“For goodness sake Captain can ye’ hold her still for jus’ a second!” CMLT Lorna McIntosh shouted from the weapons seat of Acolyte Two.

Ted, for his part was doing his best to ignore his weapons officer. This was no simulation. This was the real thing. They were just under one million miles from Tau Ceti E and not far from Tau Ceti Eb rushing through space at an ungodly velocity only one hundred or so metres from the tail of Acolyte One.

He had to do his best to keep his mind clear. All around him were displays and readouts giving the status of his ship, the status of his target and local navigation data. On top of that he had to watch Acolyte One and do his best to anticipate what next crazy manoeuvre Archon Carey would put his ship into. And what frustrated Ted further was the fact that he had no physical controls to speak of and was flying the ship using his mind.

“B’tween you goin’ this way n’ that way and the sweat drippin’ down the shuck o’ ma arse there’s nae way I’m hitting him!” Lorna grumbled again.

Acolyte Two came to a sudden stop.

“Ryan, I’m going to take a bit of a breather. Give me a minute.” Ted said.

“No problem.” A voice came back over the channel. “It’s tough being the one in pursuit.”

Ted closed the channel to Acolyte One and brought his crew up on the screens. “CMLT McIntosh, I’ve always tried to operate with a fairly informal command style…”

“That you do Boss.” She interrupted.

“But I’m afraid I’m going to need you to rein it in a bit.”

“Pressure getting a bit much for you Captain?” His weapons officer joked.

Ted sighed and shook his head. “Lorna, I’m trying to fly this ship using a neural interface! It requires me to be focused and calm. In almost a month of combat trials no one has landed a hit on any other ship yet. These ships are fast and incredibly nimble. I know you’re frustrated too but you need to focus on your job and not cloud up the comm with chatter. We need to work as a team, in harmony or we’re going to be the last team to land a hit.”

“He is right.” Yemi added. “Your chatter can be a bit…distracting…”

“Gotcha lads, I’ll be as still n’ serene as Loch Lomond on a bonnie day.” Lorna replied with a much more disciplined tone.

“Excellent. I’m glad we’re in agreement. Ready to play the mouse this time?”

His crew enthusiastically agreed and returned to their stations.

“Ryan. We’re ready on this end. How about you chase us this time?” Ted said.

“Sounds good. On the count of three?” Ryan replied.

“Not on your life!” Ted said closing the channel and ordered his ship to full throttle.

In any normal scenario Ted would have been able to get a good distance between himself and his pursuer but this was not a normal situation. The moment Archon Carey had seen Acolyte Two start to accelerate he had commanded his ship to do the same and without the delay of having to physically move a stick he was still close on his target’s tail.

Ted spun, dived, sped up and slowed down. Looping and dodging all the while watching the status readout on his pursuer. They’d almost gotten a lock at one point but Ted had seen it coming and slammed on the brakes and then shot down towards Tau Ceti Eb.

“Let’s make this interesting.” Ted said opening the comm to Ryan.

“Not interesting enough for you already?” Ryan replied.

“How about an in atmo challenge?” Ted said.

There was a pause before Ryan replied. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? What about the monitoring station?”

“It’s long range only. It’s watching the Insectoid border not its backyard. Besides, we need to learn to fly these things in atmosphere at some point.”

Ryan laughed. “You’re losing a lot of advantages going down there though.”

“Well you should be able to hit me then shouldn’t you!” Ted closed the channel and put his ship into a dive towards the planet.

“Lorna.” He said.

“Yes boss?”

“I know you’re not supposed to be doing any targeting this time but watch your screens.”

“Aye sir.” She replied.

“Sir? I could get used to that!” Ted laughed.

“Aye well don’t! I just think I know what you have planned.”

The two ships continued their dance towards the planet’s atmosphere, weaving in all directions with the occasional harmless laser beam firing past Acolyte Two as Ryan’s crew tried in vain to land a hit.

“Down there boss!” Lorna said and brought up mesh outline of a canyon on the screen. “It’s tight but I think you can do it.”

“It’s very tight…I don’t feel like dying on a training exercise.” Yemi said sceptically.

Ted grinned. “It’s perfect!”

The nose of the ship started to glow red and Ted fought to keep the ship steady as it ploughed through the thin atmosphere.

“Yemi, get me all the power you can to the manoeuvring thrusters and enable the atmospheric flight surfaces. Lorna I need a hard deck monitor up on my display.”

The crew of Acolyte Two tapped furiously on their consoles following their Captain’s instructions. Their ship bucked and shook and it decelerated and broke through the thin cloud layer and into the marginally thicker lower atmosphere. Ted could see his pursuer was still close behind though they were both dropping speed to help increase control and reduce the turbulence in the thin air.

Ted smiled as he realised that instead of the still silence of space, all around his ship was the roar of engines and of wind rushing by his ship at several times the speed of sound. He had missed that roar.

“We’re coming up to the trench boss.” Lorna called over the din.

