Chapter 1∩
Jenara was not planning on giving Ned an emotional welcome on his return, but the instant he arrived on the Chelaris with Smardwurst she ran up and embraced him like a vice. “You’re safe,” she whispered, and nervously wiped a tear from her eye. Ned did not know what to say, but the haunted look in his eyes as she pulled away told Jenara that Ned was no less grateful for his return than she was.
“Ned, what happened?”
“I can’t talk about all of it. You know, security. But anyway, when I got to the meeting place, Dark Viper contacted me and told me to join him or he’d destroy me. Then Rax attacked me. I fought back, but my shots disappeared.”
“No.”
“Yeah. Markan Dren was still alive. Anyway, he tried to grab me with his Vortex Plasma and weaken me, but somehow when I thought it was over my power flared inside me. It traveled back along the vortex and destroyed Dren’s Crystal. The Plasma escaped from it, and Dren was crushed by the explosion. Kayleen Rax escaped and fired Blast Plasma at me, but I destroyed her Crystal too, and she escaped.” Ned was careful not to mention the Shadow Master.
Jenara smiled. “Then you did it. You won!”
Her smile melted away the negative feelings the memory invoked. He put his arm around her and walked her toward the training simulators, where he had promised to meet Dragon Force. “You know what I think happened? I think that when I thought about how awful it would be if I lost, about what would happen to you and everyone else, the Shield Plasma sensed danger to me and automatically protected me, just like it always does.”
“Maybe.”
“And if that’s true, then thinking about you helped me win. You helped save my life.”
The members of Dragon Force were ecstatic at the return of their two-time hero. Sensing that Ned did not want to talk about the battle, Jenara about told it for him, adding a dramatic touch to make it sound more impressive. The eight of them chatted for a while, and then Ned announced that General Marnax had assigned him to learn to fly a starfighter so he could use his power in upcoming battles.
“That’s great! X said. I’ll get you set up right away. We’ll see how you do against my friends here.”
Ned did terribly against X’s friends. They absolutely nailed him in one-on-one fights, and when Ned teamed up with X, Ned got shot down early and X had to fight alone.
“Why did you do that?” Jenara asked X when they had finished. “Why not start him off with something easy?”
“I wanted him to see what he was shooting for. Without a goal you don’t get anywhere. Besides, I bet you learned a lot, didn’t you Ned?”
“As a matter of fact I did. Care to set me up on an easy simulator?”
“We’ll see how you do on intermediate. Ready?”
An attack squadron of five cobra fighters dropped out of warp and Ned and his simulated wingman headed straight for them. The cobras split into two groups in an attempt to get someone behind Ned, and he followed the group of three. Ned flew in an erratic pattern to avoid being hit by random shots as he approached, and when he got close enough he fired two missiles. The cobras fired missiles of their own to destroy Ned’s, but laser fire from his ship destroyed one of the interceptor missiles. One of Ned’s missiles exploded against its target, and a silvery egg-shape surrounded the enemy fighter as its shields weakened.
Ned detected multiple missile lock from the two ships that had come in behind and below him. Rather than running or turning to face them, Ned pivoted his ship so that his rear-firing laser cannons could mark the trailing attackers. Several of his shots hit, and Ned’s computer-controlled anti-missile lasers destroyed the incoming projectiles. By dealing with the threat with his rear arsenal, Ned had been able to keep the other three cobras in his forward sights.
One of the three split off and went into a wide loop as Ned approached. He ordered his wingman to follow the other two and went after the one that had broken away. By keeping his nose constantly pointed toward the cobra he was able to keep it from escaping, and after a short chase he blasted the enemy ship into a cloud of glowing gas.
Ned’s wingman had done the same with one of his targets, and Ned rejoined him to take on the remaining three. Both Ned and his wingman fired a long barrage of missiles at a single ship, and there was no chance for it to dodge. The missiles ripped through its shielding and destroyed it.
The remaining ships fired their missiles as well, and some of them hit. Ned’s shields were weakened considerably, but they held as he hunted down yet another cobra. His wingman was unable to follow him in the chase, however, and one of the remaining cobras shot him down.
Ned’s sensors reported that his shields were stronger than those of the remaining ship, so he flew straight for it with weapons blazing, ignoring the damage from his target’s attacks. The cobra’s shields failed first, and Ned won.
“Nice going,” X said. “It’s always nice if your friends survive, though.”
“Yeah, and I was lucky there were only five. My shields were so weak after that last run that another fighter could have wasted me.”
“You were great!”
“Thanks, Garfsmunkle.”
A disturbing thought came to Ned that night as he lay in bed. As skilled as they were, the Dragon Force pilots really did seem just like young children to him. After their first meeting Ned had assumed it was just because he did not know them, but now, after spending several hours with them, they still seemed young. That meant one of two things. Either they were actually mature and their culture was just significantly different from Ned’s, or they really were young, and the advances in military technology had made it possible for people as young as they were to fight wars. That was an incredibly disturbing prospect. It was always tragic when people died young, perhaps especially in war. But the thought of people as innocent and hopeful as Garfsmunkle, Imbelsmift, Straker, Liora and Zhin being forced, asked, or even allowed to give their lives because someone like Dark Viper wanted power was absolutely horrendous.
Ned was really terrified when he saw where that line of thought was leading him. Dragon Force was probably not significantly more skilled than many Anacronian pilots, and they were going to war in just ten days, according to Major Harvey. That meant that, in all probability, not all of them would come back.