Test of Magnitude (The Torian Reclamation) (19 page)

“We have a battle taking place, Earthling,” Olut6 said, “and maybe a war starting. We can talk about returning favors when my current emergency is over, assuming we all survive it. But yes, get that shuttle out of there and I will see what I can do to help you, when I am able.”

“Good enough,” Brandon said.

“I’ll come along,” Mip7 said.

The governor grabbed Mip7 by the shoulder and said, “No—I need you. Stay with me, please.”

“He is my project,” Mip7 said. “I go where he goes. We’ll get the shuttle moved and then come back to see you.”

The governor held his shoulder for a long moment, looked outside at the battle—which had become a standoff again—and then finally nodded and let go.

* * *

“What was that weapon?” Brandon asked. He was with Mip7 and Commander Olut6 in a special lift that went directly from the R-3 bunker to the fighter hangar.

“It’s called Reep-3,” Mip7 said. “It uses electromagnetic power.”

“Directional magnetic repulsion, actually,” Olut6 said. “But it has to be aimed at a preset, calculated distance where the directional repulsion is to occur. The field generators cover the length of the station, so a spread pattern of missiles is easily defensible. We drew that first warship in by baiting them, directing the repulsion point closer to the station than is comfortable. They probably figured they just needed to get closer for the next volley, and came within the Reep-3 range. Now, however, they know better. If they’re smart, they’ll analyze the defense weapon we used and start releasing volleys in timed depth patterns instead of blanket formations. We won’t be able to stop all of them.”

“So the fighters will have to chase down the strays?” Mip7 asked.

“If only that were as easy as you just made it sound. They have to stay out of the way when we fire the weapon, hanging back above or below the station waiting for Reep-3 to impact. Then the pilots have to quickly spot the strays, get them in range, and get a laser on them long enough for ignition before they get past.”

“You sure you don’t want us to take out a fighter instead of the shuttle?” Mip7 asked, smiling. “I got to level four on the missile defense simulator a couple times.”

Olut6 laughed. “You might make a fine fighter pilot then, son, but flying the real thing, especially in a battle, isn’t the same as being in a nice, safe simulator.”

Brandon spoke. “Level four? I had level seven wired on the missile defense program. Was getting bored with it.”

Olut6 glared at Brandon for a moment.

“Just get that extat shuttle out of my hangar.”

The lift arrived and the three of them walked out into the military hangar. This was a different entrance than the way they had exited earlier. Half a dozen deck hands were walking about. The shuttle could be seen on the far side where Brandon had set it down. Several fighter craft were parked between them and the shuttle. Brandon liked the look of the fighters, especially up close. They were sleek and narrow, similar to modern day jet fighters back home, but with much smaller wings.

“I’ve got to get back to the bunker,” Olut6 said. “Thanks for your help.” He turned and headed back to the lift.

Before Brandon and Mip7 were able to take three steps towards the shuttle, the sound of a large explosion rocked the hangar. Everything shook violently. Brandon and Mip7 were thrown down. Steam began shooting up from the floor around them. Brandon found it suddenly hard to breath. Mip7 had rolled out across the floor ahead of him, and they were now separated by ten or twelve yards. Then, another explosion and another shaking tumbled Brandon even farther away from him. He found himself holding on to the wing of one of the fighters.

“The hangar is depressurizing!” Mip7 yelled. “We have to get out of here!”

Brandon pulled himself up and started running back towards the lift, but stopped when a large steam geyser shot up from the ground in that direction, blocking his way. He turned around. Mip7 had started running towards the shuttle, but another steam geyser was blocking his way as well. Two of the deck hands could be seen running into the corridor the shuttle passengers had exited through earlier. Mip7 looked back at Brandon and pointed in that direction.

They both started running for it, but immediately fell when the hangar rocked again. When Brandon got up, steam geysers were now blocking the way to the corridor as well, and it was difficult to breathe again. Where was Mip7? He looked around frantically and finally saw him up on the side of one of the fighters next to the cockpit, waving at him. Mip7 then climbed into the cockpit. Brandon started to make for the fighter as well, but another steam geyser shot up in front of him and blocked his way. Brandon couldn’t breathe at all for a long moment. Panic began to set in.

Brandon turned back towards the lift area. It was still blocked by geysers, but there was another fighter parked close to him. He ran over to it, climbed up the side-ladder, lifted the cockpit door open, and got inside. Lights came on inside the cabin as soon as he closed the cockpit door. Oxygen began to flow and he could breathe freely again. He looked out the window and could see Mip7 waving to him from inside the cockpit of the other fighter now, between gusts of steam. Brandon sucked in air heavily until he regained his composure.

A speaker crackled inside the cockpit.

“Brandon, do you read me?”

Brandon didn’t know how to use the radio, so he waved back at the other fighter and nodded until Mip7 saw him through a break in the steam.

“Hold the button under the speaker, where you hear my voice, until it has three yellow lights. Three yellow lights,” he repeated, “under the speaker. That will open our own 2-way channel. The dial controls the volume.”

Brandon looked around and figured out which button he meant, up on the dash near where his voice was coming from. When he pushed down on it, the lights underneath turned different colors and flashed on in different numbers. He could hear bits and pieces of other conversations as the lights kept changing—including what sounded like Olut6’s voice yelling
extat
. He must have gotten out of the hangar okay. When the lights turned yellow, he let his finger off the button and punched it until there were three of them.

“Mip7, can you hear me?”

“I read you, Brandon. We can talk now. I think we need to get out of here. The hangar has been hit and is depressurizing. Not safe out there. Only one way out now. We need to fly these fighters out of here. Think you can do it?”

