(Posted on 11-16-2000)
UE FIGHTER
Volume 2-Mysteries Go Deep--(Renamed.)
My eyelids opened slightly, and barely. As they opened, I could hear Barry faintly from across the room. Justin was there, but I could hardly see him because of the blinding overhead lights.
"Look, he's awake! Welcome back, bro," Barry said with a cheer.
"Hey, man. Looks like those tires never got kicked. What happened out there?"
I waited a few moments before I spoke. Then, gently and carefully, I sat up, in the bed, an I.V. to the right of me, and other medical equipment at the end of the bed. The room had tiled walls which were light blue, and Justin had a new haircut. There was one window, that I looked over to and observed the glimmering stars. Then I looked back to Barry and Justin.
"What happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," Justin replied, his face concerned.
"I have no idea."
"Yeah, well, you'd better get one," Barry said. "They want a report as soon as possible. Command already gave some details but--"
"How long have I been out?"
"4 days," Justin reported.
"Four days? Man. I didn't think I was going to live through this."
"You almost didn't," Barry said.
"Heh. Well, where is my fighter?"
"At a Luna junkyard," Barry muttered with a grin and a small, short laugh.
"Dang."
"You're tellin' me," Justin said.
I looked over to the door. It hissed open to reveal the ship's captain. His name was Frank "Neptune" Ring. Not a strict character, yet not too easy to get by. He was a man of a large stature that seemed to penetrate people's thoughts no matter where they drifted during his lectures. He walked over to the bed, and observed me.
"You took quite a beating, Mr. Coleman."
"Oh, please. Call me Zak."
"Alright, that's fine by me, Zak. Tell me, what exactly where you up against? Ken told me that you and him were taking on over 10 fighters."
"Yes, sir. Twelve to be exact."
"You took out two of them," he said, with a voice that seemed to float, yet I did not follow his tone. "That's not what I'd expect from an elite pilot, Zak."
"Well, sorry to break the mood, sir, but that was all I could do."
He leaned down to closer my face, and stared at me, for a good thirty seconds. Looking at my every facial expression, only to see an unreadable, calm, primed mind. He leaned back then looked across the room. He dragged a chair over to the area the my bed was, and sat down in it.
"I believe you," he finally concluded.
"Thank you, sir."
"Please, call me, Frank," he said with a smile.
"Yes, si-, uh. . .Frank."
He laughed shortly and looked at a list. I wasn't sure now if he was the actual captain or a doctor. He looked out the window of the room, and saw a UE Destroyer gliding through the system.
"Oh, sorry, Zak. I'll have to finish up what I was about to say later," he grunted at the sight of the Destroyer.
He got up and walked out of the room. I looked to Justin and Barry. Barry made a small face.
"Is it safe to take this I.V. out of me?"
"Yeah, man. I'll have someone come in here and unhook all that for you," Barry said.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, the captain was glaring into a viewscreen where the UE Destroyer's leader was standing there speaking. The bridge crew wearing the same black and blue suits that had been around since the beginning of long range space travel with the UE.
"So the bottom line is, we're going to need to replace the cargo supplies on decks--"
BOOOOOOOM!! His voice was cut off by Krait blaze fire. The captain fell to the ground. He looked out the viewscreen only to see the UE Destroyer outside get swarmed with needle missles. The flame from the explosion was furious.
"Crap, we have Renegades! Get us the hell out of here, Vence!"
I sat up slowly. Barry watched as the doctor took the I.V. out. But suddenly, I had not heard or felt it, the needle ripped straight through my skin, the room shook, Barry fell into a wall, and I fell off of the bed onto the ground. I landed on my arm first. I winced turning over to see fresh blood seeping out of the cut.
"What's going on out there?" I asked Barry through my teeth.
"Sounds like Renegades, c'mon," he replied, taking out a bandage and began putting it over the cut. "We may need to evacuate."
"But, Barry, are you insane?" I said. "We're in a United Earth capital ship, we're in a UE Cruiser!"
"Nevertheless, from a hit like what we just took, shields aren't gonna be loo--" his words were again cut off by being thrown accross the room from the violent shake. "Ugh. Dammit, let's just get to the Hangar, come on, Zak!!"
I snapped to my senses, realizing that he was right, and hastily got up, practically limping to the door. He walked outside, and braced himself in between the hall walls in case any more collisions or impacts had to be dealt with.
"Alright, here's the deal, get to your quarters, and change into something decent, I'm gonna get to the hangar and start preparing our ships, I know we're doing all of this without order, but hell, we'll die if we don't."
"I know, well, I'll see you in the hangar."
"Good luck."
Wasting no more time at all, I turned around and he did too. Both of us ran down the hall in separate directions. Something inside me was a growing into massive apprehension. Premonition lay in me. Only later, would I know why. . . .
I ran faster than I ever thought I could. Corner after corner, tile after tile, going, going, going. Finally, I whipped around a corner only to hit and knock over a female officer.
"Agh," I moaned, and turned around. I got up.
She got up too. Red hair, pale white skin, and green eyes. She was beautiful. I quickly thought of an excuse for running so fast through the hall.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked with irritation spread accross her face.
"No time to tell," I said simply, turned around and ran once more. She would probably be using her commlink to inform the security crew of me out of my medical room, and running the halls with a bloody cut, half-broken leg, and a completly and totally reckless stride. There was no time to worry about this, though. I had to ignore it.
The hangar door popped up with a rattling hiss. I ran in suited up in my pilot uniform, and with a new bandage. I looked at Barry who was working on 'my' fighter. My new one, the one that wasn't trashed. I looked to my left and could see the huge gashing that they tried to repair from my previous blazing ship.
"Everything ready?"
"Yeah, dude."
"Let's get goin', we're gonna kill these bad guys," I declared. Only to my surprise, that same hiss went piercing through my ears. I expected it to be the security crew, but instead was none other than Justin.
"Think I might join ya, that ok?"
"Yeah, no problem, man," Barry grinned. Three versus 20 usually makes it a tiny bit more fair. During all of this we could hear constant blaze fire shooting at the Kraits, and Turncoats. An occasional shake would occur sending us skipping into a wall, or pounding to the ground.
"Alright, Zak, let's raise some hell," Barry said.
(This message has been edited by moderator (edited 11-15-2000).)
