Torian Reclamation 3: Test of Fortitude (40 page)

“Stay in formation!” Ilsted growled at Jumper through his translator. “A pilot in the Ossurian fleet must be disciplined, and not a seeker of his own glory. All will have ample chances for making kill shots. There is no need—or place for—personal ambition in war.”

“What fun is that?” Jumper said.

The grumpy Ossurian next to Alan in the rear seat row of the fighter seemed to contemplate before replying.

“The word you used does not translate into Ossurian. I assume it has some meaning associated with ambition. This desire of yours must be tamed and kept in check. We best serve our cause by holding true to our individually-assigned tasks.”

“Interesting,” Alan said. “Does the word ‘hero’ translate?”

Jumper shot him a stern glance from the pilot’s seat. Another moment of silence passed before Ilsted replied.

“No.”

Kayla was in the copilot’s seat next to Jumper, and doing a pretty good job there. She had perked up considerably once she came to realize that Jumper’s inspired hustle had achieved a real chance of providing an opportunity for escape. Colonel Halstov fell for their act and recruited them into his armed forces, promising a chance for vengeance on their former Torian captors. To their good fortune, Halstov was short on fighter crews at the moment—and the three “Orthans” scored impressively high in the simulation games, especially Jumper and Kayla.

This was their third live training exercise. Just a routine patrol, but each time they boarded a fighter the three of them knew it could present their occasion for getting away.

Alan found the interior of the alien craft to be well-designed, and much more spacious than one would expect even after accounting for the smaller human physique. There were only four seats, but two levels. Under the cockpit area was a wider interior hull with two beds and some strange looking exercise equipment. Ossurian interstellar fighters didn’t carry a team of space-distortion scientists as the Torian ITF1’s did, apparently trusting their equipment to keep working. Or at least, that’s the way they had flown these local patrols. Perhaps distortion drive technicians were part of the crew on interstellar journeys. They hadn’t gotten that far yet—and if Ilsted had his way, they never would. He made no effort to conceal his disdain for his alien students.

Jumper returned the craft to the tight formation at the rear of the four-ship patrol. Alan expected them to clear the atmosphere and move into orbit above the planet, just as they had on their previous two outings. But the leader made a sudden, swooping dive back toward land. Alan was impressed with how well Jumper followed this time. Brandon had never gotten around to teaching him to fly—probably intentionally—so here Jumper was, finally learning to be a pilot on an enemy fighter.

“That’s better,” Ilsted said.

“Why are we headed back down?” Alan asked.

“Colonel Halstov wants another search made for the missing ground team.” Ilsted pointed towards the mountain range they were fast approaching. “Although they’re probably long dead by now. It’s been more than a week. Hard to believe any of the meager natives are capable of a successful coup. Personally, I think the ground team must have fallen prey to animals. Some large feline species have been spotted in this area. It’s my understanding that some have even been trained by the natives.”

They came in low over the mountains. The leader tipped his wings.

“Spread out,” Ilsted said. “We’ll take the peaks to the left.”

Jumper hesitated before following the last order. Alan certainly understood why. Those peaks were the last place they wanted to scan. The three of them had taken care to hide the Ossurian bodies the best they could, but they were heavy and difficult to move. Consequently, they were not safe from discoverability by a thorough probe.

“No, no, you’re too far now,” Ilsted said. “There’s a flat clearing behind us. Circle back around and hover over it. Behind us!”

Jumper, Kayla, and Alan remained silent as Jumper took the craft back around to the spot of the incident. Alan noticed Jumper was careful not to come directly over the west trailhead, where the thickest patch of vegetation was.

“Here?” Jumper asked.

“Yes, hover for a moment. You should have come here without my telling you, Orthan. You may be good at flying and shooting, but there’s more to being a pilot in the service of Ossur. Learn to be studious in all assigned tasks. This seems like a natural spot for an ambush. There, that rockslide. Does that look fresh to you?”

“No,” Kayla and Jumper said in unison.

“The dead tree trunks in the slide,” Kayla explained. “They’ve obviously been there a while.”

