Sci-Fi Flash Collection - 4. Jupiter Run - Revisisted

The ship was rocked so violently by the impact that sixteen-year-old Valin Sturgis was thrown out of his bunk and across the room. The display lights all blinked out at once, leaving the room in complete darkness. A few moments later, the emergency lighting kicked in, leaving the room bathed in bright red light.

The boy stared blinking at the ceiling in confusion. He sat up quickly when he heard the computer's voice.

"Emergency lighting is now activated. Hull breach in the adjacent section. Immediate evacuation of this section is required. Please follow the emergency direction lights located on the wall panels as quickly as possible."

The voice continued to repeat the evacuation directions. Val leaped to his feet, grabbed his one bag, and went straight to the door. The door, which usually opened automatically, only unlocked and opened a few centimeters. Val immediately put his fingers in the gap and pried the door open.

As soon as he was in the corridor, he saw the evacuation lights chasing each other to the left. He looked right and saw the pressure door at the end of the hallway closed. What caused him to turn and run left, though, was that he could see space through the window of the pressure door. It used to be the ship's starboard-side corridor.

The lights directed him to an airlock, which he promptly entered. He had no sooner stepped into the airlock than the ship rocked violently again, and he was thrown to the floor. The airlock door slammed shut, and he could hear the air rush out of the corridor he was just standing in. His ears popped a little when the pressure was brought back to normal, and the other door opened.

He found himself standing in the passageway to the central corridor of the ship. The crew used these corridors to move on the vessel without disturbing the passengers. They could get to anywhere on the ship they needed to be quickly using them. He walked out into the main corridor and looked around. He was about to follow the new emergency directions when a crewman blocked his way.

"Good. Glad to see you survived," the man said sarcastically. He grabbed Val's shoulders, preventing him from moving.

Val didn't reply. He was used to the mistreatment.

"Little genetically enhanced brat is too good to reply, huh?" the man said, shaking him.

Val replied sharply, punching the man in the solar plexus. The man gasped like a fish as he tried to breathe. The man released him.

"Don’t touch me,” Val whispered coldly.

“Crewman, what the hell do you think you are doing?” another voice asked.

The man turned to see another young man standing there. This teen was wearing a uniform with shiny little silver bars, though. “Lieutenant!”

“Get to your battle station. I’ll take care of Mr. Sturgis.”

“Yes, sir,” he replied as soon as he could breathe. He left the two teens alone to get to his battle stations.

“Lieutenant,” Val nodded to the other boy.

“Are you ok, Val?” Lieutenant Jonathan Vally, Terran Confederation Spacefleet, asked kindly.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” Val replied flatly.

“We should get to the launchbay,” Jon replied, his tone tinged with concern.

“Why?”

“The ship is severely damaged, and we have a duty to try to escape and not let whoever is attacking get their hands on our ship.”

“I… as you wish, sir,” Val started and changed whatever he was going to say.

Val nodded and headed in the correct direction. Jon followed a few steps behind.

They made it to the landing bay where their highly experimental ship was located. Jonathan used his command access to open the hatch so they could climb in. Jonathan climbed into the navigator's seat, allowing Valin to get into the pilot’s seat. They both donned helmets, and Valin rapidly typed his codes into the fighter. The ship’s door closed while the rest of the bird powered up. He activated the emergency launch protocol, which decompressed the bay and flung them away from the cargo ship.

Valin did a quick spin to assess the situation, saw a cruiser approaching, and kicked the afterburners. The fighter jumped immediately to sub-light speed and angled sharply away from the doomed cargo ship.

“Captain, the cargo transport is breaking up. We did have a launch of an unidentified fighter, though.”

“Bring us around and do a full scan.”

“Sir, the ship appears to be a modified Terran Confederation Raptor Class heavy fighter.”

“Modified how?”

“It appears to have a good deal more engine power than normal and fewer weapons.”

“Prepare to tractor it in.”

They all watched as the fighter’s engines flared to life and the fighter jumped away at incredible speed.

“Pursuant course! Full speed!”

“Aye aye,” the helmsman replied.

“Sir, it looks like he’s coming back our way to make a strafing run!”

“The Raptor is no match for a capital ship! What the hell is that pilot doing?”

“Sir, we are getting energy readings off the chart.”

“Explain!”

“I can’t.”

“Lieutenant, to make the jump to hyperspace, I need to turn back the way we came.”

“Is there enough distance to engage the jump engines before we hit the cruiser?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do it.”

“Yes, sir.”

Valin yanked the collective hard and performed a perfect reversal of course. He pounded a couple of buttons, and the computer’s voice began a countdown.

“Jump engines active in 10… 9… 8… 7…”

“This will work, Val?” John asked quietly.

“Yes, Jon.”

“2… 1… Engage.”

The boys both felt their bodies being squeezed as the ship seemed to stretch into a line before blasting like a spear into hyperspace. Unfortunately, the cruiser was partially in the path and suffered severe damage.

“What the hell happened?” the Captain asked, barely able to see through the smoke and emergency lighting.

“I think they just jumped to hyperspace.”

“Impossible! You need a capital ship or a jump gate.”

“Sir, it has been rumored that the Terran Confederation was working on a jump engine that worked like a wormhole that would allow a pilot to jump directly into hyperspace. They were talking of using them as scouts for the explorer ships to start locating new planets. The rumor has it that they were successful, but the pilots had to be genetically engineered.”

“How does that help with the energy requirements?”

“A person with the ability to detect the natural power currents can simply slip between them with minimal energy from the ship.”

“We need to get our hands on that technology.”

Jupiter Station 5

Geosynchronous Orbit

Jupiter

“Sir, we have detected the formation of a wormhole. It appears a small craft has emerged.”

“Identify.”

“Sir, Friend or Foe systems indicate that it is the TCS Magellan. It is an Explorer Scout, sir.”

“Explorer Scout? Is that the new Raptor variant, and weren’t we due to have one arrive today?”

“Yes, sir. This one, actually. It was supposed to arrive via a cargo transport, along with her two-man crew.

“What is she doing without her transport then?”

“Unknown. She is hailing.”

“Put it on speakers.”

“Attention Jupiter Station 5, this is the TCS Magellan. We are requesting emergency landing clearance. Our transport ship was attacked and likely destroyed in this system by raiders. Their ship was damaged when we jumped out.”

“This is Commander Olson. I am in command of Jupiter Station. Who am I speaking with?”

“This is Lieutenant Jonathan Vally, sir. I am the navigator for the Magellan.”

“Who is the pilot?”

“Someone very much in need of medical attention. We need to land now, or we’ll have to punch out.”

“We are clearing the landing bay now, son.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You are now cleared to land,” the Commander announced when he got the thumbs up from the landing bay coordinator.

“Aye aye.”

“Leave the channel open.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Valin, stay with me. We’re almost in. Pull up. Ease back on the throttle. Left. Yaw right. Pitch forward. That’s it, Val.”

“Landing system engaged,” the computer announced over the open channel.

“Is there a medic standing by?” Jonathan asked.

“Yes. What is the problem?”

“He jumped before we completed bonding.”

“…” There was silence in the air as everyone in the control turned and looked at each other.

“Acknowledged,” the Commander replied eventually.

Jon worried quite a lot about his newly bonded friend. The purpose of the bonding was to provide an anchor for jump pilots. If the bonding wasn’t complete, then there was no guaranteed anchor. Jon was bonded to Valin from the moment they met. It was not the planned bonding, though. It was therefore unusual and incomplete. The most noticeable effect on them was Val’s lack of trust.