The Lost Prince (24 page)

Abby saw Gary’s instant grin. She said, “How would you like to do it, Sir?”

Drey said, “Ian and I will attack you while you’re moving forward at normal speed. We’ll see how it goes. Once that’s done, we’ll go after one of our ships. Make sure all weapons are offline and we’ll score a kill if you’re able to get a lock on the aiming program.”

Ian appeared and said, “Going FTL or jumping away is not to be used during this exercise.”

Abby looked at Gary and saw him nod as he pulled his harness on. Abby pulled hers over her shoulder and said, “We look forward to the competition.”

Andi looked at Drey, “I so want you to take them out.” Drey smiled and nodded.

Gary watched the two huge ships disappear and said, “G, as soon as you detect anything moving toward us, go to full thrusters and go vertical to the line of approach. I’ll take it from there.”

“You know they’re planning to bracket you.”

“I do, G. How fast can you go out of normal space?”

“A hundredth of a second.”

“And how fast coming back in?”

“Same time.”

“Set your system to do that on the drive button. Go out and immediately back in.”

“I’ve set the protocol.”

Abby looked at Gary, “Is this going to be like what we did during our first trial?”

Gary tilted his head and shook it slightly, “I’m hoping it’ll be over before it really gets started. If it goes longer than three minutes, it could get rough.”

Abby looked at him and said, “Forget about me. You do what you have to do to take them down. They’re the reason I’ve been forced to be here.”

“Hang on, they should be here momentarily.” Abby grabbed the arms of her chair just as the ship whipped vertical and spun. She gritted her teeth and thought, “That wasn’t so bad.”

• • •

Drey and Ian came into normal space roaring in on G. They were on a plane even with the ship and activated their aiming systems. Ian said, “We’ve got him,” just as the ship whipped up and turned sideways to them. E and Doc turned with the ship as it went vertical. Doc said, “I don’t have a good enough target to get lock.” Drey pulled the ship up and moved slightly ahead of E as Gary whipped the rear of his ship around and turned edge on again as he roared past them in the opposite direction. “I still can’t get lock.”

“Keep trying, Doc.”

Ian and Drey turned behind the fleeing ship and began catching up. They spread out and brought their aiming programs on Gary, but the small edge of the ship was difficult to lock on. “Get close enough to get a lock, E.”

The two pursuers moved closer and suddenly the giant ship disappeared and just as suddenly reappeared behind them. Both of their boards buzzed telling them Gary had acquired a lock on them. Drey shook his head as Ian yelled, “You were not allowed to use your jump drive in this exercise.”

Gary smiled and pressed a button and Ian saw his face on the display, “Going FTL or jumping away is not to be used during this exercise.” Gary said, “I never completely left normal space; my scanner antenna remained there.”

Ian glared at Gary and then heard Drey clapping. He looked at Drey on the display and said, “Getting in and out of normal space that fast was a great tactic. However, it won’t work at high speed.”

“No, but it will foil a pursuit.”

Drey nodded, “There is that.” Drey looked at Andi, who was almost green. “Want to try it again in a few minutes. I think we can take you next time.”

Gary remained silent and Abby realized he was deferring to her. “I think that’s a good idea. You might want to allow Violet and Andi to board one of the small ships and avoid the punishment.”

Andi glared at the display, “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll stay here and observe what happens. My pilot has adequately prepared me for the stresses of combat.”

Andi glared at Abby and said, “I’ll stay right where I am.”

Abby said, “What about you, Violet?”

Ian said, “She’ll be back in a moment.” Everyone stared at him and he said, “She had to put on a clean uniform.”

Abby shut the display off and laughed so hard she thought she would cry. After a long pause she reactivated the board and said, “I really think it would benefit all of us to take some time to go through these maneuvers to prepare us for the real thing.”

Violet appeared on the display and Gary saw she was not feeling well. Ian said, “I believe we should take some time to attempt maneuvers for the next twenty four hours, until all of us acclimate to the forces involved. Tomorrow we’ll do this again. We’ll meet back at this location.” Everyone nodded and the three ships jumped away.

“Do you have anything you haven’t tried?”