“Hmm.” Ilsted motioned towards the closed-in cave. “Perhaps. Move closer to it, all the same. I want to get a good look at it. In fact, maybe we’ll move some of those rocks out of the way with the tractor beam. See if anything is underneath.”

Jumper responded without talking this time. He maneuvered the ship over the covered cave entrance, as instructed.

Alan kept stealing glances at the laser holstered on Ilsted’s left side. Ilsted’s arm lay naturally over it, making it difficult to grab. Alan would need him to reach up with that hand for some reason, and then he would have his chance. But he would have to be fast and agile. If he failed, it would cost them all their lives.

“Engage the tractor beam and start pulling these boulders away,” Ilsted said. “Don’t waste time. Get the bigger ones first.”

Kayla spoke. “Wait. We’re getting a command to return to formation and pull up into orbit. They’ve seen some unidentified blips outside the atmosphere and want us to check them out.”

“Very well,” Ilsted said. “We’ll have to come back to this.”

That was close. If this timely diversion was a ploy on Kayla’s part, it was a good one—although it would soon be exposed when the other patrol ships failed to collaborate. Alan would need to make a move for Ilsted’s weapon in that case. Maybe that’s what Kayla was trying to give him time for. If only she could also come up with a reason for him to raise that left arm.

But the other patrol ships did collaborate, rising out of the mountains and coming back together in front of them. It wasn’t a trick from Kayla. Alan felt a wave of relief, but realized his heart was racing. He took hold of his quarner stone and tried to calm down before Ilsted noticed.

Within a few seconds the patrol merged tight again and soared upward. As welcome as this development was, it did come with its own set of potential hazards. If the “blips” turned out to be from The Measure, which was now long overdue, they could possibly be ordered to fire upon it. Jumper and Kayla would have to respond by attacking the other ships in the patrol instead, and Alan would be right back to attempting to wrest the hand weapon away from their flight instructor. Of course, that needed to be done anyway, at some point, if they were to escape. Alan kept watching for the opportunity, but it seemed as through Ilsted sensed it. His arm pulled tighter to his torso, rendering the prospect impossible. Alan needed to get him to voluntarily raise that arm. How?

The four ships cleared the atmosphere and came out into the orbital space above Sulien. Jumper was still at the rear of the formation, in perfect position to shoot at the rest of the small patrol. Even without engaging the other fighters, if they could get get away from them somehow—and neutralize Ilsted—it would be their opportunity to dag away. But there was no point in making the attempt while the large Ossurian in the rear seat was still armed.

No other ships were in sight, thank Erob. Whatever caused the blips they were investigating wasn’t making itself easy to see. The patrol made two complete orbits around the planet before Kayla announced they had received instructions from ground control to return to the mountain range and resume the search.

That’s when a sudden laser from behind connected on the left ship in front of them.

Jumper immediately reacted by rolling away from the formation, as did the ship on the right. They rolled in opposite directions. When Jumper came out of it and held them steady for a moment, Alan stretched his neck to look out behind them.

“Extat! Torian fighters! Where did those come from? And what are they doing here?”

“How many?” Jumper asked.

“I only see one squadron. Nine, Jumper. They’re all staying on the other two patrol ships.”

Jumper turned their vessel around so they could all see. The patrol ship that had been hit first exploded. By this time, the additional Torian fighters had also connected on the lead ship, which was now making futile evasive maneuvers. Three or four laser beams stayed on it no matter which way it turned. They had been surprised magnificently, and the lead ship didn’t have time to engage the distortion drive. They watched as it too was destroyed in a bright fireball.

Below and to their right, Alan saw the other escaped patrol ship speeding back into the planet’s atmosphere. Jumper followed it. They shortly emerged into the blue sky again.

Ilsted wasn’t happy.

“If Orthans are a pure race, why did you flee? This was a pathetic display. We should have stayed and defended.”

“Defended how?” Kayla snapped. “They were behind us, more than twice our number. And we’re only following the other escaping vessel. If Ossurians are a pure race, why did they also flee?”

“I will see to it that the other crew’s disgraceful actions are reprimanded as well.”

