Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) (50 page)

Shaking
his head, the new Captain rose from the chair. "Amazing...
simply
amazing. I wish someone had told me all this earlier though, it
would have freaked me out a lot less..."

"Freaked
you out?"

"Um,
surprised and confused..." explained Jack. CABL M7 nodded his
understanding.
"Well I better get going, he'll be waiting for me." They
shook hands. "Thanks for your time, Doc, I appreciate it."

"It
was my pleasure, Captain. One other thing, there's no accurate
prediction
on how sizable his spoken vocabulary will become, but it will
definitely be smaller than his mental vocabulary. Simply because he
was not physically designed to speak. This will be frustrating for
him at times, so be patient with him."

"I'll
do my best, Doc. Thanks again." He turned and walked through
the
infirmary's sliding double doors into the corridor.

■ ■ ■

"You're
not going to believe this Jack," shouted Maria as she ran
down
the corridor. "Fritz just came into the galley and ordered a
hamburger! I thought I was hearing things, but then he said it
again!"

"I
know," said Jack wearily.

"You
know? That he
talks?
You have a
talking
dog!?"

Maria
fell in alongside Jack as he continued down the hall towards
the
galley. "Yeah, you could've knocked me down with a feather. Doc
says the CABL installation has expanded his intelligence." Jack
continued on as they walked, recounting CABL M7's explanation.

"Well
how much can he say?" probed Maria.

Jack
shrugged, "Who knows? Evidently enough to order lunch!"
When
they
entered the galley, they found Fritz occupying a seat at the head of
an empty table. Two hamburger style sandwiches, one half eaten, sat
before him on galley plates. He chewed happily and wagged his tail
when he saw Jack. Sitting down on either side of him, Jack and Maria
joined the dog. "You going to eat
both
of those?" asked Jack. The Shepherd shook his head and nosed
the plate with the whole sandwich over to Jack, who felt thoroughly
embarrassed about the dog's unselfishness.

"I
don't believe this..." muttered Maria.

"Hubugerrr!"
barked Fritz, over his shoulder. The porter brought
another
sandwich on a plate, and Fritz pushed it in front of Maria, not
wanting her to feel slighted. He continued to munch on his own as
neatly as he could.

"Jack,
I've never had a d-o-g order lunch for me before," whispered
Maria.

"Why
are you whispering?" he asked, "he hears better than you
and
me...
and stop spelling, he probably spells better than y-o-u." Jack
took a bite of his sandwich. "Mmm, it's good," he
commented, wiping the meat juice off his chin, "juicy too...
try it." Maria gave in and sampled the sandwich and admitted he
was right.

"So
what do we do now?" asked Maria.

"About
what?" responded Jack, swallowing.

"About
Fritz. What do we do next? Where do we go from here?"

"I'm
not sure," shrugged Jack, "help him if we can, let him
develop
however
he wants to..." Then a sudden idea hit him. "But not
before we have a little fun..."

Maria
picked at her sandwich. "Fun? Like what?"

"Like
watching the look on Brian's face... and Paul's, Mike's,
Derrik's...
even the Professor." Fritz nodded vigorously and wagged his
tail with enthusiasm. Jack smiled at the idea and the dog's
understanding of it.

Her
eyes sparkled for the first time in weeks. "Oh! That's a super
idea!
Call them now! Invite them down to eat or something..!"

"Can't,"
said Jack, his mouth full, "gotta wait till they come
back..."

"Come
back... From where?" interrupted Maria.

"Patrol,"
answered Jack.

"Oh.
How come I didn't get to go?"

Jack
paused to think, holding up one finger to stall, while he
swallowed.
"Wasn't your shift," he lied. "You'll fly with me
once we pass through the Genesis Gate to the next sector." He
hoped that would be a sufficient answer. It was and she offered no
complaint.

Jack
didn't want her to think he didn't trust her, but he had been
concerned
that her attitude or frame of mind would affect her performance.
But, it seemed that the storm had passed. He decided she would fly
his wing, and if everything was acceptable, he would not hesitate to
assign her regular patrol duties. "Well I'm done," yawned
Steele, pushing the empty plate away, "I'm going to go get some
shut eye. You coming, dog?" Fritz hopped off his chair and
ambled up next to him as he rose from the table. "You'd better
go get some rest too," he told Maria, "you want to be wide
awake for patrol."

■ ■ ■

Jack
had been asleep for less than an hour when the bridge called
his
quarters, waking him. He reached over and tapped the comm button on
the night table. "Yes?"

"Sorry
to disturb you, Jack..."

"It's
Ok, Walt, what's up?"

"We're
nearing the Genesis Gate. I've maneuvered astern of the
Princess,
what else should we do?"

"What's
our time to the gate?"

There
was a pause while the Professor consulted Ragnaar at the
navigation
station. "About thirty minutes to entry."

"Are
the guys back from patrol yet?" Jack stretched and propped
himself
up on one elbow.

"Not
yet, they're on their return leg from the rearward point."

