“That’s another you owe me,” Michael said with a grin.
“Who’s keeping count?”
“I think its time we got off this hellhole of a planet, for good.”
“Couldn’t agree more, lead the way comrade.”
The two of them made their way back to the shuttle, to be greeted by a relieved Kathryn, and Logameier who had by now fully powered up the craft.
The hatch slowly sealed behind them, and the gravitic engines kicked into life with their customary whine, gently raising it off the ground before its main engines took over, and the small craft soared skyward.
The colonel took off his breathing mask, relieved at having finally rid himself of the stuffiness inside the damaged apparatus, and dabbed at his now swelling lip as he looked down at the sight of the wrecked craft on the surface, the massive crater left by the Eisenhower, and the enormous focusing pylons of the eye, and he said, “you know, I’m going to miss it here.”
Michael smiled, “we could always set her down again.”
“Heck no; besides too much of a good thing is always bad for you anyway.”
The shuttle gently climbed through the thick methane cloud cover, through the upper atmosphere, and toward the flotilla waiting above, now a ship lighter.
With the inter-connecting corridor so badly damaged, Logameier had to attempt a ‘hard dock’ with the Liberty, a manoeuvre that was tricky in the extreme. He had to align the rear of the shuttle in such a way as to line it up exactly with the Liberties still functioning starboard docking hatch. Taking into consideration the shuttles own engine pods overhang the top of the rear hatch by about a metre. The only way to do this safely, and without wrecking the engines was to dock the shuttle inverted, so that its engines were clear of the warships hull.
Lieutenant Logameier manipulated the controls, rolling the craft gently so that it exposed its underside to the Liberty. Slowly and very carefully, he reversed the upside down craft, metre by metre, inch by steady inch until the rear hatch gently locked into position with the Liberties hull.
With a sigh of released nerves, he magnetised the docking coupling clamping the shuttle secure.
“Welcome home,” he said as he released the rear hatch with a whoosh of escaping air, revealing the battered interior of the Liberty.
“You know, that was some top notch flying, you sure you don’t want to study as a pilot?” Michael asked as he clapped him on the back.
“Nah, I’m happy just tinkering around in the ships engine room.”
After a brief walk; Michael, Kathryn, and Nikolai made their way to an elevator, and were quickly deposited on the bridge. Logameier waved as they parted ways, he returned to engineering to help with the emergency repair effort.
“Been having a little trouble with the bad guys, I see.” Michael said as he took over the central chair.
“Just a little,” Kinraid smiled, “The Arizona managed ‘t’ pick up te’ majority of the escape pods, survivors ‘ave been distributed amongst te’ fleet. We ‘ave tree crowded little ships out there, so we ‘ave, and we’ve managed ‘t’ replace our own losses.”
“Good work commander, have one of the Eisenhower survivors pilot the shuttle back to the Arizona immediately, so we can engage plasma drive and get the heck out of here, I don’t want to delay.”
“Right wi’ ya’ cap’n” Kinraid said as he took over the auxiliary sensor officers station from Lieutenant Hicks, and quickly began compiling a list. Just a single name came up, Ensign Andrews, Quinn contacted the ensign to let him know of his orders.
Michael smiled as he looked toward Eldathar ahead, “Well I believe we should be getting underway, plot a new course back to charlie gamma base, bearing zero-eight-five degrees, elevation minus twenty-one. Initiate plasma drive as soon as the shuttle is secured, and contact the fleet to do the same.”
“Understood captain,” a relieved Eldathar replied.
“All ships are standing by,” Quinn said.
The tiny shuttle successfully detached from the dark outer hull of the Liberty, and Michael watched the tiny craft gently fly out towards the much larger Arizona, waiting patiently alongside them.
The first rays of sunlight shone through from the curved edge of the planet below, illuminating the command structure and dorsal laser turrets of the cruiser, as well as the silhouettes of the Ghandhi class destroyers to either side of it. It looked almost as if a new dawn had come to Auriga III, and in many instances it had, it was no longer a forgotten world, and the Dracos were no longer a forgotten race either.
“Shuttle is safely secured aboard.”
“Then let’s get the hell out of this crap hole!” Nikolai said.
“You heard the man,” Michael smiled as he looked at Eldathar.
“Goodbye sergeant,” Kathryn whispered as she stared at the planet below, “you will always be in my heart, rest in peace my love.”
The fleet slowly came about, firing their inter-system boosters with a great roar before activating their plasma drives and disappearing through the swirling multi-hued morass that was the plasma wake.
The Aurigan sun shone out brightly as they left, a fitting tribute to the brave, gentle hero they had to leave behind.
14. Reflections
The return trip to Charlie gamma base had taken two days, for the Liberty alone it would have taken but a matter of hours, yet had to keep pace with the slower vessels of the E.D. F flotilla.
In that time Kathryn’s leg had come on a long way, she had taken some much needed time to rest, and could walk with only minor discomfort.
The worst of the damage had been repaired, although the ship still looked rather battered, the micro- fractures in the ships hull and the great twisted rent near the ships engine would require the services of a major naval yard to fix fully.
Nikolai paced about the ship as usual, being a commando there was one thing the Russian hated, and that was having to sit on his hands. He had been informed that his own Stockholm class lander had been picked up by the Yukon while out on patrol, and was being transported to the base, he was pleased to know it would be there by the time he arrived.
Michael had a sense of pride at how his ship and crew had performed, they had faced a powerful and relentless enemy, more powerful even than themselves, and defeated it. Though both he and Nikolai had a new found respect for the Kallan’s capabilities in battle, he wondered how the Dracos would fare now that the galaxy knew of their existence again. He guessed that they would simply become more isolationist than they were before and that saddened him. Yes the Dracos were brutal and aggressive and sadistic, despite this the galaxy could still learn a great deal from the technology and skills they employed.
Kinraid had grown in stature immensely, his handling of the incident with the Eisenhower had shown that he was a capable commander, and Michael suspected that his name would feature highly on the list of possible commanders of the future Valley forge.
“Approaching Charlie gamma base captain,” Eldathar pointed out.
“Understood, contact the fleet, tell them to drop out of plasma drive on my mark.”
There was a brief pause before Kinraid announced, “fleet confirms, all ships standing by.” He kept an audio- link open so that the other ships could hear Michael’s orders.
“Mark!”
At once bright white flashes heralded the return of the flotilla, with the battered Liberty at its head.
The numerous twinkling lights of the outer structure of the small naval yard and research facility were plainly visible in the distance. A Lincoln class supply vessel drifted out from the station, no doubt just completed its latest supply run. Its inter-system boosters fired up and glowed brightly as it headed away from the station.
“ Gentlemen, we’ve come back home.” Michael gave out a slight sigh of relief as he said it, the mission had been a brief but gruelling one.
“Wherever home is,” Kinraid replied.
