Welcome back, Loyal Readers. Ben and I decided since it would be a long time before we can post again (maybe 2 weeks) we'd take the edge off and dip into our backlog by posting chapter 38. We didn't think anybody would object. Because we're posting faster than usual, we may have more uncaught mistakes than usual, and for that we apologize in advance. We're sorry to leave you hanging as Trev goes off on another reckless adventure, this one a bit more dangerous than the one on the "Orion". I have a feeling you will be looking intently for chapter 39. Let me warn you it will be close to two weeks before we will be able to post it. So be patient and be ready to see what our friend The Hawke does next. If you e-mail us, please don't expect an answer for a while. But Ben and I will answer.
Boys of the Lady Lex Chapter 38 "War Clouds" Written By Douglas DD and Benjamin TC
KRITON FLEET HEADQUARTERS
General Elihu read the communique from Admiral Whitaker yet one more time. A rare smile graced his face. He had the good Admiral right where he wanted him. The Admiral was mot the game master he thought he was. Nobody outdid a Kriton when it came to gamesmanship. The top secret document was short and direct:
General Elihu:
I have it arranged that the peace and trade talks on Griffin will break down. Our Ambassador to Kriton is ours and will do our bidding, no questions asked. On the agreed date our fleet will be spread out, with ships at Griffin for the peace and trade talks, at Hawking's Planet for the Junior Olympics, and on maneuvers near the SFA/Kriton neutral zone. Many of the ships normally dedicated to Earth's defense will be on special duty. This will make Earth appear open to your feint as well as Kriton to ours. With both of our fleets in sight our governments will be more than willing to give us the power we ask for. Only the threat of war so real it can be seen can stop the weakening of our military by the advocates of peace. The date has been sent. It is now time to start the plan in motion.
Regards,
Admiral Whitaker CIC SFA Space Fleet
Set in motion indeed, the General thought to himself. Yes, even with your defense thinned you have the power to stop us if we approached Earth in the usual manner. But our attack will not come in the way you think, and by the time you discover what happened, we will have brought our new weapon right behind your out of position thinned out defenses.
He pushed a button on his intercom.
"Send in Professor Kragh-Xan."
KRITON
Ambassador Bergen let out a big sigh. The e-mail in front of him was quite succinct. Follow the outline sent to him at the conference on Griffin or his son dies a slow, painful death. It was a stand far different from the one the government had instructed him to take. Yet his orders also gave him room for flexibility. However, he was sure the government didn't intend to give him this much maneuvering room. He was certain if he followed the instructions sent to him, war would ensue almost immediately.
I could resign, he thought, but that would only hasten the death of Matt. He had not heard back from Myrna, but he hadn't expected to. He could now only hope she would come through before he had to make a decision that would decide the fate of billions of innocent people.
DESERT PLANET
"When do I get to go home?" Matt asked matter-of-factly. He was getting tired of being alone in the isolated house on this unknown planet.
"I'd say in a couple of months if your father cooperates as we expect him to," Jake Masters said.
"I hate you," Matt said in a voice void of emotion.
"The tone of your voice says different, lad," Jake said with a grin. "You know you love me. You know you love me putting it up your hot, tight..."
"Shut up!" Matt screamed, this time allowing his pent up emotions to rise to the surface.
"You know you want it," Jake said ignoring the outburst.
Matt wanted it bad. Matt didn't want it at all. He hated Jake Masters. He loved Jake Masters. The conflicts of emotions tore at the twelve year old boy. But above it all, he wanted to go home. He wanted his mother, his father, his friends, and yes even his school.
"What are you going to do with me if my dad doesn't do what you ask?" Matt asked for what seemed like the millionth time. He was hoping this time he'd get the answer he wanted to hear.
"Big strong boy like you would fetch Jake Masters a good price on the Lucifer slave market."
"You don't even like me do you? I'm just a thing to you. A place to stick your big fat ugly hairy dick!"
"I love ya lad, but business is business. If it wasn't for that sad state of affairs I'd make you another Kalon, make you a boy this old man would be proud of."
