4

- Charlotte -

“Straighten up there, flyer. And that helmet needs a polish.”

The pilot straightened imperceptibly, even though it shouldn't be possible in his textbook attention stance. His helmet was perfectly shiny already, and they both knew it.

“Yes, ma'am!”

Charlotte fixated him with a stare that she knew was pretty cold, because she had practiced in the mirror. “Spacelift mission to a half-gee planet. Sixteen hundred kilos of gear, six marines. Low-altitude delivery. Enemy controls ground, we control airspace. They have missiles, but no beams. Go through it.”

The young man swallowed and took a shaking breath. “High angle entry to atmosphere. Reduce friction to minimal, jettison heat sinks at probable enemy acquisition. Reticles at laser, gamma and visible spectrum. Come in from six clicks below horizon, then skim and ascend at a half click from LZ. Open hatch at eighty meters altitude. Gear first, then meat. After delivery, full power to boosters, re-route guidance systems and drop remaining heat sinks at five second intervals.”

It came fast and staccato. And it was all correct. Charlotte was happy with that, but she didn't let it show. “The enemy launches two missiles one second after drop complete.”

“Retain full power, emergency power if delta vee goes below fifteen. Drop flares. Outrun enemy ordnance.”

“And the marines you just dropped? Or meat, as you call them? Wouldn't the missiles go for them instead? Your cargo, your responsibility. Or perhaps you don't believe in that? Perhaps you only care about saving your own skin?”

The new pilot stared at a fixed point over her shoulder. “Ma'am, at that point, they're on their own.”

Charlotte had to suppress a smile. She liked this one. He might be new, but he knew his stuff and he was hard to rattle.

The mechanics milling around his shuttle were so quiet, they were clearly paying attention without obviously staring. This grilling she was giving him in public would boost their respect for him. They'd seen it before, and not every pilot held up as well as this one.

She nodded once. “They are. Very well. Run that scenario in the simulator a few times, try to come up with a way to at least make life easier for the marines in a situation like that. I'd like to see it.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“Dismissed.”

The young pilot saluted and continued his inspection of his craft, a little more swagger in his step now that his commanding officer had publicly expressed her confidence in him. And he would know that everyone in the hangar had been watching him pass the test. It was a pretty easy test, especially designed for him to pass, but only experienced pilots would know that.

Charlotte walked over to her own shuttle. Well, it wasn't as if he would have any use of those things anyway. They flew civilian shuttles, not military dropships. But it might come in handy someday.

She would sometimes quiz the pilots in her flight out of the blue, and she knew it made them stay on top of their game. Being put on the spot like that and not know the answers was something that absolutely no one wanted to happen to them. It kept her flight as the best one in Space Expansion, and that was the only thing that was acceptable to her. She trusted no one but herself.

“You like to do things by the book, huh?” Lily sauntered over from a newly arrived shuttle, wearing a loose dress and obviously having witnessed the conversation. She went back and forth to the Ytter tribe on a regular basis. She and her husband were busy turning the cold north of Acerex into a more hospitable region.

Charlotte smiled at her friend. “Just some things. Flying is my life, you know that. My guys had better be the best ones around. How's Ravex'ton?”

Lily absentmindedly cupped her growing belly and smiled like she always did when the conversation turned to her husband. “He's fine. Very excited about the baby that's on the way. And he's totally showing some sympathetic pregnancy symptoms. He's definitely gained weight.”

“Stars, that's so cute. He seems so dark and brooding, you know? With danger radiating from him. And then he's a total softie at heart.”

“He's complicated,” Lily agreed and leaned against a generator cart. “Like all Acerex warriors, it seems.” She raised her eyebrows a fraction, and the implied question was pretty clear.

Charlotte nodded. “So it seems to me, too. That guy I went off with last night absolutely fits that description. Well, you saw him. Huge and dangerous and simple. But then he turned out to be ... well, still huge and dangerous. In the best ways, if you know what I mean. But not simple. Like, at all.”

Lily smiled. “Uh-huh. So you had a good time with him?”

Charlotte looked around to check if anyone from her flight was within earshot. She didn't want them to hear too personal things about her.

Then she couldn't stop a grin from spreading over her face. “The fucking best. Lily, I had no idea it could be like that! I mean, I knew from you and Harper that these guys have some ... unusual features. But then it just knocked my socks off. Not that I was wearing socks, of course. Or anything else. But damn, I've never felt like that. He did things to me ... well, you know.”

Lily smiled knowingly. “Yeah. I know. You feel like nothing can ever top it. And then he goes and does just that. So is there something more there? Between you two?”

Charlotte looked out the hangar door, past the forcefield into space and down on the planet Acerex. “I don't know. He left the way he came, not saying a word. He just kissed me and left. So I don't think I'm his Mahan. Which is fine. I mean, it would get so damn complicated.”

