Barnette's Battle
Heather was getting close. This was where she needed to be. There was something near her nowhere destination; she had an uneasy feeling about a particular stretch of space, and her scanners were showing indistinct glimmers that might be energy readings. Her fingers twiddled, and a series of images flickered across her canopy showing the area in everything from microwaves to X-rays, but revealing very little more. There was some activity off her starboard wing, at the edge of the asteroid belt, but she was much too far away to sort out details.
She was still more than five million kilometers and fifteen minutes from her mystery goal, but soon she would know. She watched her closing velocity drop below 12,000 KPS, and sipped more water to relieve her dry mouth.
"Captain, I've got a plan," Hibiki Tokai announced.
"Let's hear it, Commander," Magno invited him.
He swallowed nervously, but his voice was steady as he said, "Meia and I lead that thing away from the Nirvana."
"Why would they fall for that?" BC said dismissively. "The Nirvana is a much higher-value target. They wouldn't be stupid enough to let you distract them."
"We don't give them a choice." Some anxiety leaked into his voice this time. "We present them with something they can't ignore. We attack."
"Hibiki, no!" Barnette choked herself off after that short outburst, but they both heard, None of your crazy harebrained stunts! in their heads. The thought of Hibiki, and Meia, taking such a risk gave her an awful feeling and she tried frantically to think of some other answer, any other answer. She failed.
Jura had reservations, too. "You're fast, and you're good, but I don't think you can really pull that off."
Hibiki gave her a ghastly chuckle. "Hey, I never said it was a good plan; we just don't have a better one."
"So why not us?" The blonde still wasn't convinced. "We can take at least a few hits; I don't think you could take even one."
Meia answered her, with a resigned head-shake. "VanDread Jura's not fast enough. You'd be hammered to bits before you even got close."
"And a strong defense won't…compel their attention," Hibiki added. "They'd just ignore us and keep going after the Nirvana, then take all the time they wanted to deal with us. This is our best shot. Are you ready, Meia?"
"Ready, Hibiki," she answered quietly.
The Dread and Vanguard maneuvered towards each other, got within that critical range, whirled away and unfolded into the Silver Eagle. Hibiki's face reappeared, this time with Meia behind him. "We draw it away, you fight your way through those ships. We'll break off once you're clear and we all get the hell out."
VanDread Meia raced off towards that sinister dreadnought. Neither of them, nobody, was actually saying the words 'suicide mission'…
Captain Magno wanted to deny them, wanted to order them not to go, but they really didn't have any better plan. Her first duty was to her ship and all of her crew, not just two of her friends. She fought down her misgivings and forced out a fierce pirate grin. "Meia, Hibiki…give 'em hell!"
Meia gave her back one almost as convincing. "Aye aye, Captain!"
A purple Dread moved out after them at its maximum acceleration. "Meia, I'm going with you."
"Barnette, NO!" Hibiki echoed her earlier protest.
"Come back, Barnette!" Jura's shout rang out almost on top of his.
Meia tried a more reasonable argument. "Barnette, you can't even keep up with us."
"I'm faster than that ship, so I can catch up."
"But what can you do with just a regular Dread?" Meia demanded.
"I don't know," the green-haired Flight Leader admitted. "Maybe nothing. Maybe I can't help you, but I'm not going to live with knowing I didn't even try."
Meia understood. There was nothing she or anyone could say to change the mind of a woman watching her lover charge into such an unequal confrontation. She would honor her friend's choice, and her right to make it.
"Jura, you have to stay with the Nirvana," BC warned her. With three of their top officers away, they would need her more than ever. Besides, watching Meia, Hibiki and Barnette go to tackle that ship all on their own was hard enough; the Exec didn't want to be terrified for Jura too.
"Yeah, I know. We can't all go haring off after those lunatics." She sighed heavily. She knew what Barnette sounded like when her mind was made up, and arguing with her would be useless. "Take care, Barnette. And, good luck, all of you."
"I will, Jura. Thank you." Barnette managed a little smile. "See you at the after-party."
Hibiki wanted to stop her, wanted to yell, scream, argue…but he'd learned some things about her, too. She'd smile, and thank him for his concern — and keep right on doing what she'd decided to do. He'd found her to be a very strong-willed woman, and he didn't have any words that could dissuade her.
Everybody watched them go, taking all their hopes with them. VanDread Meia was rapidly outdistancing Barnette's Dread but she kept on, determined.
I won't let you face this without me. I won't stay behind and wait while you put your life on the line for me, for all of us. I will make sure you come back to me! My dearest Hibiki…
That left Magno with some big gaps in her chain of command. "Jura, I'm making you Flight Commander in Meia's place. Vallois, take over as Second. Commander Rojan, the Vanguard Group is yours. As soon as we deal with these ships, Meia and Hibiki can break off from that dreadnought. Let's give 'em hell!"
