Test of Magnitude (The Torian Reclamation) (32 page)

Brandon was still dizzy, but began to recover. Jack was looking up at him quizzically. Mip7 had come over to them, and apparently heard Brandon’s last statement as well, as his head was cocked.

“Well stated, my friend,” a voice from behind said. Brandon felt a hand with long fingers on his shoulder. He turned to see Nunon4 standing next to him.

“You are becoming versed in Erob law,” Nunon4 added, “and have developed a unique way of exposing its principles. Your time at Landen was beneficial indeed.”

“Inadvertently,” Brandon said.

Nunon4 nodded. “Our greatest education in life is not sought but stumbled upon.”

“Nunon4,” Brandon said, “this is Jack, a member of my ship’s crew. Would you mind letting him draw you?”

“It would be my honor to pose for someone with such uninhibited artistic talent.” Nunon4 was now also looking over Jack’s shoulder at his sketch.

Brandon glanced over to the exit. The room had really thinned out now. “I’m tired,” he said to everyone listening, “and need to sleep.”

“Yes of course,” Nunon4 said. “Tulros. And may Erob help you.”

“Thank you. Tulros. I’ll come see you after our return.”

Mip7 accompanied Brandon to the doorway.

“You want to get an argim?” Mip7 asked.

Brandon thought about it. He could see Nunon4 back across the room talking with Jack as he posed for the sketch.

“No. I really just want to sleep.”

Chapter Fifteen

“Do you want to go rest for a while?” Mip7 asked.

“No, I’m good,” Brandon said.

Mip7 stretched in his seat. “I better go now then, so you can later.”

“Good idea. There’s nothing to do up here anyway but keep an eye on the instruments. Wish we had a game we would play.”

“No you don’t. Trust me.”

“Why not?” Brandon asked.

“I’ll tell you about it later.” Mip7 got up and left the cockpit. There were three beds in the main cabin of the ITF1, and the crewmembers took turns using them. Brandon doubted anyone was actually getting much sleep on the 29-hour journey, but it was at least good to be able to lie down and rest. There was also a blood circulating device on board, something which resembled an elliptical exercise machine from the gyms back on Earth. All crewmembers were instructed to spend at least 10 minutes on it for every 4-5 hours of flight time.

Watching the stars move by from the cockpit window was mesmerizing, which seemed to have the effect of making time pass even slower. Brandon decided to play with his lightpad for a while. The ship was on auto-pilot now and just needed someone there to make sure no warning lights came on. The technicians on board would likely be first to know about any problems that developed anyway, so the pilot’s job was actually excruciatingly boring during interstellar travel. Mip7 had showed Brandon how to access several programs on the lightpad, including one where music could be composed by moving one’s fingers around in a multi-colored field and applying different levels of pressure. Brandon liked that one, and took to it quickly. He tried to play several classic rock tunes, and was pleased with his pseudo-recreation of the beginning of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust.”

Mip7 returned to the cockpit after a few hours, at which point Brandon went back and used the exercise machine before lying down on one of the beds. They were more like couches than beds—no sheets or blankets, very firm, with one hard pillow.

To Brandon’s surprise, he woke up several hours later and realized he had been dreaming about being in a space battle with Derek. The control he had gained over his sleeping since being at Landen was amazing. He could fall asleep almost on command, even at a time like this. While he wouldn’t admit it to any of his crewmembers, Brandon was nervous about the mission. Maybe everybody was, but no one was outwardly showing it.

Brandon sat up and noticed Jack was on the exercise machine.

“Not much to draw right now, is there?” Brandon said.

Jack stepped off and sat down on one of the other beds.

“You know,” Jack said, “the farthest away from home I have ever been is the south side of Indianapolis. I’m from the north side.”

“Well, you’re a heck of a long ways from there now, and getting farther every second.”

“You think we’ll make it home?” Jack asked.

“You mean back to the Tora star system, after this mission?”

“No. Back to Earth.”

“I don’t know,” Brandon said. “If we can, it might all be destroyed, the cities and everything, if what they told us is true about the polar axis shift that was coming.”

“Why can’t we just drive this ship there, and see for ourselves?”

“I already checked that out,” Brandon said. “Earth is not in the mapping system. They might have intentionally removed it, or maybe it is too far off the grid to be included.”

“You think the big ships might have it?” Jack asked.

Brandon slowly nodded. “Some of them have been there, so they should. Maybe we can get the Torians to take us all home—after the rest of us are revived, I mean.”

 “Yeah—maybe we can,” Jack echoed.

“Of course, I’ve been away for more than twenty years,” Brandon said, mostly to himself. When he realized what he just voiced, he studied Jack’s reaction, concerned about him freaking out.

“And me more than fifty.”

Good. He understood.

“Jack, are you mad at the Torians for kidnapping us?”

Jack shrugged. “The ones who kidnapped us aren’t the same ones who revived us and are helping us now. Besides, I thought I was dead.”

“When did you think that?”

“In my dreams. I knew something was wrong for a long time. The feeling just kept coming back to me. I figured I had died. When they revived me, I thought this was the afterlife. Then we saw the videos and it all made sense. I can’t rightfully say I was ever really angry about it. Stuff happens, you know. At least I’m not dead. Could be worse.”

“That’s a healthy attitude,” Brandon said.

Jack looked up at the ceiling of the inner hull of the ship, where the low humming sound from the dag drive was coming from.