"Then why don't you do it?"
"Lad, you think ya love old Jake Masters. But trust me, first chance you got you'd run away. Course, I could just keep you here on this godforsaken hell hole. Might almost be worth it."
"I'd rather be dead."
"And that, too, is a possibility," Jake muttered under his breath.
Jake's muttering went unheard by Matt. "I'm going to bed." He turned to leave the room.
"Want to sleep with Jake tonight?"
"No! Never again! Never!" After screaming that out, Matt left the room, with the intent of going to his room to sleep alone, yet somehow ending up in Jake's room, with his clothes off, waiting for his captor to enter and fill his young ass. Jake showed no surprise at the prize lying in his bed.
THE LADY LEX: CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM
"You're asking a lot," Captain Hatcher said yet again.
"Only for one shuttle and a contingent of Marines. We will be in and out within an hour. Your Colonel Stone is regarded as an expert in these types of operations," Harrison Wolfe said.
"And you want the `Raptor'? She is the only modern shuttle we have. In fact her stealth capabilities are state of the art. I still am not quite sure how we managed to get her amongst all the hand me downs we were given."
"Having a good friend in Admiral Natter helps."
"Just who are you? You certainly are more than an English teacher."
"I am who I am," Wolfe said. "Colonel Stone will be here soon with the plan for our mission. I just wanted to meet with you one more time before that, to convince you of my sincerity and of my honesty."
"I am convinced of neither, Mr. Wolfe. I looked for any mention of the kidnapping of this boy. I found none. How do you explain that?"
"Powerful people are behind this, Captain. People who wish to tilt the precarious balance in our talk with Kriton to the side of war. I will leave you know, Captain. Our plan is a good one." Wolfe left the captain's ready room just as Colonel Stone prepared to push the entry buzzer.
"Come in, colonel," Hatcher said, "and sit down."
"Aye sir."
"Mr. Wolfe says you have a plan."
"We do. The man is quite a student of military planning for one who is supposedly a scholar and a teacher of English. It's a good plan. The planet is an old SFA outpost, one abandoned when we made peace with the Vordans. It has at times been a staging area for smugglers, but I was unaware of anybody using it in the past five years."
"Let me see the plan," Captain Hatcher said.
Stone handed it over, explaining the plan to the captain as he perused the pages.
"It's a good plan," Hatcher concluded.
"Thanks. As I said, Wolfe was a big help." Stone said, "But I still don't trust him. I don't know why you're doing this."
"I'm doing it because if there is a boy being held captive on the planet we are obligated to rescue him, all the more so if the peace talks with Kriton hang in the balance."
"And if there is no boy there?"
"Then somebody has taken us for first class fools."
Above the Captain's ready room a boy, dressed in only a black T-shirt and wearing the make-up of a hawk, quietly left his station and crawled back to his cabin.
THE LADY LEX: TREVOR'S CABIN
"Why did you ask the Birds of Prey to meet this afternoon?" Ian said. He was sitting on Trevor's bed, loving the feel of his boyfriend's arm around him. Since Trevor had apologized for his behavior after his grounding he had never been happier. Their friendship and love had grown stronger. And better yet, The Hawke was back.
"You'll see as soon as the rest of the Birds of Prey get here."
The first to arrive was Chandler, the Falcon. He saw Trevor with his arm around Ian, and felt a slight pang of jealously. He had had a crush on Trevor since he first met him, and couldn't understand what the macho, cocky Hawke, saw in Ian. If I was his roommate, it would be different, he thought.
Next came Spencer the Condor, and a few minutes later, Dylan the Phoenix, and Kyle the Harrier, arrived. All six were dressed in their school day uniforms, red and gray tunic and gray pants. Trevor had changed and cleaned his face after he returned to his cabin.
"What's this all about?" Spencer asked. "What's so important that we all have to be here on Sunday our only free day?" Spencer was always the toughest of the Birds of Prey to convince of anything. There were times Trevor wished he hadn't asked the big, buff boy to join the group. But once he was convinced of a plan, there was nobody better to have in your corner.
