Learning To Fly Read online

  “And it’s just us in this room? Do we have any other help?”

  “You have me,” Walter said, sitting down in the back of the room.

  “That should put the odds in our favor,” Morrison said. His statement was followed by a general murmur of approval around the room.

  “Excuse me,” Curtis said, “but where do you figure in all of this?”

  Walter brought them up to speed over the next few minutes.

  “That’s clear as mud,” a woman said, “You get powers by accident and now the alien that zapped you is possibly leading an attack to take over the world, and stopping him is up to a few people with space fighters and a boomer with super powers. I feel like I’m in a comic book.”

  “Yeah,” another man said, “Is this where we get the speech about the odds being long but it’s our duty to save the world? Cue the stirring music.”

  “I know it sounds far fetched, but that’s pretty much it,” Walter said.

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Curtis asked, “Let’s take these things for a spin.”

  “Not so fast, guys,” Kendra said, “We have to get the comms set up. You need to talk to one another and I need to listen in and talk to you. I can track each ship on this computer and I can also see what’s on your scanners.”

  “Does that mean that if we’re in a big battle or something, you can see the enemies on your screen and point us in the right direction?” Franklin asked.

  “Pretty much. It picks up the feed from your ships’ scanners, and apparently Christy put some satellites in orbit that act as long range scanners to see anything approaching earth. I can see what they’re seeing on here as well. It’s almost like she knew what was coming and was preparing for it.”

  “That explains why Mike was trying to take her out,” Walter said.

  “He tried to take her out?” Kendra asked.

  “Yeah, remember? That’s how I got my powers. He hit me by accident. Apparently it didn’t work the same way on me as it would have worked on her.”

  “Well, we’ve read these manuals through. I say we fire these things up, get your comms set up, and get out there. Says here there are weapons we can use for practice and everything,” Morrison said.

  “Okay, let’s head to the hangar. Each ship has a transponder number. Just let me get your names tied to your ships and we should be good to go. But remember to stay away from the moon. We don’t want to be spotted too soon if we can avoid it.”

  Thirty minutes later they were leaving the atmosphere, punching the throttles and grinning like children on Christmas morning.

  “Comm check,” Kendra’s voice came over in each cockpit.

  Each pilot responded in turn and Kendra replied that she could hear everyone loud and clear.

  “Why can’t we check out the moon?” Curtis asked.

  “Bad guys there,” Franklin replied, “That’s where we were when Christy was killed. There’s another speed we can hit that gets us around pretty fast without going to a hyperspace jump. I can’t remember what she called it. You should have seen the control in the manual.”

  “Yeah, right here on the control panel to the left of the throttle,” a female voice replied.

  “You know, I’m terrible with names,” Franklin said, “I didn’t think I got yours.”

  “Fiona, Fiona Atkinson. How fast does that get us around exactly?”

  “We went to the moon in a couple minutes and we didn’t even have it nearly as fast as it can go.”

  “How about Mars? Any bad guys around there?”

  “Not sure.”

  “Only way to find out. Race you there. Last one there is a rotten egg,” Fiona said shortly before her ship shot out of sight of the others.

  “Get going, guys,” Franklin said, “Set course for Mars and punch it.”

  Twenty minutes later they were orbiting Mars and Fiona’s voice was cackling in their cockpits.

  “Beat ya. First human to ever orbit Mars. Time to try out those practice weapons. You all remember how to set them? There’s a drink for the first one of you that can hit me.”

  She then sped up and shot away from the group, Curtis right on her tail.

  “I have target lock on you, prepare to...hey...how’d you do that?” Curtis said.

  “Who has lock on who now?” Fiona said

  She fired the practice weapon and a warning beep sounded in Curtis’ cockpit, indicating that he had been hit.

  “You know what else?” Fiona said, “The energy weapons are invisible, but you can set them to visibility so you can see where they’re going. I think it just puts the image on the inside of your cockpit glass, but it looks cool, like lasers.”

  “Nice to know,” Curtis said, “So you can see your weapon fire, but you can’t see what’s hitting you.”

  “Just try not to get hit. My ship tells me that I did twenty percent damage to your shields.”

  “I’m getting the same information here. Hey, why don’t we split up in teams and have at it, try some of this system targeting I’m seeing.”

  For another hour they engaged in a fierce mock battle, the ships simulating damage dealt and received and giving feedback on systems damaged. By then, each had a good idea how the ships handled and how the different weapons fired. While they were discussing their moves and different attack scenarios, Franklin broke off suddenly and descended toward the surface at a high rate of speed. Curtis followed and received a warning from the ship’s computer.

  Improper angle for atmospheric entry. Please adjust.

  Just then, a series of lines appeared on the cockpit glass, with arrows indicating where to angle the nose of the ship. When he was at the proper angle, the lines turned green and the warning stopped. He could see Franklin ahead and followed him until he was setting down on the surface next to him a few minutes later. Within ten minutes, everyone was on the surface.