 “You know,” he said, “I was talking to that Sheen fellow last night while I was drawing him—and for a little while afterwards, too. Interesting people, they are. He explained to me some of their beliefs, and I totally understood. He asked me three or four questions, too, wanting to know what I thought about certain things, philosophical questions you know, and it all seemed obvious so I agreed, and then he flat-out asked me if I believed something, some kind of principle in their law, sort of like what you were saying last night when you got all weird for a minute. I agreed with that, too, because it all sounded right. I know it’s strange, but I kind of want to go hang out with those Sheen folks when we get back, and learn all about their laws and beliefs.”

Brandon felt slightly dizzy now. He focused on the exercise machine and forced himself to keep his composure.

“That’s cool,” Brandon said. “My friend Derek, whom we are hopefully going to rescue, feels the same way. He was starting to learn to read Torian, and liked living with the Sheen. Maybe he and I will join you in that when we return.”

“Sounds good.”

“I better get back to the cockpit,” Brandon said. “Try to get some rest.”

Brandon made two more trips to the main cabin during the flight, but didn’t see Jack again.

Finally, they drew near the Milura star system. The lights on the control panel in the cockpit began flashing yellow.  A planet on the map-grid screen was starting to become visible. Mip7 announced their arrival on the intercom. Brandon put the ship in manual control and came out of dag-drive as the planet became large before them. They were here.

DM51 was a nothing but a large, dark, lifeless rock. Brandon was once again impressed with the Torian command, and their decision to make this planet the rendezvous point. The enemy was unlikely to be monitoring this place. All the same, they had come out of dag-drive low, as planned. It could take a while to locate the big ships at this altitude. After a period of flying over the desolate landscape by themselves, another ship came into view on their left.

The cockpit speaker burst to life. “Who’s that on our right?”

“That sounds like Jol2,” Mip7 said. He pushed the radio button. “It’s the only crew that can outfly and outgun you, Lotus.”

There was a short silence before they answered.

“Tulros, Aston. Been here long?”

“No, just arrived,” Mip7 replied. “Wait. We can see another ship on the horizon to our right now.”

The flying object on the starboard side drew close enough to verify it was another ITF1, and then another appeared out of nowhere above them and settled in to the formation. Now Brandon felt good, flying alongside the three other ships. A great sense of purpose overcame him and a chill raced up and down his spine, which he shook himself free of. This was serious business and he didn’t want to become too sentimental.

Several large objects appeared on the screen directly ahead. They rapidly came into view through the cockpit window. There they were; the four transport ships in a tight cluster orbiting the dead planet below. One of the other ITF1’s was there with them. So, they were only missing one now. Brandon followed Lotus’s lead and settled into a drift near the transport ships.

“Sorry we’re late to the party,” came across the speaker. Vector, the final ITF1 to arrive, could be seen coming in from a perpendicular direction. “We got a little lost.”

Vector pulled in close to the pack. Everyone was there. This was it.

The onboard computer turned on by itself, and began to quickly flash images on the screen, much too fast to see. A new voice then came across on the cockpit speaker.

“ITF1 squadron this is Commander Mulut8 on board Pulsar2. We sure are glad to see you. The two enemy warships are confirmed still in orbit at Milura, and have been mapped and plotted. Data port connections are now established, so the data is being transferred to your onboard systems as I speak. The enemy ships have been tagged as mark one and mark two. They should be on your screens now.”

It was time to go to work. The onboard computer screen now showed a digital outline of the position of the two warships over the nearby planet.

“A staging point has been plotted and the route should now be on your map grids. You are good to commence operations, at your convenience.”

The local dag-plotting map grid came on and showed a red dot slightly off center.

Jol2’s voice came back on the radio.

“ITF1 squadron this is squadron commander Lotus. Does anyone not have the data and coordinates on their screens yet?”

Silence.

“Good. Let’s give these transport ships a fly-by before dagging over to the staging point. Fall into formation behind us.”

Brandon engaged the local propulsion and fell into Aston’s place at the rear of the diamond-shaped formation. The ITF1 squadron then did a long, slow fly-by in front of the four transport ships before following Lotus in turning out toward the distant Milura sun.

“Spread formation,” Jol2’s voice said.

The ITF1’s spread out.

“Proceed to staging point. Lotus out.”

Lotus was the first ship to light up the dag and vanish. Brandon lined up the yellow and red dots on his grid and waited until the other four ships followed before engaging the dag and bringing up the rear.

Within minutes, they had popped out into real space above Milura. It was a pretty planet, with dark green oceans beneath swirling cloud cover. The land masses had an orange and brown hue to them. All the ITF1’s were there above it, already in the correct spread formation for the initial attack runs on the Azaarian warships. The scene was quite picturesque, except for one thing—the warships directly ahead, clearly visible through the cockpit window. The jig was up. If Brandon could see them, he knew the entire ITF1 squadron could also now be seen by the enemy. There was a long moment of eerie silence before the speaker finally came back to life.

“Lotus moving on mark one,” Jol2’s voice said. The dag lit up on the lead ship and it vanished. Seconds later, it popped up just before the first warship and immediately began firing its lasers; the two from the cockpit sides and the big one from the lower turret all connected with the hull of the Azaarian ship. Explosions could be then seen in several places on mark one.

“Lotus clear mark one, moving on mark two.”

A new voice then sounded on the speaker.

“Sigma moving on mark one.”

The second ITF1 moved in. Brandon watched the sight in front of him change into one of fireworks. Lotus was now on the second ship firing all three forward lasers, and Sigma was firing on the first warship. Lotus then cleared the second warship to return to the rear of the staging area, Sigma moved on the second warship, and the third ITF1 followed in like manner.  Explosions were all over the outside of both enemy warships. No return fire was seen yet. It seemed the element of surprise was working perfectly for them so far. The radio announcements took on a certain rhythm as the crews broadcasted their moving and clearing on the two enemy ships.