Chapter Three
Clover
first spoke of the two other groups before moving on to the others…
"As for the
two other groups," She said. "The ones under command of Dan Carson
and David Mann, the tactics were good…Even very good. The photon grenade
was rather barbaric but the
Dan smirked.
"Ensign
Mann, you should keep working on your rifle…You still don't know how to use
your thermal scope very well."
He shrugged:
"My palms were sweaty…"
"Mmm…" She nodded. "And Lieutenant Burnel, I'll
have to commend you for your reflexes. You managed to get Lee to safety and, if
it had been a real phaser blast, she would have probably survived…"
Sylvia nodded,
glancing at Diane.
"However…"
Clover continued. "You should be aware in the future that losses are
acceptable in certain cases. The mission briefing today was not very precise
and you didn't know how important the captured operative was…But if the
operative had been described as important you would have had to leave
Lee behind…"
Sylvia blinked:
"Uh…"
"This is not
Starfleet…" Clover said. "This is Starfleet Intelligence…You
must differentiate the two."
"Yes…Of
course, Commander." Sylvia said slowly.
"Excellent,"
Clover nodded. "Dismissed…"
* * *
At lunchtime, the
two teams that had fought in the same holodeck sat at the same table. Sylvia
sat besides Dave and Reff during the meal.
"Why would
they put us up against each other like that?" Dave spoke loudly and
excitedly as he ate his sandwich.
"They were
testing our group tactics," Diane reminded. "Putting us against
holographic enemies wouldn't have proven much…"
"Yeah,"
Dan put in, chomping on a leaf of salad. "Holograms can never beat human
minds…They could only test our real abilities by putting humans versus humans."
"Hmm…"
Dave nodded. "I get it…But I got a bit spooked about what she told Sylvia,
weren't you?"
"What do you
mean?" Diane asked.
"Well, you
know…" He said, making his fingers crack nervously. "About leaving
people behind and stuff…It just doesn't seem right, don't you think so?"
"You were
the one who was talking about "shadowy stuff"…What's going on,
Dave?" Sylvia asked with an amused smile.
"I dunno…" He picked at his sandwich. "I didn't
think about anything like this…I mean…If this had been a real mission and if
that operative had been important…Diane would probably be dead."
They all pondered
what he said a moment, and nodded slowly their agreement: "I guess we'll
have to…learn." Dave shrugged. "It's gonna
be harder than I expected…"
"Harder for
you, especially…" Dan said with a small smile, he stroke a pose. "'Ensign
Mann, you should keep working on your rifle'." He said, imitating
Commander Clover's voice.
"Shut up,
Dan." Dave pretended to throw his sandwich at his fellow officer and
smiled. "I actually work; I'll pass the test working…Not by
licking Clover's shoes."
Dan laughed:
"Do I do that? Naw…"
"'Your marksmanship is top-grade, Lieutenant
Carson'." Dave was the one imitating Clover this time. "Yeah
right, you couldn't hit a Starbase even if you were standing three inches from
it."
The officers
continued teasing and laughing until the end of the meal…
* * *
The next day…
The
class began in auditorium One once again, today it was Commander Small who was
going to be in charge of the training.
"Good
morning, everyone..." He said upon entering the class. "Today we'll
be training all of your piloting skills. We have ten Yellow-Jacket class
fighters outside, today you will be divided into groups of two and will engage
in combat simulations. The fighters are equipped with holographic weapons so
don't worry about disintegrating your classmates…I must warn you,
though…Collision danger is always a hazard, even in simulations. Always pay
close attention to your proximity sensors…We don't want to lose anyone."
Everyone nodded,
today the teams were chosen by the officers themselves, so Sylvia simply teamed
up with Diane again. Diane wasn't comfortable with piloting so decided to take
the copilot's seat during this training session.
The
Yellow-Jackets weren't exactly yellow, and they didn't really have the
sleekness and aero dynamism of wasps. The fighters weren't as large as
shuttles; large enough to fit the pilot and copilot and a whole lot of weapons…A
third passenger could be brought on board if one squeezed inside.
The Yellow-Jacket
that was assigned to Sylvia and Diane was simply called the Wasp. They
entered the fighter and were given ten minutes to familiarize themselves with
the commands. They seated themselves into their seats and slid on their
piloting helmets. These special helmets did not only provide protection in case
of violent movements and communications, but they also had a miniature screen
placed over their left eyes which gave them quick information about the status
of the ship and various systems.