  “First human on Mars, how about that?” Franklin was saying.

  “We don’t have spacesuits in here, so no walking around,” Morrison said.

  “Maybe we can manage that later, but just landing here is way cool,” Curtis said.

  “Did I hear that right?” Kendra said, “You guys are on Mars?”

  “Yeah, it’s kind of cool,” Franklin said.

  “When this is all over, you’re taking me up there.”

  “Got it, it’s a date then.”

  “Whatever.”

  “You two, get a room,” Fiona said, “We have work to do.”

  29

  An insistent beeping drew Kendra’s attention back to the computer just as she was getting up to stretch her legs. Large blips had just appeared where there had been nothing a moment before. She zoomed in to see where they were. Near the moon. They must have left the base there, and that could only mean one thing. She watched them for another minute. They seemed to be organizing in five large groups.

  “Guys, I got something on the scanners, large ships splitting into groups, not sure where they’re headed yet.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “Dark side of the moon, can’t tell how many yet, maybe ten, and they appear to be pairing up...and they’re big, not like those fighters you’re in.”

  “We saw what looked like large transports at the moon base,” Franklin said.

  “If those are transports, then it looks like the invasion is on. I’ll try to see where they’re headed. Get airborne and get ready, but hang tight until we can see where they might be headed. If we can disable them before they get to Earth, that would be the best case.”

  “We can’t just blow them away?” Morrison asked.

  “About that,” Franklin said, “those foot soldiers are not voluntary. We should avoid killing them if we can.”

  “Now that throws a wrench into the works,” Curtis said.

  “When we were doing our little mock battle,” Fiona said, “It was taking a few solid shots to drop our shields. Should we assume these larger ships have better shields? We
’ll have to drop their shields first before we can think about disabling them. What if they have fighters?”

  “There’s a lot we don’t know,” Kendra said, “We should also assume that they’ll see you on their scanners when you get close, so we’ll have to see how close you can get before they notice you.”

  “If they’re on the dark side of the moon, could we approach from the other side and maybe the moon will mask our signature?” Curtis asked.

  “It’s worth a try. We don’t know much about how these scanners work. I don’t think they’re like radar, but that idea is as good as any. It looks like I can plot courses here and send the navigation data to your ships. Give me a minute.”

  A couple minutes later a course was projected on the HUD of each ship and was also saved in the navigation computers.

  “There you go,” Kendra said, “That course will keep the moon between you and their ships for a few minutes, or until they change course, but it should allow you to get close.”

  Walter walked back into the room and looked at Kendra’s screen.

  “You think there’s anything I can do?” he asked her.

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “Not sitting here on my butt watching them do all the work. I have these powers for a reason.”

  “But there’s only one of you and several ships.”

  “And I’m pretty strong and pretty fast...but I’ve never tried to fly in space. Superman used to do it in the comics. Maybe I should give it a try.”

  “If they manage to land some of those transports, you might be needed here.”

  “I know that, but what if we can keep them from landing, and what if I can help with that? I’m going up. You have any way you can communicate with me?”

  “Christy left some comm devices here that I haven’t tried yet. I think they might be for personal communication. Just put this in your ear,” she said, handing him a small earbud.

  When he put it in his ear, it showed up on her computer and she was able to assign his name to it.

  “Why don’t you go a few miles away and see if I can talk to you?”

  He left the room and a minute later he heard her voice in his ear as clear as a bell.

  “I hear you loud and clear. How about on your end?”

  “I got you too. How far away are you?” she asked.

  “Mt. Rushmore. I’m heading up. Once I leave the atmosphere, I should know if I’m good for flying in space. If so, I’ll meet up with the guys and see what I can do when we find the transports.”

  “Okay, be careful.”

  Franklin was going over the navigation information on his screen when he saw something moving outside of his canopy, a familiar figure in jeans and a dirty white t-shirt. Walter smiled and waved, then took up a position just outside Franklin’s ship.

  “Well, I didn’t know he could operate in space,” Curtis said.

  “I didn’t either,” Franklin replied, “Looks like we have some help up there. Let’s follow that course, in close formation, and see how close we can get to the transports.

  This lasted for only about fifteen minutes until they all saw the same thing on their screens at the same time. The transports were picking up speed and heading toward Earth, but in smaller groups.

  “Why are they splitting up?” Fiona asked.

  “Probably targeting different areas, simultaneous attacks all over the planet maybe,” Kendra said.

  “They’re in five groups. We can split up into five smaller wings, four ships each, and go after each group,” Franklin said.

  “Sure thing,” Morrison said, “but we’d better be fast. I think we’ve been spotted.”

  They split up and one group went after each group of transports, with Walter staying close to Franklin’s ship. It was then that Franklin looked at his scanner display and saw several smaller blips.

  “Guys, looks like they’ve launched fighters. We’ll have to deal with those before we can go after the transports.”

