Wings of Steele- The Series, page 37
part #1 of Wings of Steele Series
Derrik and Brian approached from the pilot's ready-lounge at the base of the tower on the other side of the grab net. "Where's Paul? What happened out there?" called Derrik.
Mike had turned around to descend the ladder. "Haven't you heard from them yet?" He asked, looking over his shoulder.
"We're on radio silence," said Brian, clinging to the grab net. The two pilots looked like people watching a softball game through a mesh fence.
"Damn..." said Mike, stepping to the deck. He walked to the net shaking his head, "I'm not sure exactly what happened, we got separated." Brian and Derrik pulled up on the net lifting the bottom edge off the deck and Mike ducked underneath to their side. "We split to evade some inbound stuff," he began, walking with them back to the lounge. "The next thing I know, I got two bandits on my tail and I can't shake `em. All of a sudden, two of those new birds," he points to a Lancia, "come out of nowhere..."
Brian was nodding, "That was me and Jack..."
Derrik was nodding too. "Don't feel bad, same thing happened to me." He pointed to his Warthog sitting in its revetment. "That's mine."
Mike made a face like he'd swallowed bad medicine. "What's all that white shit?"
"Fire foam."
"Geez, what a mess," sympathized Mike. "So," he said, changing the subject, "did you get him?" He was looking at Brian.
"Yeah, sort of. I had to chase him clear round the other side of that floating junkyard out there. I took his shields down, so he tries to shake me by taking a left into the debris... smack!" Brian clapped his hands together, "He crashes right into a huge piece of scrap." He shook his head, "End of story, film at eleven."
They entered the lounge and threw themselves on the loungers, stretching out. No one spoke for awhile. "Do you think he made it?" asked Derrik. It was a disjointed question but they all knew he was talking about Pappy.
Mike shook his head slowly, he had been trying not to think about it. "I don't know... I hope so." He fidgeted. "There was a beacon."
"That's a good sign," said Brian. "Right?" He looked at Derrik.
"Could have been automatic..."
"Maybe..."
"Think so?"
It grew quiet again. Until the announcement from the tower, "Craft on final approach, recovery crews stand by." The three pilots jumped to their feet and ran for the door and didn't stop until they reached the net. Mike's Warthog had been moved and the runway was clear. They waited. "Well?" said Brian. “Where are they...?”
Barely visible outside the bay, a Lancia suddenly popped into view as it slowly passed through the blue veil of the stasis field. The fighter moved lethargically as it touched down, moving down the runway as if it was in slow motion. "What's he doing?" asked Mike. No one had a clue. The canopy popped open and rose quietly as the fighter neared the safety net and swung off, taxiing to the skirt where the Lancia coasted to a stop of its own volition. The three pilots exchanged confused glances as Steele descended the ladder from his cockpit. Where was the shuttle?
With a loud whoosh, the shuttle passed through the stasis field at a speed more normal to landing spacecraft. It braked hard and touched down halfway to the tower, coasting to the net before stopping. Jack trotted to its side entrance and waited for the hatch to open.
"Is Pappy OK?!" shouted Mike. Jack cupped his hand around his ear to show he couldn't hear Mike, who was becoming visibly more anxious. The three pilots lifted up on the net and scooted underneath as the shuttle's hatch and ramp opened. "I said," yelled Mike, trotting over to where Jack stood, "is Pappy alright?" Jack looked sullen or tired, Mike couldn't tell which.
"I'm fine kid..." Paul stood in the shuttle's doorway, grinning from ear to ear, his helmet dangling from his left hand. He strolled casually down the ramp.
Mike met him halfway and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Man, am I glad to see you! I thought you were a gonner..."
"So did I. In fact, I almost was..."
Jack clapped him on the shoulder as he reached the bottom of the ramp. There was a round of handshaking and backslapping as the five pilots released the tension of uncertainty and gave private thanks for getting their friends back in one piece.
"What about me?" Maria descended the ramp, her arm linked with Myomerr's arm for support. Paul turned around and, with arms opened wide, hugged them both. "Why did you wait so long to eject?"
"Well," said Paul stepping back. He suddenly had a full audience. "I couldn't punch out too close, I would've been toast. I had to wait till I got clear. I figured if I timed it right, they'd think I went up with my bird and wouldn't come looking for me. I had to hope y'all would find me first." He hugged Maria and kissed Myomerr full on the lips. "Good eyes kids."
"You!" said Jack, pointing at Maria, "should be in bed."
"I can fly, I just can't stand. Besides, I couldn't let her go out alone, you need at least two for recoveries." She wiped the sweat off her forehead. "If we hadn't been out there, Paul would still be out there." She pointed at Myomerr, "We were the only two who were free to go... everyone else was at battle stations."
Jack smiled and scooped her up because she was beginning to wobble. "Well you did a fine job. Now it's back to bed with you." The group moved off the runway together and headed for the ready room to remove their flight suits. "Chief!" shouted Jack, still carrying Maria.
The mechanic stopped his work on the shuttle. "Yeah?"
"Close up the bay and the tubes. Call a stand down, we're done for the day."
"What about that cruiser out there?" asked Derrik.
Paul shook his head. "Gone."
"Where'd it go?"
"To that big cruiser Heaven in the sky," he said, waving his arms expansively, his helmet still in his left hand.
Mike's eyes narrowed, "Huh?"
They all started walking again. "Wait'll I tell you this," joked Paul, "this is gonna' kill you..."
■ ■ ■
Paul kept them in suspense until they had all cleaned up. Jack had checked in with the bridge and now they were all seated together on the floor of Maria's suite. LaNareef, feeling stronger now, was there with Walrick. Alité was there with Jack, Myomerr with Paul, Seeta with Brian and Mike was with a cute little porter named Tilee. Jack was surprised, he had no idea Mike was seeing someone. Food and wine had been provided by Marna's culinary wizardry.
Maria was tucked comfortably in bed. She lay on her side, facing the group and absentmindedly played with Derrik's hair, who 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 goofing 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. "Alright.” 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 getting 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 like a bitch," added Paul. "So anyway, every warning light in the cockpit is screaming 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 held out one hand, "I know what all the scientists say, there's no sound in space... bullshit! 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! I was betting that Captain was good and mad by now... he wanted us. Bad. Then, I see this lunatic," he pointed to Jack. "He comes screaming in, guns going like crazy, flinging missiles everywhere... 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..."
"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. 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..." 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 get one, yours is going to be Stainless Steele."
"Is that what I am? A fighter jock?"
"You are now... Stainless." Paul smirked crookedly.
"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!"
Brian 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 who reached up and palmed the control on the wall opening the door allowing Trigoss to walk in. The Engineer handed Jack a printout of everything they had recovered from the Velorian freighter. His other hand was concealed 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," yawned Steele. "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 had 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 of 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 all. Goodnight." He handed the comm back to Raulya and the bridge crew applauded.
It was sad, thought Jack, as he walked the short distance to his quarters, that such a good group of people should have had to serve under a man such as Kidd. He wondered why one of Kidd's own people hadn't killed him in his sleep. Surely, most of them despised him. OK, granted, half the survivors of the ship's pirate crew, were as crooked as he was... That's why they ended up prisoners of the UFW patrol vessel that answered the Princess Hedonist's distress call. But the rest of these people were dedicated and hard working. He wondered how many other pirate vessels were run just like this one had been, how many good people had been caught up in the clutches of men like Kidd. It was nice to know, however, reflected Jack, that at least humans had not invented deceit and treachery, nor did they curb the market in it. What did bother him was that they spent so much time trying to perfect it.
