Title: Rescue Run

Author: Lady Rheena

Genres: Alternate Universe, Action/Adventure, Romance

Rating: R

Disclaimer: If you recognise it from a fandom, I probably don't own it. That includes the world of The Matrix, all its characters and the concepts it entails. The idea of the Fleet and the Planetary Coalition are technically my own, but you'll probably recognise bits and pieces from various sci-fi media.

Chapter notes: Again with the technical stuff. Hey, whose fic is this anyway?

Part 23- Lift Run

Dena strode straight through the mess of personnel the dock had become, headed straight for the Churchill. She was neatly intercepted by Captain Mifune just before she reached the palm lock for the rear hatch.

'Off already, Captain?' he asked.

'This little lady's got to get up to the surface point to pick up her gunner crews and a co-pilot,' Dena replied. 'But I'll be back, Captain, don't worry.'

'An empty run, given our current situation?' He pursed his lips thoughtfully, and then turned, indicating the stacked pallets of baggage stowed around the edges of the dock walkways. 'This may be a breach of procedure, in which case I apologise, Captain, but wouldn't getting some of that shit out of the way make life a bit simpler later on?'

'If your men can load it I'll lift it,' she replied.

'Right.' He whirled and bellowed at some of the APU trainees who were apparently standing guard over the nearest baggage rack. 'You there! Get that thing over here! What's your capacity, Captain?' he added to Dena.

'Three racks, Commander. They slot right in over the seating.' She gestured to indicate. 'That is if your tech teams assembled them to standard.'

He caught the jibe and gave her a glare of mock anger.

'If our tech teams put them together, Captain, they probably did a better job than any of your so-called trained personnel can! Move it!' This last was addressed at the recruits as the three frames were slotted in. 'All right, now bring another three in from some of those over there. You, you and you- you've just been promoted to frames officer. Keep these racks here full when they aren't being loaded. Better to ferry across in short bursts to load up rather than keep a pilot waiting while we lug stuff over from the other end of the damned city.' He turned back to Dena with a smile. 'I'll get these organised, Captain. Good luck.'

'See you in a bit,' she responded, climbing in and palming the hatch shut behind her. Sitting back in a proper pilot's chair felt good, if a little strange. Her buttocks had become accustomed to the lack of padding. But as her fingers danced over the controls she felt a smile come unbidden to her lips. Power surged through the engines and the Churchill sprang from the landing pad, rocketing over the heads of the line of APUs assembled, both gun barrels pointed squarely at the tunnels that loomed beyond the now permanently open gate. She settled to a speed that would get her out in the computed time of fifty-two seconds but still give her a chance to manoeuvre around the tunnels without splattering herself on the walls. The Churchill was quick to respond to her commands and soon she was racing along the surface towards the distant hulk of a carrier ship. She noted the squarer shapes of destroyer barges forming an extended perimeter around the improvised landing area, along with squat gunships manned by marines. Ten drop shuttles were already parked, waiting the signal to go. She landed the Churchill at the end of the row and opened the hatch.

'I got inanimate in here!'

Immediately a team of cargo handlers appeared, deftly unloading the racks and shunting them off towards the carrier, which from the spot lighting that had been set up Dena identified as the Joshua. She let out another bellow for some personnel, which set a trio sprinting over to her. Rising to meet them, she did a double take at the slender figure carrying pilot insignia on his collar.

'Galaway? What in the hell-'

'Full pilot now, Captain,' he said with a sheepish grin. Dena folded her arms and stared at him for a moment in disbelief. Connor Galaway, the last rookie she'd deigned to put up with, was a skinny little runt hailing from the Ceres mining colony in the Sol asteroid belt. He hadn't even irritated her as much as rookies usually did, on account of his impressive piloting skills and ability to soak up information like the proverbial sponge.

'What bloody idiot graduated you?' she demanded.

'The same bloody idiot who passed your final, ma'am,' he shot back cheekily. 'Instructor Hammond.'

'And you volunteered for pilot duty on this evac?'

'Climbed over people to get it, ma'am. Let them know we worked together well on my training run.'

'Why you little shit!' she exclaimed, although she was in fact rather pleased to see him. A co-pilot with a photographic memory wouldn't go amiss in the maze of sewers that led to Zion.

'I was wondering if that would end up being my call sign, ma'am,' he replied, unfazed.

'You graduated to fighter qualified?'

'Best in the Fleet, ma'am!'

'And don't you forget it.' She grinned at him and noted how he slightly relaxed. He wasn't that sure of himself, then. 'All right, Ensign, at ease before you sprain something, and prep us to go.'

'Yes ma'am.' He went to the co pilot's chair, strapped himself in and began working the panel. Dena turned her attention to the two stocky men just beyond. The smaller of the two threw her a salute.

'Gunner lieutenants Jackson-' indicating his companion '-and Morris reporting for duty, Captain.'

'All right, take your positions. Is she loaded, Ensign?'

'Charged up and ready to go, Captain.'

'Who's our dance partner?' she asked as she strapped herself back into the pilot's chair.

'The Bristol, ma'am. Lieutenant Warren's flying her. He says he'll follow your lead.'

Dena wasn't entirely happy about that- she knew Warren, who was a damn good shuttle pilot but had never flown with a fighter wing.

'All the other fighters are prepping their squads, Captain,' Galaway said, reading her so adroitly she wondered if he'd developed an ESP rating to add to his other talents.

'I think we're going to need them,' she muttered, then turned her attention to the controls. 'All right, here we go. Heads up, fellas,' she added, meaning Jackson and Morris.

