Tegan stood behind a podium in the middle of the ready room facing some of the craziest pilots she’d ever met. They had to be to be sitting at one of the chairs in the room after hearing what they were being asked to do. Out of all the things the X-71 fighters were expected to do, navigating an expanding debris field was not one of them. The crafts weren’t rated for impact though she knew they were much more sturdy than most would admit. Smaller objects would only scuff the paint or cause the collision alarms to go crazy while the moderate sized ones would do more.
The larger ones, however, were enough of a problem to cause concern. A collision with one of the larger fragments, even at slow speeds, could be deadly. All it would take was one well-placed hit to cause their cockpits to decompress, forcing the pilot to operate in zero Gs.
In truth, it wasn’t the pilots that worried her. It was the engineers. Most pilots were forced to work with zero Gs from time to time, but the engineers were another story. Their job kept their feet on firm ground.
Commander Thompson stood nearby, her arms folded behind her back as she waited for the last of the pilots to fill the room. When it was all over, fifteen of the fighter pilots had shown up with an additional four from the shuttle corps. She knew their search would’ve been much faster if more pilots had joined the search. But it would’ve also been more deadly as they would’ve been dodging each other and the debris.
Once the last of the pilots was seated, she punched in a command on her console putting an image of the small black box up on the screen.
“Lady and gentlemen, the CAG and I both want to thank you for volunteering to help on this mission. What we are about to ask you to do will not be easy. In fact, you will be flying your birds in one of the most treacherous situations you could ever find yourself in. Do not underestimate the debris field a few hundred kilometers away. One bad move and you’ll find yourself a blob on the side of what was once part of a ship. And that’s if you’re lucky.
“You are to maintain minimal thrust to allow you to react to the threat and to facilitate your search. Each of you will be paired up with an engineer. They will be inside the cockpit with you acting as a second set of eyes. If either of you sees something, you are to alert the other before making your move.”
The CAG paced the front platform, studying the eyes of everyone in the room as Tegan spoke. She was studied the pilots, looking for signs of weakness. It was much better for their search to take a few hours longer than to lose a pilot for this.
“Radio communication is a must. Each bird will be linked to another pilot back at the CIC. We want to know every move you make and why. If you see something that looks remotely important, radio it in so your team can mark it on radar for later extraction. In short, you and your partners should talk regularly.”
Tegan turned and pointed to the image of the black box on the main viewscreen. “Finding these is our top priority. These devices collect every ounce of data flowing through the ship in case of catastrophic loss. The materials protecting the device are impervious to most forms of damage so they should look very similar to the one on screen. Every ship is equipped with one of these devices near the bridge as well as in the CIC of the station.”
Thompson nodded at Tegan before stopping at the edge of the podium, facing the pilots. “While there are at least thirteen of these devices floating around out there, we are mostly interested in retrieving the one from the base and one from one of the EU ships. Of course, you will have no way to distinguish which is which, so if you find one you should bring it in. With any luck, we can analyze the data on the recorder to determine what ship it belonged to.”
“Questions?” Tegan asked after the CAG stopped speaking. After a moment of silence, she continued. “Good. Everyone, suit up. Your engineers will meet you down on the flight deck in ten minutes. Don’t make them wait any longer. Dismissed.”
The pilots quickly filed out of the room while Tegan straightened the papers at the podium and placed them in a neat stack on a nearby table. As the last of the pilots left the room, Commander Thompson shut the door and approached her on the stage.
“You’ve been assigned Lieutenant Richards for the search. Captain Wellard specifically requested that he be placed in your care. Something about putting our best engineers in the hands of our best pilots or some shit. I told him you’d be against it and all, but…”
“It’s fine,” Tegan said trying her best act nonchalant about the assignment. Being paired with Richards was perfect. While she trusted every single one of the pilots that had been in the room, she valued Richards life too much to risk it with any of them. Not only was he responsible for bringing the XO back from the Providence, but she had also taken a liking to the man. While she wasn’t sure if Richards shared the sentiment, she wasn’t going to risk his death before she found out firsthand. “If the captain trusts me with Richards’ life, then I’m not going to disappoint.”
“Good,” Thompson said, grinning as if she sensed the apprehension in Tegan’s voice. “He also asked that you avoid searching the central wreckage for the device. He wants to focus on the debris field of the EU ships and their devices.”
Tegan bit her lower lip and took in a deep breath. How the hell could the captain do this to me? While she understood being put in charge of Richards, she didn’t understand why she was being kept away from the station. If she was good enough to keep him safe, surely she was good enough to be put in charge of searching the wreckage of the station.
“That’s bullshit Commander, and you know it. I should be the one searching the main wreckage. I have more experience than half the crew combined. And with Richards, we’ll know exactly what to look for.”
Thompson nodded. “Which is why this conversation never took place. By my recollection, you rushed off to the flight deck to be the first fighter out there in the mess.” Thompson raised her wrist to glance at her watch. “And by my estimation, they have a three-minute head start, so you best be on your way.”
Tegan snorted, then bolted for the door. She couldn’t turn the commander into a liar after all.