A/N: Thank you for reading this far, and for the votes, comments, and private messages. We know this is a slow burn, but promise that your patience will be rewarded next chapter.
~ LivANDJay
~ An excerpt from Nathan's novel "The Mars Accords" ~
Colonel Joseph Taggart sat at the controls of his SF-21 and brought his wing into position in high Earth orbit. The call had gone out not 70 minutes ago that incoming craft were spotted by boundary satellites beyond Neptune's orbit. This was the day that so many members of the the 1st Wing of the Aegis Squadron were dreading. They had trained, they had tested, they had waited, but everyone hoped that the call would never come.
"Wing, this is your Defense Command leader radioing in from the rendezvous point. All commanders report in with a head count," Taggart's voice spread to the distant points of light all around him. WIth the speed of the craft, each member of the screening force could cover a large area of Earth's orbit. On top of that, each craft was more than just the fighter each pilot flew.
"Copy that. This is Defence Commander Taggart ordering all wings to deploy slaved drones." Around him, each point of light became six as they deployed automated drones. Each one was linked to the others and the master control in the fighters.
Taggart did the same and deployed his drones: Hartmann, Richthofen, Bader, Yaeger and Fonck detached from his craft and formed up around him. Checking his display, the connections were all strong and the expert systems cut off power once they were in position, saving energy and letting the microgravity around the ship secure them in place.
The colonel had been mentally preparing for this day ever since the Erikson probe sent back its images from Alpha Centauri. The world was waiting breathlessly for images from our nearest stellar neighbor, but it turned to horror when a fleet of ships were found in the images. Even worse, the last image from the satellite was of its destruction.
And so, here he sat, establishing the red line that the incoming vessels would not cross. His electromagnetic systems came to life as he waited, alerts telling him about the bending EM fields around him. The unidentified fleet were using something similar to their own technology to accelerate their massive ships toward Earth.
Physicists everywhere were baffled by the so-called "Impossible Engine" when it was proposed. It seemed to generate thrust without any sort of exit gas in defiance of Newton's Third Law. Soon enough, its genius was revealed after a more thorough examination of how the EM field it generated and modulated caused the flux around it to change. As a result, the fighter's of the Aegis squadron could function only so well in the magnetic flux of the Earth's field. It wasn't clear if it would work in the expanse of space. They may have to find out today.
With impossible deceleration force, the massive ships of this alien fleet snapped into view and stopped just beyond the orbit of the moon. They waited, small lights on the ships winking in and out against the deep black of space beyond them.
"Defense commander, Defense force is to maintain cordon. Transmitting parley data now..." Colonel Taggart reached over and activated his communication system, switching it to wide band and tieing in the recorded data that was decided on by sociologists, mathematicians and behavioral psychologists from around the world. It had to be neutral, non-threatening and designed to be interpreted by a foreign mind. They had wrestled this for a long time since Voyager's Golden Disks.
Taggart waited, his was the voice that would order the Aegis Squadron to act one way or the other. Whatever his decision, it would change the course of history for those people 35,000km below him and his wingmates.
~ Chapter Five ~
Living with your best friend is the best and worst thing you can do. There's no awkward hanging out with people you barely see or barely know. Movie nights on the couch were just like they were when you were at school. But the awful comes along with it, too. They see you at your worst. I had lost count of the times that Nessa had come down for work to see me sprawled out on the air mattress, mouth agape, drool running down my cheek. But also, I saw Nessa dragging her tired body home from the hospital at night.
I wasn't the only one to see the benefit of our new living arrangement. I could tell that Nessa appreciated me living there on the bad days. I would be waiting with dinner and a glass of wine pretty much every night to help her leave it all behind. I never asked her about work; I didn't want to know about the bad cases. Her home was her escape. I didn't want to ruin that for her.
One big bonus to having Nessa as a flatmate was having her reintroduce me to our hometown. So much had changed since I left. The cafe near the school had closed and reopened under new owners as a curry place. The "hang-out park" had been turned into municipal gardens. However, our favourite place for dumplings was still where I left it. I was happy to make it a regular weekend stop again.
Then there were a few things that I didn't think about before agreeing to live with my best friend. With her schedule, days started early at Nessa's place. That meant early breakfasts together. It was lovely to spend that time with her, even though it was never very long and, once my jet lag was gone I made a point of waking up and joining her for breakfast every morning. However, one weekend, Nessa slept in. She rarely did that and if she did, I figured she could use it. When Nessa finally came down, she was dressed for the day already. I figured she would be dressed for a day of lounging around the place with me, but then again, she may have had a different idea of how to spend her weekends. Additionally, she waved it off as not wanting to prance around her underwear while I was living with her. If I'm honest, I found that I didn't hate that idea like I might have if our families were here.