'Knuckled up, Captain,' Morris assured her.

'The Bristol is signalling ready,' Galaway added.

She responded by lifting the Churchill off its pad and arrowing away across the desolate terrain, knowing she could rely on Galaway to keep in contact with the Bristol. Sure enough he pulled a headset out of his jacket pocket and fixed it to his ear, giving her a small smile when she glanced his way. A vision of the Kid hovering around Neo sprang into her head and she almost felt her eyes cross. Ridiculous. The kid was twenty-one, fresh out of flight school.

'Lovely countryside,' Jackson remarked from behind them. 'No wonder the poor shits were so eager to get outta here now they've got the chance. It's like a bare bloody rock.'

'Even the domed colonies are greener than this,' Galaway murmured. Of course on asteroids like Ceres the entire population lived in sealed domes, hence the term for those specialised colonies, but inside the domes tended to be a planetside visage in miniature, of course including ample hydroponics gardens. And it was pointless to compare the scorched, desolate Earth to any of those thriving belt communities.

By now they were halfway back to Zion. Dena saw the fizzling of electrostatic forcefields sealing off junctions in the tunnel run against intruding sentinels and also noticed the small, hovering forms of remotely-controlled scuttlebugs placing short-life, high-intensity EMP charges that could be let off from the Voltaire or Gormenghast tactical centres in case of unwanted visitors.

'That's the dock ahead,' she said when a vague slit of light appeared in the distance. Galaway nodded and adjusted the com settings.

'Zion Control, this is the Churchill with the Bristol requesting landing clearance for loading.'

Dena didn't bother to retune her headset to listen to the response, concentrating on the controls.

'We're clear,' Galaway told her.

She nodded and throttled back, spinning the Churchill slowly around to land on one of the allotted landing pads and then unstrapping herself.

'Here's the game plan- Jackson, you're supervising cargo load. Morris, you get our twenty names, get on the com and get the other twenty from the Bristol so we can tell the Joshua who she's taking on board. Galway, you and I are counting heads in and strapping 'em down.'

The two gunners opened the hatch and were confronted by a petite blonde woman, one of Lock's staff whom Dena knew as Lieutenant Wirtz.

'Ready?' she asked, impressing Dena by being apparently unfazed by her first close encounter with a proper Coalition ship and Fleet crew. 'Your load know who they are.'

'Listing?' Morris asked. Wirtz promptly handed him a slip of paper. He looked at it for a moment, since the substance was all but unheard of in modern Fleet, and then disappeared back into the Churchill. Jackson jogged round to the side of the ship to assist the pair of skinny young recruits levering the first of the three cargo frames into position to slot into the top of the fuselage.

'All right,' Dena said to Wirtz. 'Let's have 'em.'

The woman nodded and stepped back, motioning to the small crowd gathered just beyond. It was a mixed group of men, women and a couple of children. They split neatly in half, obviously in a prearranged division, and began to file into the two shuttles. Dena and Galaway stood out of the way on either side of the hatch until everyone was seated. The twenty seats formed four rows of five with minimal walking space between them; one against each wall, the other two back-to-back in the middle. Once Jackson returned to his position on right gunnery Dena and Galaway took an aisle each, pulling down the restraints. They reminded Dena of the holding bars on old-fashioned rollercoaster rides, a heavy rectangle fitted to the shoulders that locked into position to offer minimal movement, since of course the passengers didn't need to worry about reaching for controls. Dena paused as she locked down the final person on her row, recognizing him.

'Hey, Kid, what about your new technician status?'

'New tech recruits got counted as civilians,' he said with obvious reproach. 'And my room's right below dock.'

'Are you crazy?' asked the man sitting next to him, then grinned at Dena. 'Don't mind him, Captain. Most of us went nuts when we heard we'd be the first up.'

She laughed and made her way back to her seat.

'Bristol is clear for takeoff, Captain,' Galaway informed her as she fastened herself in. 'Zion control reports the Moses and the Pan are coming our way for second load.'

'Then let's get out of their way before they land on top of us, Ensign.' She powered up the engines and raised her voice so the passengers could heard her. 'Hold onto your lunch, everyone. We're going up.'

She was ready for the collective gasp as the Churchill leapt from the pad to speed towards the gate over the APU sentries. The journey upwards seemed quicker somehow, and the series of oooohs when the Joshua came into view made Galaway chuckle.

'That's your carrier ship,' Dena announced. 'CLS Joshua, capacity five hundred so I'm afraid you're going to have a bit of a wait until she's ready to lift.' Landing next to the Bristol, she hit the release button on the restrainers. As they popped the passengers eagerly pushed them up but didn't rise. Then the ground crewman opened the hatch from the outside and motioned for them to move.

'Come on, people, we got half a thousand of you to shift before we can get the Josh in the air. Let's move it along. All right, you all know each other? Let's hope so, you're going to be stuck together for a bit. Everyone stick together- hold hands if you like, I don't care- that's the way, all right? Hey now, honey-' this was addressed at one of the children and made Dena look round '-all ready to go orbital?'

Dena recognized Sam Aster, deck crew leader for her squadron on the Gormenghast.

'Doing a shift planetside now, Sam?' she called as he ushered the forty civilians into the care of a junior crewman who led them towards the main boarding ramp of the Joshua.

'First four hours, anyway!' he called, then gave her a thumbs-up. 'At least until we need the fighters down here!'

'Bristol's clear, Captain,' Galaway said as Aster resealed the hatchway. Dena didn't even reply, feeding power back through to the main engines as the Churchill lifted off once more.