Gary nodded and described it to G. “Do you think you can do it?”

“I’m not sure. It will take a major change in the gravity suppressors’ safeguards to pull it off.”

“How long would you have to override the system?”

“Only a second, but you would have to endure about six gravities to do it.”

Gary looked at Abby, “That’s a pretty tough load, Sir.”

“Can you do it?”

“We’ll have to recline our seats completely just before we do, but we should be able to handle the load that long. When I tell you to really strap in, you will need to make sure there is no slack anywhere in your harness and you’ll have to be wearing a uniform with absolutely no wrinkles in it.”

“Why?”

“A wrinkle will be pushed into your skin and deform the uniform pressures. You’ll hurt for weeks.”

“I have a uniform that meets those requirements. I’ll just have to overcome my modesty at wearing it.” Gary looked at Abby and shook his head. Abby said, “What?”

“I’ve never really looked at you without the negative emotions about you. Trust me on this, Sir; you have nothing to worry about as far as being modest.”

Abby turned red and said, “Do we need to practice this?”

“We should.”

“Then let’s go change and get on it.” Abby left the bridge and went to her quarters. She undressed and looked at herself in the mirror. She saw a woman six feet tall with light brown hair and blue eyes. She never really thought of her appearance but she saw that she was shapely and in good shape. She unpinned her hair and it fell to the middle of her back. She sighed and got dressed. When she went back to the bridge she saw Gary do a double take, “I’ve left my hair down. What do I need to do about it?”

Gary stared at Abby and forced himself to start thinking. “We’ll both wear skull caps with cushions built in. You should spread you hair out evenly inside it so there are no bulges, especially in the back. The bun you normally have would really cause a problem.”

“I thought it would. Will you help me put the cap on?”

Gary went over and took her hair and spread it out in the cap. He pulled the cap on and said, “How is it?”

Abby felt Gary’s closeness and felt her temperature go up. She turned and reclined her chair and put her head down. “I feel a space behind my neck.”

G said, “Hold on a moment.” Suddenly the chair felt like it absorbed her.

“Hey, that’s nice.”

Gary said, “As soon as I push the activate button, you chair will recline and form around you. Make sure you push all the air out of your lungs. The punishment won’t last long.”

Abby shrugged, “I can see why my lungs should not have air. They could be damaged by a rib.”

“Exactly; are you ready to try this?” Abby nodded and sat in her chair. She tried not to think about Gary’s body as he sat down but he was something to see. She closed her eyes and pushed the thoughts out of her mind.

The next two hours were brutal beyond description, but she knew afterwards, and Gary confirmed it, she would never have any more problems with high speed maneuvers. She also knew that she would start wearing the skin tight uniforms whenever they were in the alien’s domain. “Gary, I think we should keep these uniforms on whenever we’re in enemy space.”

“I have to agree. We couldn’t do this maneuver in our normal uniforms.”

“I hope I don’t embarrass you around Andi and Violet.”

Gary smiled, “I think it will be them that are embarrassed.”

“I’m being serious.”

“So am I. You have nothing to worry about.” Gary paused, “I’m curious.”

“About what?”

“You haven’t been your normal vindictive self since you came on board…well, soon after you came on board. I’ve never seen you go this long without insulting someone.”

Abby thought a moment and said, “I think it’s like you said earlier.” Gary furrowed his brow and Abby said, “I’m totally out of my league here. I know nothing about space ships, the military, normal space, other space, or any of the other things I’ve seen. I’m doing all I can to play catch up and it’s impossible to find senseless errors when you don’t know anything about what’s happening around you.”

Gary nodded slowly, “You lack patience.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“When you’re dealing with things you know, your mind is moving so quickly that anyone that says something that is obviously wrong, you reject it and continue with your thoughts. The vindictive remarks are to get them out of their erroneous thought processes. You have no patience to slow down and point out how they’re wrong.”

Abby was silent and two hours later as they jumped to the coordinates to start the exercise she said, “You’re right.”

Gary smiled and slowly shook his head. The amount of thought put in to what he had told Abby had to be staggering for her to have taken that much time to think about it. As the other two ships appeared, Abby said, “Thanks for being patient with me.”