As she said the words, she saw his burned face in front of her and heard his deep voice and felt a sting of regret that she hadn't asked him more about himself. She'd only known him for a few hours, and now she missed him. “At least, I think it's fine.”

“Maybe,” Lily said. “As I understand it, you don't absolutely have to be his Mahan for him to be interested in being intimate. They have partners that aren't their fated mates, too. They can even marry them. But sometimes they don't know they've met their Mahan until a good while later. Ravex'ton was like that. He took his sweet time realizing that I was it. Things had to click together in his mind first. So I wouldn't discount the possibility completely just yet. If that's what you want, of course. I'm guessing that even if you're his Mahan, he might not have to be your ideal mate. I fell in love with Ravex'ton, sure. But was it fated, like everyone on Acerex thinks? I'm not so sure. I think he's just a great guy.”

Charlotte nodded slowly. The planet spun leisurely outside, its poles a bright white and its oceans blue, looking a lot like Earth. Somewhere down there was a large warrior who had made an impression on her. A stronger impression than she had suspected. “Yeah. Well, it's probably a moot point. I have no idea where he came from or how he even got here. I checked the records, and no one like him should even have been here last night. I can't find his name anywhere. I'll probably never see him again.”

Lily placed her hand lightly on Charlotte's forearm. “Hey, you might. If you really want to find the guy, then you can ask Harper to locate him. Or I'll ask her, if you want.”

Charlotte looked around the hangar. Suddenly that seemed extremely tempting. Finding Cori'ax again, coming to see him, finding out more about him and feeling his touch ...

She shook her head to clear the thoughts. “Actually, you know what? I'm fine. He knows where to find me if he wants something more. And then we'll just see if I want something more, too. It's not like I don't have a lot on my plate as it is. Hey, I just wanted a roll in the hay with one of these guys. Fine, I got the roll of my life. I'm not sure I'm ready for that much more right now.”

Lily straightened up with a grimace, holding the small of her back. “That's what I thought. And then I met Ravex'ton. Well, it's up to you. The offer stands. Now I really have to find a restroom. Oh, any news about the squad?”

Charlotte ran a hand along the side of the shuttle. “No, nothing. I think the Acerex have no idea what to do with an alien chick who wants to fly for them. They'll probably keep stalling forever.”

“Maybe. They might surprise you, though. They usually do. You coming up to the canteen?”

Charlotte nodded towards the row of small spacecraft in the hangar. “Later. Got some checking to do.”

Lily raised her eyebrows. “The shuttles? Don't they have crews to do that?”

“I'm not sure I trust any crew to do perfect checks of these things.”

Lily smiled. “You don't really trust anyone, do you? Hey, I'm not protesting. I've had some interesting times in malfunctioning shuttles myself. But you're spending an awful lot of time down here, doing other people's jobs. Well, now I really have to go. See you.”

Lily walked towards the exit and Charlotte smiled at her back. How had she ended up with friends as great as these?

The other pilots in her flight had left the hangar, and she was alone among the shuttles. She went over to the closest one and started going over it, looking for signs of wear or damage. Their crews and mechanics had already checked them carefully, and it would take Charlotte an hour per craft, but that was fine.

Better safe than sorry.

- - -

“I got it,” Henderson said.

Charlotte felt the shuttle sway a little to the left and transferred control to herself. “Pretty windy.”

“I can handle much more than this,” the younger pilot protested mildly and let go of the controls.

“I know, I know,” Charlotte agreed, but she didn't feel it. She hated putting her life into someone else's hands, even during a routine landing like this. The wind wasn't that bad at all, but anything could happen in flight. They could hit a bird or there could be a malfunction of some kind. Things rarely went wrong during a shuttle landing, but if they did, she wanted to handle it herself.

The instruments showed her the landing pad just beyond the forest, and she extended the landing gear. The treetops swayed as the shuttle's engines set them in motion when it passed right over them, she pulled back on the throttle and then the shuttle slowly descended onto the rough rectangle of hard packed earth. The Acerex rarely used concrete.

The shuttle sagged on its landing gear and then it was down.

Henderson took his helmet off. “Well, just being a passenger is okay too, I guess.”

Charlotte powered down the systems. “Oh, you'll be working, don't worry. Those computers won't offload themselves.”

Henderson unsnapped his safety harness and opened the door. Cool and fresh air filled the cockpit. “I guess not. If I know these guys, they'll want to do the manual labor themselves. But I guess it's progress that they're willing to use our hardware in their military headquarters, at least.”

Charlotte looked outside. This didn't look like any army base she'd ever seen. It was just a bunch of log cabins among tall trees that reminded her of firs. It looked a lot like Aspen or some other fancy skiing resort.