Hibiki called up a limited tactical plot on their main display, worked through vectors and velocities, and regarded the result without enthusiasm. "We want that ship to turn away from the Nirvana, more or less in that direction," he pointed, "so we have to swing around it and attack from about there. That should put us in position for a good follow-up."
Meia nodded slowly behind him. "I agree. That's the best way to accomplish our mission."
He stared at the plot for a few more seconds. "Can you think of anything else?"
"No," she answered quietly. "I don't see many options. This operation has the singular virtue of being…brutally simple."
"Henh," he grunted. "You have such a way with words." His eyes were drawn to one small green arrowhead. Barnette's Dread was barely making half the acceleration of VanDread Meia so she was falling far behind them, but still gamely struggling to keep up. Now there's a woman who has a way with words. And a way with me. I wish I could keep her out of this, keep her safe…but she feels the same. If our positions were reversed, I would follow her just as obstinately as she's following us, and for the same reasons.
They watched their progress towards the enemy ship as the estimated time counted down through six minutes. They were already decelerating, on a skewed vector, to get the proper angle on that ship before it closed in on the Nirvana, and make their first attack run. They didn't allow themselves to think that it could also be their last…
Suddenly Meia took her hands off the controls, put her arms around Hibiki and squeezed him, desperately tight. "I'm…scared, Hibiki," she whispered in his ear. This wasn't the ice-hard Dread Commander Gisborn. This was the human Meia, the side of herself she showed only to her closest friends. The side she'd considered a weakness, kept locked away, rejected, denied, until the last few years.
He placed one hand over her arms and squeezed back. "Me too, Meia." He'd been even more guilty of denying himself, of mistaking vain arrogance for strength, and showing his feelings for weakness. Learning the truth had taken him years, and many teachers. Magno and BC, Gascogne and Jura, Seran, Duelo, Misty and Paiway, Meia…Dita…and, most of all, Barnette. Slowly he had learned that accepting his feelings, even his fear, taking comfort and reassurance from his friends, and the woman he'd fallen in love with, could be a source of much greater strength.
Meia smiled. "I'll be all right. I'd just like to stay like this, for a while. Until we have to…"
He nodded. No more words were required. Allowing themselves this moment of vulnerability, giving each other unconditional support, they prepared themselves for the trial to come.
Barnette watched the tiny stylized eagle symbol pull farther ahead of her. Why must you fly so fast, lover? I can't keep up. Her tactical plot was filled with lines and numbers too, but she had no need to look at them; they were burned indelibly into her consciousness. She would be almost five minutes behind her lover and her friend when they engaged the enemy, and much too far away to affect the outcome. She really didn't know what she would do when she did catch up, couldn't think of any way to assist them, but she followed because she could do nothing else.
I want to be with you, Barnette. You're my girlfriend. His words, and the memory of his embrace, sustained her. Let's both come back to each other. That was her intention, too.
"That one was close!" Belvedere Coco reported nervously as the Nirvana shied away from yet another red beam. The Harvest Flagship dreadnought had cut its initial distance almost in half and the Nirvana had half the time to elude its fire. It also made engaging the more ordinary enemy ships much harder when they had to change course so frequently and unpredictably.
They stayed out of range of those gamma cannons and the forts didn't bother shooting them, but the nearest three pounded them with wave after wave of missiles. So did the enemy ships. Bart and three Dread squadrons were kept so busy with missile defense they had little to spare for striking back. The remaining Dreads, and the Vanguards, were limited to attacking raiders and, once, a destroyer that got too bold, or too reckless.
The Nirvana's own missiles had knocked out more than thirty raiders and three destroyers, and damaged a cruiser, but her launchers were shut down now, their magazines empty. Other nonessential systems were powered down as well; energy loss from the Pyxis was increasing as the enemy dreadnought closed in. The former pirate ship's reactor only made up part of the deficit.
"Vonna break left NOW!" Lieutenant Brody's frenetic shout hammered her ears, and Ensign Riesen obeyed instantly. Two plasma bolts sizzled through the space she would have occupied. She immediately twisted clockwise, boosting at ninety degrees to her initial evasion course, then turned to face the raider that had nearly burned two nasty big holes through her Dread, and her. Its lasers struck her frontal shields, with minimal effect. Her plasma cannons did no significant damage, either.
