Journeys of the Alacritous Regress Volume 3: Behind Friendly Lines

Installment 19: All Bad Things Must Come to an End

The ships bridge hums with noise and assorted control consoles flash. All crew members sit at their stations with their seats swiveled to face me.

"Please tell me you have a plan besides getting the hell out of their," says Al.

"Of course I have a plan," I scoff.

"So what is this plan?"

I glance up at the speaker that Al's using. "I have, a plan."

"It seems you don't."

"S__t, after all that, you really don't have a plan," mutters Arron.

Blue gives him a glance. "No, we do have a plan. Those iron fuel bombs..."

"Only good if they have a target." Arron looks over at me, "You do know that? Right?"

"Of course I know that. As I said, I have a plan."

"Shooting, I can read your certainty, but it doesn't seem like you actually have a plan," Brian says.

I sigh. "Kyle, do you know what a warp flip is?" Around me all the crew grips onto something.

"A maneuver used by interceptor pilots to quickly execute a 180º turn," he tells me. "Considered incredibly stressful on the ship."

"Just making sure you knew," I tell him. "Tail, perform a warp flip."

All of the crew rotate their seats into the forward position, and behind me I hear Brian and Kyle scrambling to strap themselves into the jump chairs at the back of the cabin.

"Huh?" Quick's brother, who is conveniently already strapped down, says.

"Hold the f__k on," Tail hisses. The ship rattles violently as we go from 10,000c to zero in a second flat. Outside, the stars shift as we exit warp, and then they begin to streak past as the ship flips nose to tail. We're pressed into our seats by an immense force. "90º" Still, we continue to pick up speed. "One sixty, one seventy." She chuckles. "One eighty." The pressure from the turn instantly ceases, and the stars bend out of shape. "Cross your fingers!" She shoves the throttle forward and the ship shakes as it goes back up to speed.

When the ship settles down, we all let out a collective sigh and turn our seats inward. "So, Captain, what's your plan? Other than trying to kill all of us," says Arron.

"We are currently moving back towards the sector where the initial attack happened. Given that Storm said more pirates were coming for us, it's a safe bet they had a scanner pointed at the planet and are currently tracking our position."

"And why the flip?" asks Quick.

"I am completely uncertain of what we're facing, less certain of the weapons we're going to be firing. If something goes wrong, I want to be able to set down for repairs."

"Hell! You want to go back to Aker!" yells Arron.

"No, Aker is too well defended, if we go back we'll have a frigate on our backs in a second. They're smart enough not to attack under those conditions."

"The only other inhabitable planet in the area is..." Arron gives Tail a questioning look.

"I don't know," she says. "What are you all looking over at me for?"

"You the navigator," Rivan tells her. "You suppose to know these things."

"There are many should be's and shouldn't be's, this ship is an embodiment of all that shouldn't be."

"The planet doesn't matter," I tell them, "The important part is that once we're there, we hide behind a moon, and when they show, we blow them to hell."