Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (53 page)

             
"And how about you Sun, I know you still have plenty of time to chose, but do you have any ideas yet?" Collette asked as she took Sun's hand while they walked.

             
"I think I want to be a chef like Carmine, or a warrior like my sister. Maybe I could be a scientist like Serge. I'm not really sure, I'm sorry."

             
"Sorry, you have nothing to be sorry about. Those are all very worthy goals, and like I said, you still have plenty of time to choose." Collette smiled and squeezed her hand as she let go.

             
"Come, let us go see Hyperia's famous waterfalls." Princess Rayelle excitedly suggested. "I promise you will not be disappointed. Collette, can you find Plonse? It is always more fun when he comes with us because he knows everything." They made their way through the beautiful gardens of the palace on their way to where the royal speeders were kept.

             
Ten minutes later, Plonse had arrived and they were on their way to see Hyperia’s famous waterfalls at the edge of the city. Lana, Sun and Raina couldn’t take her eyes off of the falls. They were captivating. Hyperia’s capital was built high above sea level on a large plateau. The waterfalls at the edge of the city dropped several hundred meters off of the plateau. From the observation point, it was breathtaking. It gave the illusion that the waterfalls were flowing off the edge of the planet.

             
"This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Raina whispered in awe.

             
"It is quite a sight, isn't it," the Princess agreed. "I have been coming to the falls since I was a small child. It is one of my favorite places in the entire Monarchy."

             
After another hour or so of watching the falls, going to all of the tourist traps nearby and picking out some souvenirs, they were on their way. Before they left, Lana asked Plonse to take some vid stills of them by the falls. She knew her dad, Kimi and Jason would want to see how much fun they were having. After several stills of the group, they made their way back to the palace for another training session with Lady and Soldier.

             
The following morning, Lana awakened to a surprise. Raina was already hard at work studying and Sun was playing with Soldier, and she was alone, but only for a moment. Collette entered the room carrying a Hyperian pilot's uniform and Princess Rayelle followed closely behind.

             
"We thought you might want to take one of the
Predators
out this morning, Lana." Princess Rayelle began with a smile. "We have an instructor waiting in the hangar in case you need some pointers, and we have one of our best academy pilots ready to face you once you learn our ship's controls if you would like."

             
"I would definitely like," Lana replied as she excitedly hoped out of bed. She looked over at Sun playing with Soldier and added, "We should do another training session first, Your Majesty."

             
"We can do it as soon as you are finished, Lana."

             
"Really?" She asked as she excitedly began to pull on the pilot's uniform. It was a perfect fit and as she looked in the mirror, she received a nod of approval from Collette.

             
"Well, you certainly are the prettiest pilot to ever wear this uniform." She quipped as they followed the Princess to the hangar. The instructor told her what each of the controls was and she quickly memorized it. She couldn't read Hyperian yet, but the controls were similar to the
Vipers
and very intuitive. As she prepared for her first
Predator
test flight, she sent a crisp salute to the Princess and took off. She reached space in under a minute and began to let loose. She took the nimble fighter through a few rolls, some sharp turns and some steep dives and inclines. She barely felt any of the gee's and decided she liked the
Predator
very much.

             
Plonse directed the Princess, Collette, Raina and Sun to a giant vid monitor where they could watch Lana. One of the destroyers was capturing it all on vid, and Raina asked if they could get a copy to show Lana's dad when it was over. Plonse indicated that it would be no problem and they continued to watch. When Lana indicated her readiness, another fighter piloted by the academy's best pilot, Trenner, entered the designated area. Their test weapons were similar to the test weapons on the
Vipers
and
Eagles
in that they were lasers dialed down to their lowest settings so as not to damage the opponent's fighter, but at the same time, signify that it had been hit.

             
The signal was given and the duel had begun. Trenner decided that friend of the Princess or not, he was going to teach this teenage girl a lesson. He flew straight at her, lasers blaring, wanting to end the first duel early and intimidate her at the same time. He was surprised to see her coming straight at him rolling and juking to avoid every single shot he fired. She then fired once and scored a direct hit, she pulled straight up at the last second to avoid a collision.

             
"That's one nothing, Trenner, you want to go again?"

             
"Indeed I do, young Miss Evans." He confidently replied. She hadn't fallen for his intimidation tactics, but he was still certain he could out-fly her. They began again and this time, as they came straight at each other, they both broke hard to their left, taking them in opposite directions. While Trenner was simply executing a side loop, Lana broke left and down, so when she was coming out of her loop, she had a clear shot at him from beneath as she was once again climbing. She took the shot and won the round.  By the time Lana had won her fourth round, Trenner was beginning to get frustrated. He could not understand how this teenage girl was beating him. They began again, this time, they were each given two wingmen. Lana led her team into battle, but her wingmen were Trenner's friends. They allowed themselves to get taken out quickly so it would be three against one.

             
"Hey, that's not fair," Raina yelled as she watched on the screen in the royal hangar. "They let themselves get hit on purpose so that Lana will lose."

             
"Indeed, that was not a noble thing to do," Collette agreed.

             
"Well, they are trained to look out for one another. They probably view Lana as a confident outsider that needs to be taken down a notch." Princess Rayelle surmised. "They shall have to be spoken to about fair play by their commander."

             
"It's okay, Lana will still win," Sun confidently added. "Aunt Ariel usually makes her go up against five or six at a time and she almost always wins, unless Aunt Ariel is playing."

             
They looked at her wondering if she could be serious when one of Trenner's wingmen was taken out.

