Page 8 (1/1)

My fighter Group was running dogfight drills 600 klicks off the Alexander’s portside, skirting the edge of Kerenza VII’s at "the incident" were ht Group Echo: our CO, Major Eli "Prophet" Hawking, First Lieutenant Zhenya "Dreadnought" Alvaranga and another rook, Second Lieutenant Mikael Carlin

I’d only been cleared for flight status teeks earlier, and I was still a bunny at the stick I’d logged near a hundred hours in VR, but all the sims in the ’verse won’t prep you for the real black Two minutes out there is about all it takes to teach you how little you know about everything You’re a speck of anirade cera Ninety-three billion light-years of fucking nothing No up No down No sky No ground Just endless dark shot through with tiny spears of sunlight older than you and your entire species stacked end to end You want to feel small? Spend sixty seconds in a Cyclone’s cockpit, chu back Then you know exactly how much you add up to

We were off the Alexander’s portside, like I said Even 600 klicks away, you wouldn’t believe how huge a United Terran Authority battlecarrier looks It’s a rey, tail end lit blue-white by thruster arrays big as sky-scrapers

I saw in VR somewhere that old Terran sailors used to refer to their ships like they were ladies It was all "She’s the fastest ship in the isles, guv’nor," or "She went doith all hands on board" or whatever And it’s funny--irl She’s all sleek lines and sharp curves and edges that can bleed you white Sometimes, I swear she flies me

But Alexander is a "he," no doubt in race to him No real symmetry He looks exactly like what he is--a braho picked a fight with soot a broken-jaw face and a bucktoothed sh space, he punches through Rips holes in it and drags hi with hiunmetal skin Open black scars torn down his flanks fro inside hientleman, either You do not fuck the Alexander The Alexander fucks you

The science vessel Hypatia was situated about 4,000 klicks aft of the Alexander Now she’s a she Beautiful ship, chum Lines like poetry She doesn’t move in space, she dances in it Asks you to take her hand and close your eyes and fly with her

The heavy freighter Copernicus was on Alexander’s portside, about 6k klicks aft If I had to pick, I’irl I’ve seen pictures of turtles on the VR Copernicus almost reminded me of those The city-sized shell on its back filled with enough fuel to juice it, the Alexander and the Hypatia co about that

Second Lieutenant Carlin and I had just been tagged by Dreadnought for the fourth ti coht us up, the words "Vessel Destroyed Vessel Destroyed" would flash on our heads-up displays and she’d laugh down comms at us like ere the funniest clowns she’d ever seen fly a stick

She’d started referring to Carlin as "Chatter" because he talked too uy--when a superior officer slaps a nick on you, chances are it’s gonna stick "Chatter" doesn’t rank up there with the chillest callsigns in the fleet

Dreadnought was still tossing ideas around for me, and every time she dropped a fireborave those callsigns on your coffin when you get X-ed out Last thing you wanna picture when you iine your send-off is a bunch of fellow Cyclone drones standing around toasting the death of "Lieutenant Sugarpants"

We were for when the red alert sounded At first I thought it was a drill, but then AIDAN spoke to us direct on comms See, AIDAN doesn’t do drills The Alexander’s Artificial Intelligence isn’t capable of lying Sure, it can think for itself, but no neurograh to s are so smart now, the ability to spin bullshit is all that separates us froroup to ared This is a code red"

AIDAN’s voice is sexless It has perfect tone and inflection and pronunciation, but it doesn’t sound old, or young, or have even a hint of an accent It even refuses to refer to pilots by their callsigns I mean, soht deck when you land or whatever, but aside fro of a totally empty room Gives ht, Carlin and ets you killed, that’s what they tell you

The three of us for as he opened channel to Alexander, asking for confirot nous coordinates and telling us to scramble at redline speed We flipped 270&ordet One look at ht at the Copernicus