There was a general murmur of agreement around the room.
“Well, if that’s the case,” Kendra said, handing out bundles of papers, “take a look at these printouts. It’s everything I could find on the computers about the operation of the fighters. You can study them thoroughly before we try to fly any of them.”
A hand shot up in the middle of the room.
“Yes?”
“Morrison, Patrick Morrison,” the man replied in a thick Australian accent, “I think it’s safe to say that what we flew in on and what I saw in that hangar wasn’t picked up at a U.S. Air Force surplus store. Who’s the alien?”
“She called herself Christy,” Franklin said, “but we’re not sure what her real name is. Their language is kind of funky.”
“Called?” Morrison asked.
“Yeah, she’s no longer with us.”
“Let me get this straight. Some alien chick just up and gives you a mess of spaceships and then dies?”
“Not exactly like that. This is her place. She was trying to get more intel on the threat we’re facing and she was killed. I was there with her and managed to get away. Now we have to do what we can to stop the attack.”
“And it’s just us in this room? Do we have any other help?”
“You have me,” Walter said, sitting down in the back of the room.
“That should put the odds in our favor,” Morrison said. His statement was followed by a general murmur of approval around the room.
“Excuse me,” Curtis said, “but where do you figure in all of this?”
Walter brought them up to speed over the next few minutes.
“That’s clear as mud,” a woman said, “You get powers by accident and now the alien that zapped you is possibly leading an attack to take over the world, and stopping him is up to a few people with space fighters and a boomer with super powers. I feel like I’m in a comic book.”
“Yeah,” another man said, “Is this where we get the speech about the odds being long but it’s our duty to save the world? Cue the stirring music.”
“I know it sounds far fetched, but that’s pretty much it,” Walter said.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Curtis asked, “Let’s take these things for a spin.”
“Not so fast, guys,” Kendra said, “We have to get the comms set up. You need to talk to one another and I need to listen in and talk to you. I can track each ship on this computer and I can also see what’s on your scanners.”
“Does that mean that if we’re in a big battle or something, you can see the enemies on your screen and point us in the right direction?” Franklin asked.
“Pretty much. It picks up the feed from your ships’ scanners, and apparently Christy put some satellites in orbit that act as long range scanners to see anything approaching earth. I can see what they’re seeing on here as well. It’s almost like she knew what was coming and was preparing for it.”
“That explains why Mike was trying to take her out,” Walter said.
“He tried to take her out?” Kendra asked.
“Yeah, remember? That’s how I got my powers. He hit me by accident. Apparently it didn’t work the same way on me as it would have worked on her.”
“Well, we’ve read these manuals through. I say we fire these things up, get your comms set up, and get out there. Says here there are weapons we can use for practice and everything,” Morrison said.
“Okay, let’s head to the hangar. Each ship has a transponder number. Just let me get your names tied to your ships and we should be good to go. But remember to stay away from the moon. We don’t want to be spotted too soon if we can avoid it.”
Thirty minutes later they were leaving the atmosphere, punching the throttles and grinning like children on Christmas morning.
“Comm check,” Kendra’s voice came over in each cockpit.
Each pilot responded in turn and Kendra replied that she could hear everyone loud and clear.
“Why can’t we check out the moon?” Curtis asked.
“Bad guys there,” Franklin replied, “That’s where we were when Christy was killed. There’s another speed we can hit that gets us around pretty fast without going to a hyperspace jump. I can’t remember what she called it. You should have seen the control in the manual.”
“Yeah, right here on the control panel to the left of the throttle,” a female voice replied.
“You know, I’m terrible with names,” Franklin said, “I didn’t think I got yours.”
“Fiona, Fiona Atkinson. How fast does that get us around exactly?”
“We went to the moon in a couple minutes and we didn’t even have it nearly as fast as it can go.”
“How about Mars? Any bad guys around there?”
“Not sure.”
“Only way to find out. Race you there. Last one there is a rotten egg,” Fiona said shortly before her ship shot out of sight of the others.
“Get going, guys,” Franklin said, “Set course for Mars and punch it.”
Twenty minutes later they were orbiting Mars and Fiona’s voice was cackling in their cockpits.
“Beat ya. First human to ever orbit Mars. Time to try out those practice weapons. You all remember how to set them? There’s a drink for the first one of you that can hit me.”
She then sped up and shot away from the group, Curtis right on her tail.
“I have target lock on you, prepare to...hey...how’d you do that?” Curtis said.
“Who has lock on who now?” Fiona said
She fired the practice weapon and a warning beep sounded in Curtis’ cockpit, indicating that he had been hit.
“You know what else?” Fiona said, “The energy weapons are invisible, but you can set them to visibility so you can see where they’re going. I think it just puts the image on the inside of your cockpit glass, but it looks cool,
