A ribbon for Lani
Created | Updated Dec 4, 2003
1
< They’ve made the decision about the Invasion. They’re going to go through with it. The enemy seems so Alien to us. And yet similar. So similar I’m beginning to have doubts. >
<About what? >
<About this whole operation. This could be considered Genocide. >
Lani rose out of her sleepchamber, floating out into her quarters. She looked for the floor, so she wouldn’t fall when the artificial gravity came back on for the day. She floated over to her favorite window, which had looked down on earth for about six months now, thinking. Her shoulder- length black hair swirled and flew in odd directions in the absence of gravity.
She heard the familiar voice over at the computer terminal: “Warning! Artificial gravity will be activated in ten seconds.” She put her feet firmly on the floor. A few seconds later she felt the familiar pull at her stomach, as if she was going up a fast turbolift. She staggered a moment under the sudden pull of gravity, and then regained her balance. All around her she felt vibrations as the ship began coming to life. Her computer display came online, and a cheerful hologram sprang up from her terminal’s projection.
“Hello” it said. “Please step up to the terminal for bioscan.” She waited as the wide shimmering blue beams scanned her for any physical ailments or abnormalities. “Bioscan complete.” Said computer. “Heart rate: fifty-eight beats per minute. Cholesterol level: one hundred and seven milligrams. Weight: fifty-seven point four kilograms. No abnormalities. You are in good condition. Generating uniform.” She watched as the replicator created a white and gray uniform built to fit her perfectly in a blue and green fizzle of sparking light. She dressed, straightened and parted her hair, and then exited her room and made for the mess hall.
The hallways were already buzzing with activity. The technicians that got up early every day to see to the myriad small problems that invariably occurred on a ship of this size; someone’s door jammed, a replicator not working- minor difficulties. On the whole, though, the starship functioned smoothly. It was almost like a living organism, it’s computerized brain handling thousands of tasks at once, recycling air, running the singularity-based reactor that was it’s core. People were busily passing her as she went down the hall, some to the fighters, some to the simulators on their days off. The corridors were never really crowded, and the starship was designed so that even in an emergency they were not chaotic. But there was always much going on, and from any point in the twisting yet well organized hallways one could usually see at least five people, and at mealtimes, such as now, at least about fifteen people could be seen. She looked for an empty turbolift. “Hoi! Lani!” she heard behind her, the familiar voice of Sean, her wingman. “Big day today, huh? Everyone knows they’re going to send us out there. They might as well not vote.” “Yeah, but think of how everyone would react if there was no vote on something this big.”
She found a free turbolift and they stepped into it. “Going to mess?” she asked. “Yeah.” “Deck forty-nine” she said to the turbolift. It started whirring and humming, and after a few seconds the doors reopened. “I heard your squadron vaped half of the 107th yesterday.” They walked down the hall towards the mess. Virtually all their time was spent in training simulators or flying practice missions against other squadrons. “Yeah, but you know how it is. You develop revolutionary new tactics one day, everyone is using them against you the next, and so you have to change them again.”
They walked over to the food replicator to order breakfast. “Oat meal and toast, with a side of mixed fruit” Lani ordered. “Quantity?” asked the replicator. “One serving.”
“Make that two servings,” said Sean. “I haven’t had oatmeal for a long time.” “Two servings. Confirm change?” “Confirm.” The food fizzled into being, and they took the plates and looked for a table. A booth over at the corner of the mess caught their eye, with a nice window looking out on earth. The windows were all holograms, of course. A battle cruiser couldn’t afford the structural weak points that glass created. The outside of the ship was perfectly smooth.
Lani keyed up the holographic display on her watch and selected “message”, then “public”. She spoke into the watch: “attention all Arrow Squadron personnel. Practice will begin at 0800 in the 3rd Sims room. You have a half an hour to finish eating and suit up.” She quickly ate her breakfast, dropped the plate in the resequencer, abandoning Sean, and hurried toward the Sims room. As leader of arrow squadron, it was her responsibility to be at the Sims room early to prepare the training mission for her squadron. Because the sims were over a mile away, she hopped into another turbolift, and was whisked off.
