves into their seats.
“You two might want to tighten those restraints.”
Aga paled and did what I suggested, jerking his restraints down tight but Rathal cocked his head at me.
“Darling, I’ve been in countless battles before. I was practically raised inside a ship. I think I’ll be fine.”
Aga shook his head adamantly. “No. No, you won’t. I’m telling you, I don’t know what it is about humans but you take away gravity and limitations and they are insane. Callie here makes most pilots look like amateurs. Do as she says.”
Rathal wagged his brows at me and pulled at his restraints tight. “You know, I find competency arousing.”
We grinned at each other until Aga rolled his eyes with a sigh. “Stop fucking each other with your eyes and focus. Rathal, show Callie how to tap into the external cameras of this hunk of junk you call a Cutter.”
We snickered at him, but did as he said.
“You see that series of pink switches there on the top left corner? Those are the ship camera feeds. The bow camera is the uppermost one. Flip it. We should be able to watch the Rijitera arrive.”
“I imagine that Som’ae has already allowed access so the rest of the crew can connect via their links,” Aga said and Rathal made a noise of agreement.
I leaned forward and flipped it on. Immediately the cockpit viewscreens flashed black with just the faint glow of the gas giant to Cutter’s starboard side.
“What’s the Cutter’s designator, by the way?” I asked Rathal, my eyes glued to the screen.
“Foresight,” he murmured.
“Why that?” I asked, frowning a little.
“As in: Don’t you wish you would have had the foresight to run?”
Aga snorted out a laugh. “You have style, Rathal. I’ll give you that.”
I would have laughed with them, but a spot of white had appeared in the distance and at first I’d thought it was a star, but I swear it was growing.
“Of course I do. Have you seen me? I am the very definition of style.”
“Uh, guys?” That white dot was getting wider, but not closer. Looking at it was kind of freaking me out.
“Oh by the Mother. You dress like a Lassa bird, dancing around for attention.”
“Guys.” What the hell was it?!
“If I were a Lassa bird, I’d be the most colorful and successful Lassa bird in existence.”
“Guys!” I finally shouted, turning in my seat. Their bickering stopped and they looked at me.
“What the hell is that?” I asked, pointing at the growing white dot on the screen. Now about the size of a moon in the distance.
Rathal leaned forward and then gasped, ripping at his restraints until they popped free, and stood, gripping the back of my chair with both hands.
“It's a Transition gate,” he breathed, eyes wide. A knot formed when I noticed his eyes had gotten misty. I got chills when he finished his thought. “A Rijiteran Transition gate. Look,” he said, pointing.
I shifted forward again and watched as the dot suddenly flattened, expanding into a straight line and then flashed open like a camera taking a picture. One second there had been space, then a dot, then a line, and now there was a massive white ship gleaming in the blue glow of the gas giant.
The sight of the ship filled me with a kind of existential dread. It was a primal, instinctual fear that urged me to run and not stop. My nervous system screamed. My heartbeat surged, sweat broke out, and a wash of heat followed swiftly by cold stole over me.
While I was grabbing my seat trying not to bolt out of my ship and hide in a closet until the monsters were gone, Rathal was sucking in a sob and laughing.
“I haven't seen a Rijiteran ship in five thousand years! She’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful!”
Beautiful wasn’t the word I was looking for. More like Sinister. Malevolent. Despair.
A loud, haunting howl resonated inside my skull, and when I cast wild eyes towards Aga and Rema, I knew they could hear it too just by Aga’s sick look and Rathal’s maniacal laughter.
“Nano to nano communications! By the Mother, I’ve missed this!” Rathal yelled gleefully, punching the air.
Greetings, Erral Fleet.
This is the Mother ship Vengeance.
Please, follow us. We will lead you through the Gate and into glory.
The voice that spoke was Hella’s. I’d recognized that deep, menacing timbre anywhere.
“Understood, Vengeance. It is an honor. All hands, prepare for drop,” Som’ae said over the general net.
Rathal chortled and fell back into his seat, strapping back in.
The rumble of Foresight's engines was all the warning I got before we boosted forward. According to the HUD display that flashed in the lower center of my viewscreen, we were pulling six Gs. I grunted, and breathed through it, preparing for the awful feeling of going through the Transition gate, but the Vengeance maneuvered gracefully around, her streamline bulk beautifully sinister, and that white flash blinded me for just a few seconds and when my vision cleared there was a Unity Dreadnought at our twelve o’clock and about a thousand Insects swarming around a purple hued planet.
“Holy. Shit.” I didn’t know who said it, me or the boys.
Drop! Drop! Drop!
The Cutter’s pilot screamed over my Link and then the Lyudmilla was falling out of the belly of the Foresight and straight into hell.