Trevor told them of the conversation he had overheard while crawling through the ducts and what he had overheard this morning after following Harrison Wolfe to the captain's ready room.
"What does that have to do with us?" Spencer asked. "The Marines are carrying out the rescue. Do you think the Birds of Prey can do it better than the Marines?"
"I have a feeling," Trev said.
"What do you mean you have a feeling?" Spencer asked pointedly.
"What I mean is, I think we're going to be needed."
"Oh, right. A trained group of Marines fail to rescue a little boy on an unguarded planet, so the Birds of Prey just come swooping in to save the day. You know what I think, Trevor?"
Trevor could feel his temper rise as Spencer voiced his objections.
"What?" Trevor asked angrily.
"I think you're trying to make up for the botched intrusion of the `Orion" and for your getting captured. I don't want to have nothing to do with this."
"Is that what everybody thinks?" Trevor asked.
His question was met with silence, which was finally broken by Ian. "I think if we follow along it can't hurt anything. We stay out of range and we learn things."
"And we get our asses in a sling again," Spencer said.
Chandler decided to inject his opinion. "Okay, so it's none of our business. But since when did we decide we just get involved in things that aren't our business. I thought we were all about doing things behind the scenes. I thought we were all about being sneaky and shit."
"I'm going with Hawke no matter what," Ian said.
"So am I. Maybe this is about making up for the `Orion', but I don't care. And if it's about Trev making up for being captured, well, Trev, I know I forgive you. I mean we all screw up sometimes."
"This isn't right," Ian yelled. "This isn't right!" Trevor squeezed Ian's hand trying to stop him. He knew exactly where Ian was going, and he didn't want Ian to say more. Ian ignored the squeeze as well as the look he received from his lover. "Trevor got captured trying to rescue me when I fell. He got captured so I wouldn't be. Isn't that what the Birds of Prey is all about? About being there for each other?"
Once again there was a moment of silence, which this time was broken by Spencer. "No shit? Hawke caught captured rescuing you?"
"That's right," Ian said.
"Well, fuck, Hawke, why didn't you tell us?"
Trevor wriggled uncomfortably. He didn't like being put on the spot. He liked having Ian on the spot even less. But his hand had been called, and he had to answer Spencer's question.
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you hating Eagle for getting away while I got captured rescuing him. I know you guys don't always see him the way I do and..."
"Stop right there," Chandler said. "Just come out with it. You and Eagle are boyfriends, right?"
"Well, yeah, but...."
"But, if Eagle is good enough to be the boyfriend of the Hawke, he's plenty good enough to be a Bird of Prey. It's time we quit treating him like he has some kind of disease. It's time we're totally together in every way, because if we aren't, then we aren't worth shit as a gang." That was a hard speech for Chandler to give, because his heart still yearned for Trevor. He wanted Trevor in every way, but he wanted to be a Bird of Prey even more. He buried his jealousy of Ian and stood up for the group.
"Put it that way, Falcon, and I'm with the Hawke. You got captured standing up for one of us. Now it's time to stand up for you," Spencer said. "Let's follow the rescue team and see what happens. Let's just say it's a practice run for the Birds of Prey." He wanted to add, and if you fuck up again Ian I'll kick the crap out of you, but in deference to Hawke and the gang he kept his mouth closed.
Dylan and Kyle fell right into line and it was agreed they would follow the Marines rescue mission, but would not get involved. Going, following, and returning undetected would be their mission's goal.
"You said they're leaving early in the morning," Spencer said. "What time should we be on the `Raptor'?"
"The `Raptor' is the shuttle they're using," Trevor replied. "Because it is harder to detect."
"Oh great, Hawke, and just how are we going to follow them, in space suits?"
"No. In the `Wonder Boy'."
"How? With all the new security stuff going on, we need an access code to get into it."
"I have the access code," Trevor said.
"You do?"
"Yeah. It helps having two brothers on her crew."
KRITON FLEET HEADQUARTERS
General Elihu's meeting with Professor Kragh-Xan had been long and arduous. But the professor's discovery was the focal point of his entire plan, and he had to be absolutely sure everything was in place. Over the next two months forces would be put into action that could not be recalled.