It was a game of Chicken now, and the first to turn away would probably die. If neither turned, they would both die spectacularly. She bore down on the raider, grimly determined not to be the loser. If the enemy was equally determined, this was going to be one of those messy ones…
"HYAAARRRRRHH!" A Vanguard barged into their game, forced its way though the raider's shields and latched onto its underside. Karl must have shot up all his cannon shells, because he pulled out his huge battle-axe and started chopping away at the thing like a lumberjack — one with a personal grudge against this particular tree. Vonna smirked spitefully at the enemy pilot's dilemma; violent maneuvers would throw off the clinging Vanguard, but forfeit the game of Chicken. She reduced power and watched anxiously, holding her fire, and her breath. If Karl didn't hack through something important within a few more seconds, all three of them were going to 'win' this Chicken prize.
Something bright occurred inside the raider and it veered off course, flinging the Vanguard aside. Vonna spun her Dread and her fingers stabbed the firing controls, raking the thing with lasers and plasma bolts until it exploded, leaving them the undisputed winners of this round. She turned back in time to watch Karl chase down his wayward battle-axe and stow it, then they both started towards Dread Squadron Five and the other Vanguards assigned to back them up.
"You shouldn't run off and play on your own," Karl teased her lightly, but with a darker undertone. "The rest of us want to play, too."
"You looked like you were having fun," she teased back. "Maybe too much LOOK OUT!"
The blip highlighted on her tactical display, the alarm, her Dread shooting ahead and pitching downward, it all seemed to take place in the same instant. She wasn't even aware of moving the controls. She squinted as plasma fire washed across her forward shields less than a second later. A raider shot out of the melee but she had gotten between it and its target — Karl's Vanguard.
"Stay behind me," she ordered, taking in the new data. She was nose-to-nose with another raider but this time was different; they were on divergent vectors, not a collision course. She pushed her Dread a little closer to the raider's path as it lashed out at her with lasers and another pair of plasma bolts, but she held her own fire. They whipped past each other less than three hundred kilometers apart, practically paint-scraping close for a space battle. They each had to turn very fast to bring their weapons to bear on their enemy — and her Dread had a crucial advantage in maneuverability.
She won the turning race and jabbed her firing controls with a ferocious grin. Her Dread's lasers and plasma cannons were fully charged and her enemy was out of position. They punched through its shields from the upper starboard side, there was a flash and a cloud of debris, and the raider lost control, spinning away faster and faster, shedding pieces. If her shots hadn't killed the pilot outright, the G-forces would finish the job.
"Looks like I'm not the only one having fun." Brody's words were casual but his voice was heavy with relief. "I think that's enough fun for now, though. Let's get back to the squadron."
Jura looked around at the flickers and flashes of nearby combat, then checked her tactical display. Her Dreads and Vanguards were doing a good job of maintaining a close screen around the Nirvana, holding the enemy raiders back. Since she ran out of missiles, though, the battle-cruiser and assault carrier had started edging closer. The carrier had turned out to be empty of raider ships, but it was doing a brisk business refueling and re-arming the ones that were already here.
She wasn't completely comfortable with her assignment as Acting Flight Commander, and she usually had Barnette as her Second when they did this in training. Still, she was handling the job. They'd learned their lessons years ago when Meia nearly died, and most of the senior Flight Leaders were now trained, experienced and practiced at taking over for her if she was out of action, or otherwise occupied as she was today.
Not that she was doing much Commanding at the moment. 'Force our way through the enemy battle-fleet as fast as possible' didn't call for a lot of brilliant maneuvers or tactical subtlety. She fended off enemies approaching the Nirvana in her little region, rode herd on her own squadron, and kept an eye out for any Dreads or Vanguards in danger of getting cut off and separated from theirs.
She'd almost been ready to order Five-Goldfinch, piloted by Ensign Riesen, back into formation when she was attacked by two raiders in quick succession. She was impressed with the way the junior pilot and a Vanguard had taken them both out, and relieved when both pilots got safely back to their squadron.
A couple of raiders attacked Two-Bluebird on her starboard side, but their coordination and positioning were lousy. She took one in the flank, and the next Dread over nailed the other one. The remains fell swiftly behind as their little fleet pushed on.
Gascogne and her Registry people had four shuttles busy resupplying the Dreads and Vanguards and as Flight Commander, Jura was fully informed on how fast those supplies were running low. There was no help for it, though; when the choice was between using missiles or losing Dreads, it was no choice at all. They had lost a few Dreads anyway. So far, the shuttles had retrieved all their casualties and taken them back to the Nirvana.
Flight Commander Elden did not check on their status. They were out of the battle and no longer her concern. Jura would find out what happened to her friends later, when other friends' lives did not depend on her maintaining focus.
"I'm convinced that it is completely automated, like the Harvesters," Meia concluded. "Why else would they let us get this close?"
Meia's hands were back on the control pads as their VanDread finally closed in on the enemy ship. They had drawn some desultory fire from a few small energy weapons, but the black dreadnought still seemed to be mostly ignoring them while shooting that red beam at the Nirvana every twenty-five seconds or so.