Gary nodded and smiled, “I have to.”

“Why?”

“You outrank me. It comes with the territory.”

Abby smiled and knew he was not being totally honest. He could have really punished her during their trial if he chose. He didn’t hurt her and she knew she might not have been so forgiving if he was learning from her. She looked at the two ships and said, “Have they got a surprise waiting for them.”

“Chose a direction?”

“I think taking a dive is called for.”

G said, “You are learning.”

“Just help me behave, G. A little learning with me is dangerous.”

“I’ve seen that.”

“You didn’t have to agree.”

“Just letting you see what happens.”

Abby nodded, “I deserve that.”

Their displays came on and they turned to the other four members of their teams. As soon as Drey saw them he said, “This doesn’t look good. You have acceleration suits on.”

Violet and Andi saw Abby in her skintight uniform and were shocked. The shapeless dresses and clothes she normally wore did not reveal her shape. Even the skull cap didn’t hide how beautiful she was.

Gary nodded, “I think we’re going to need them to get away from the two of you.”

Drey stared at Gary and said, “Is what you’re planning dangerous to your ship?”

G said, “Noo, it exercises my little used muscles.”

Drey laughed and E said, “They’re up to something.”

Doc said, “Let em try.”

Drey said, “Ok, here’s how we’ll do this. You start flying forward and Ian and I will jump in behind you and attempt to fire on you. That’s what we’ll have to face with the aliens and now is a good time to see how we respond to that form of attack.”

Gary nodded and said, “I’ll start at nine tenths light speed.”

Ian smiled, “See you shortly.”

The two ships disappeared and Gary accelerated. Abby looked at him and said, “Will that speed change what we’ve done?”

“It might cause an extra gravity. Just make sure you empty your lungs.”

Abby shook her head and Gary said, “What?”

“I just hope my boobs are still on my chest when this it over. They’ll look ridiculous on my back.”

Gary and G laughed.

“G
as soon as they appear, I’m going to activate the maneuver. I expect them to really be coming at high speed.”

“What if this doesn’t work?”

“Well then, I’ll just see what I can dial up as we pass them, G.”

• • •

“Are you ready?”

“I am. How do you want to handle this?”

“We’ll jump in less than a thousand yards behind him and attempt to get lock. I need E and Doc to determine his escape route. I think he’ll either go vertical again or dive out of our approach path.”

“We’re on it, Drey.”

Violet said, “Do you think he can do anything about this tactic?”

Drey laughed, “I don’t know that we could, but I’ve seen him pilot a vehicle through traffic that was impossible. That’s why he’s here. If there’s a way to escape, I suspect he can do it.”

“Do you see a way?”

“I’ve got to say I don’t.”

Andi said, “Well, let’s go teach them a lesson.”

Ian said, “I hope we are the teachers here.”

Drey smiled, “Amen to that.”

Drey and Ian emerged into normal space right behind Gary’s ship and suddenly dove. Their buzzers went off immediately ending the exercise. E said, “What the…”

They watched as G flew past them in the opposite direction too quickly to be targeted even if they weren’t already hit. “Drey, what just happened?”

“Give me a moment Ian.” Drey replayed the recording and saw G dive and suddenly the rear of the ship whipped around as its inertia kept the giant ship moving away from them with the front pointed at them. The front end of the ship had all its weapons pointed at them as they gave chase and had a huge target to hit because they couldn’t dive edge on to pursue Gary. Drey shook his head, “I didn’t know that kind of maneuver is possible.”

Doc said, “It isn’t. He had to override the gravity suppressors.”

Ian stared at the recording and shook his head. “I’m beginning to wonder if we could take him with six ships.”

Violet said, “I’m surprised Abigail is still alive after that kind of maneuver.”

Gary said, “Well, would you like to try again?”

Drey smiled, “No, I think we’ve seen enough. You need to download that maneuver to our ships and give us some time to practice. That was remarkable.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Abby said, “This can only be done with the right uniform. I suggest that while in alien space we keep them on or we won’t be able to do this.”