The General went over his notes and recalled his conversation.
"The weapon will be ready?" the General had asked.
"It will be ready. For all practical purposes, it is ready."
"But it hasn't been tested."
"It can only be tested once. There is only enough known Xantium 4 to make two weapons. The test will be a month before launch date, as we have discussed."
"That's not soon enough. I've tested the worm holes. They work. I want the weapon tested at the first possible opportunity."
"Which is a month from now."
"I expect sooner, so perhaps you had better go back to your precious laboratory and take care of meeting your new deadline."
"Whatever you wish."
"Your prediction of the results is still the same?"
"At least seventy percent of Earth's population will be wiped out when the weapon is launched."
The General smiled. Everything was riding on the Xantium bomb. Only two existed. Probably, only two would ever exist. But it was the reason for his entire charade with the Earth admiral. It was the only way he could sneak a lone ship into the Earth's atmosphere and destroy the central planet of the SFA. It was the only way he would become the supreme ruler of the Kriton Empire.
THE LEXINGTON: CADET DINING HALL
"The Birds of Prey sure seem excited about something," Ben observed as he surveyed the table where his brother's gang of friends were sitting.
"That can only mean trouble," Douglas said with a laugh, not realizing how on the mark he was.
"Very true. I wonder what they are up to this time? There's not too much trouble they can get to out here in deep space." Ben had no idea how off the mark he was.
At their table The Birds of Prey were discussing the problem Ian had just discovered in low voices. Ian had found out the "Wonder Boy" had been put into a hangar to repair a small hole in the outer hull. It had probably been put there by a small meteorite during their stay at Phosphorus Prime. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. Kyle knew how to pilot a shuttle out of a hangar. The problem was that with the heightened security on board ship, an entry code was needed to gain access to the hangar.
"Shit," Chandler whispered. "We have the code to the `Wonder Boy', but we can't get to her. This really sucks. We need to board her tonight. I can do some hacking to get it, but not that quickly."
"Don't be so sure," Trevor said. "Don't forget you're dealing with the Hawke. The Hawke knows how to come through."
"What do you have in mind?" Spencer asked.
"I can't tell you. All I can say is just be prepared to board the `Wonder Boy' as planned."
The boys finished their lunch. As Trevor bussed his tray Ben came up to him.
"You guys looked like you're really into something, bro," Ben said.
"Hey," Trevor said, pleased his big brother came up to talk to him. "We're just talking."
"Looks like they have no hard feelings over you're being captured."
"They're cool with it."
"Good thing you're on the Lady Lex. Any other ship and you'd be on your own."
"Whatever. They're my Birds of Prey. We stick together." Trevor knew those weren't empty words. Ben invited Trevor to join him and Andrew for dinner. Trevor said he'd think about it. As much as Trevor was envious of Andrew being on Ben's shuttle and spending so much time with Ben, he still liked to assert his independence.
Trevor knew he would need to go to the crew's quarters to find the person he was looking for. But as he headed for an elevator, he was accosted by Spencer.
"Need any help, Hawke?"
"No. I need to do this on my own."
"You do way too much on your own...or with Ian."
"Maybe. But this is something I gotta do alone. I don't want to spook this person."
"Who?"
"I'll tell you after I take care of things."
"Hawke, can I ask you something else?"
"Okay. But hurry." Trevor was impatient, which was not unusual.
"Why didn't you leave Ian behind? You're the Hawke. He gets captured and he just proves he's a dork which was something we all knew anyway. But you! You're the Hawke! You get captured and it's a big deal. Like kind of a black mark or something. You should've left him behind."
"I couldn't. He's a Bird of Prey."
"He's a dork."
"He's my...my...my boyfriend." There he said it. Said it to the big, buff, tough, studly Spencer.
"He's still a dork."
Trevor felt his hands forming fists. Spencer was about to get a mouthful of Hawke.
"So he's a dork. He's my friend. He's part of our gang. And even if he was just a dork, I still couldn't leave him behind."
