The Price of Patience

     Nighttime. Darkness. Here it was always night. Though distant stars lorded over the daytime of a billion planets, their sparse glimmer sat like dust on the obsidian void. Pinpoints of blue and white floating in the incalculable darkness, the subtle ember glow of red stars washed out by their hotter neighbors. All this was displayed in perfect accuracy on the holographic screen hovering before Celia Aysen, Captain of the Caldari Naval Carrier, "Altus Novus".

    It had been eight standard solar cycles since the Navy squadron had landed at the run-down, back-water station. The marine units had spent less than two quelling the defiant locals. Once the vulnerable transport ships had been securely docked, it had become a waiting game. Captain Aysen sat in her command chair, monitoring the star field that had become all too familiar. The tension of the few hundred pilots and crew under her command had become palpable.

    The reports of pirate raids coming from the fringe of Caldari space had finally gotten a response; Captain Aysen and her battle group were that response. The pirate gang was said to have a carrier they used as a logistical outpost, and the station, held in subjugation below, was a common haven. Admirals had decided to make only a small show of force, better to leave the fringe dwellers on their own rather than let them become dependent on military incursions. Thus, the Altus Novus had been refit with a tactical compliment and sent as the sole combat vessel.

    Barely discernible spacial distortions marking its presence, the cloaked Altus Novus sat facing the coordinates provided by the informant that had made this operation feasible. The carrier was fit with cumbersome, signal-ablative cladding to reduce its signature on incoming sensor locks, and was further hidden by the backdrop of the local star's radiation. Captain Aysen felt secure in the element of surprise. Her pilot crew was equally equipped with a flight of fighter bombers, the latest product from Navy R&D. The pilots had all been run through the standard simulations, and each had gotten a chance to try the new ships out on the tactical range, but the tension that had been building up over the last 72 hours was spurred on by the apprehension over new technology.

    But the wait was nearly over. The information Captain Aysen had been given suggested the pirates would be moving through this sector within the next standard solar cycle and the Altus Novus' launch bays were readied with dozens of the torpedo-equipped fighters. The pilots, over-stimmed and on-edge, sat anxiously in their flight couches, awaiting the klaxon that would signal their eminent launch. Many of the pilots particularly anticipated the rush of increased gee-force as they accelerated towards their targets.

    Captain Aysen monitored her crew's status as she monitored the glimmering star field, allowing the calm of the void to release the tension she felt over her nervous shipmates. Her tired eyes scanned the display, overlayed with a multitude of tactical and system information. Something blinked on her monitor, a small grey box that wasn't present a moment before. Sensor clusters swiveled in concert as Captain Aysen queried her scanner display, focusing on the unidentified object. A small HUD window opened in the upper right of her display, showing the signature and silhouette of an Imicus-class frigate. Celia held her breath.

    The launch klaxon had sounded the moment the cynosural field formed, fighter pilots strapping down and bracing for acceleration. Moments later, the bulky signature of the pirate carrier appeared on Captain Aysen's virtual display. Launch bay doors opened, the shimmering distortion field around the Novus Altus lowered, and swarms of angry plasma trails streaked away from the vessel, the thrust vectors displayed on the Captain's monitor all aimed at the incoming ship.

    The pirate carrier released its own swarm of fighters, but their surprise was expensive. The pirate fighters were still accelerating into formation when the first wave of Caldari bombers released their volley. Flares of light danced across the pirate carrier's shields as the torpedoes impacted. With their foes at the disadvantage, it took less than 200 seconds for the bomber flight to dispatch the carrier, the last of the stranded fighters scattering in hopes of escaping to a friendly port. The Navy patrols would likely find many of them, but, like terrestrial rats of old, one could never eradicate all of them.

    Another enemy of the State defeated, Captain Aysen entered a command that brought the Altus Novus' main drives back online and the ship slowly listed towards the station. Squads of fighter bombers filtered into the hangar bays as they returned from chasing the last of the pirates, giddy from the successful operation. All of them would receive medals.

    Pausing for a moment to gaze at the glittering haze of metal composite shards that was once her foe's security, Captain Aysen let out a long sigh and turned towards the minutia of flight preparations for the journey home.

---

Read many other scenes of this sort in the Eve Friday Flash Fiction hosted by Ecliptic Rift.