Hera 2781: A Military Short Story

By Janet Edwards

The year is 2781. Lieutenant Drago Tell Dramis is a newly trained fighter pilot heading out on his first mission. This is the moment he’s dreamed of for years, but his dream is turning into a nightmare. Drago’s team leader hates him, and it’s hard to focus on a routine mission when the whole team is anxiously waiting for news of something far more important. A comet is on a collision course with one of humanity’s oldest colony worlds. Today is the last chance to save the planet Hera from total destruction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wallam-Crane Press
• Release date: Mar 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524288754

Janet Edwards

Janet Edwards lives in the Midlands. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, which included the works of many of the great names of Science Fiction. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.

Book preview

Part I

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Initiate pre-flight system check sequence, said my team leader, Major Jaxon Tell Galad, on the ship to ship comms channel. Lieutenant Drago Tell Dramis, do you know how to run pre-flights on your fighter, or do you need me to talk you through it?

Jaxon was using exactly the same patronizing tone of voice he’d used during all our childhood arguments, when he’d claim the superiority of being two years older than me meant he was automatically right. I was tempted to revert to childhood too, and ask him if he needed me to talk him through putting on his underwear. Instead I reached for my controls, started the check sequences running, and gave a carefully neutral reply.

Pre-flights initiated, sir.

This was the moment I’d been dreaming of for years. I’d graduated the Military Academy, completed my fighter pilot training course, and was heading out on my first proper mission as a Military officer. I should be filled with joyful excitement, especially given I had my distant cousin and best friend as my team leader, but this was a horribly twisted version of my past dreams.

Jaxon wasn’t my friend any longer, every word he said to me made it clear he despised me nearly as much as I despised myself, and nobody cared about our mission today.

Well, that wasn’t totally true. The population of the planet Freya in Alpha sector would probably still care about it. Our team was heading there to clear up some space debris ready for the installation of Freya’s first orbital portal. The Orbital Ship Portal Network allowed both Military and civilian ships to travel vast interstellar distances using conventional portals, instead of having to drop portal a few star systems at a time, but few worlds had the strategic position or the ship traffic to justify having their own direct link to the network. The announcement that Freya was to get its first orbital portal would have triggered huge celebrations there, and the local politicians and businessmen would be eagerly watching the progress of the work.

Most of humanity though, and particularly those in the Military like me, would be finding it hard to care about anything other than the crisis at Hera at this moment. We’d all been anxiously following the reports for weeks, and now the comet blockade had reached the crucial stage. Today the planet Hera would either be saved or destroyed. Our team had expected to have definite news before we launched, be celebrating or mourning by now, but we were still waiting in suspense.

I leaned back in my pilot’s seat, ignored the holos and flickering screens in front of me, and studied the lookup attached to the left forearm of my protective impact suit. For the last thirty minutes, I’d had it displaying the latest Military status report on Hera. For the last thirty minutes, that report had consisted of the same four words: Comet blockade operation continues.

I’d only been on active assignment for a few days, but even cadets in their first week at the Military Academy knew the key fact about Military status reports. If all was going well, the report would be full of details. The more problems there were, the less the status report said. If the official Military status report on Hera was just four words long, then the carefully made plans to deal with the comet must be going disastrously wrong.

Once pre-flights are completed, said Jaxon, we’ll fly through the atmosphere jump portal to reach planetary orbit. For the benefit of Lieutenant Drago Tell Dramis, the atmosphere jump portal is the big circular thing directly in front of us. If possible, I’d prefer our new recruit to fly his fighter through the big hole in the middle rather than collide with the portal itself. Those things may only get you as far as orbit but they’re still mind bogglingly expensive.

There was a heavy sigh that made my comms crackle for a second. This has been going on for three days now, Jaxon, said Captain Mari Stuart, our silver wing leader and Jaxon’s deputy. Whatever Drago did to annoy you, I think you’ve made him suffer enough.

When I want your opinion, Captain Stuart, I’ll ask for it, snapped Jaxon.

There was an uncomfortable silence on the comms. I glanced at my screens to make sure pre-flights were still running smoothly, before using my lookup to check some of the major civilian newzie channels from different sectors of space.

If there was no change to the official status report, then the Military obviously hadn’t made any new public announcements about Hera, but the newzie channels might have extra details from their roving vid reporters. A couple of especially suicidal ones were going for death or glory by covering the Hera crisis from the planet surface.

I started with one of the Delta sector newzie channels, because I could count on science obsessed Deltans to get their facts right.

The whole of humanity waits in suspense as the comet nears Hera, said a solemn announcer from Delta Sector Vision. The Military have successfully dealt with much of the smaller debris, but the massive comet core itself is still on a collision course with the inhabited continent of Hera.

My lookup screen swapped from showing the announcer to running a horrifically realistic simulation of the comet core colliding with Hera. I winced and