"He wasn't going to be hurt. I mean what were they gonna do to him, turn him purple like they were?"
Trevor took a deep breath. "I left a friend behind. My best friend since I was little. He died because I left him behind. I didn't kill him, but he died because I decided to lock him up. I used to call him a dork. He told me just because I thought Ian was dork didn't mean I couldn't love him."
"What do you mean he told you? I thought he was dead."
"A long story. Maybe you'll hear it some day when I think you're ready." Only the boys who had been with him on the "Wonder Boy" the day they met the dead and Ian knew of his meeting with Kiran. "But I will never leave anybody behind again. No matter what it costs me. And that is how it should be for all the Birds of Prey." Trevor took a deep breath. He was not a speech maker. But he had to speak his mind or he would end up flattening Spencer.
"Whatever you say, Hawke." Trevor could tell Spencer wasn't entirely convinced. Maybe some day he would be. But now wasn't the time to convince him. He had to find the one person who could get him the code he needed.
"I gotta go get the code now."
"You sure I can't help?"
"Positive. But, thanks for offering." Another concession by Trevor. Trevor was slowly learning his lessons not only in stealth and cunning, but also in leadership, from Harrison Wolfe.
Spencer headed back to the cadet area. Trevor headed up the corridor to take an elevator to the crew section. It was time to talk to the one person who could help him get the code to the hangar area that housed the "Wonder Boy".
DESERT PLANET
Matt got out of bed. Jake had left it long ago to do whatever it was he did. Matt noticed Jake had left his computer on. Jake normally wasn't that careless. Jake had told him he could never get through the multiple passwords and codes to log on and not to even bother. That hadn't stopped Matt from trying, but Jake had been right; accessing the computer was hopeless.
But, maybe this time it would be different. Matt moved across the room to the desk that housed the computer. Every step hurt. Jake had given him lots of whiskey, weed, and sex the night before, and every part of his body hurt in some way. While Jake didn't smoke weed, he did like his booze, and had plenty along with Matt. Maybe that was why he had made the mistake of leaving the computer on.
Matt killed the screen saver, and saw the computer was logged into e-mail. He wasn't surprised to see one of the last ones had been sent to his father. He opened it and read it. One sentence stood out immediately. "Follow these instructions at the conference or your son dies." What it said didn't totally surprise him. He might only be twelve, but he knew the reason he had been kidnapped was to pressure his father into making certain decisions. He knew Ambassador Talon had been assassinated. He knew Jake Masters had been the assassin. Yet, knowing all of this, and actually seeing it in writing were two different things. Matt didn't know if Jake would actually kill him. He didn't think he would, but he knew the slave market was no empty threat.
He scrolled back through the mail. There were more to his father plus a few other that caught his attention. Some were to a Ba'Makrah, which mentioned a beautiful, sexually experienced boy who might soon become available. There also were some to and from what appeared to be an encrypted address. What little he could make out gave him the impression the mails were to and from somebody high up in the SFA hierarchy.
He came to mail to a lady named Connie. He figured it didn't have to do with him, but read it anway. "Hello, Connie, my love. Your Jake misses you." He skipped over the next couple of paragraphs, saw it was more of the same, and was about to move on when he saw his name mentioned. "I love the boy. Under other circumstances he could be another Kalon, even if we have enjoyed the pleasures of the bed together, something I never did with Kalon. But I can't afford to keep him around. I can see even if his father cooperates I can't let him return. He knows too much. Ba'Makrah is interested in him. He is still young enough to have value....."
Matt had read enough. He knew he had to get away from Jake Masters. He walked to the door that led to a large deck and started out at the desert that surrounded the compound that was his prison. The problem was he also knew there was no way out.
THE RAPTOR
The work crew of cadets finished outfitting the "Raptor". All the boys but one resented having to work on Sunday, their day off, even for only a couple of hours.
"It better be pretty important," one boy said. "I mean this sure isn't something regular when we do this instead of its normal crew."
