Of Hearts And Stars (Classic Editon) (The Cadet Starship Chronicles) (24 page)

“
Really? You mentioned that earlier, but aren't you a rebel soldier?” Gin asked.

“
I am...but I do a lot of covert work. Truth be told I'd consider myself a double agent of sorts. Me and the girl you saw earlier do a lot of investigating on our own, and selectively share our information with the Rebel Faction.”

“
Selectively share huh?” Swift asked.

“
Yup. I've lost faith in the current imperial regime, but I've no greater trust for the leaders of the Rebel Faction either. I've no doubt in my mind that you've gained the attention of the ones who follow, or stalk, me. Be careful on your way home.” Fisher said.

“
Then how do
you
intend on just walking out of here?” Gin asked.

“
Like this!” Fisher shouted and threw a handful of plasma grenades at them before running out of the room.

Swift grabbed Gin by the back of the collar, pulled him into the hallway, and sprinted with enhanced agility back the way they came in. Only once they were safely on the surface did they stop to speak.

“
Man that was nuts!” Gin exclaimed.

“
I know right? Now aren't you glad I got you a Snickers?” Swift asked.

“
Ha! Definitely!” Gin patted his stomach and added “But real live aliens! I can't believe it! Wait til we tell the others!”

Swift put his hands into his pockets and said “About that. It'd be better if we kept this under wraps for now. It's not that I don't trust the crew, but the less people working on this the better. At least until I can figure out what's going on.”

“
Ah, got ya. Secret mission.” Gin said.

“
Most definitely.”

The ride back up the orbital elevator started the same as the descent. Swift appeared to be dozing with his hands in his pockets, as usual, and his chin on his chest. Gin assumed that he was tired from the fight earlier, so he did his best not to disturb him. However it seemed that Swift was destined to not get his nap after all. The elevator car came to an abrupt halt which sent Swift flying to the floor.

“
Wha...? No!” Swift cried, still half asleep “Are we dead? I don't wanna be stuck in the afterlife with Gin for eternity!”

“
Aw, real cool man. No, we're not dead.” Gin said while helping Swift up “The elevator stopped.”

Swift said “It shouldn't have stopped.” and walked over to the control panel. He pressed a few buttons, and then a few more “And what was that loud crashing noise about?” he wondered aloud. Just then the elevator car gave off an ear splitting screech.

“
What did you do!?” Gin asked, clearly in a panic.

“
I didn't do anything man!” Swift shouted.

“
Ya-huh! You were mashin' buttons and junk!”

“
I don't mash buttons! I was just checking for errors in diagnostics! I didn't actually change anything!”

A whirring sound grew around them as they began to slowly rise from the floor.

“
We're falling!” Gin shouted above the ruckus.

“
Ya think?” Swift shouted back and whipped out his smartphone before going to work on the console.

“
Stop that! You'll kill us both!”

“
Stop that! You'll kill us both!” Swift mocked him in a jeering tone of voice.

“
Stop repeating what I say!” Gin shouted angrily.

Swift sang in a falsetto “Stop repeating what I say!”

In a fit of rage, Gin removed his shoe and tried to throw it at Swift. It barely left his hand before going directly to the ceiling.

“
Oh my god that was dumb! Gin, stop doing dumb things this instant!” Swift scolded him and continued working on the console.

“
What do we do, what do we do?”

“
Stop throwing shoes for starters!”

Gin was now on the ceiling himself, and quite sure that they were going to die in a fiery explosion. Couldn't he do anything? He thought briefly about hollering for help before realizing, that too, was dumb. He looked around and saw that somehow Swift was still at the console with an intense look of concentration on his face. Then a miracle happened. Gin began to fall bit by bit until he was halfway to the floor. They were slowing down! Had Swift really done it?

“
Gin...” Swift strained to speak, his eyes tightly shut.

“
Yeah dude?” Gin said as he awkwardly swam over to Swift.

“
The time...what's it say?”

“
Uhh...six minutes, forty seconds.”

Swift nearly fired off every curse word he had ever learned. He had managed to slow the elevator enough to where they'd live through impact. The catch was that to do this he had to use Wrath to polarize the elevator car within the elevator shaft's electrical field. At most he could keep this up for another moment or two. But six? He'd pass out well before that and probably die before the elevator car hit the surface of Mars like a bomb.

“
New...plan.” Swift struggled once more to speak.

“
Wait, what?” Gin asked.

“
Ceiling...open the...emergency door.”

Gin didn't question him any further and did what he was told.

“
Climb...on my...back.”

Gin did this too and before he knew it they were out of the elevator car and soaring upwards at a very fast speed. The elevator shaft was illuminated with a broad spectrum of colored lights, and looked quite beautiful as they raced by them all. Swift had changed the target of Wrath's energy to himself and reversed polarity. He couldn't save the elevator car, but he could get Gin and himself to the top before the blast reached them. Just then a loud boom issued from below, followed by an ominous rumbling. Gin looked down and his eyes widened in fear.

“
Look!” he cried.

“
No!” Swift said. He knew in situations like these that it's best not to look down.

“
There's a lot of fire coming!”

“
Shut up dude!” Swift shouted. As if he already didn't know about the huge fireball coming to BBQ them, and hearing about it only made matters worse.