Diane studied the
console in front of her and nodded: "I'm ready, these are standard
commands."
"No they
aren't," Sylvia said.
"Huh?"
"Look,"
Sylvia pointed to a section of Diane's console. "It's an old configuration,
the auxiliary weapon control buttons are here instead of over there."
"Oh,"
Diane blinked. "I hadn't noticed…"
A few minutes
later, Sylvia attached her four-strap seat belt and asked: "You
ready?"
Diane did the
same and smiled nervously: "I guess so,"
"Okay,"
Sylvia placed her metallic fingers on the circular command panel which was used
to change the direction of the ship, and placed her left, still-flesh fingers
on the speed control panel. In an instant, she had brought the Wasp into
the air and it flew towards the sky.
"This is
Small to all ships," The Commander's voice said through the comm channel. "Position yourself in orbit of Earth;
I shall give you your pairings and the coordinates of your battlefields, now."
It turned out the
Wasp was paired with the Dart, under command of Reff and Dan Carson.
"Uh
oh," Diane heard upon hearing the pairing.
"What?"
Sylvia asked.
"Reff was part of Alpha squadron at the Academy, and by know
you should know by now that Dan has excellent tactical thinking and knows how
to handle all sorts of weapons." Diane said. "It won't be easy…"
"Maybe it
won't be easy to win…" Sylvia said with a smile. "But don't worry,
we'll win."
"Ready?"
Small's voice said on the comm. "Begin!"
"Bringing
weapons online…Shields to full power." Diane said.
"Okay…"
Sylvia licked her lips. "We're going to full impulse power."
On the screen,
the small speck that was the Dart came closer and closer with each
passing second.
"Are we just
going to ram into each other?" Diane asked skeptically.
Sylvia couldn't
suppress a smile: "Nah…"
When there was a
short distance between the two fighters, the Dart suddenly did a 30
degree course modification and came close to scratching the side of the Wasp.
"Holy cow! What is he doing?" Diane jumped.
"Playing
with us," Sylvia said calmly. "Prepare forward phaser banks,"
"Forward?
But they're behind us!" Diane said.
"Not for
long,"
Diane only
hesitated a second before doing as she was told.
Sylvia activated
the forward-port and the aft-starboard impulse engines and the Wasp did
a 180 degree turn on itself and, at the end of the maneuver, faced the other
direction.
"Fire!"
The simulated
phaser beams lashed out towards the Dart, but Reff
expertly evaded the fire with a perfectly controlled barrel-roll.
"Damn, he's
good…" Sylvia muttered.
"I told
you…" Diane said.
Sylvia suddenly
punched the accelerator; the Wasp jumped to full speed and went into
pursuit of the Dart. The Dart wasn't at full speed so the Wasp
slowly gained.
"Uh,
Sylvia…Were getting a little close." Diane said.
The proximity
sensors began blinking.
"Sylvia…"
Diane turned to look at her comrade. Sylvia's eyes were staring intensely at
the scene outside the viewscreen.
"Prepare to
fire forward phasers." She said.
"Aye,"
Diane prepared.
Suddenly, Sylvia
accelerated and brought the Wasp over the other ship. They were meters
apart and Sylvia could see Diane clutch the armrest of her seat nervously. Then
Sylvia executed a full-power acceleration and, soon
enough, the Wasp was in front of the Dart.
"What are
you doing?! Now they can…" Diane was cut off when the ship shook
violently. She checked her console: "Aft shields down to forty
percent!"
Sylvia punched in
a rotation command on her console and the Wasp did a 180 degree turn on
itself, without losing speed. The two ships were now nose-to-nose; the pilots
could see each other through the viewscreen.
"Fire!" Sylvia barked.
Diane was already
pressing the button.
The phaser beams
lashed out from the arrays of the Wasp and struck mercilessly the
forward shields of the Dart without giving Reff
time to evade.
"Their
forward shields are down!"
"Finish
it." Sylvia said.
With several,
precise shots Diane struck the starboard and port impulse engines of the Dart,
soon rendering them immobile.
"This is
the Dart to the Wasp, come in please." Dan's voice said
suddenly over the comm.
"This is the
Wasp, go ahead Dan." Sylvia said.
"Uh…We're
experiencing technical difficulties on board." They heard him smile.
"I think it's appropriate for us to surrender."
They smiled:
"Surrender accepted, Dart. Good game."
"You too,"
And he severed the commlink.
"We beat'em…" Diane said, disbelievingly. "Wow…"
"Yeah,"
Sylvia smiled.