“Ok taking her in!” Ted called back. “Let’s see if you’ll follow us in here…”

Acolyte Two performed a stomach churning barrel roll under the now much increased gravity of the red world and then swept down towards the surface of Tau Cetu Eb.

“Caution. Collision alert!” The alarm sounded.

“Shut that off will you Yemi!” Ted ordered.

The small ship ducked below the registered hard deck Ted had on his display and into the canyon. Ted let out a long breath as he focused on making tiny course corrections as the ship tore along the narrow canyon. As expected Acolyte One was in hot pursuit.

“Time to turn?” Ted called.

He was not only having to make minute adjustments to their course to avoid crashing into the walls of the canyon but also dodge the pot-shots Acolyte One was now firing off.

“Thirty seconds to the first marker, thirty two to the turn.” Lorna replied.

“Acknowledged! Be ready! Both of you!” Ted said.

“On it like a car bonnet!” Lorna replied.

“Captain, with all the power being used by the ship’s systems I can only give you one shot.” Yemi said.

“I’ll only need the one!” McIntosh shouted back.

Acolyte Two continued roaring down the canyon, weaving in and out of the way of streaks of shots coming from its pursuer. It would have been too much for most pilots but Ted was a veteran of the US Air Force and the JTSA test program. He was at home here with the roar of the engines and the ground only a few feet below him.

“Five seconds to first marker!” Lorna called out.

“Four!”

“Three!”

Cmlt Ibori whispered a silent prayer.

“Two!”

Ted momentarily glanced up and looked at his HUD to check his positioning.

One!”

Ted turned his ship on its side as they flew past the first gap in the canyon wall. A moment later he banked hard flying into a second small gap in the cliff beside him. He breathed hard as he fought to keep his brain oxygenated as the ship turned in a supersonic high gravity turn.

The turn didn’t last long. Only two or three seconds. As they levelled out in the canon Yemi breathed a sigh of relief and Ted smiled as he saw Acolyte One climbing quickly ahead of him out of the canyon.

“All yours Lorna!” Ted said and he punched the throttle trying to close the distance.

“Aye, hauld her steady fae one second…” She said. “Gotcha…”

There was a chirp and then a flash as Lorna took her shot.

“Target destroyed.” An automated voice said.

“Woooohoooo!” Ted said.

“Aye, stick that up ye!” Lorna said smugly.

Acolyte One slowed and Ryan’s face appeared on screen.

“You son of a bitch!” He said.

Ted was beaming from ear to ear. “Acolyte Two accepts your surrender.”

“That was some flying there! I have to admit, I should be quite annoyed to be the first one tagged but that was one hell of a gutsy move.” Ryan said.

“Thanks! I just hope Secretary Xanthopolous doesn’t ground me for it.”

“Ha! He plays faster and looser than anyone out there. He’ll be impressed.” Ryan said.

Ted laughed. “Well let’s hope my wife agrees when the footage is eventually declassified?”

“Race you back?” Ryan replied.

Ted hit the throttle. “Last one home gets the drinks!”

****

The shuttle zipped over open water, flying low and steady. Terta had flown in enough shuttlecraft that she could feel that the pilots were tracing lazy, serpentine curves; she didn’t know exactly why, but she had a feeling the woman at the helm knew what she was doing.

She was passing terrified, and was only consoled by the fact that Enti and Pesabro were sleeping. They were terrified too, but they were used to it.

She could use sleep, but there’d be time for that. For now, she stared out the window at the dark ocean, and the stars.

“I apologize that we don’t have food service on the flight,” Councillor Temis said, sitting down next to her. “We’ll get you all something when we’re safely landed. There’s no indication they’ve connected you to me yet, but even if they have, I doubt they’re stupid enough to try to attack me. This was a local operation; Cesil never would have sanctioned it if he’d known.”

Terta studied the battered man beside her. To be honest, “man” was barely applicable. She knew the story, of course; everyone did. He and his family had been at a campaign event when a Black Block member tossed a grenade at him. He had dived on it, trying to sacrifice his life to save his family.

He had very nearly succeeded on both counts.

The assassination attempt had destroyed most of his body, but his brain had survived the initial explosion, and his mangled heart kept pumping just enough that his brain had remained in that state until the medics arrived. He had been patched together seven different ways, and undergone surgeries that had lasted years. And he still had artificial eyes, artificial limbs, an artificial heart.

Terta’s parents didn’t have much good to say about politicians who weren’t part of the Titan Party. But even they acknowledged that Temis had guts. Some even remained, they joked.

“How did you know they were coming?” Terta asked. For Temis hadn’t just evacuated her and her friends. He’d set up a microcamera to record the Black Block’s break-in. They’d watched it live; Terta had felt like vomiting as she watched them trash her small apartment. It hadn’t been much, but it was their home.

“The Black Block has to cast a wide net in recruiting. Lots of people in the Federation support them in theory, but very few actually have the sadistic streak that makes a good Blocker. They can always use more members. That means that it’s not that difficult to infiltrate them.”

