Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) (59 page)

Maria
was tucked comfortably in bed. She lay on her side, facing the
group
and absentmindedly played with Derrik's hair. He was sitting on the
floor with his back against the side of her bed. The rest of the
group, mostly boy-girl couples, sat on the sofa or gathered around
the coffee table where the platters of food sat and chatted as they
ate. For some of them, it was the first decent meal they had eaten
in ten hours. Jack stared into Alité's eyes as they ate, they
were pale lavender now. Every time he looked at her, she seemed to
get more beautiful, more alluring. She was wearing a sheer white
leotard with a matching knee length bloused gown that was both low
cut and slit up the sides. He couldn't take his eyes off her, he
wished they were alone.

"Alright,"
said Brian, after sipping his wine, “tell us your story..."

Paul
held up one hand. "Ok, Ok." With his other hand he poured
wine
for
Myomerr. He picked up his wine and watched the burgundy liquid swirl
around. "Once upon a time..."

"C'mon!"
interrupted Mike, "quit goofin' around..." Tilee pulled
on
his
arm to let him know he was embarrassing her.

Failing
at begging, Fritz took advantage of the various distractions
and
stole food off the table. Seeta tweaked his nose in reprisal and
shooed him away with his prize.

Paul
got serious. "Ok.” It took him a second to decide where
to
start.
"Well, we did some pretty serious damage to that carrier,
pretty much tore the bow off of her and crippled her launch
capabilities. We took the fight out of her but good. But in the
exchange that caused that damage she got a couple missiles out.”
He adjusted the way he was sitting and leaned forward. “I get
hit by one of those inbounds from that carrier and it tosses me, end
over end. By the time I get it back under control, I'm somewhere
between that destroyer and carrier gettin' the shit kicked outta' my
bird. My shields are gone, so I cut off my guns to keep them from
pulling power, and I make a bee-line for the first empty patch of
sky I see." He takes a sip of wine. "Well, these guys are
throwing everything they got at me and my bird is flopping around
like a kite in a hurricane. I'm getting the hell beat outta' me
cause I'm slamming all over the place..." He pulled the collar
of his shirt aside to show the purple bruises over his shoulder from
the harness straps.

"Those
are worse than mine," commented Derrik.

"Hurt
too," added Paul. "So anyway, every warning light in the
cockpit
is screamin' at me, no shields, inbound alert, flame-out, fire, hull
breach... and probably a few I didn't notice. I wait as long as I
can... hoping I'm clear... and I punch out." He sipped his
wine, "Just in time too. She blows, right
under
me..." He holds out one hand. "I know what all the
scientists say, there's no sound in space... bull
shit!
Cause I
swear
I could hear it! Well, I must have blacked out for a minute from the
concussion, cause when I woke, I could see the shuttle coming - I
hadn't seen it before that. But then I see the cruiser is coming
too!" There wasn't a sound as he told the story. "I bet
that Captain was good and mad by now... he
wanted
us.
Bad
.
Then, I see
this
lunatic," he pointed to Jack. "He goes screamin' in. Guns
going like crazy, flinging missiles... he buzzes around that cruiser
like a pissed off hornet! Probably drives the Captain nuts. Well it
works, cause for some reason he forgets us and decides to chase
Jack..."

"It's
because he was calling him names on an open channel..." added
Maria.

Brian
looked at Jack. "You called him
names
..?
Like what?"

Jack
shrugged, "I don't really remember that.,” he smirked,
handing an after dinner pastry
to
Fritz who was quietly nudging his elbow. "Whatever came to
mind... I guess."

"Dickbreath,"
said Maria laughing, "asshole, chicken-shit..."

"What's
chicken-shit? whispered Alité.

Jack
almost snorted a mouthful of wine through his nose. "I'll tell
you
later," he promised.

"So
anyway," continued Paul, "Jack heads for the freighter,
and the
cruiser
follows and launches two fighters. The girls pick me up and we head
out for the Freedom. Well, Jack suckers the fighters
and
the cruiser into the debris. They can't even touch him, he's all
over
the place. The fighters are shooting at him, the cruiser's shooting
at him, not a scratch. The cruiser blows up one of their own
fighters, the other crashes into something in the debris field. Jack
takes off. So the cruiser plows through the debris and stops next to
the freighter and just sits there..."

Mike
was dying in suspense. "So what happened to it?"

Jack
pointed to his watch. "Three hours..." was all he said.
There
were
a lot of confused looks. "Remember what I told Trigoss? What we
can't take,
burn!
The Chief stuck one of the charges between the engine cores. When it
went off, it must've opened the cores and it went up like a nuke.
That cruiser wasn't more than fifteen-hundred feet away." Jack
waved, "Bye, bye cruiser."

"I
was worried," said Paul, "I didn't know what he was doing.
I
thought
if that cruiser finds the Freedom, we could be in deep trouble.
Because I
knew
the Freedom couldn't outrun, or outgun it."

"It
turned out to be a lot bigger than we thought too," commented
Mike.

"I
thought he was nuts," announced Maria. "I thought, no way
is he
coming
back. No way could he survive attacking that thing alone..."