The spot they'd picked was highlighted on their display, although the ship itself was barely visible even with image enhancement.
"Now, Hibiki." He brought up the shield around VanDread Meia's head, concentrated on making it dense and strong to protect them, to do maximum damage, to get this thing off the Nirvana and all their friends.
Magno, BC, and the entire bridge crew watched as two symbols merged, collectively holding their breath…
The blue bird-shape reappeared, now behind the enemy. There was a collective sigh and mumble of relief. The bird turned, and slowed, preparing for another attack.
Meia and Hibiki were relieved, and a little surprised, to find themselves right where they'd planned to be, behind the enemy ship and zooming away from it. Meia immediately turned and started killing their velocity, lining up for a second attack.
They'd discussed the details of their first attack run, and settled on hitting the stern quarter at a shallow angle, hopefully doing some damage to its propulsion system and placing them to make their next strike from the rear. It would either turn away from the Nirvana or they would continue battering at its engines until something broke. They hoped it would be the enemy ship.
Their second attack run would be much like the first, going in at an angle and out through the hull less than thirty meters away. They didn't want to ram it straight on and end up embedded in the ship's innards, trapped and facing who-knows-what sort of internal defenses it might have. Speed and maneuverability were their only advantages.
They closed in again, finding that the dreadnought hadn't changed course, or taken any apparent notice of them yet. Maybe it was automated, and whoever programmed it hadn't thought of ramming attacks by small craft. Their shield blazed again, the wings swept back and the 'feet' pulled in. They felt a small shock as they smashed through its shields, then a much bigger one.
Out through the side, Meia turned again and aimed for a bulge in the hull. Sparkles and glows showed inside the hole they'd just made, and debris tumbled and flashed in the sunlight; the ship wasn't black on the inside.
She had to correct their course this time; the dreadnought was turning. They must have finally been recognized as a threat. They smashed through again, but now they were drawing energy fire from multiple small weapons along the ship's flanks. Their shields held, but they wouldn't take much more of this.
"I think it's time to go," Meia said judiciously as she put them on the course they'd chosen to lead that ship away from the Nirvana.
"Yeah, we seem to have worn out our welcome," Hibiki agreed. He diverted power from the ramming shield to the aft shields. It looked like they'd hold until they got out of range, at least for the small weapons. That red beam had a range of at least twenty light-seconds.
"They did it!" BC was the first to get words out.
There were cheers and exclamations of relief from all of the bridge crew as they watched the big red arrowhead turn and start slowing down.
Magno made the announcement for everybody. "Flight Commander Gisborn and Group Commander Tokai have drawn off the enemy's dreadnought. It's decelerating, and has stopped shooting at us. All we have to do now is get through these ships, and we can all get the hell out of here!"
"Well, we did it," Hibiki said brightly. "We got its attention."
"That we did." Meia wrenched the Silver Eagle through another evasive maneuver, narrowly avoiding yet another blast from the enemy dreadnought. "What do they say, 'Be careful what you wish for'?"
"At least it's not shooting that red beam at us. We could kiss our asses goodbye if they got us with that."
She grunted and dodged again. "But this one cycles a lot faster so they get more chances to hit us. Can't really say I'd call that an improvement."
"We're pulling away from it fast," he encouraged her. "If we can keep it from getting us for another minute or two, we should be okay."
She dug her fingers into the control pads and yanked their ship around. "I hope so, anyway."
They sped on as Meia jinked about, the beams missing them by ever greater margins. They started to relax a little…
"Oh shit!" Hibiki's gaze was fixed on the tactical display. "It's turning back!"
"No no no!" Meia wheeled them around and set off after the dreadnought. "Why did— uh. Our threat profile must have dropped below some threshold when we got to this distance."
"So their target priority switched back to the Nirvana," he concluded. "We have to go in again, get it chasing us, and stay closer. Will we have to start all over, getting its attention?"
"I sure hope not. That would take over two hundred seconds, with them shooting at the Nirvana the whole time."
They canceled their velocity away from the dreadnought and started gaining on it. Hibiki kept an eye on the tactical plot. "We've almost closed to the distance where they turned back. Twenty seconds…"
"Oh, no," Bart wailed as the deck shifted and power levels dropped slightly. "It's shooting at us again! What are they doing out there?"
"Their best," BC snapped. "You do yours."
"Yes, Commander," he said meekly. "But…the hyperdrive is still down and those ships are closing in on us. I don't know if we're gonna make it."
"We have to," Magno said grimly.
"We're within range," Hibiki reported. "No change in the enemy, it's still headed for the Nirvana."
"The critical range might be longer if it's already chasing us," Meia suggested.
