Two hours later and Sikes found Marack still sitting in his fighter. The hanger bay was deserted and Marack didn't look any better than he had when he'd first landed.
“What happened?” He asked as she approached, not even looking up at her.
“According to her flight recorder the Destroyer fired just as her jump drive was starting up. They were aiming at her while we withdrew, she had scored some decent hits on it and, I guess they wanted revenge.”
“A one in a million hit.”
“A one in a billion chance of survival. It's a miracle her craft made it through the jump at all.” She countered. Marack laughed. Something that she hadn't seen him do for far to long.
“I thought she was dead for sure. Aren't you meant to freeze, or burst or doesn't you blood boil when you're in a vacuum?”
Sikes shrugged, and dragged the memory of old school lessons from the back of her mind. “Your blood doesn't boil because it isn't exposed to the vacuum, it's still inside you. You're body can withstand the lack of pressure well enough so you don't burst and you don't freeze right away because you can only loose heat via conduction or infrared. Since you're in a vacuum the fist is impossible and the second one takes longer than a few minutes. The most dangerous part was the lack of oxygen, but you got her inside in less than fifty seconds, so she's going to be fine.” She said, hoping she'd gotten it all the right way round.
“More good luck.”
“Luck only got her fighter so far. Admiral Raec wants to give you a medal or something.”
“He can do that once I come back. I've got a station to go after.” It took Sikes a solid five seconds to figure out what he was on about and by then Marack was already starting his pre-launch procedure.
“Your going to attack Exodus station? What about it's fighter squadron?”
“Twelve fighter pilot's who've never seen combat before, I could do it in my sleep.” She didn't doubt him. There was no training in the world that could take the place of real combat. For her the most important part had been learning to control her fear. To push it down into that deep dark place and try to forget that one mistake would get you killed.
“Maybe.” She said, not willing to give Marack any satisfaction. “But then what, what are you going to do with the station?”
“They have access to Irakillion's Tachyon Detection grid. We'd see everything within half a light year of the convoy route, we could trace the Bellicose back to where they came from and shove that Destroyer down their throats.”
Sikes swore, where the hell had Marack learned they had access to that network? It was nothing but a series of deep space probes, each capable of detecting anything 30 minutes away. Whether the Bellicose were stupid enough to actually be operating within the networks range was doubtful, but each time they jumped to ambush a convoy they would get a trajectory that could lead back to the staging area.
Officially Irakillion denied that Exodus had access to the network, but a few members of the station, sitting bored for days on end watching the nebula, had confided in their ADF counterparts on Palisade that they had.
“So are you coming with me?” Marack asked.
“You're not going anywhere.” He sighed and shook his head.
“No. No, I'm not just going to sit here and let them keep doing this to us. They have a Destroyer now, we are under siege, it's only a matter of time before we starve.”
“Marack listen-”
“There killing us Sikes. One by one or thousands at a time it makes no difference to them. All they want is us gone. When the hell are you going to realize that.”
“We know.”
“Then why don't you do something?” He was flicking switches now, gearing up for a manual launch. She quickly reached insides and with a couple of flicks of her own had messed up the computer so much he'd have to start again.
“Listen.” Sikes grabbed hold of Marack by his shirt and pulled herself towards him. The hanger was empty, but she didn't want to take any more risks than she had too. His face fell in sudden astonishment and he tried to push himself back. “Listen, we have something planned in two weeks time. Just keep it together for two weeks. Can you do that?”
To her surprise he shook his head. His hands were shaking and he looked terrified of her. The anger, that she hadn't even realized she was feeling up until that moment, began to seep away. She let go of him and took a deep breath. For a few moments there was nothing but silence.
“I can't do two more weeks of this Sikes. We got so lucky today and I know we won't be again. I can't take watching these new pilots come in only to get themselves killed.” He paused for a second. “Hell, it's never even their fault. Cares did everything right and yet it didn't matter. I can't keep trying to save everyone. I don't even want to fly anymore.”
“I know that feeling.” She lied. “If you want I can ask Raec for a leave of absence.” It was a stupid idea, the great Marack nor would never take the hit to his reputation, but to her surprise there was a flicker of something in his eyes and and smiled tightly.
“Sure, I think I'm owed about two months anyway.” He tried to pull himself out of the cockpit, but sank back into the seat again. “What's this plan of yours?”
“I can't tell you that. But it will change the game.”
“More than a Destroyer turning up did?”
“Certainly. But when it starts I'm going to need you. And I'm going to need you sane and rested and ready to pull off another miracle or two.”
He looked up at her caught her eye. “Two weeks?”
“Will you be ready?”
“As always Captain.”
The End
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