Two Acerex warriors were on the way over to receive them and unload the boxed computer equipment that Earth had sent for them to use. She waved and grinned, and they gave her a cautious little wave in response. “Yeah. Once the Ytter tribe started using our tech, everyone else seemed to get a lot more receptive. Not a lot, but still. Feels like they're all a little more friendly, too.”

“Not as icy as before,” Henderson agreed and climbed out.

Charlotte got out, too. The air was brisk and fragrant from the trees. It reminded her of a clear day in fall, except all the trees here were still green.

She saluted the Acerex warriors, and they each slapped their right hands to the hilts of their swords in their own respectful gesture. Charlotte thought she could interpret it – it was a gesture that said 'I respect you enough to get ready to kill you'. That was considered a pretty warm greeting among them. She would have expected nothing else from a people that was always at war with aliens.

She faced them with a neutral expression. She was in uniform, and she was not going to flirt. She only did that on her own time.

“Welcome to High Command. I'm Lorin'ax, this is Chief of the Dirt Bandi'ex,” the youngest man said.

Charlotte froze for a second. Chief of the Dirt? That was not just a very unflattering phrase, but an actual title that the Acerex gave to their most accomplished warriors. It was like the Medal of Honor, except rarer. It was awarded not by any president or king or or high-ranking officer, but by the warriors themselves to someone among them who they felt was legendary. That made it much more prestigious. Only four men on Acerex held the title right now. And here was one of them.

Yeah, he looked like he'd been through a lot. He was probably in his fifties, and he was still muscular and sinewy. He had an enormous number of scars all over him, and his flame tattoo was so faded it had turned a pale gray.

Shit, she had no idea how to talk to someone that exalted. “I'm flight leader Taylor, this is pilot Henderson. I'm honored by the presence of a legendary warrior like you, sir. You'll find the equipment in the back. Pilot Henderson will assist you.”

Lorin'ax and Henderson went to the back of the shuttle, but Bandi'ex remained standing in front of Charlotte, fixing her with a stare that was so intense she felt like a schoolgirl who hadn't done her homework being confronted by a strict teacher.

“You're the one who wants to fight for Acerex,” the older man said in a gravelly voice with no expression on his face.

The interpreter device around her neck translated, but she understood what he had said.

“I do,” Charlotte said, taken by surprise. “As a pilot, anyway. I don't think I'd be much good on the ground.”

The legendary warrior continued staring. “Our enemies are many and fierce. Why does an Earthling alien, one of Queen Harper's friends, even, want to risk her life in battle for an alien people like us?”

Charlotte felt that honesty would be the best policy. “I'm bored with flying passengers and boxes of cargo up and down from the surface of this planet. I was trained to fly missions in war. It's not so much about risking my life as it is about doing the thing I'm really good at.”

Bandi'ex's expression didn't change. “You require entertainment? I understand Earthlings have many harmless inventions to help them pass the time. Perhaps one of those would be a better choice than to go to war for us against our enemies. It is highly dangerous.”

Charlotte forced herself to face his green eyes. “It's not about the entertainment, sir. It's about doing something meaningful. The Acerex people are our friends. We want to help them against their enemies. Both Queen Harper and King Vrax'ton agree that this is a good idea.”

Maybe name-dropping and pulling rank wasn't the smartest thing to do, but he had brought up Harper first. And these people really respected their king.

“Indeed they do. If they hadn't, I doubt we would be having this conversation now. Did you hear what I said about this being dangerous? Even for pilots. We lose many craft each year.”

“I heard, sir. And, with all due respect, I also know that this is one area where Earth pilots are much better than Acerex. All your warriors are trained to fight on the ground, and only when they are injured do they learn to fly shuttles and dropships. They only do that reluctantly, and their skills show it. But I have always been a pilot. Flying is my life. I doubt I'll lose a craft in your service. I know that this is one area where your warriors need improvement. Well, I'm offering my help.”

This time she had no problem meeting the icy stare the old warrior was giving her.

He held her gaze for three heartbeats. Then a little smile flashed across his face. “I see. Well, if you really are much better than our pilots, then I suppose it would only be fair to let you prove it. You're expected to join Squad Nine at six general time six days from now. They're fighting the Prec aliens on the moon Ett. You'll have every chance to prove your statement when you serve as their primary pilot.”

Charlotte was stunned for a moment. She had not been prepared for this. “Thank you, sir,” she managed at last. “I'm honored.”

“We are also honored at your request to fight alongside us. Truly the Earthlings are our friends. The Spirits protect you.” The old warrior turned around and walked back to the simple log cabin he had come from, which was probably the main command center for all the Acerex forces.

Charlotte pumped her fist once in the air and let a happy smile spread on her face. Finally she'd see some real action.