Gateway 6 -- Discovery!
Friday couldn't come soon enough for any of them, and Larsen and Mackay were on the hangar deck well before midday. Captain Moore regarded them with his usual morose expression.
"They're fast," he said.
"Yes, sir," said Mackay. "Um, how fast?"
"Very, for a sub-light short distance craft. We measured it at one point six three times as fast as a standard Mark 4C flitter." Moore regarded them for a moment, then an expression that a charitable viewer might almost describe as a smile flitted across his face. "Okay, go and play with your new toys, the two of you. Don't break them, or my service crews will get very upset, and when my service crews get upset,
I
get upset, and you do
not
want to get
me
upset. Understand?"
"Yes, sir!" said Mackay.
"Thank you, sir," said Larsen.
They both saluted and Moore returned it. "You have authority for a maximum three-hour flight, beginning thirteen-hundred ship time. I promised Captain Janizi that you would make no attempt to leave without her, so don't make me a liar. Okay?"
"We won't, sir. We wouldn't even try, sir."
"Good. Now go!"
The control positions of the 4D-A shuttle, alias the flitter, were familiar to them, but subtly different. Offset to port, and abaft the two main positions, was a third seat with its own specialised console. Larsen and Mackay examined it, handbook in hand.
"The controls are familiar," said Larsen. "It seems we have a standard M-2240 Pulse gun, and an M-2180B needle cannon, plus five short-range proton torpedoes. All controlled from this console, with emergency duplication to both command positions."
"What do you think of the ordnance, then? You've got more field experience than I have," said Mackay.
"The two guns give us more striking power than, say, two armour squads in the field, and the proton torpedoes enhance that, but the ammunition has to be limited to what we can carry. A troop in the field gets air support for resupply, and we could be on our own. I think I'd sacrifice a little of the speed for more ammunition."
"Any ideas?"
"Yep. I'll ask Joe Tanaka. He's put stuff into more nooks and crannies on standard flitters than anyone else I know. If there's a way to do it, Joe's our man." She grinned. "Joe's the one who found the damper that Ducalse fitted, remember?"
"Right. Okay, I'll leave that to you. Both flitters, obviously. We want them as near identical as possible." Mackay grinned. "Fire up the control console. Let's have a look and see what's different."
The next hour and a half passed so fast it felt like time had been compressed. The two of them were deep in a discussion of the possibility of using the vectored thrusters as methods of missile evasion, that they hadn't noticed Janizi and Krauss had come aboard. It was only when Larsen backed out from under a console and saw the feet beside her that she realised.
"Captain!" she said. "I do beg your pardon. We were just... " Her voice tailed off at Janizi's grin.
"If I've learned anything from having you as a grunt, first, then as a corporal, a sergeant, and now as a fellow officer, if I've learned anything, Karen Larsen, it's that you have to know the how as well as the why. If I'm going to entrust my ass to you in a combat scenario, knowing how you operate makes me feel a whole lot better."
Larsen blinked. "Um, thank you, ma'am."
Janizi nodded. "Are we ready?"
"As we'll ever be. Lieutenant Mackay and I have checked out both flitters, and as far as we can tell, apart from serial numbers they're identical."
"Fine. I have Colonel Sadler's authority for a little bit of artwork on them, so think about what you'd like."
"No contest, ma'am. Dragons!"
"Dragons? Why dragons?"
"Flying beasts that breathe fire, capable of causing great destruction. With our new armaments, that describes us perfectly."
Janizi laughed. "Yes, I guess it does. Okay, dragons it is. Find some artwork, and Joe Olin's men over in the paint shop will add it."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Janizi turned to Mackay, who had been an interested spectator. "What about your flitter, Lieutenant Mackay? Any thoughts?"
"I think dragons sounds good, Captain. Maybe identical artwork in style, but different colours?" He turned to Krauss. "What about you, Michael?"
Krauss grinned. "My vote's for dragons, too. I like Lieutenant Larsen's reasoning."
"Me, too," said Janizi. "Okay, we're now unofficially Dragon flight. I'll ask Colonel Sadler if we can use the designation. I think he might agree. Sort out some artwork, any of you that knows of any, and we'll discuss it off-duty. Say, my quarters, twenty hundred tonight?"
"Your quarters, twenty hundred tonight. Yes, ma'am."
"We're just waiting for Perrault and Tamorov now, and they'll be here by thirteen-fifteen. It's, um, thirteen-seven now. Lieutenant Mackay, why don't you and Lieutenant Krauss go and warm up the other flitter. As soon as the others arrive, lead us out, Lieutenant, as senior pilot."
"Yes, ma'am."
The sound of combat boots heralded the arrival of Perrault and Tamorov, who each saluted Janizi.
"Stand easy, you two, and welcome aboard. You've each had training on these weapon consoles, I understand?"
Tamorov nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I think I could operate it in my sleep now."
"Good to hear. Perrault?"
"Much the same, ma'am. I guess that training was pretty intensive. Some of it sub-lim, so I woke up one morning and just knew what to do."
"Good to hear. Okay. Tamorov, you go with Mackay and Krauss to the other shuttle, and lead us out. All we're doing today is letting Mackay and Larsen get the feel of the controls, but I have permission to test fire the guns. Some asteroid miners have kindly donated a couple of rocks for us to shoot at, so you won't have to dodge return fire, at least not today."
A few minutes later Larsen lifted off and followed Mackay's shuttle out into the black of space.
Looking back on it, Larsen reckoned it was one of the most fun times she'd had since she started on flitter pilot training. Janizi was easy in command, letting her pilots get on with the task, Perrault already knew her, and they had mutual respect for one another, and as the afternoon wore on towards their scheduled sixteen hundred finish time, they were rapidly settling down into an easy working relationship.
"I'm going to miss being at the sharp end in a combat scenario," Janizi remarked as they hung in space watching Mackay's flitter on an attack run on his second rock. "The view is much better from up here."
Larsen laughed. "There's more armor back there than there is 'up here'."
"True, there is. But - "
Whatever else Janizi was going to say was cut off by the inter-ship link suddenly bursting into life.
"
Andromeda