As the boys filed out off the airlock back on to the "Lexington", one of them held back. He unplugged a wire from the engineering station, pulled a small device from under his tunic, plugged it into the port, then placed the wire into the device. He hoped this was more successful than the one placed on the "Wonder Boy." He had been told the device would send the shuttle out of control into space, never to return. Instead it had homed in on the "Lexington" and almost killed them all. The boy was happy to play saboteur for the officer who commanded him, but not at the risk of his own life. He had been assured this device was much more reliable and posed no danger to him or to the ship.
He had been told to lay low after the "Wonder Boy" incident, but if anything out of the ordinary arose, to find a way to sabotage whatever was planned. This sudden outfitting of the "Raptor" on a Sunday by cadets other than the crew seemed to qualify. The boy left the shuttle, knowing he had done his job properly. None of the other boys noticed that one member of their work crew was a bit tardy.
THE LEXINGTON: CREW QUARTERS
Like all the large starships, the "Lexington" was equipped to carry a limited number of families. As a result, Brian McDowell had his own cabin. It had direct access to the corridor outside, but was also connected to his parent's larger cabin. It afforded Brian the privacy he so desired, yet kept him connected to his parents, something he didn't always see as a good thing. He bitterly resented being on the "Lexington", and since the fiasco on Phosphorus Prime, the resentment had done nothing but build.
He was attempted to read a book, but found he couldn't concentrate. This wasn't unusual. Reading was about all he did. He loved to read, but it took him only so far. It couldn't erase the loneliness, boredom, and bitterness he felt. It couldn't overcome the sense of defeat that crushed his soul every day.
Brian almost jumped off his chair from surprise when he heard the knock on his door. The visitor could only be one person, and that would be Zjan-Ren.
"Go away," Brian yelled. "Leave me alone forever!"
He was surprised to hear the voice of a boy come from the other side of the door. "It's me, Trevor."
Brian got out of his chair and hobbled to the door and opened it. "What are you doing here? We aren't supposed to meet until tonight."
"I'm not here about that."
"What are you here for?"
"Can I come in?" Trevor asked.
Brian hesitated, but finally let Trevor into his cabin. Trevor was impressed with what he saw. The walls were covered with posters and pictures of dragons. There were statues and models of dragons on shelves. The walls were also lined with books. Harrison Wolfe must love this guy, Trevor thought. No wonder he's my tutor.
"What do you want?" Brian asked coldly.
"Why are you all crippled?" Trevor asked in his usual blunt, undiplomatic fashion.
"Why do you care?"
"I don't know. I just do. You're my tutor and everything. I mean you don't see people all crippled much. I just wondered."
"I got hit by a drunk driver, okay?"
"So? Why couldn't they fix you? I mean doctors can fix everything."
"Almost everything," Brian said bitterly.
"Okay, almost everything then. But why not you?"
"Because one out of every one thousand people is allergic to the regeneration meds. About half of them can get meds for the allergy and can probably be fixed. The other half," Brian said with a bitter laugh, " end up like me."
"I heard you really sucked in the sword competition." Trevor had been willing to keep his mouth shut as Brian tutored him, but now, here in his room, he wanted to know exactly what his tutor was like.
"You don't mince words do you? Maybe you should just leave."
"I don't care that you sucked. It was better than me. I didn't even get to play baseball."
"I know you got the `Orion's' flag in the shuttle competition. And I heard your crew got their ship's flag right of their ship. That isn't sucking."
"But I'm a baseball player. I wanted to play. I wanted to play bad. Even if our team sucked, I wanted to play. You got to do what you wanted to do, even if you sucked at it."
"Who said I wanted to do it?"
"If you didn't want to do it," Trev asked, "then why did you do it?"
"I don't know. Got talked into it I guess. All I did was embarrass myself and my team."
"No you didn't. The whole Lady Lex sucked. Wait until the Olympics. You're going to kick ass, just like the rest of us will.
"No, I won't. I quit. I'm not doing anything in the Olympics. Now, what did you come here for? Just to give me a hard time?"