They managed to beat the flames, and not a second too soon. Just as Swift used an energy burst to send them tumbling onto the floor of the spaceport, fire spewed out of the elevator shaft like flames from the mouth of an angry dragon. He had only a split second to react, and invested it wisely in putting up a shield. Bright plumes of orange, vermillion, and red as searing to the eye as they were to the touch surged by inches above their faces. When it was over they sat up and surveyed their surroundings. The entire corridor was scorched, and small fires remained here and there. Swift turned to Gin with a grin on his face.

“
Remember. Don't tell Revy.”

PART FIVE

All At Once

-
47
-

Just another busy Saturday morning in Ready Room One Gin observed. Though in his opinion, busy Saturday mornings were run of the mill, as every morning for ESC 1 was busy in one way or another. The crew of LaCroix's dedication to research and development never ceases to amaze him. Technically all SC and ESC members had to do was participate in matches and talk strategy- typical stuff a soccer or football team might do he guessed. However it also appeared that part of training for an ESC was not only practicing shipboard skill, but also crafting new tech.

“
Zhao” Revy spoke as she made her rounds “How are those adjustments going?”

“
Smooth I'd say.” Zhao said as he tinkered with a hologram in front of him. A particularly cool innovation had to be the holobench that Zhao was using. Engineers and technicians could use this to edit the hologram, save the changes, and a machine would apply them when ready. Zhao wiped his forehead and added “I just need to recalibrate the planar reticulation module.”

Revy clapped her hands together and said “Excellent! Felix, how is that research going?”

“
Done and done. Check your inbox.” Felix said, and caught Gin staring at Revy. He gave him a wink and a thumbs up. Gin saw this and quickly looked away as Swift walked in.

Cookie nudged Allie and said “Hey, look who decided to finally show his face.”

Allie folded her arms and asked “Oh ho ho, you think he'll say yes this year?”

Cookie gave her a knowing smile “Nah. He'll say no and end up going to the dance with her anyway like the last two years.”

Allie shook her head “Honestly. Aren't you men sposed to be straight forward about these things? Alpha male and all that good stuff? I don't get the whole 'I don't like dances' deal.”

“
No way. Men have gotta play it real cool. All aloof-like.”

“
That's so ridiculous!” Allie said and then tugged on Cookie's sleeve “Oh look! She's asking!”

Revy approached Swift from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.

Swift turned around and said “Hiya Revy.”

“
Heya Swift. The Lunar Ball is coming up. Would you like to go (out) with me?”

“
(Absolutely, but I'm dumb, so I'll say) If you had asked me to do anything but that...”

“
Okay (idiot). Let's walk across hot coals tonight!” Revy suggested with a flare of danger in her eyes.

“
...I'd say I have sensitive feet, so I can't walk across hot coals.” Swift said and put his hands into his pockets before adding “Besides, you know I don't like dances.”

Allie sucked her teeth when she heard this and asked “What kind of guy doesn't like holding a girl close while swaying to music?”

“
Dude, it's how you get the ladies.” Cookie said.

Allie whipped her head towards him and asked “What!?”

“
So you're not going with anyone? (But you
are
going.)” Revy asked Swift.

“
Nah. I'm just gonna hide out in my room until it's all over. (Gotta get my tux cleaned...)” Swift said.

“
Every year” Allie said to Cookie “she goes to his room on the night of the ball in her dress, and every year he's waiting for her in his tux. It's like a bad romance.”

Cookie gave her an enlightened nod and said “It's how you get the ladies.”

“
No it's not!”

“
Exhibit A.” Cookie said, gesturing towards Revy and Swift.

Just as Revy was about to speak, Gin interrupted with “If Swift won't go with you Revy, I'd love to.”

A devilish grin spread across Felix's face, Cookie's jaw dropped, and Allie's eye twitched. Swift raised his eyebrows in surprise, but when all Revy did was blush speechlessly, his expression took on a somber tone.

“
Well.” Swift said and his eyes flickered to Gin and back to Revy “Problem solved.”

When Revy still did not respond, Swift turned and left the room without another word. Her face was still a scarlet shade of red when Gin asked “So how about it?”

Revy shook her head and replied “I'm sorry. I can't.”

Felix stood and began to speak, but was intercepted and drug into the conference room by an enraged Allie.

“
What did you do?” Allie asked, her voice cold like ice and smooth as glass as she quickly forced Felix into a headlock.

“
Nothing! I swear!” Felix shouted, struggling to break free, but Allie only tightened her grip, so he added “Okay! Okay! I may have encouraged Gin to ask Revy to the Lunar Ball!”

Allie squeezed harder and asked “Why? You know better.”

“
I figured...” Felix gasped, but Allie did not let up “A little competition would push Swift into making things official with Revy this year. Ouch! You're really hurting me Allie!”

Allie whispered “Fix this.” into his ear before tossing him to the floor. Felix quickly collected Gin and they headed into the hallway to find Swift.

“
I thought you said he'd be cool.” Gin said.

“
What? When did I say that?” Felix asked.

“
When you told me you were a love guru.”

“
That? No, you misunderstood. I said 'I'm a Louvre guru'. I know all sorts of trivia-”

“
Okay, there he is. C'mon!”

They jogged down the hallway until they caught up to Swift, who was walking with his hands in his pockets and a plaintive look on his face.