             
Lana had brought the odds down to two to one, but she was not worried, she had a feeling she could have taken all five on her own. Trenner and his wingman came at her from different directions and she broke into a downward spiraling roll. She was keeping just out of their crosshairs when Trenner's wingman broke off and looped to try and get behind her. She looped left and up while jinking and juking to avoid Trenner's lasers but stopped mid loop, dove hard back down and to the left and tight looped into a steep climb that brought her up underneath her foe. She cut her thrusters and he shot out in front of her. She hit her lasers and it was down to her and Trenner, but Trenner was in an advantageous position behind her. She bobbed and weaved left and right, but she couldn't shake him. She curled into a slow, lazy loop and Trenner came in with a tighter loop to get closers to his prey, only she wasn't there. She had pulled into a steep climb while he was still in a loop and when she executed a downward loop with a tight spiral to the right, they were now coming at each other. She fired three times as she avoided his lasers and her shots found their mark. Without a word, Lana headed back to the planet. She was excited that she won, but unhappy they had cheated. After all of her father's stories, she had expected better from Hyperian military personnel.

             
"I told you Lana would win," Sun boasted. "She almost never loses."

             
"You were right, Sun," Collette agreed.

             
Lana landed in the hangar to hugs from Raina and Sun. Princess Rayelle pulled her aside and said, "You are an incredible pilot. You are far better than I ever would have believed, although I should have expected nothing less from a Marcos. I am sorry our cadets were not entirely honorable during that last bout. You know what egos young men can have. I shall have their instructor speak to them."

             
"No, that's okay. I don't want anyone to get in trouble. Besides, it's time for another training session with Lady." Lana smiled and Princess Rayelle put her arm around her as they walked out of the hangar. She was now even more impressed with young Miss Marcos.

             
At the day's end, they met up with Nina, Serge and Suzy for dinner with the royal family. Lana was happy to hear that all of the glitches were worked out and the recovery pod was operational. Suzy was planning on taking Serge and Nina on a tour of the Capital the following day. Raina and Sun told them they had to see the waterfalls and Suzy agreed.

             
"Lana," King Dominus began with a smile. "I heard you taught some of our best academy students a lesson this morning. Rayelle tells me you are a very accomplished pilot."

             
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Lana replied, feeling a little flush. She was not used to being complimented by the most powerful man in the galaxy. "Your Royal Academy is training very good pilots. They were most kind to take the time to train with me."

             
"Well from what we were told, you were their trainer today," The Queen agreed.

             
"Did she tell you about the time she rescued Carmine off of Telos, Your Majesty?" Sun excitedly asked while they smiled at the young girl's enthusiasm.

             
"No, in fact she had not," the Queen replied. "Although I think Lana might just be trying to be humble about her skill."

             
“She was flying a shuttle with Carmine and his whole family on it and the Coalition and the Enclave were trying to get her because she's Jesse Marcos' daughter, and as she was leaving the planet, six
Vipers
came after her. They were trying to force her to fly into the fleet waiting for her so they could capture her." Sun looked around to make sure everyone was still listening. "She out flew all of them, and Kimi shot them down, and they were trained military pilots and she was only a sixteen year old girl, but that's how good my sister is." She proudly exclaimed.

             
"Yes, she is, Sun, but it seems she would prefer we move on to other topics of conversation." Nina added as they all took note of how much Sun loved her sort-of-sister.

             
Dinner ended and the rest of the week flew by. Lana was having so much fun on Hyperia that she did not wish to go home. She was sad to be leaving the Princess and Collette, she felt like they had become friends and she was sad to be leaving Lady, although Lady had bonded with Princess Rayelle and would always be content. They said their goodbyes and then boarded their shuttle for the return trip. It would be a long voyage at two and a half days, but at least Soldier would have Frost and Shadow to play with when Lana and Sun were busy or sleeping. Raina had her head planted firmly in her data pad. Suzy had given her a lot of free time during their week on Hyperia. She usually had her studying during the Princess' morning training session with Lady and then allowed her the rest of the day for sightseeing. She would briefly quiz her at dinner, and in the whole week, Raina had only answered one question incorrectly. Now, however, it was two straight days of nothing but study with breaks for meals and a little downtime with Lana and Sun. Lana was relieved when reality finally came back into focus around them and they were in orbit above Donara. But that relief didn't last long as they dropped out of light space into the middle of a raging battle.

Chapter thirteen

______

             
As Lana's shuttle exited light space, blasterfire erupted all around them. It only took a moment to see that Vee Fleet was under attack. Admiral Tollegar was on the way to help aboard the
Destiny
with the Olympians and eight additional fleet groups. The planetary defenses had just taken out their third ship since Lana had arrived and on instinct, she put the shuttle into evasive action. As near as she could tell there were thirty-six attacking ships and the
Vigilant
and
Valor
had taken some damage. As the rest of Donara's defenders entered the fray, the attacking ships began to thin very quickly. Waves of fighters were launched, but the laser nets could not be used because Lana was stuck out there with them. She had just taken down her fourth fighter when
Vipers
began to swarm all over the theater. She had four unfriendlies on her tail, but she led them under the
Vanguard
and up into an ambush. The fighter ranks were thinning quickly and Lana realized she had never seen these types of fighters before. She also realized that they all seemed to be after her. She continued flying dizzying patterns of evasive maneuvers, and by this time she had taken out eight enemy fighters. They were still coming and she sadly mused that she could not keep this up forever. She looked at the worried looks on the faces of her passengers and vowed not to let them down. She had her family aboard, and her best friend. She would not fail them. She managed to take down another two and lead four more into an ambush at the stern of the
Destiny
when she saw the
Vanguard's
landing bay open for them.
Vipers
were launching to keep the enemy off her back, and she came in hot. She was hit in the left breaking thruster as she was entering the
Vanguard
which sent the shuttle into a hard spin. They must have spun nine of ten times by the time they collided with the bay wall. The crash was not that hard, but her passengers were shaken up.