"Huh. Us robot mechanics call that hysteresis," Hibiki reflected. "When a threshold value is state-dependent." He bared his teeth at the obstinate red icon. "Come on, you wanker, we're right here. Come get some."
"Wanker?" Meia raised an eyebrow quizzically. He couldn't see it, but he felt it, somehow.
"Uh, yeah." He chuckled and added, "Little something I picked up on New Salisbury last year. Seems appropriate." He chuckled again. "Or appropriately inappropriate, anyway."
He could feel her smile behind him. "Or pertinently impertinent?"
He chuckled again. "That too." He felt something powerful inside him. Meia really is the best friend I ever had. I'm glad Barnette and I told her about us, glad I'm not keeping that a secret from her any more.
"Put up the shield."
"Good idea." His fingers moved over the controls. "Ramming shield at full strength." See us, dammit, see us…
They waited.
"Nothing," he said, disgusted. "How long?"
"Another hundred and sixty seconds."
"Too long! It's already too close! We've got to make it follow us!"
"How?" she asked helplessly.
They both glared at its image as if they might force it to turn through sheer hostility. It didn't work. Hibiki gave up first, and dropped his gaze.
"Meia…" he asked, perplexed, "what's that control? I don't remember ever seeing it before."
"It's… I don't know," she said, equally puzzled. "I've never seen it either."
"Want to find out?"
"I think…yes. Try it."
It was a recessed knob about three centimeters across, completely unmarked, near his left hand. When he touched it, a targeting ring appeared on the visual display and a narrow wedge of the knob lit up.
"That looks promising," he observed. Turning the knob clockwise widened the glowing portion; after almost a full turn the entire knob was lit. Continuing to turn it had no further effect. Turning it the other way reduced the lighted segment. "Looks like I've got the power control." He turned it all the way up again. "Can you aim it?"
She shifted her fingers on the control pads and sure enough, the target ring moved as their VanDread maneuvered. "Yes." She adjusted their course to place the target on the Red Pyxis dreadnought.
"Great!" he exclaimed. "…now what?"
Acting on an intuition, Meia pushed down on both control pads. They heard a loud screaming noise, and a bright white beam shot from the Silver Eagle's beak. It lost some strength to the enemy ship's shields but punched into its stern.
"Minimal damage," Hibiki said after a few seconds, disappointed. "Can we do that about a hundred times?"
"We don't need to. It's turning on us!"
"Oh, now you remember us!" Hibiki yelled. "That's right, get yer ass back here, this dance ain't over!"
Ahhh, Hibiki, I think we should run away now," she said, suiting action to words as she flipped them around.
"Okay, but not too fast," he cautioned. "We've got to keep it interested."
"They've drawn it off again," BC said, relieved.
"Those ships are still closing in, Commander," Bart complained. "They're trying to crowd us into the asteroid forts."
"Don't let 'em," Magno ordered. "Frying pan, fire. You know that."
"Yeah, but the frying pan's hot, too." He was hunched up in the control nexus, as if trying to shrink away from both threats. "It's getting downright claustrophobic in here, Ma'am."
"Just keep doing your best, Bart," she said reassuringly. "We're all counting on you, now more than ever."
Barnette checked her tactical plot. Finally, finally, she was approaching that abominable ship, and VanDread Meia. She didn't like how close they were to it, and she didn't like how it was reacting to their presence. It almost didn't seem to be taking them seriously, as if they were just a trifling distraction from its real target, the Nirvana. It wasted as little time as possible on forcing them to back off before returning to its primary objective. Maybe two Dreads would be more effective?
Jura looked over her command, so unbearably proud of them all that she nearly wept. She gave them encouragement, compliments, support and advice, but few actual orders. They didn't need them. Her pilots knew what to do, and they were doing it. They held the front against the enemy, protecting the Nirvana, and each other. This was surely their finest hour.
They were being ground down inexorably, but they faced the grueling struggle with stubborn, persistent courage. Damaged Dreads faltered and fell out of formation, but the survivors closed up the gaps and fought on. The tide of battle was turning against them, they might all die here, but they would never, never give in. They'd stopped calling themselves Magno's Family years ago, but they were all family today. Jura Basil Elden was certain that they would fight to the last Dread.
And the last Vanguard. The men were right there in the thick of it, providing support, protecting casualties until they could be picked up, striking the enemy when and as they could. No one could doubt their valor, or their dedication. Hibiki wasn't here to bear witness, so she would be proud of them in his place.
She spared a glance at her tactical plot, where VanDread Meia played a deadly game with the Harvester dreadnought. They were keeping it from menacing them with that frightful red beam, but somehow it was still disabling the Nirvana's hyperdrive, still weakening the Pyxis.
