Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) (52 page)

"Take
us there, Ensign. Best speed."

"Yes,
sir!"

Jack
reached over and rubbed Fritz's head. "Off you go, kid, go sit
on
that one," he pointed at the empty first officer's chair. The
dog switched locations and curled up comfortably on Walt's chair,
his chin on the console. Jack plopped into the command seat and
swiveled around to face the pilots. "Time to go liberate some
parts, from our friendly neighborhood pirate supply store..."
he wiggled his eyebrows up and down. "Why don't you guys go get
some shut eye, I'll call you if anything comes up."

■ ■ ■

It
had been over seven hours, and the screens were void of ships,
planets
or Gates. Jack was bored. Maria was sitting with Myomerr at the
weapons console and Raulya was off duty. Jack spun his seat around.
"You want to go for a flight?"

Maria
sat up straight. "Can we?"

"Sure,
why not." Jack called the flight bay and told them to ready
two
fighters, then he called Trigoss and asked him to come to the
bridge. "You don't mind playin' Skipper for awhile, do you?"

"Certainly
not!" he exclaimed, "I'll be right up."

After
a brief chat, the two pilots left the command to Trigoss
and
headed to the flight bay. Fritz stayed on the bridge. "What
kind of pattern will we fly?" asked Maria as they walked down
the corridor.

"Pappy
came up with a thing he called a double diamond, it makes
a
pretty thorough pattern." Jack went on to describe it in
detail.

"That's
a four ship pattern though, right? How will we do it with
only
the two of us?"

"We
go deep while we're together, then shallow when we're apart so
we're
not too far from each other. So instead of a fat, even diamond, we
make a long, skinny one." Maria nodded in understanding as she
pictured it in her mind.

Jack
was cheerful as he picked his helmet off the rack of his
locker.
Whistling, he rubbed the fingerprints off the fresh artwork on the
sides and admired the shine. The logo looked like the Medieval
battle shield on his bedroom wall back at home, black shield,
fiery-red rising sun with the gold Pegasus silhouette over it, and a
gold skull, square and compasses at the bottom tip of the shield. He
tossed his flight gloves into his helmet and strode toward the doors
to the flight bay.

"Hey!
Wait for me!" Maria snatched her helmet off the bench in front
of
her locker, the cartoon of an angry hornet looking like it was about
to fly off of its shiny white surface. She caught Jack as he passed
through the doors into the flight bay. "Don't forget
me
,"
she reminded him.

"I
didn't." He smiled then continued to whistle as he walked. The
fighters
were already sitting in the launch tubes, waiting only for their
pilots. "I'll take the other one," he volunteered. She
nodded and began sliding her gloves on as she headed for the closest
Warthog. Jack used the walkway through the base of the tower to
reach the other craft in the far launch tube.

"Hello,
Captain, didn't know you'd be flying today..."

"Hi,
Chief, sure, why not?" He took his gloves but handed the man
his
helmet.
"I'm allowed to have some fun too." With a grin he climbed
the ladder to the cockpit. It was snug, comfortable, and he felt
like he belonged there.

Setting
his helmet on the dash, the Crew Chief went about securing
Jack
into his seat and connecting his comm and power leads. The Chief's
headphones were already plugged into the nose of the fighter so as
soon as Jack's gloves and helmet were on, he checked the
connections. "Can you hear me, Skipper?" Jack nodded. "Ok,
sir, you're all set!" He began to descend the ladder. "Go
ahead, close and latch your canopy."

Jack
followed the Chief's instructions and the tower's pre-flight
prompts
as the Line Chief sealed the launch tube. "Brian's right, I
feel like a torpedo..."

"Excuse
me, sir?" inquired the tower.

Jack
smiled and shook his head, "Nothing." The catapult fired,
sending
Jack's fighter screaming through the launch tube. It flashed by in a
nanosecond.

Jack
looked to his left and could see Maria's fighter slightly
behind
his. "Boy," he began, "that was
fun!
So, whaddya' think? Wanna' go back and do it again?" There was
silence. "Arroyo, you Ok? Is your comm on?"

"I'm
here," she breathed, "I'm just trying to swallow my heart.
Now I
know
what a bullet feels like." Jack figured it would make a
thrilling ride for an adult amusement park. It was quiet again until
she caught her breath. "I never dreamed it would be this
beautiful..." her voice trailed off. They both spent the next
few moments staring at the stars.

"I
always wondered what it would look like from out here,"
recalled
Jack.
"Even as a kid I used to think about that."

"I
bet you never thought you'd find out first hand."

"No..."
He remembered laying in the grass as a boy and staring up
into
the stars. "But I used to dream about what it would be like if
I did."

"So,"
deduced Maria, "this is sort of a dream come true..."

Jack
glanced down at his sensors, there was nothing but their fighters
and
the Freedom. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"Maybe
you were always supposed to end up out here... Y'know what I
mean?
Like the saying, everything happens for a reason?" She thought
for a moment and continued. "You used to dream about it because
someday you'd really end up out here... in fact, everything you've
done all your life seems to have prepared you for it..."

