Independent Flight (Aquarius Ascendant) by K.L. Tremaine Read Free Book Online Page A

regimes by one, the Firefox was faster and more maneuverable but could haul less firepower to the fight than the Tomcat. The last heavy fighter squadron had converted to the Tomcat-class corvette a year ago–the Firefoxes were now in service primarily as trainers, which they accomplished admirably. Their cockpits could be easily reconfigured for the training role, and they were easy ships to fly--far more forgiving than bigger, heavier Tomcats.
    Natasha grabbed her helmet out of midair and clipped it to the rack on the side of her seat as she settled back into her station and noted a small meteoroid. It was inside the corvette’s immediate course zone, so she tagged it as a possible navigational hazard. Lieutenant Gray would see it if one of her maneuvers brought the corvette into conflict with the movement of the ‘roid, or if one of her drones was going to come in contact with it.
    Veronica checked her station chrono. 0900, ship time. It was time to turn to 270 and start a twenty-minute, 400g burn. Then she started writing the first log entry as part of the Captain’s post-launch housekeeping tasks. Everyone in the craft would be busy for the entire first burn, as they set up house for a seven-day mission. They had three probe deployments scheduled, and orders to inspect shipping traveling through the system–a report had filtered back to sector command in the last few days about smugglers moving goods–and worse–through the system under the guise of legitimate trade.
     
    Ship’s log, 28/1/343. 1244 Avenger Time. LT Veronica Gray recording. Corvette D207 proceeding to orbital position ecliptic +3, stellar rotation 330.2 for first drone deployment. All systems nominal at this time. With that, the first of what promised to be seven days of relatively similar logs was under their belt.
    Yeboah looked to Veronica. “Commander, we’ve got about fifteen minutes to catch up on our housekeeping. I’m going to grab Leblanc and take care of some points on the EVA checklist so we can get right out there when we reach the first probe drop.” At 400g, the crew would feel no acceleration at all except for that of the deck plates, so they could easily move about the cabin. The corvettes would each deploy a net of twenty-four probes in selected areas to act as a tripwire against illegal activity or enemy advances through the system.
    On the flight deck, Louis Bowman nervously picked his way through the checklist. This all seemed so easy when they were doing it in exercises and dry runs, and the actual tasks were still pretty easy–the motions were second nature to him by now. But he kept biting his lip in nervous thought as he double-checked each entry in his checklist. His combat deployments since joining the squadron had been indistinguishable from any other fighter’s deployments, just with a larger crew of spacers on board. Now they were doing missions that only a corvette could do, and they wouldn’t have support from the carrier or from any fighters other than their distant squadron mates for a whole week.
    Kellie ’s hand squeezed Louis’ shoulder as she settled into the copilot’s seat, replacing Yeboah. “Relax, kid,” she said, “The captain won’t let anything bad happen to you or to any of us. Trust me, and trust her.” He found himself relaxing minutely at least. He flew through the rest of his checklist and managed to finish it on time.
    Veronica smiled slightly at Kellie ’s reassurance.
     
    *
     
    Alyssa Yeboah and Natasha Leblanc stood on the rim plate of the airlock as they finished their power armor startup checks. One of the many uses of the versatile Cache suit was its ability to act as a heavy EVA suit.
    “ Ready for your first professional spacewalk, kid?” She flexed her fingers in the metallic gauntlet, running startup programs. The HUD showed that she had a full suite of ready thrusters and two hours of air ready.
    Leblanc ’s eyes glowed with excitement. Being able to move free of a