finally shut that thing down, for good.” He looked at her again, and pleaded with her as he whispered, “you are the only one who can end this.”
With that, Michael got slowly to his feet, nodded respectfully to her, and left the med-bay and Kathryn to think over what he had just said.
Over the next four hours, Michael went through the details of the mission, the team was to be made up of himself, Lieutenant Logameier, Colonel Vargev and four of his commandoes as well as Kathryn, if she was up to it, if not, they would have to find some other way to shut the facility down.
Hopefully, that wouldn’t include sending a torpedo straight down the main aperture and destroying its collider.
He spoke to the men arrayed ahead of him in the briefing room of the Liberty. “So is everyone clear. It’s a simple, go in, shut down, seal it off, and get out again.”
Nikolai spoke to his men, “commandoes will be taking the same armaments as before, we did a quick sweep of the base when we went in the first time. But we could have missed a few, so stay frosty and remember, we are on their turf comrades.”
A loud shout of “Ooooragh!” came back at the colonel.
“Okay let’s gear up and get ready; dismissed.” Michael said.
Just as the assembled men went to leave, the doors slid open to reveal a lone, dark figure, silhouetted against the bright lights from the corridor to the Liberties bridge behind, and clutching a walking stick.
She stepped through the doors, it was Kathryn, she hobbled unsteadily towards the assembled men in the tiny briefing room, “you’ll need me with you, if you want to find the central control room of the base quickly.”
Michael gave a broad warm smile, almost wanting to punch the air in delight, she had come around, although in his heart he knew she would. “Thank you so much Kathryn.”
“It’s time to finally end this,” she replied, “besides, I’m a sucker for punishment.” A mischievous grin played across her features.
The others all respectfully filed out of the small room, leaving Michael and Kathryn alone together.
“What is going to happen to Rachthausen, he deserves a proper burial?”
“His body has been taken out of cold storage on the Eisenhower, and loaded aboard the shuttle as promised. As soon as we shut down the facility, we will all bury him with full military honours, you have my word.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s the least I can do, have you given any thought as to your next posting?” He probed gently.
“Not yet; I’m just trying to take things one day at a time right now.”
Michael smiled knowingly, “I understand, take all the time you need, although I’m sure a warship like the Liberty would be in need of a planetary geologist, somewhere down the line.” He winked playfully at her.
Kathryn chuckled slightly and smiled in return, “I’ll give it some thought.”
“Well,” Michael said with a little sigh, “I had better get ready for the mission myself.” He smiled as he made to move past Kathryn and leave the room, as he did so however, she leaned forward and kissed him tenderly on the cheek, “thank you.” She whispered.
He looked down at her tender features, the long dark hair swaying over her shoulders, betraying just the hint of an occasional grey strand. He wanted so much to kiss her back, but it wouldn’t have been right, he knew there was a closeness between them, though with what she had gone through he didn’t want to pressure her. He didn’t know if she really had feelings for him or not right now, with the burial of someone she loved looming he knew that now was not the best of times, and he did not want to sacrifice what they already had for one stupid impulse.
“You have nothing to thank me for,” he replied with a curt smile as he left the briefing room for his quarters.
Kathryn headed back to the Eisenhower’s hangar bay to join the rest of the team, she knew she was in good hands at last, but was still terrified of returning to those long dark corridors once again.
Michael gathered his belongings, changing into his full military landfall uniform for the first time in five years. Surprisingly it still fit, Nikolai had warned him that the surface of the planet was particularly cold and windy, and that his naval uniform would not be ideal for spending more than a few minutes on the surface at best. He took a pulse pistol as a sidearm and tucked it into a holster on his hip, picked up his breathing apparatus, and once he was confident he was ready, left his quarters and stepped out onto the bridge. He felt a little silly, stood out as he was in his camouflaged combat fatigues and heavy military boots, while all the other officers around him were in typical royal blue naval uniforms, yet it was necessary.
“Quinn.”
The commander turned, and stopped him in mid-sentence, “Yes I know cap’n, I’m in charge until ye’ get back.”
“Good man.”
With that, Michael left the bridge, and quickly made his way over to the Eisenhower also, soon meeting up with Nikolai, Kathryn, and the others in the hangar bay, “hopefully this will be last time we will have to go down to Auriga III for a while, has the body I requested been stowed onboard?” He asked as he turned to Logameier.
“Yes sir, I saw one of the Eisenhower’s crew load it onboard not ten minutes ago.”
Kathryn hobbled onto the shuttle itself helped by Michael, while Nikolai, his four accompanying commandoes, and Logameier all followed behind.
Michael sat at the controls and began working them, the rear door closed tight and sealed shut, the craft began to power up again, controls and displays all lit up in front of the pilot’s and navigators seats where Logameier was sitting. A dull thrumming groan reverberated around the interior of the bay, slowly increasing in its intensity as the shuttle’s gravitic engines began to gradually kick in.
Michael keyed in another control, “shuttle alpha-zero-one to Eisenhower, requesting permission to depart.”
“Shuttle alpha-zero-one, request is granted, opening bay doors now, happy travels.”
The communications ceased as the giant hangar bay doors slowly opened, once again revealing the starry blackness of deep space.
He increased power to the shuttles gravitic engines, and the craft began to levitate and gently taxi along the wide central aisle of the hangar bay once more, before Michael brought the boosters up to full power, and, with a loud roar, the shuttle shot forth from the hangar bay, and away from the huge form of the E.D. F heavy cruiser.
“You know, sometimes it can be hard to comprehend the true vastness of space,” Logameier said, staring out from the shuttles cockpit into the stars beyond. “Just when you think that space, with all the peoples, planets, asteroids, phenomena and everything else is such a crowded place, it shows you something like this, and then you realise that space itself is a whole lot bigger than you ever imagined.”
“I agree lieutenant, space is wondrous in its vastness.” Michael said as he swung the shuttle around, lining up to fly the craft in the channel between the vast bulk of the Eisenhower and the Arizona again, thereby revealing the dirty beige colour of the planet below in all its horrible glory once more.
“ You know, I think I’m going to miss this world,” Vargev said from behind them.
“You have got to be joking!” Kathryn retorted, finding the colonel’s remark in mildly poor taste, after what she experienced on the surface.
“Actually; I am, I hate the place, its cold, windy, there’s no breathable air. I have to admit, apart from the muddy, rain soaked battlefields of Gamma IV, this has to rank as one of the worst places I’ve ever been assigned, the place is one utter shit hole.”
“Ditto,” Michael replied simply, as he took the craft into a dive as it neared the planets atmosphere. The hull began to heat up quickly, flames and super-heated plasma began trailing across its bullet-like hull. A thick contrail of smoke followed the craft as it plunged ever deeper.
Inside, the occupants were jostled in their seats as the craft rocked and shook from the effects of atmospheric entry.
Once the shuttle glided through the thick methane cloud cover, Michael set the craft to atmospheric flight mode, and the ubiquitous delta wings emerged from underneath the main fuselage once again, the small winglets slid out from either side of the cockpit, the twin tails lifted up and the shuttle gently flew on course for the Eye of the Dracos.
Another beam of intensely bright orange energy surged skyward heralding another release from the Dracos