  “I’ll see what I can do about the fighters,” Walter said, shooting away and right at the swarm. He managed to take out three of them rather easily, and in so doing, managed to look into the canopies, only to see an empty seat.

  “They’re drones, and they’re not that hard to take out. You guys go after the transports and I’ll see if I can keep the fighters busy.”

  Walter flew after another fighter and took it out with one punch, and was turning around to go after another one when they all swarmed around him and started firing. He destroyed three more before one hit him with an energy beam that sent a tingling sensation through his entire body and left him unable to move. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t even speak.

  “Walter’s hit...looks bad,” Fiona said, “I’m going after him.”

  “Cover her,” Franklin said, throttling up and heading toward the swarm of fighters. He targeted the nearest one and took it out with one short burst. Several others exploded as the others came in and took them out. Fiona only shot down the ones that got in her way and before long, she came upon Walter, floating motionless in space. She throttled down until her ship was only a couple feet away.

  “Now where are those airlock controls?” she asked herself. She found them a minute later and positioned the rear of the ship near Walter. When the screen told her that the airlock was ready, she pushed a button to open the rear hatch and then gently applied reverse thrust to move the ship toward Walter’s body. He bounced off the side of the ship and moved farther away.

  “Come on, girl, you can do this,” she muttered to herself as she lined up again, using an external camera on the rear of the ship near the hatch opening. On the third attempt, she managed to back the ship up until Walter drifted into the opened hatch. When Franklin flew around and confirmed that he was in, she closed the outer hatch, waited for the computer to confirm that the airlock was sealed and pressurized, and then opened the inner hatch and walked back to see how Walter was doing. He was unconscious, but she confirmed that he still had a pulse before going back to the cockpit.

  “He’s still alive, but out like a light,” she said to the rest of the group. “Whatever they zapped him with didn’t kill him, but disabled him. I’m not sure how bad.”

  “Okay, drop him off at the house and hightail it back up here as fast as you can,” Franklin said.

  “Will do.”

  Morrison took out three more of the drone fighters in quick succession and by the time Fiona got back, there were only two left, which Franklin took out with two quick bursts.

  “Guys,” Franklin said, “Do these things seem particularly easy to shoot down?”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Curtis said, “they’re almost like low level NPCs in a video game. Little evasive action and overly simple tactics on offense. It’s like they’re just there to keep us busy.”

  “No kidding. They’re supposed to distract us while the transports get into position,” Fiona said.

  “Hey, nice to see you back. You drop Walter off okay?” Franklin asked.

  “He was still asleep, but he’s alive. Kendra and I laid him on the couch. She’ll let us know when he wakes up. What did I miss?”

  “Not much. We took out the rest of the fighters. Now we just need to split up and go after these transports.”

  “Shouldn’t be that hard if they don’t put up more of a fight than those fighters did,” Morrison said, “I’m going after the one in front.”

  “I’m with you,” Fiona said. The rest of you split up and go after the others.

  They closed in on the transport ship and saw more fighters launching from it as they drew close.

  “I’ll take the fighters. You take a pass at that transport and see what kind of damage you can do,” Fiona said.

  “Gotcha,” Morrison said.

  The fighters came in formation and swarmed Fiona, but she took out the two in front of her with two quick bursts of fire before pivoting around to evade the ones that were behind her. S
he took a few hits but her shields were still showing at full strength, so she ignored the hits she was taking and took out the rest one at a time, joining Morrison on his third attack run on the transport.

  “That didn’t take you long,” he said as she took up a position on his wing.

  “They were rather stupid, and their weapons are weak. They hit me a few times and I still have full shields. How are things going with this fellow?”

  “See for yourself. It’s just flying in a straight line and doing nothing to evade my attacks. I think I’ve knocked down about a quarter of its shields. Maybe we both can take it down faster.”

  “Fine, but instead of doing passes, why don’t we just match its speed and hammer it. It doesn’t appear to be firing back.”

  They did just that, hanging back at close range and firing long sustained bursts until they were notified that the transport’s shields were down.

  “That was rather easy. Let’s take out the engines and then go after another,” Morrison said.

  “No need, we’re having similar success,” Franklin said.

  Within five minutes, everyone had reported back that all of their transports were disabled.

  “Good job guys,” Kendra said, “I’m showing all transports disabled and just drifting.”

  “Yeah, but something bugs me,” Morrison said, “the whole things was way too easy. I think we need to get inside one of these transports and take a look around. Any way you think we can manage that?”

  “You’re all wearing the flight suits that were in the hangar here?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Apparently they’re good for EVA. You should find air tanks in each ship that you can hook up to the suits.”

  “That’s fine, but how do you suppose we enter the airlock on the transport? It’s not like we can control it remotely.”

  “You might not need to. There are specs on those things on this computer. It looks like there’s a small airlock on the starboard side, roughly in the middle of the ship. It has an outside control for people to get back in after an EVA.”