2142- In Orbit Around Pluto
The first time that Jack and Sarah set foot on the War Angel he couldn’t resist giving her a history lesson.
“They made eight of these, you know,” his voice raspy and filled with no small amount of awe.
Sarah was taken aback by that particular bit of information. “Seriously? That’s it? I’m trying to remember… wait. The First Period Omegans showed up with 15 B-class cruisers, right?”
“And the Rail Gun Carrier.”
“Right. So even with eight, we were way outgunned. Hard to believe we won, isn’t it?” Sarah ran her hand along the wall of the ship’s bridge. “Such primitive technology. Actual screens. Physical keyboards instead of holo-keyboards. Didn’t they use some projectile weaponry as well?”
Jack nodded. “These were equipped to fire missiles initially, as well as the energy cannons. They were still adapting Omegan weapons tech when the first couple of them launched.”
“Please tell me you aren’t hoping to restore missiles to this crate.”
He held up his hand in mock protest. “Absolutely not. I’d rather see the energy cannons brought up to modern standards and beyond, thanks.”
Sarah studied Jack’s face for a moment, looking for sincerity and finding… nothing. He shrugged at her and moved on to another part of the ship. And then, not for the last time, she wondered why she had allowed herself to be convinced that this was a good idea.
“You’ll notice that none of these ever wound up in a museum or monument, Jack,” she whispered. “Neither did their crews.”
A shiver ran down her spine.
“Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Richard’s scream wasn’t echoed by his shipmates, but it was something that they easily understood.
The mood on the bridge was tense as they finished preparations.
“Scoop extended, Captain,” Richard said, a small quiver in his voice. “Ready for tachyon release.” This was it, he realized. The fulfillment of all his dreams. Or the announcement of his greatest failure, a failure that would almost assuredly lead to their capture and/or deaths.
Jack sat forward in the Captain’s chair, his hands clasped tightly together. “Steady as she goes, Clover. Let’s fire it up now, see what she’s got, and then puke later.”
Richard coughed. “Puke later. Aye aye.”
The Captain’s chair swiveled toward the rear of the bridge. Multiple plasma screens had descended from the ceiling, surrounding Sarah on three sides. The screen to her left showed a tactical readout of the War Angel’s position in space relative to Pluto. The center screen provided a heads-up targeting display for all four energy cannons that extended from the Angel’s central hull. On her right was a screen of data readouts, each item announcing the status of some part of the shielding system. Her eyes darted from screen to screen, checking and double checking what she saw, the creeping terror of a mistake gnawing at the back of her mind.
“What’s wrong?” Jack asked.
She blew out a gust of air, sending her hair dancing wildly across her forehead. A frown etched itself upon her face. “Nothing.”
Jack cocked an eyebrow. “It doesn’t look like ‘nothing’.”
“No, really. Everything on my readout is perfect.” She stared him in the eye. “Perfect. And you know how I feel about perfect.”
He did indeed. “Perfection never lasts,” she had told him the first night they had ever spent together. “It just means that something is waiting to go wrong.”
Jack spun away from her before she could say anything else. Facing forward again, he turned his attention to Kate at the sensor console. “How do things look, Kate?”
She didn’t bother to turn around and look at him. “Same as they have since we’ve been on this dump. Until we get where we’re going and turn on the active sensor array instead of the passive stuff, it ain’t gonna change.” Her voice snarled. “Captain.”
Sensing the tension, Gina spun around in her chair to face Jack. “Helm is ready. Computer has the course locked in and the timer on the scoop is set. As soon as we drop out of the jump, we’ll have to hit the brakes, but we’ll be on the flip side of the planet from them. That should give us enough time to slow it down and engage.”
Jack unclenched his hands and sat back in the chair, taking a long, deep breath. This was it.
This was it.
“Clover, we are go for tachyon jump,” he said softly.
“Tachyon jump in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…” Richard counted down, “Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
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