Conflagration

Something's Not Right

"Noémie Four-Nine-Five-November-Charlie, this is company Seven-Eight-Eight-November-Charlie. We're here to implement repairs on your aircraft. Captain Elof, if you can hear us, we're getting no joy from you." Erin had lost track of how many times she'd made this call. Why isn't Capt. Elof responding?

"I'm beginnin' to get the feeling that this whole trip might just turn out to be a huge-ass waste of time," Lyssa said from the right seat. Her sardonic tone did little to hide the way she was feeling.

Erin was feeling it too. Something about being way out here in the middle of nowhere, all alone, and with no one talking to them didn't feel right. Erin didn't feel alone. She felt like she was being watched. Watched, but not spoken to.

"Maybe his radio is down?" Lyssa suggested. "Maybe we should try calling them?" She pointed to the icon indicating the inhabited terraforming platform on the planetary scan display. "Maybe they know something about our guy?"

"That's not a bad idea," Erin acknowledged. She was ready to try something different. Her most primitive instincts were telling her that there was danger here and talking to the void was really starting to freak her out.

She opened the Common Frequencies Manual and on the page for Safe Harbor Terraforming Company she found the contact frequency that all terraforming operations monitor around the clock. The people down on that terraforming rig should respond to her calls on this frequency, so she dialed it in to her primary radio and pressed the XMT button on the control stick. "Safe Harbor Planetary Control. Noémie Seven-Eight-Eight-November-Charlie." Erin waited a long moment before repeating the call.

Much of what would ultimately come to pass might have ended up differently had Erin just remained on the Noémie company frequency for only a few seconds more.

* * *

Capt. Villalobos watched impatiently as his comms officer found the Noémie company frequency and dialed it into his radio. "Unknown freighter, this is the independent corvette Ready Sophia. You are in violation of an active security zone. Power down your engines, remain in orbit, and prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply will result in being fired upon. Do you read?"

After several seconds with no response, the comms officer repeated his warning to the interloping hardpointer.

Capt. Villalobos turned back to his tactical officer. "What's the status on those fighters?"

"Two minutes to missile range."

"Tell those flyboys to get it done. I want to know when they have missile lock."

"Aye, sir."

Captain Villalobos looked at the blip on the tactical display which represented the interloper. What are you playing at, you cocksucker? he thought as the comms officer repeated his warning over the Noémie frequency.

* * *

"Safe Harbor Planetary Control, how do you read?" Erin said over the Safe Harbor frequency. She'd tried several times to raise the terraforming platform below, but to no avail.

Finally, Lyssa said what they were both thinking. "Something's not right here."

"I know."

"Let's just get the fuck outta here."

"Hmm..." Erin said. She wanted nothing more than to do that very thing. Her every instinct told her that she was a deer in the woods and the wolves were just beyond her sight. Watching. She had once been shadowed once by a pack of wolves when she was lost in the woods. It had been seven years ago, when she was only 14 years old, but Erin remembered that feeling like it was yesterday. She felt that way now. But if she left a fellow airman stranded on this planet because she got scared, her professional reputation would never recover. She'd probably be fired and branded a coward as well as a plane burner. Good luck getting any other flying job after that. Everything that mattered to her would be gone. Her life would be over. Running away wasn't an option.