The shuttle was bright yellow.
Joe stepped from the Vengeance onto its roof.
The carving of the lady in the lake was in a thigh pouch. He had a big red box tethered to his waist. This was full of the records he had made of all that he had done. Like the visit to High Trewhitt. And the records he’d brought from the Embassy on Mirconium and the record of John the Revelator being destroyed.
It hadn’t been much fun on The Vengeance after that. At times people had tried to justify what they had done. Gunns kept on about how dangerous the ship could have been to the FLEET or to a landing on Al Banduq. But against that was the knowledge that the old wreck had split into a million fragments with one well-aimed nuke.
He waved and wondered if anyone waved back. The clamshell bow doors were closing. The shuttle drifted away. Joe was sad. Sort of. The Vengeance had been too crowded. Though he had been feeling part of the crew. Part of the family. Almost like he belonged. But the Commander looking at him like that. Could be trouble. He didn’t fancy her, but she was…He wasn’t sure. No. He was better off on his own. Independent. Then there was Alicia back on Earth. Back in the real world. The office and routine.
And people on Earth trying to kill him.
What was real these days?
The shuttle had a gravity strip running along its bright yellow “roof.” Joe shuffled along to a hatch. He dropped in the box and lowered himself after it into the airlock. The hatch shut. Air rushed in till Joe heard it hissing. That meant it was nearly full. A door opened. He dragged the box out into the hold.
Joe flipped open his visor. There was an able-spaceman who gave him a nod. Just enough to show he respected an officer while showing his contempt for any part time spaceman. Especially one in the bright red suite of a novice. “Hi” said Joe. “Its sort of nerve racking standing on a bright yellow shuttle in a bright red suit. In a free fire zone.”
“Yes Sir. There’s a programme to colour them black. Haven’t got round to us yet Sir. If you follow me Sir, you can have a seat up front.”
“Not easy, sitting in a suit.”
“No Sir”
“I’ll leave the box here then.”
Joe followed through another airlock to the cockpit and a row of seats behind the pilot. “So this is a Dauntless shuttle is it?”
“Yes Sir”
Joe gave up on conversation. He started sipping water from his suite tank. It was grapefruit flavoured. He “thought” about changing it to chocolate when a gong sounded on the pilots controls.
“Fighter.” Said the pilot. “Inbound”
“Which way?” asked the Able spaceman
“Starboard. Two. Three four. Heading past us. This is Yellow Two to Dauntless. Fighters passed us for you.” Joe guessed they were in radio range of Dauntless and the rest of the fleet.
The message was probably not needed. Dauntless would have information from Fleet. Fleet would get it from all the bugs Vengeance had planted the area with.
“Were they following us?” Asked Joe. “Heading on our course for the Dauntless?”
“Were on a random corkscrew flight plan. Not a straight course. I guess they just got lucky. The Thunderbirds will take ‘em.”
“You’re sure the Thunderbirds will catch them?”
“Yeah. They fly in circles at just below light speed. That way they don’t waste time accelerating. They just peel off and follow the fighters.”
“This is Dauntless…..”
“Yellow Two to Dauntless. Missed your message.”
Silence.
“Yellow Two to Dauntless Repeat please.”
More silence. Joe could see the other two were uneasy.
“Yellow Two to Dauntless. Repeat last message please.”
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