an endless voyage continued ch 27
as Tom and the others continued to search for Sarah, repairs continued throughout the fleet. Fuel and munitions continued to be checked and re-checked following the sabotage job that had occoured. Communications with the Search and Rescue team were shoddy at best, but nonetheless everyone on Excalibur's bridge breathed a bit easier when the comm came through.
"Excalibur, Tom,......*static*......contact........Gunner......unable.......interferance." Tom's voice came through the bridge speakers garbled and barely readable. "Repeat......have made......with Gunner.......unable......beacon........of interferance......attempting......tringulate.....signal manually."
"Tom, Excalibur, copy that." Maya replied. "We're barely readin ya."
"Affirmitive Excalibur........advise...." Tom replied.
"Jus' bring 'er home." Maya said.
''Roger that." Tom replied.
........................................................................................
planetside
Sarah worked as quickly as possible transferring oil and hydraulic fluid from her fighter to the Xian fighter she was salvaging. It was tedious messy work, but it had to be done. She'd managed to weld patches over the holes in the metal of the cockpit using hull plating from her fighter. well smelted together would be more accurate considering the two metals were very different and didnt take a true weld as a result. It wasnt pretty, but considering it only had to hold long enough to fly back to Excalibur, it would have to do.
She had been communicating with Tom and the rescue team intermittently, and while they had yet to locate her, the fact the signal was getting clearer meant they were getting close. The trips back and forth between fighters was eating up a lot of suit air, due to the high gravity, so with 30 minutes left she checked the fluid levels again. both were in the low side of the green (well it was white actually as xians used white grey brown black rather than green yellow orange red). "Good enough" she said to herself, then made a last check of everything visually before climbing into the cockpit and using the UT software in her suit to translate the controls as she ran through an abbreviated preflight.
"Fuel pressure ok, batteries low but acceptable, jet starters online....lets see if you'll run." Sarah said to herself as she keyed the startup sequence and depressed the startswitches.
The fighter shivered as the engines began to spool up. The hud dimmed as the computer transferred power to the jet starters and igniter modules. Sarah kept her fingers crossed. with the low power levels there was always the risk of a 'hot start' which would be even worse than the engines not starting at all. After what felt like an eternity, the whine of the engines spooling up was joined by a whoosh settling into a whirring rumble, and the HUD showes the engines idling normally.
Sarah hit the comm hoping the added power would help cut through the interferance. "Tom, Gunner, ignition successful, I'm wheels up in two minutes." but she got only static in reply.
"Screw it." Sarah said to herself "Throttling up, releasing landing brakes.
Slowly at first the Xian fighter began to move forward, accelerating across the smooth flat quartz. Sarah didn't have a flight manual on the xian ship to know the takeoff curve, so to play it safe she added a bit to the standard fighter velocities. v1 at 90, rotate 100, v2 at 130, she watched the airspeed indicator, and eased the flight stick back as the readout showed 130, and blasting the engines at full afterburner, the phallic shaped fighter began to climb slowly skyward as it struggled against the planet's strong gravity.
......................
Tom's sensors missed the power spike of the fighter starting up due to interferance, but the compression waves as the penis shaped fighter broke the sound barrier were unmistakable. Heads up we got incoming." Tom informed the rescue team. "Due south, exact vector unknown"
"Copy that." Rena and the others resounded. "Weapons hot, commiting,"
"Hold!" Hank shouted . "I have visual, its Gunner!"
"Hank, Excalibur, say again." Maya said over comms.
"The fighter, its marked "Gunner" written in blood it looks like, ma'am." Hank said.
"Could be a trap." Agnes suggested.
"Possibly." Hank said but I tell you it has got to be her, nobody flys like that."
"I agree." Tom said. "Admiral it has to be her."
"Escort it in." Maya said. "If it does anything strange.....take it out."
"Copy Excalibur!" Tom said. "Gunner, Tom, if thats really you come about bearing 225 and pull a 70 degree climb, follow our lead. Keep weapons offline and do not deviate."
"Tom, Gunner, roger that!" Sarah replied. "Gods this thing handles like a brick."
"Let's punch it for home, Gunner, let the techs worry about that once we're down." Tom replied.
..............................................
Maya looked over reports on the fuel and munitions supplies. Surprisingly the fleet had made great progress in the short time since they'd found out about the problem. The captains of the Lee and the Jackson felt it was prudent to get the fleet moving again, as the Xians were sure to know where they were now. another attack could come at any moment. Maya insisted the fleet wasn't going anywhere until all options for recovering Sarah had been expended, but now that Tom had reported he was bringing Sarah Home, Maya issued orders for all ships to make the jump to hyperspace as soon as they landed. That was the plan anyway, unfortunately the gemstones Sarah brought back with her made the admiral reconsider. Sarah had just been released from Doc Natalie's decontamination chamber, when the good doctor called Maya down to sick bay.
When Maya arrived she found Natalie talking to Sarah over a surgical tray filled with various gems. Maya found it impossible to ignore the potent odors Sarah had brought back with her. The stench of the Xian ship was strong despite the decontamination chamber doing its job.
"Gunner, y'smell lahk a latrine." Maya said. "might wanna hit the showers." "Wouldn't do much good, ma'am." Sarah replied. "Something in their air...it gets in your fur and doesnt wash out easily. "Figures." Maya said. "An y'caint fahnd a compound t' remove it?" "Aye." Natalie replied. "it canna be removed easily chemical compounds similar to skunk spray." "Jus have t' let it wear off then." Maya said. "S' this what y' wanted me t' see."
"Yes ma'am, Admiral." Sarah said. "I picked up this handful of gems on the surface, and these are just what I could grab quickly. the riches down there are unfathomable."
"An' minin' em'd be bout impossible with the toxic atmosphere and particulates buildin up on engines a ships flyin in it." Maya said. "It'd mean workin in EVA suits with a short return window."
"Yes but even one run could give us the money to make a lot of problems go away." Sarah said. "We're alone in this Expanse, our little fleet needs all the help it can get. "
"Alrahght, one run." Maya said. "yer rahght, caint expect commerce planets here t' take intergalactic credits." she paused then, " Ah'll send a cargo shuttle t' git what they kin git in 2 hours, then we resume course deeper into the expanse." Maya pushed a button on a sick-bay comm-panel and gave the order, then returned her attention to Natalie and Sarah. "ever'thang alrahght?" she asked.
"Aye lass." Natalie said. "Her EVA suit protected her from everything down there. and the Xian fighter's atmosphere is breathable in spite of the smell." she paused, then, "Traces of exotic radiation but nothing dangerous at these levels."
"Good t' hear." Maya said "If'n y' need anythin else, ah'll be on the bridge." and with that she left.
Thankfully the mission to gather gemstones went without incident, and two hours later the cargo shuttle landed aboard Excalibur, and the fleet made the jump to hyperspace.