Brandon surveyed the cockpit interior. Everything was extremely familiar, much more so than the shuttle controls had been.

“I think so,” Brandon replied, “but what do I do first?”

“Strap yourself in. Push the two switches at top center on the overhead console, just above the yellow horizontal lever. When they light up, move the lever up and to the right. That will seal the cockpit and start the preflight program. You can then use the hover controls.”

Everything shook again, and Brandon found his fighter was completely surrounded in steam. Mip7 was probably right. Flying out of here looked like the only way out. He strapped himself in, found the two switches, pushed them, and then the dash lights all lit up. He pulled the lever over and heard the hover engines come on. The ship lifted up slightly. Now he knew what to do. He took hold of the half-steering wheel and began hovering forward, slowly. The steam in the hangar cleared for brief moments, enough for Brandon to see there was nothing in front of him and that he was headed toward the exit.

“Keep going,” Mip7’s voice said over the speaker. “I’m right behind you.”

Further breaks in the steam—along with Mip7’s words—gave Brandon more confidence, so he increased his speed and took the craft up to the vertical center of the hangar. In another moment, he cleared the hangar entrance, almost as if this were routine—and in a way, it almost was. Brandon reached down to the joystick, pulled the trigger to loosen it, and pressed the top button to fire the engines. Off he went, up and away. He was out and above the station quickly, and could now see Mip7’s fighter clearing the hangar as well. He flew back behind Cardinal-4 and away from the battle.

These fighters were fast. Every bit as fast the simulators made them feel, only flying one for real was exhilarating. For a moment, Brandon felt completely natural and totally within his element. Then the reality of his predicament dawned on him.

Brandon made a U-turn and flew back towards the station. He could see beyond it and found he now had a good vantage point of the entire situation. The enemy warship was still in the same position, but had begun firing missiles at the station intermittently, in depth patterns as the commander had feared. Thirty or forty fighters were hovering above and below the station, in position to try and pick off missiles that slipped by the Reep-3 defense efforts.

The other enemy warship was approaching Banor off in the distance, followed by at least a dozen Torian fighters—but nobody was firing on that front at the moment.

Mip7 followed Brandon’s turn-back and pulled his ship up alongside him. They both slowed down to a crawl and waved to each other.

“Great job, Brandon,” the speaker crackled. “That was getting scary back there.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Brandon replied. “But what do we do now?”

Chapter Nine

“No,” Mip7’s voice said over the speaker. “Leave the Torian fight to the Torians.”

“Your pilots aren’t good enough,” Brandon said. “They all must be level-four players. Look at them down there. Missiles are getting through! We can stop them! If we don’t help, your station might be destroyed.”

“You have your own mission here, remember?” Mip7 said in response. “If we get killed in a space battle, who’s going to help get the rest of the Earthlings freed?”

“Picking off missiles is easy—not even that dangerous, really. Besides, we need the help of your governor down there, right? And that commander, he said he might be able to help us, too. We can’t just sit here and watch this. I’ve gotta go in and help.”

“All right, all right, you had me at help the governor. Move in slowly and let’s take up positions above on the far left, where there appears to be room for us.”

“That’s a good idea. Follow me.” The reason Brandon thought it was a good idea, however, wasn’t because of the opening in the formation. But Mip7 didn’t need to know that right this second.

The fighters hovering above and below Cardinal-4 were now stationary. As Olut6 had explained, they needed to hang back so the bunker could fire the Reep-3 device. But that weapon had to be timed. By firing missiles in depth patterns, the enemy could get some through in between the repulsion blasts. The job of the fighters now was to connect a laser on the ones that got past, and keep the laser on the approaching missile as it sped forward. The laser beams needed several moments of direct contact before building enough heat to detonate them in flight. This was a difficult task, but Brandon had become quite skillful at it in the simulator games. Some of the pilots were getting a few of the stray missiles, but several had gotten through and the station was no doubt beginning to incur serious damage from direct hits.

Brandon eased his ship down over the station on the very far end of the left side, directly above the hangar that served as the public spaceport—ironically, where he was actually supposed to be parking the shuttle right now. Nuts to that idea. Those regular shuttle pilots were smart, refusing to fly during a battle. No sense being out here without being properly armed. Then again, if the fighter pilots failed stop the missiles, the space station ultimately might become the worst place to be.

Brandon was the end of the line. Mip7 took a position on his immediate right. They could still see each other’s heads in the cockpit windows, but barely.

There was a new missile barrage in the distance. They were coming in groups of five now, released every 10 seconds or so. A Reep-3 explosion took out the lead group quite far out, probably near the end of its range. The second bunch was also taken out by a repulsion blast, but much closer to the station. Brandon could already tell it was that third cluster which was going to be a problem. There was only one missile far enough on the left to possibly be a target for Brandon.

When the second Reep-3 blast cleared, lasers from all the fighters about the station started firing and moving about, seeking to connect with a target. Several of the fighters also fired their own missiles, which were white in color and much shorter than the incoming enemy missiles. Brandon shook his head. What a waste. Trying to hit an incoming missile head on with another missile was a futile, desperate act. Save that ammo for a possible close-up fight with the warship.

The far left missile was a little too far for Brandon to reach. He shot a laser beam out in that direction anyway, just to get a feel for the firing controls. Again, everything was exactly like the simulator.

A laser came out of Mip7’s ship and connected with the far left missile. So did one from another fighter. The other one lost its connection, however, probably due to a bad angle from being directly in front of it. Mip7’s laser managed to stay connected from the side and the missile detonated. So did two others in the group.