Escape from Irece: War Council
16 January 3143When Arjun entered the observation deck, he was surprised to find Britta there with Bateson. Bateson smiled knowingly.
“I hope you do not think me nosy, but I noticed that you and Britta had been getting … familiar over the journey out, and so I invited her to join us,” Bateson said. Arjun could feel his cheeks getting red. Glancing over at Britta, he could see that she was having a similar reaction. She ducked her head away from his gaze, but he also saw the quirk of a smile on her face. Bateson sensing the tension decided to change subjects.
“It should not be long now by my estimation. Come join us at the viewport.”
Arjun went over to stand between Bateson and Britta. The viewport was positioned near the front of the Fortress-class dropship and offered an expansive view of the cosmos extending beyond them. Seemingly millions of stars twinkled at Arjun. He knew that humans lived on some of those stars. For all he knew one of them might be Terra itself, or even Sheratan. The thought of his childhood home brought an uncomfortable sensation to Arjun’s stomach.
They had been moving to the outer edges of the system for more than two weeks now, well beyond the usual time required to clear Irece’s gravity zone. Bateson had insisted on a haphazard route well past the usual jump line in order to avoid any Combine units that might be tracking them. It was difficult to hide in space and so long as they were under thrust, they would be visible. The previous day, they had cut the deceleration and gone on the float. They used maneuvering thrusters only to slightly adjust their trajectory toward their target.
Arjun stretched his aching muscles. By necessity much of trip had been experienced at 1.5Gs or more and he could feel it in his body. He was young and used to space travel. He knew that many of the refugees would have it much worse. Getting to their destination would not fix all of their problems, but it would give them a chance to tend to sore muscles and wounds both psychic and physical.
He realized suddenly that he was holding Britta’s hand and she was squeezing it tightly in anticipation, anxiety, or something in between. Suddenly, he saw new stars appear not more than three hundred yards away. No, not stars, lights. The dark of space was suddenly lit up by the floating bulk of two enormous and spindly jumpships. One by one, their warning lights lit up from bow to stern. Over the intercom, a new voice greeted them.
“Welcome home, Nova Cats and Republican Forces alike. You have found friends and refuge. As you can see, we left the light on for you.” Arjun recognized the voice of Commander Paul Orpilla, captain of the Knight’s Pride. He looked at Britta. She was beaming as tears rolled down her cheeks. Arjun realized his own cheeks were wet. Modesty forgotten, they embraced and kissed. They made it. They were safe.
All personnel were required to stay aboard their dropships after docking because the jumpships immediately prepared for jump. Concerned that a clever Combine official might work out their location, they did not want to wait around to find out.
The jump left him feeling slightly woozy, but Arjun was still the first out of the airlock and on board the Knight’s Pride. He skipped waiting for the elevator. Familiarity with the ship meant that he could quickly find his way via access tunnels to the parallel docking port of the Knight’s Eyrie – the Leopard-class dropship currently holding his sister, among other things.
As it turned out, he never made it to the Knight’s Eyrie. As he dropped out of the final access tunnel into a wide corridor, he nearly knocked over Tess Nostra-Guardbaum.