Lani entered the sims room. She decided to use Vega 6, a simulator run they were all familiar with, as a basis. But she would work in a little surprise. A test.
Their enemies had attempted to invade three times now, each time with sophisticated new technology. She had reason to believe that if the enemy called the Wraiths, named for their strange bioships, attacked again, they would have even more advanced technology.
2
Lani’s Arrow squadron filed into the briefing room just as Lani finished programming the flight simulator. They took their seats at the holoscreens in rows throughout the room. “As you all know” she said “this is supposed to be an ambush, so I’m not telling. Go to the simulators.”
She watched with anxiety as her squadron walked to their separate simulators. Lani was always apprehensive before a simulator run. Her squadron’s record was 784 wins to 19 losses. They were first in the standings among the veteran squadrons, but one more loss and they would become second to Dragon squadron. “Simulator ready” chimed the familiar voice of the computer, interrupting her silent brooding. She stepped into her own pod, the door closing behind her with a hiss. “Damn it” she said as she knocked her head on one of the many holoprojectors in the simulator. The dim lights in the simulator went off, and everything was black for a moment. Then she was seated in the cockpit of a holographic fighter.
“Alpha wing?” “In the green and ready for takeoff” “Beta wing” “What?” said the beta leader, Juang Li-Mai. “Oh. In the green.” “Theta?” “Present. And feeling very greenish. And in the green.” Just the anticipation of the simulator was enough to make Theta leader, Todd, a little nauseous. “Epsilon?” she said, querying the status of her own wing. “Epsilon?” “Here, and green.” She responded to herself. Everyone chuckled. They could remember a time when Lani had first achieved flight leader status and acquired her own squadron. On her first day in the Sims, she had calmly run through the checklist just as she had now. Being used to being a wing member and not a leader, She had kept asking Epsilon wing leader for their status until someone had reminded her that she was Epsilon wing leader.
“Launch in 3…2…1 Mark.” The speed indicator on her holographic Head-Up Display, or HUD, climbed steadily. The small fleck of star- streaked blackness at the end of her launch tube grew larger, and she shot out of Vega 6 station, along with the rest of her squadron. “Okay. We all know what to do. Patrol the area and stop any Wraith attempts to damage the station. Enter holding pattern 6, Centering on coordinates 23-352-345.” The fighters spun in a tightly woven holding pattern around the spinning sphere of Vega 6 station.
Suddenly Li-Mai broke the holding pattern and started heading for an asteroid field a few hundred kilometers away. “I’ve got wraiths on my scanners. In that asteroid field.” She said. “Right.” Said Lani. “Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon wings follow me to pursue. Theta wing stays here to keep watch on the station. That isn’t a very big field; we’ll disperse and search it. The asteroids are scrambling sensors, so maintain heavy visual scanning.” The group of twelve fighters shot toward the asteroids, blue ion trails from their engines lighting up the black of space.
The squadron dove towards the mass of spinning rock, spreading out as it progressed, weaving through the asteroids. Abruptly, the ship beside Lani’s spun out of control, shields glowing blue as a plasma beam hit it from the back. Lani twisted down and to the right, avoiding both an oncoming asteroid and the beam rushing towards her from behind. She inverted her fighter and pulled into a tight loop, putting an asteroid between her enemy and herself. She came around the other side, placing the modular green ship directly in her scope. She let out a rapid volley of disrupter fire, the shots ripping through her enemy’s shields and vaporizing its rear armor. The craft used its rotational thrusters to pivot directly at Lani. It fired its afterburners in a desperate attempt to ram her ship with it’s remaining frontal armor. She launched a missile and banked away. The missile contacted perfectly with the enemy’s nose, disintegrating the front and charring the rest, leaving a spinning framework of twisted metal. “Wraths at 290-695-234! Break to attack!” she began getting victory reports from her wingleaders,
Thats all I've written, but if people want to read more of it, I can try to post new chapters as soon as I write them.