The enemy fleet, the asteroid forts, and that dreadnought — we could have faced or escaped any two of those threats. All three of them, combined, might just be too much for us. If something doesn't break our way, soon…
"It's giving us the brush-off again," Hibiki growled. "Damn thing's got the attention span of a fruit fly."
Meia turned them back towards the enemy ship before it could target the Nirvana. It actually seemed eager to dismiss them and go after their mothership. They had to try harder and harder to keep it occupied, at shorter and shorter ranges.
They closed in again, anxious to get it away from the Nirvana, and back to chasing them away. It turned with apparent reluctance towards this persistent little nuisance…then suddenly pivoted right at them and pushed ahead at nearly nine kilometers-per-second-squared. Its front end lit up…
Their ramming shield was the only thing that saved them. When it dimmed, and they could see again, the dreadnought was bearing down on them and there was no mistaking its deadly intent.
"Oh, shit!" Hibiki shouted, appalled. "It's been drawing us in the whole time! Run away, run away!"
Meia was way ahead of him, straining to escape at VanDread Meia's astonishing acceleration of over twenty-two KPS-squared but they were moving towards that ship, and it towards them, and it would be almost twenty seconds before they could even start to pull away. Two seconds before that beam was ready to fire again, she started violent evasive maneuvers. After the shot, she went back to racing straight away from it.
After the second shot, they were at least moving away at an ever-increasing speed, but every eleven seconds or so they had to dodge another energy bolt. In about three minutes it would start to get easier. If they survived that long…
Barnette was still accelerating toward them at full power. Even the Silver Eagle couldn't evade those shots forever. There were only so many ways to dodge, and the enemy only had to guess right once. Eventually, it would.
The enemy dreadnought was putting a lot into those blasts, and between those and the gravity pulses that still trapped the Nirvana it seemed to be starving its shields. Not an unreasonable tactic; only her Dread was anywhere near it. Her light weapons were not a significant threat.
She was in the perfect position to see when their luck ran out. One of those terrible bolts brushed across VanDread Meia's tail before they could get clear. Meia's Dread and Hibiki's Vanguard spun out of the blast in different directions. Meia regained control quickly, but the Vanguard tumbled for much too long. Even after it stabilized, it continued on the same trajectory, almost directly away from the enemy, and from her.
Heather saw an explosion far ahead of her. Her ship put a magnified image on the canopy and she watched two machines fly out of it. One was a silver space ship much like hers, and the other one was a battle mech. The space ship flew away, but the mech was spinning toward her and seemed to be out of control. It…felt…important to her.
She could see the ship that had shot them, too. It was huge and black and menacing and she didn't like it. It reminded her of the man-thing that had tried to kill her, somehow.
She concealed her approach from it by hiding in the mech's scanner shadow. How did she know to do that?
Hibiki shook himself out of a daze, realized the beepings and buzzings in his ears came from outside, not inside his head. So did all the little red lights. Almost every subsystem on his Vanguard was demanding his attention, urgently. He looked more carefully and spotted some yellow lights, along with a few lonely greens. Life Support didn't look good. Weapons and Engines were even worse, pretty much all red. Shields was mixed. Mechanical wasn't bad; if he could just find something to walk on he'd be all set.
He tried his communicator, but it had clearly lost its little electronic mind and spewed something like high-speed techno-industrial mood music. He turned it down, but not off, in case it managed to cure itself.
He looked outside and the first thing he saw was that damned Red Pyxis dreadnought that had suckered them, lured them in and done this to them. He felt ashamed, and stupid, to have fallen for its tricks, but what choice had there been? They had to get that ship away from the Nirvana, had to do whatever it took to fix its targeting algorithms on them, keep VanDread Meia at the head of its priority array. It seemed to be backing away from him, but in fact he was still hurtling away from it. He would be within range of that deadly beam for a long time, though. He needed to move, fast.
He soon concluded that he wasn't even going to move slow. Diagnostics said the main thruster modules themselves were intact, but none of them were getting main power. It had to be the power couplings. They had always been a weak link — but they were still the best of several bad solutions. And, of course, the problem was on the outside, where it would be trivial to fix in the maintenance bay but impossible out here. Murphy strikes again.
Some of the attitude thrusters worked, and had stopped him from tumbling, but for going anywhere he might as well get out and push.
Scanners were a bust, probably something external with that too.
Barnette altered course to intercept him. "I'm coming, Hibiki!"
He didn't answer. Something was very wrong. He was not maneuvering, not even trying to evade. His Vanguard's engines must have been damaged. She wouldn't think about any other reason. She was closing on him, but so was the enemy, and it was way ahead of her. It wouldn't pass up this chance to finish him off while he was disabled.
Hibiki patted one of the least angry consoles and shook his head sadly.