“The Freedom and Equality Party has infiltrated the Block?”

“Hm? No, no, but the Imperator Corps has. They’ve been trying to bring them down for a while. I’ve got a couple contacts…I won’t say more’n that. Ordinarily, I would have sent a friend to get you, but I happened to be in Walak anyhow, and you were smart enough that you wouldn’t have opened the door for just anyone.”

“No. If it was just me….”

“Tell me, Ms. Fadi, and be honest. Do you think Titans are superior to all the other sentient beings out there?”

Terta was temporarily nonplussed; it was a rather sudden and blunt question. “What…why are you asking me?”

“You’re risking a lot for your friends. I’m risking a lot for you. I want to know why you are, and if I should.”

Terta swallowed. “Well…Councillor….”

She sighed, and looked away. “You want the honest truth?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know.”

There was silence for a moment, a pregnant silence that she found herself suddenly filling.

“It used to be easy, you know, before I met Enti and Pesabro. Titans were obviously superior to everyone. That’s what my parents taught me, that’s what my friends thought. Sure, the schools taught us that weren’t true, but everyone knows the schools are just spouting weak Imperial propaganda. But….”

She shook her head. “I’ve never met an Avartle or a Ler. I’ve only met a couple Dunnermacs. And before I met Enti and Pesa…I would have said that humans were just dumb animals. But they aren’t. They’re clever, and funny, and tougher than I am. And the others who were able to study with them…they were, too. So naw, I don’t think Titans are smarter than humans, and as for everyone else…I just don’t know.”

“Shonda Har said that a species begins to become sentient when it realizes what it does not know,” the Councillor said. “You are like many Federationers, even me – your bigotry is supported by our isolation. You never got the chance to know other species, and so it was easy to believe that they were something less than us. But once you meet them…if you are willing to see what is in front of your own eyes, you cannot help but learn the truth. So Terta, and tell me honest – If you meet a Dunnermac, or Ler, or Avartle, will you be willing to try to see what is in front of your own eyes?”

Terta nodded. “Yes, Councillor. I…I mean, I reckon they were wrong about the humans, weren’t they?”

“And much more, Ms. Fadi. Much more. I’m glad to hear you’ll try. That is all anyone can ask. Now,” he said, “there are a couple ways we can play this. The first is for us to get you and your friends off-world, and out of the Federation. I know your schooling will suffer, but frankly, it is not safe for you in Walak right now.”

Terta nodded.

“The second option is more dangerous. More dangerous for you, much more dangerous for your human friends.”

“What’s that?” a small voice asked.

“Awake, Ms. Jae?”

“Have been for a while,” Enti said, “and so’s Pesa. You can get us off world?”

“I can. You’ll be safe.”

“You said there was a more dangerous option,” Pesa asked. “What’s that?”

Temis smiled; such a brave species, they were. “You are not the only humans to be denied their papers. But you’re one of the few Titans to support them. And you two are among a handful – literally – of you to dare show up in person, and so far the only, you’re the only ones who’ve dared to go to the peacekeepers with a report of assault. Most people have been keeping their heads down, waiting to see.”

“Never been our way,” Enti said.

“Me neither. It’s become obvious now – they aren’t processing your paperwork, they aren’t adapting to the law, they aren’t doing a darn thing. They’re waiting to see if the Empire has the stomach to force the issue. Titan Party never supported emancipation. They’re waiting to see if they can find a way to keep it out of this province.”

“So what do we do?” Enti asked.

“We fight,” Temis said. “For everyone who can’t. Demand they recognize humans, and, while we’re at it, demand that they treat Dunnermac and Avartle and Ler citizens equally. I won’t romanticize it; it’s probably a losing cause. And the cost of losing…can be very high indeed.”

“You’re going to fight, aren’t you?” asked Terta.

“I am.”

“Even for a losing cause?”

“Especially for a losing cause. Everyone likes fighting for winning causes, you get that victory at the end, it’s fun. But fighting for the right thing is necessary, even when it seems impossible. You’re my fellow citizens. You need someone to fight for you, even if it’s hopeless. There’s nothing they can do to me worse than they’ve done. But there’s a lot they can do to you that’s just as bad as what they’ve done to me, which is why I cannot tell you to fight. I can only give you the option.”

Pesa looked at Enti. She nodded. He looked back at the councillor. “The more who fight for this, the better the chances, right?”

“Obviously.”

Enti smiled. “We’ve been taking our chances since we ran for our freedom. We’ll fight. But Terta….”

“If you think I’m abandoning you two now, you’re not as smart as I know you are,” Terta said. “What’s the worst they can do? Kill us. That’s it.”

“No,” Temis said, with a shake of his head. “They can do much worse than that. But that’s why fighting them is so important.”

Terta looked at her friends. And looked back at Temis. “You’re right,” she said. “So tell us what we can do.”

(Author’s note – In case you have missed it, all the Federation stuff has been by D.X)