"Like
what?" he interrupted.

"Your
police career gave you certain knowledge and skills. You left
that
to be a pilot... your values, your ideas, your beliefs. They're all
needed out here. Then several sets of circumstances all collide and
connect to actually bring us together and deliver us all out here.
That doesn't sound like destiny to you?" Jack admitted it did.
But he always believed that a man had more than one destiny and
could choose which path he wanted to take. To him this sounded more
predestined. "No," said Maria, "don't you see? This
is what you always wanted, ever since you were a little boy. And you
did everything you needed. Destiny just provided the right
circumstances to complete delivery."

Jack
offhandedly wondered if she'd been talking to Voorlak. "When
did
you think of all this?" He had to admit it though, there
were
too many coincidences to be
just
coincidences.

"Over
the last couple of days when I was thinking about you and me
and
what's happened, or should I say, what's
been
happening..." She went on to explain that she suddenly realized
where destiny was taking him. That she was not the right woman,
because the right woman would have to be someone who could sit by
and wait until he had time to need her. Someone who had the right
devotion and patience. "I'm not the right person," she
admitted. "Maybe I'm selfish, but I want it when I want it. I
don't like to wait, I want first priority."

Jack
glanced at his sensors screens and back up. "Well it sure
sounds like
you
thought this out thoroughly..."

"Well,
when I have a revelation, I don't fool around!" she boasted.

"Are
you Ok with it?" They were nearing their break off point.

"Yeah,
but I still love you, you jerk."

"Me
too... I mean you, not me..."

"Yeah
I know what you mean. Listen, I don't know Alité very well,"
continued
Maria, "but she seems real nice, maybe the
right
one, y'know? So be nice to her."

Jack
cracked half a smile. "Cut it out, will ya'? You sound like my
mother."
He looked over at the fighter next to him and could see Maria's
silhouette bathed in the glow from the electronics in her cockpit.
"We're at point, you ready to go?"

She
looked over at him and gave him a thumbs up. "Ready."

He
returned the signal. "Ok, break." The two fighters split
and
banked
away from each other. Soon they would only be able to see one
another on sensors. "Switch to Comm One."

"Roger,"
came her reply. They had been talking on a short-range,
low-power
frequency. They would now switch to a long range frequency to keep
in touch, though now they would speak only if necessary. This would
prevent giving away their location to an enemy.

Jack
felt a queer sense of loneliness as he looked at the emptiness
around
him. Nothing to be seen but the twinkling points of light. Except
for the constant rumble of the engines vibrating through the hull
and the occasional beep of the sensors as they made their sweeps, it
was too quiet for him. He switched off his mic and began to whistle
a tune. Then he hummed. Finally he sang. He longed for some familiar
rock-n-roll. He was nearing his outward point.

"Bird
Two to Leader."

Jack
switched his mic back on. "Leader, go ahead."

"I've
got some kind of debris floating out here, some large, some
small.
Please advise."

"Is
it ship debris or organic asteroid stuff..."

"I'm
on the very edge of it, it's hard to tell from here... ship
maybe?"

"Roger.
Stand by, hold position." Maria acknowledged the order
and
pulled the throttle back into the idle position. "Power your
shields up," added Jack, in an afterthought. "Leader to
tower..."

"Tower,
go ahead."

"Wake
Commander Smiley and Lieutenant Warren, I need them on stand
by."
The tower acknowledged. "Leader to bridge, please wake
Commander Edgars."

"I'm
already here, Jack," responded the Professor.

"Roger."
Jack swung the nose of his Warthog fighter to the new course heading
he
set and pushed the throttle forward until it stopped. "Leader
to Bird Two, I'm on my way, full burner." He thumbed the boost
button.

"Hurry,
Leader, I've got movement out there."

"Hold
on, I'm comin'! Arm guns, Bird Two." Maria acknowledged.
"Leader
to
Bridge, go to yellow alert!" Jack flipped the switches for his
shield generator and heard the whine as it kicked on. He armed guns
at the same time. The defense and armament screens winked on.

■ ■ ■

Paul
and Mike were heading down to the flight bay when the warning
lights
in the corridors flashed yellow and the alert horn sounded twice.
The two pilots exchanged quick glances and broke into a hurried trot
for the ready room. These men were pros at readying for launch, they
had plenty of experience and were two of their country's best. In a
time any Carrier Captain would be proud of, Paul and Mike were
suited up and heading for the door. Paul snatched up the helmet with
the Desert Storm logo on it and Mike grabbed the one with the
cartoon of the
Mad
Wolf
.

The
fighters were already loaded into the launch tubes. "Take that
one,"
Paul pointed at the far tube.

"Right,
Pappy!" Mike hefted his helmet under his arm like a football
and
sprinted off.

Paul
reached out and grabbed a passing mechanic. "Ready that
shuttle,"
he commanded, pointing at a small, ten man work craft. "Get it
ready to launch and see if you can get some guns on it, we might
need it for recovery."