Trevor had no use for quitters. Sure he had told Ian he quit as the Hawke, but what he said came from anger, not from the heart. He was the Hawke more than ever, now. He knew, however, this wasn't the time to lecture Brian on quitting. "No, I need a favor."
"You're something else, Trevor. You come in here and ask me private questions and tell me I sucked in the competition, then you tell me you want a favor."
"Are you good at keeping secrets?" Trevor asked.
"Depends."
"I need you to keep one. It's important."
Brian took a deep breath. "As long as the secret doesn't hurt anybody, I'll keep it."
"It won't hurt anybody who doesn't know what's going on. Good enough?"
Brian hesitated, then said, "Good enough."
Trev proceeded to tell him about what he had overheard, and the plans of the Birds of Prey. He knew he was placing a lot of faith in Brian, but in order of his plan to succeed, he needed Brian. Brian listened intently as Trevor finished.
"So what do you need me for?" Brian asked.
"I need you to get me the access code to the hangar the `Wonder Boy' is in. Your dad is head of security and he's got to have the codes somewhere."
"You're asking me to steal something from my dad so you can go put you and your crew in danger? Are you nuts?"
Trevor worked to keep his temper in check. This wasn't the time to have one of his tantrums. "Nobody will get hurt. It's a practice session in stealth for my crew. We won't get in the way of the Marines. But we want to pull this off. We want to show ourselves what we can do."
"You know what you can do. You did it when you took the flags."
"Look, will you help us?"
Brian knew where his dad's code book was. He figured he could get access to it by the time Trev needed it. But he also knew there was nothing in it for him. The loneliness, the emptiness, the bitterness wouldn't go away. He would open a safe, write down a number, and give it to the vibrant, athletic, boy in front of him, and he would still be a defeated, useless cripple. He looked at Trev, so full of himself, so cocky, so sure that no matter what he did, he would succeed at it. He saw The Hawke.
But he had also seen the Trevor who needed a tutor. The one who treated the study of history as a disease, and who was lost in the world of numbers. He had seen Trevor not as The Hawke, but as a boy who could ignore and fail at the things that didn't suit him. He saw Trevor's vulnerability. He had seen something he, Brian McDowell, was better at. He took a deep breath, and made a decision, one that was somewhat impulsive. It was one that, if he had been mature enough to realize it, had the potential of being a life changing one.
"I'll get you the code under one condition?"
"What's that?" Trevor asked.
"That I get to go with you."
THE LEXINGTON: CADET DINING HALL
"You're letting WHO go with us?" Spencer asked incredulously as the boy sat down for dinner.
"Brian McDowell," Trevor said forcefully.
"Why? Why the cripple who wussed out in the games? Who everybody says was a fucking coward?"
"Because I want him to. He's my tutor. He's helping us. I want him to go with us." Trev wasn't about to dig a hole for Brian by saying Brian had used extortion to gain passage on the mission. Brian was going, and nobody had to know the real reason. "He's my friend," Trev said with conviction. "And the Hawke doesn't leave friends behind. But you know that already."
A few tables away, Ben and Douglas were sitting at their shuttle's table.
"Quite a heated discussion going on there," Douglas observed.
"Must be important for Trev to skip that invitation to eat with us. I wonder what kind of trouble they're cooking up."
"Well, we said at lunch, what kind of trouble can they get into out in the middle of deep space?" Both boys smiled at each other knowing what a stupid question that was.
"Okay. He goes. But only if he gets us the codes," Spencer said.
"Duh," Chandler said. "Without the codes, nobody goes, at least not until sometime tomorrow when it's too late."
"Don't worry, Spencer, we're just going to look, not to do anything, remember?"
"Still. I don't like the idea of having him along. Bad enough having the dork who got you caught with us."
"That's enough!" Trevor said. "Ill fight you all if I have to. Ian is a Bird of Prey. I would've gone for any of you."
"You wouldn't have needed to," Dylan said.
"And what's he done for us lately, or ever?" Spencer said.
"He found out about the `Wonder Boy' being in hangar three, for one thing."
Ian sat silently, staring at his food, knowing that as soon as this mission was over, it was time for him to quit being the Eagle. Eagles soared, and he was a dork, pure and simple. Dorks crawled.