"Well, partner, we're in a pickle now. How could you let that loser kick your ass so bad? You're kind of letting me down, buddy."
Heather was still headed towards the battle mech. It was gold and white and it looked achingly familiar. Her ship seemed to know that she was interested in it and kept its image in front of her. It had stopped spinning and now had its back to her, facing the enemy ship. She was almost there…
She felt that ship was an enemy, to both of them. She still couldn't explain these feelings, or the things she knew that she had no business knowing. They had to be from the lost part of her life but why wasn't there more? Why were there only vague feelings and knowings, but no actual memories? What was wrong inside her head?
Barnette leaned forward, as if that could make her Dread go faster. "Hold on, Hibiki…"
He still wasn't answering her.
The dreadnought turned slightly to line up its main weapon on the Vanguard. Meia appeared to finally realize something was wrong, turned back toward him, but she was still moving away from him, too fast.
She felt helpless panic. "Get the hell out of there, Hibiki!"
Her Dread, so swift and deadly, was much too far away, too slow. She would never reach him in time. She opened fire on the enemy's stern with her lasers. Even at this range she might get their attention, distract them…
Hibiki watched the enemy ship as it stopped receding from him and seemed to sit almost motionless against the stars. It had matched his trajectory. That was bad. That meant it wanted to be really, really sure of its next shot.
He reached out and touched the canopy with his fingertips, next to one lonely green arrowhead symbol. "Good-bye, Barnette. We should have had more time. I was happy with you. I should have told you… I'm sorry."
The communicator continued to squawk and sputter electronic gibberish at him. He couldn't even talk to her. To anybody.
He turned to the blue arrowhead, racing away. "Good-bye, Meia. Don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. It's war."
They were beyond his reach, but at least they were safely away from this monstrosity. He wouldn't be taking any of his friends with him.
He looked at the distant cluster of icons ranged around the Nirvana's big green arrowhead. "Jura…be well. Take care of Barnette for me. She's going to need you."
There were so many more…Gascogne, BC, Bart, Parfet, Duelo, both Captain Magnos, Paiway, Vallois, Misty…his new shipmates, Rika, Fione, Celise, Vonna and Karl…everybody, really. They were all his friends and family, the best ones anybody could ever wish for. It was a privilege to have known them.
And then there was one. He brought his hand back to the controls. He reached inward, to that feeling, the tenuous connection they somehow shared through the Pyxis. This far from the Nirvana there was no detail, only a vague sense of her existence, but still he felt her touch. "Dita? Are you with me? I wish I could have seen you again… I tried, Dita. I searched, and searched, and I never gave up, but I couldn't find you. The galaxy is just so fucking big… I failed you again. I'm so sorry, Dita. Wherever you are, I hope you can forgive me."
Barnette saw reflections of emitter glow as the enemy colossus completed its prefiring cycle.
Panic turned to terror. "Hibiki! Move! Get away!"
Too late. From her vantage she could actually watch the enemy's beam close in on the defenseless Vanguard.
"HIBIKI! NOOOOO!"
The Vanguard was swallowed by a blinding nimbus and her voice rose to an inarticulate scream.
Hibiki looked down the barrel of Hell. "Oh, shit."
Heather felt what was coming and cried out, forlorn, desperate: "Help him. Oh, somebody please help him!"
That maddeningly familiar gold-and-white machine suddenly seemed to rush toward her as a harsh blaze of light blotted out the stars.
Barnette's scream ended. There was silence, in the cockpit and in her soul. She had cut power without thinking about it. She checked her instruments by reflex, but she already knew what they would tell her. She had built up too much closing velocity, on the wrong vector. She couldn't avoid getting far too close to that ship. She wouldn't actually crash into it, but it didn't matter. It wouldn't even have to break through her frontal shields. There was no way her Dread could yaw fast enough to keep its nose toward the enemy, and it would swat her like a bug as she passed.
Even that didn't matter. They were finished. Her death would be just one more, a little sooner than everyone else's.
With Dita gone, they had been down one VanDread. Now that Hibiki was…was… there were none. The Nirvana was far from helpless, but this awful ship had been designed to destroy her and there was nothing now to stop it from doing just that. Once the Nirvana was gone, the enemy would have the Dreads and Vanguards trapped in this system and running them down would take only hours. A few might manage to hide among the asteroids until their life-support ran out. She suspected that all of her friends' best option would be to avoid capture by dying in the hopeless battle.
Barnette pondered what to do with the last eighty seconds of her life, then made her decision. She slammed the engines back to full power; now it would be the last seventy seconds. She changed course, just a little. Her fingers danced over keypads, entering commands and overrides that she was never, ever supposed to use. Well, if somebody complained in the next fifty-five seconds, she would tell them to stick it. Red lights began to appear and blink on her consoles, and warnings started to sound. This was all sorts of crazy, but her death might not be useless after all.