"Ok,"
yawned Jack, "call `em in. Tell them to come straight back, no
detours.
We'll relaunch in the next sector. Oh, and find out how long it
takes to pass through."

"Right,
stand by." Jack could hear the Professor recalling the
fighters
and requesting travel time from the helm. "Ok, the boys are on
their way back, and our travel time will be five and a half hours,
give or take a few minutes."

"That's
fine, Walt, give me about five, but if you need me, wake me."

"Right-o."
The comm beeped as the connection ended. Jack looked down
at
Fritz who lay curled on the bed near his feet. His optical sensor
glowed faintly, but he appeared to be asleep. The young Captain
drifted off wondering if the dog could actually see while he was
asleep.

■ ■ ■

The
two flights of fighters rejoined astern of the Freedom and fell
into
a finger four formation. But before they could execute a turnabout
to begin final approach for recovery, they picked up a blip on the
edge of their sensor range. Paul triggered his mic, "Flight
leader to base..."

"This
is the tower, flight leader, go ahead."

"We've
got a bogie out here, tower..." continued Paul, "do we
have
time
to check it out? Please advise..."

"Negative
flight leader, begin recovery immediately."

"Roger,"
answered Pappy. "You heard him boys, loop and roll."

Brian
pulled back on his stick and followed Derrik's wingtip through
the
180 degree half loop. Once on top, they executed a half roll to
right themselves for final approach. Brian throttled back to match
his wing leader's speed as Paul and Mike pulled ahead to create a
loose diamond formation. Derrik and Brian fell further behind as
Paul and Mike began their final approach.

Brian
followed the tower's commands as they were given,
gear
down,
line
up on the ship's signal markers, throttle down to one notch before
idle, coast and wait.
Paul and Mike disappeared through the giant aft landing bay doors
which still looked too small to Brian. Even at his low throttle
setting, he was gaining on the cruiser, as it had slowed for
recovery procedures.

"Flight
one recovered. Flight two, you are clear to land." Brian
concentrated
on the flashing landing lights that ran down the runway and the
instructions from the tower,
engines
off, anti-grav on, arm breaking jets, arm emergency canopy release.
The controller's voice was calm and even, and his reassuring tone
made Brian's first recovery less stressful.

As
his fighter passed through the blue veil of the stasis field, the
ship's
artificial gravity tugged on Brian's fighter, bouncing the landing
skids off the deck one time before being countered by his craft's
anti gravity gear. The solid thump and the shower of sparks
skittering across the floor startled him. Embarrassed, he glanced
over at Derrik's Warthog off his wingtip but the other pilot hadn't
seemed to notice. Firing his breaking jets, he slowed and directed
by the tower, taxied his fighter off the runway. He coasted on
anti-grav, maneuvering the craft gently by the stick and followed
the mechanic's hand signals to the fighter's parking revetment.

He
methodically flipped off the switches for braking jets, emergency
canopy
release and all his electronic gear before pulling the manual canopy
release handle. As the canopy rose slowly with a hiss, he switched
off the anti-grav and felt the craft settle to the deck with a
gentle bump. Unsealing his flight gloves, he pulled them off and
reached back to unseal his helmet. Still adjusted to the darkness of
space, the bright lights in the parking area made his eyes water.
The sound of someone climbing the boarding ladder told him someone
was there, but his eyes refused to focus. The extra hands helped
unseal and remove the helmet which made the light even worse.
Suddenly realizing the pilots discomfort, the mechanic twisted
around on the ladder and shouted at another member of the ground
crew,
"HEY
YOU!”
he
pointed at the man.
“Yeah YOU!
Tu
rn
down these lights!" The man jumped at the order from his Crew
Chief and the lights dimmed almost instantly. "I'm really
sorry, Lieutenant," he said, turning back to Brian. "These
new guys..." he explained as he unbuckled the pilot, "some
just aren't real swift yet..."

Brian
blinked hard and wiped the tears with the back of his hand.
"It's
Ok, Chief. It's better now, thanks."

The
mechanic waited on the deck below as Brian descended the ladder
from
the cockpit. "So how do you like her, Lieutenant?" he
asked, patting his hand on the port engine nacelle.

"She
handles nice, I like her," commented Brian, stepping to the
deck.

The
mechanic handed him back his helmet as they turned to walk
around
the nose. "Yep, she's a good bird," he bragged, running
his hand across the hull, "never been whacked. Not even once."

Brian
tried to sound reassuring. "Well, I'll do my very best to take
good
care of her."

The
Crew Chief laughed a deep belly laugh and slapped the pilot
merrily
on the back. "Ah, my boy, that's what they all say..."
Brian didn't know whether to feel insulted or not, but he smiled
just the same. Maybe he was referring to the landing, thought Brian.
Maybe not.

"Ah,
now
that
was grand!" exclaimed Derrik, as he strolled over to
Brian.
"It's good to feel the power again. I almost forgot what it was
like," he explained. They headed toward the pilot's ready room,
their helmets tucked under their arms. "What'd you think?"

"I
had a blast!"