< They’ve made the decision about the Invasion. They’re going to go through with it. The enemy seems so Alien to us. And yet similar. So similar I’m beginning to have doubts. >
<About what? >
<About this whole operation. This could be considered Genocide. >
Lani rose out of her sleepchamber, floating out into her quarters. She looked for the floor, so she wouldn’t fall when the artificial gravity came back on for the day. She floated over to her favorite window, which had looked down on earth for about six months now, thinking. Her shoulder- length black hair swirled and flew in odd directions in the absence of gravity.
She heard the familiar voice over at the computer terminal: “Warning! Artificial gravity will be activated in ten seconds.” She put her feet firmly on the floor. A few seconds later she felt the familiar pull at her stomach, as if she was going up a fast turbolift. She staggered a moment under the sudden pull of gravity, and then regained her balance. All around her she felt vibrations as the ship began coming to life. Her computer display came online, and a cheerful hologram sprang up from her terminal’s projection.
“Hello” it said. “Please step up to the terminal for bioscan.” She waited as the wide shimmering blue beams scanned her for any physical ailments or abnormalities. “Bioscan complete.” Said computer. “Heart rate: fifty-eight beats per minute. Cholesterol level: one hundred and seven milligrams. Weight: fifty-seven point four kilograms. No abnormalities. You are in good condition. Generating uniform.” She watched as the replicator created a white and gray uniform built to fit her perfectly in a blue and green fizzle of sparking light. She dressed, straightened and parted her hair, and then exited her room and made for the mess hall.
The hallways were already buzzing with activity. The technicians that got up early every day to see to the myriad small problems that invariably occurred on a ship of this size; someone’s door jammed, a replicator not working- minor difficulties. On the whole, though, the starship functioned smoothly. It was almost like a living organism, it’s computerized brain handling thousands of tasks at once, recycling air, running the singularity-based reactor that was it’s core. People were busily passing her as she went down the hall, some to the fighters, some to the simulators on their days off. The corridors were never really crowded, and the starship was designed so that even in an emergency they were not chaotic. But there was always much going on, and from any point in the twisting yet well organized hallways one could usually see at least five people, and at mealtimes, such as now, at least about fifteen people could be seen. She looked for an empty turbolift. “Hoi! Lani!” she heard behind her, the familiar voice of Sean, her wingman. “Big day today, huh? Everyone knows they’re going to send us out there. They might as well not vote.” “Yeah, but think of how everyone would react if there was no vote on something this big.”
She found a free turbolift and they stepped into it. “Going to mess?” she asked. “Yeah.” “Deck forty-nine” she said to the turbolift. It started whirring and humming, and after a few seconds the doors reopened. “I heard your squadron vaped half of the 107th yesterday.” They walked down the hall towards the mess. Virtually all their time was spent in training simulators or flying practice missions against other squadrons. “Yeah, but you know how it is. You develop revolutionary new tactics one day, everyone is using them against you the next, and so you have to change them again.”
They walked over to the food replicator to order breakfast. “Oat meal and toast, with a side of mixed fruit” Lani ordered. “Quantity?” asked the replicator. “One serving.”
“Make that two servings,” said Sean. “I haven’t had oatmeal for a long time.” “Two servings. Confirm change?” “Confirm.” The food fizzled into being, and they took the plates and looked for a table. A booth over at the corner of the mess caught their eye, with a nice window looking out on earth. The windows were all holograms, of course. A battle cruiser couldn’t afford the structural weak points that glass created. The outside of the ship was perfectly smooth.
Lani keyed up the holographic display on her watch and selected “message”, then “public”. She spoke into the watch: “attention all Arrow Squadron personnel. Practice will begin at 0800 in the 3rd Sims room. You have a half an hour to finish eating and suit up.” She quickly ate her breakfast, dropped the plate in the resequencer, abandoning Sean, and hurried toward the Sims room. As leader of arrow squadron, it was her responsibility to be at the Sims room early to prepare the training mission for her squadron. Because the sims were over a mile away, she hopped into another turbolift, and was whisked off.