I am Flight Leader Barnette Orangello. Fear my wrath, you bastard!
Forty-four seconds left, her hands steady on the controls. She had done all she could. It would work, or not. She rather thought it would. That ship had weakened its own shields just enough, and her plasma cannons would weaken one spot still further, just before she hit. The enemy began turning away from the scene of its crime, back to the path that would allow it to massacre all of her friends.
Barnette adjusted her own course. She felt a calm serenity as she watched the enemy ship expand in front of her. "Wait for me, Hibiki. I'm coming to join you…my love."
Her last regret was not telling him while he was still alive to hear it.
Beyond her target, the blast that had taken him from her dissipated, faded…and something was emerging from the residual glare. It looked like a battle mech, but it couldn't be Hibiki's Vanguard.
It was too big.
It was too blue.
It was…impossible.
What the hell?
Two massive cannons swung up and locked into place on its shoulders.
It can't be…
They crackled with energy as they burned brighter and brighter.
She's gone. She's dead!
Two searing beams lanced out, punched through the enemy's depleted shields and speared that ship right through the middle.
I love Hibiki! He's mine…
The enemy ship's relative motion dragged it through the beams from midships to stern, ripping it apart. Somewhere along the way its main reactor lost containment, and the dreadnought erupted into a miniature nova right before her eyes.
It's not fair!
Her hands had already been busy, doing things without bothering her brain with the details. They reduced engine power, vectored her away from the enemy's remains, restored the interlocks on her missiles, cut her reactor's hydrogen feed back to normal, and vented the excess through the plasma cannons. She wouldn't have to use her Dread as a bomb after all. The enemy ship was destroyed. The battle was not lost. She and all her friends were not about to die. The man she loved was alive!
So why did she feel almost…cheated?
Her comm signaled an incoming transmission. The enemy's destruction had raised too much interference for video, but she didn't need to see. She already knew what she would hear.
A bright, cheerful voice, returned from the grave. "Hi, everybody! I'm back!"
Heather was plunged into chaos. There were several seconds of whirling disorientation, much worse than when she tried to push her memory too far. A dazzling light poured through the canopy and she could almost feel her spaceship's shields straining to hold it back. There were strange, yet almost familiar mechanical sounds, whirring and clunking, and everything was moving around her, jostling her, shifting her body into a new position.
It ended. She found herself sitting in a different, larger cockpit, in front of, no, on top of, another person. There was normal gravity in here. She felt arms around her, saw gray-gloved hands over hers on the controls…
Hibiki! She gasped as memories of him flooded into her mind. She remembered his face, his voice, his corny antics, his smile, his courage. She remembered how she felt about him, how he had started to return those feelings. And there was more…
Heather gasped again as an entire universe exploded inside of her. Faces, names, feelings, events were there as if they'd never been gone. Somehow, Hibiki had been the key to all of her lost past.
She turned so she could see his face inside his flight suit helmet. He gazed back at her in wonder and apprehension, as if she were some sort of fragile, unstable miracle, and would vanish as mysteriously as she had appeared if he did or said the wrong thing. He finally worked up the nerve to speak, and she saw his lips move behind the face-plate. His voice came, tremulously, from two grilles on the sides of his helmet.
"Dita?"
She felt one final memory hit her harder than all the rest. Dita? That's me! I'm Dita! My real name is…Dita Liebely! Damn them, they had even stolen her name! Because now she knew that neither she nor her past had ever been lost, they were taken. She owed somebody for that, and somehow, someday, she would find them, and they would pay! She had Hibiki now, she had all her friends, and they would help her.
"Oh, Hibiki…" It was all she could say.
It was all she needed to say. This was not the time for words. Dita faced forward again and leaned against him and it felt oh, so good, even through his suit. Yet another thing they had stolen from her, from them both. Well, she and Hibiki could start getting some payback right now. All her memories had returned, and she knew exactly what her fingers were doing as they flickered through the sequence that raised VanDread Dita's cannons into position and charged them.
Hibiki was already generating the targeting solution. Two yellow reticles appeared, glided onto the black ship's image, merged, blinked red. Together they hit the firing controls and watched as their enemy was wiped from the universe.
VanDread Dita's communicators worked perfectly, and had apparently inherited all the latest codes from his Vanguard. When activated, they poured out multiple channels of confused chatter. Dita worked through a seldom-used series of commands and then broadcast to the whole star system.
"Hi, everybody! I'm back!"
Author's Notes
I've seen rumors and speculation that VanDread Meia had a secondary energy weapon, the way VanDread Jura has those laser disks. I took that and ran with it. I hope nobody objects!