“As well?” Jumper asked. He had caught up to the other patrol ship now. They came down fast and headed into the canyon where the primary base entrance was.

“You can never serve in the Ossurian military after this act of cowardice. Colonel Halstov will be disappointed, but I expected this. Now take us in slowly and make your last landing with whatever dignity you have left. I’ll see what the colonel wants done with you. Perhaps you can serve on the flight deck crew, if you’re fortunate.”

“You’re being ridiculous,” Jumper said as he slowed and followed the fighter in front of him into the cliff-side opening. “We took the only reasonable action, as did this other patrol ship. Suicide doesn’t help our cause. And you have bigger problems on your hands than deciding our fate. If there’s a Torian fighter squadron up there, then transport ships are nearby. They must know about the base here—and Torians don’t travel this far from home in small processions.”

“Silence!” Ilsted placed his hand on his weapon. Alan hoped it was only an instinctive reaction to the danger of the overall situation. But he leaned forward to speak before Jumper aggravated him any further.

“Don’t argue with him, Jumper. Just dock us.”

Jumper seemed to perceive the concern in Alan’s appeal and stopped talking. He navigated the fighter through the tunnel behind the other remaining patrol ship until they came out into the large opening.

Jumper’s landing was good. The whirring noise of the hover engines subsided, the canopy above them lifted, and they all exited the craft. A ground crew ran over to inspect the vessel.

“Come with me,” Ilsted said.

The underground base was now a flurry of activity. Crews ran back and forth shouting. Fighters hovered and moved about. More fighters formed lines in the storage tunnels. A group of Ossurians with larger rifle-type weapons ran across the ledge above them. The Torian arrival was known, and the Ossurians appeared to be reacting in a frantic scramble of defensive preparations.

Jumper, Kayla, and Alan followed their imposing flight instructor up the ramp towards the operational control center. They could see Colonel Halstov through the glass doors meeting with different subordinates, some of whom ran to him and then ran off just as quickly. Ilsted had them sit in the front reception room and wait while he went to report their “failure.” As soon as he left, the three of them stood right back up.

“What are we going to do?” Kayla said. “I’m afraid we may have missed our opportunity.”

Alan shook his head. “I’m sorry. I waited too long to try and grab his weapon. Looked for too perfect of an opportunity. Extat. Nice flying, Jumper.”

“Not your fault,” Jumper said. “If the opportunity wasn’t there, what could you do? Better that you didn’t try at the wrong time and fail. We’d probably all be dead now. Although we were nearly killed just as dead by our own people.”

Kayla pointed back to the entrance tunnel. “If Tora’s here, and they do know about the base, our problems might take care of themselves. We might be able to wait and be rescued.”

“Not likely,” Alan said. Jumper and Kayla both cocked their heads at him.

“It won’t be a rescue mission,” Alan explained. “No one back home knows we’re here, remember? They’ll want to destroy the base, that’s all. And everyone in it.”

“He has a point,” Jumper said.

“Look.” Kayla motioned through the glass doors. “He’s talking to the colonel now.”

The three of them watched Ilsted’s animated report to the colonel, pointing at them and throwing his hands in the air. Then he motioned downward. It seemed to Alan that he might be pointing to the mines. Colonel Halstov looked in their direction for a moment, then turned back to Ilsted and nodded.

“That can’t be good,” Alan said.

“No, it can’t.” Jumper looked back to the flight deck. “Let’s get out of here. Slowly.”

Kayla and Alan readily agreed and followed Jumper out of the room and back down the ramp. They tried to act casual, but kept having to step out of the way of running Ossurians. When they arrived on the flight deck, they heard Ilsted’s voice echo across the cavern from his translator.

“Orthans! Stop!”

The three of them looked up. Ilsted was pointing at them from the ledge. He then said something to three other Ossurians there with him. Those three began running down the ramp.

“What should we do?” Alan asked Jumper.

Before Jumper could answer, an overhead explosion deafened them. The ground shook. The three Ossurians who were running after them were all knocked down. One of them rolled off the ramp and fell to the flight deck twenty meters below. It was suddenly brighter. Alan saw rays of sunlight in places. He looked up.