"But
he slid through it like he was covered in Teflon or something,"
reflected
Paul.

Brian
thought about the airport in Puerto Rico and raised an
eyebrow.
"I've seen that before..."

"Stainless
Steele," said Mike.

"Huh?"

"Your
new call name," continued Mike. "All fighter jocks have
one,
yours
has to be Stainless Steele."

"Is
that what I am? A fighter jock?"

"You
are now...
Stainless
."
Paul grinned.

"It
kinda' does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

"What
about me?" asked Brian.

"Gunner,"
said Derrik without hesitation. "Did you know, all they
had
to do when he came in was to refuel his bird and refill the Mercury
pods for his Gatling? He got two bloody kills without lighting one
damn missile!"

Mike
shrugged sheepishly. “I kinda forgot I had them...”

"Sounds
like it fits to me," said Paul chuckling.

"Ok,
Gunner it is," accepted Brian.

"How
about me?" asked Maria.

"Lifeguard,"
said Jack. He'd already thought about it.

"Oh
I like that a lot," interrupted Paul. "That's perfect."
He winked
at
Jack.

Maria
snuggled down and yawned. "I like it too." The door chime
rang
and the person closest was Walrick. He opened the door allowing
Trigoss to walk in. He handed Jack a printout of everything they had
recovered from the Velorian freighter. His other hand he held behind
him.

"What
else you got, Chief?"

"That
other little thing you asked me to take care of Captain." The
helmet
was in plain sight to everyone behind him but not to Maria.

"Perfect
timing, go ahead and give it to her, Chief." Trigoss stepped
around
the couples on the floor and handed Maria the new helmet.

"That's
from all of us," said Jack. "You broke your other one."
The
brand
new helmet had the same determined little hornet on it, except he
was wearing a lifeguard shirt and a pith helmet. In the front, side
by side on the forehead, was a miniature life-ring and a miniature
skull and crossbones.

"Oh
I love it! But what are these?" She pointed to the little
emblems.

"You
downed one pirate and you saved one life," said Trigoss,
matter-
of-factly.
"They'll all have little pirates," he whispered loudly,
"but you and Myomerr will be the only ones with life-rings..."
He beamed like a proud father.

"I'd
like you to consider being our permanent recovery and rescue
pilot,"
suggested Jack. "Myomerr would be your second officer. You
don't have to answer now, just think about it. Ok?"

"Does
that mean no more patrols?"

"Not
necessarily."

"Ok,
then I'll think about it."

"Good."
He yawned. "Well people, I don't know about you, but it's
been
a long day, and I'm bushed. I think we ought to call it quits and go
to bed." They all agreed, most of them had been yawning all
through dinner. Saying their goodnights, the weary pilots rose from
their various places on the floor, several assisted by their dates.

Jack
lifted a half bottle of wine and two glasses off the table as
he
and Alité prepared to leave. "Something for later,"
he whispered.

LaNareef
looked painfully at Alité as Walrick helped him to his
feet.
He ached more of heartbreak than physical pain. In his heart, he
knew she was a Princess and though a decorated officer, he was only
a commoner. And because he was a realistic man, he also knew
nothing could ever come of his childhood promise to marry her. But
that never seemed to interfere with their twenty five year
friendship. In that twenty five years, he had become her best friend
and self-appointed protector. And although he respected Steele's
rank, LaNareef found it extremely distasteful that Alité
should want to throw her affections at a man who was so obviously a
rogue, not to mention being a commoner of another world. To him it
was clear, her capture and the time she spent with the pirates had
severely corrupted her Royal morals. The only thing unclear was what
he was going to do about it.

Alité
caught his look and shook her head, making it clear he was
to
say nothing of his objections in Jack's presence. She had guessed
correctly, that Jack did not suspect she was a real Princess, and
she wanted to be able tell him in her own time and in her own way. A
careless slip like Walrick's in the infirmary, could ruin
everything.

Jack
sent Alité and Fritz ahead and detoured to the bridge to
check
on
things before retiring for the night. "How're you holding out,
Walt?"

Professor
Edgars stretched in the reclined command chair. "Just fine,
my
boy, just fine. I took a couple cat naps and things are real quiet.
We enter Gate 24-024 in about an hour." He called up some
information on his navigation screen, "Passage is a little over
seven hours, so we probably won't see another ship for the next
eight hours. Go get some sleep," he whispered, "you look
like hell."

"Think
I will. Thanks, Walt. Call me if you need me." He started up
the
stairs and stopped next to Raulya. "May I borrow your comm for
a moment?" He realized there was one thing more he should do.

Puzzled,
she pulled off her comm and handed it to him. "Thanks," he
replied.
Steele palmed the earpiece to his ear and adjusted the mic, turning
it on. "Attention all personnel, this is the Captain... we did
what many might think, was fairly impossible today. We severely
damaged a light carrier, damaged a destroyer and destroyed a
cruiser. All this from an impaired ship with an understaffed crew.
While we
were
blessed by God and fate today, we must not overlook the performance
of this ship and the exemplary efforts of its crew. You all did a
wonderful job, and I thank you. Goodnight." He handed the comm
back to Raulya and the bridge crew applauded.