Lani entered the sims room. She decided to use Vega 6, a simulator run they were all familiar with, as a basis. But she would work in a little surprise. A test.
Their enemies had attempted to invade three times now, each time with sophisticated new technology. She had reason to believe that if the enemy called the Wraiths, named for their strange bioships, attacked again, they would have even more advanced technology.
2
Lani’s Arrow squadron filed into the briefing room just as Lani finished programming the flight simulator. They took their seats at the holoscreens in rows throughout the room. “As you all know” she said “this is supposed to be an ambush, so I’m not telling. Go to the simulators.”
She watched with anxiety as her squadron walked to their separate simulators. Lani was always apprehensive before a simulator run. Her squadron’s record was 784 wins to 19 losses. They were first in the standings among the veteran squadrons, but one more loss and they would become second to Dragon squadron. “Simulator ready” chimed the familiar voice of the computer, interrupting her silent brooding. She stepped into her own pod, the door closing behind her with a hiss. “Damn it” she said as she knocked her head on one of the many holoprojectors in the simulator. The dim lights in the simulator went off, and everything was black for a moment. Then she was seated in the cockpit of a holographic fighter.
“Alpha wing?” “In the green and ready for takeoff” “Beta wing” “What?” said the beta leader, Juang Li-Mai. “Oh. In the green.” “Theta?” “Present. And feeling very greenish. And in the green.” Just the anticipation of the simulator was enough to make Theta leader, Todd, a little nauseous. “Epsilon?” she said, querying the status of her own wing. “Epsilon?” “Here, and green.” She responded to herself. Everyone chuckled. They could remember a time when Lani had first achieved flight leader status and acquired her own squadron. On her first day in the Sims, she had calmly run through the checklist just as she had now. Being used to being a wing member and not a leader, She had kept asking Epsilon wing leader for their status until someone had reminded her that she was Epsilon wing leader.
“Launch in 3…2…1 Mark.” The speed indicator on her holographic Head-Up Display, or HUD, climbed steadily. The small fleck of star- streaked blackness at the end of her launch tube grew larger, and she shot out of Vega 6 station, along with the rest of her squadron. “Okay. We all know what to do. Patrol the area and stop any Wraith attempts to damage the station. Enter holding pattern 6, Centering on coordinates 23-352-345.” The fighters spun in a tightly woven holding pattern around the spinning sphere of Vega 6 station.
Suddenly Li-Mai broke the holding pattern and started heading for an asteroid field a few hundred kilometers away. “I’ve got wraiths on my scanners. In that asteroid field.” She said. “Right.” Said Lani. “Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon wings follow me to pursue. Theta wing stays here to keep watch on the station. That isn’t a very big field; we’ll disperse and search it. The asteroids are scrambling sensors, so maintain heavy visual scanning.” The group of twelve fighters shot toward the asteroids, blue ion trails from their engines lighting up the black of space.
The squadron dove towards the mass of spinning rock, spreading out as it progressed, weaving through the asteroids. Abruptly, the ship beside Lani’s spun out of control, shields glowing blue as a plasma beam hit it from the back. Lani twisted down and to the right, avoiding both an oncoming asteroid and the beam rushing towards her from behind. She inverted her fighter and pulled into a tight loop, putting an asteroid between her enemy and herself. She came around the other side, placing the modular green ship directly in her scope. She let out a rapid volley of disrupter fire, the shots ripping through her enemy’s shields and vaporizing its rear armor. The craft used its rotational thrusters to pivot directly at Lani. It fired its afterburners in a desperate attempt to ram her ship with it’s remaining frontal armor. She launched a missile and banked away. The missile contacted perfectly with the enemy’s nose, disintegrating the front and charring the rest, leaving a spinning framework of twisted metal. “Wraths at 290-695-234! Break to attack!” she began getting victory reports from her wingleaders,
Thats all I've written, but if people want to read more of it, I can try to post new chapters as soon as I write them.