"I gotta say some thing," Ian said.
"Do we have to pay attention?" Spencer asked.
Trev stood up quickly, knocking over his chair. The boys at the adjacent tables looked up.
"Roh, oh, trouble," Douglas said. "Should we go over there?"
"No. Let's let Trev work his way out of this, whatever it is," Ben said.
"Just shut up and let him talk," Trevor said. "And maybe it's time for us to be a team, like we talked about,"
"I'm all for being a team," Spencer retorted, "as soon as your boyfriend is willing to be a part of it and do things other than getting people captured."
Trevor wished Ian had kept his mouth shut about the reason for his capture. All he had done with dig himself a deeper hole. He picked up his chair and sat down. "What do you have to tell us?" Trevor asked, his voice shaking some from anger.
"Well, first, Scottie changed watches with Tad Phillips. He's on the two to four watch in the bridge tomorrow morning."
"So?" Spencer asked with a bite to his voice.
Ian took a deep breath. He didn't really want to leave the Birds of Prey. What he really wanted to do was make Trevor proud of him, to become a true part of the team, not because he was Trevor's boy friend, but because he had earned it. He knew in his heart, if he didn't do it now, right her, then he really would leave the team after the mission.
"The opening of the hangar door will be detected in the bridge. Scottie will act like Carson did for us before. He will ignore it. It's not like launching from a berth on the side of the ship. We'll leave before the `Raptor' does."
"Great," Chandler said, trying to bring peace to the table. "The Brothers brothers come through again."
"But if we leave before the `Raptor' does, we'll be seen hanging around the ship."
Ian picked up a notebook he's stuffed under his chair. He opened it to a diagram of the outside of the Lady Lex. "Not if we hang right at this spot here." He pointed to a spot just of the stern of the ship. "It's her blind spot, just like Kalon told us. Once you slide inside it you can't be detected."
"Kalon told us that?" Spencer asked.
"Maybe you should pay attention in class sometimes, Spencer," Chandler said. "Go on Ian. Sounds like you have a plan going."
"I do. As soon as the Lady Lex drops out of warp we launch and drift back to the blind spot.. That should be right about oh three hundred and the Raptor' should launch within minutes after that. The hangar is farther back than the Raptor's' berth, so we shouldn't be seen while we drift back. Then we have Scottie open the hangar door for us from the bridge."
Trevor couldn't help but smile. He didn't know what Ian had been up to all afternoon, but apparently he had gotten even more accomplished than he had.
"So go on, what is it?" Trevor asked.
"We follow the `Raptor' at the farthest distance we can. She probably won't have her stealth stuff on, because it eats a lot of fuel and she doesn't expect to be followed. We move in every couple of minutes to make sure she's still there."
"Great idea, Ian, but how do we even know what direction to follow it, especially once we go to warp?" Spencer asked dubiously.
"Easy. I have the coordinates of the outpost planet."
"Say what? How did you get those? Let me see?" Spencer said..
"Colonel Stone is a bit careless about leaving stuff out on his desk. Guess he didn't expect a Bird of Prey to drop in."
Now Trev's grin was about to break his face. Just like Harrison Wolfe had been his mentor in the art of stealth and deception, he had been Ian's, and it looked like Ian had learned his lessons well.
Ian pulled a sheet of paper out of the notebook. "We could get there first if we wanted. but that's not the idea. We want to follow them and see what they do and not get caught by them. Not getting caught by the Lady Lex will be hard because it's going to be kinda hard to hide the fact we took a shuttle. But what we don't want is to be caught by the `Raptor'."
Spencer looked at Ian with a new measure of respect. "So, you mean you dropped into Colonel Stone's office and just stole this stuff?"
"Nah, he'd know it was missing. I made copies on his copy machine."
"Shit. Not bad work for a dork." Spencer looked at Ian and smiled at him for the first time ever. "Not bad work for an Eagle either."
Trevor reached under the table and squeezed Ian's hand. "Good work," he mouthed.
Ben and Douglas watched as the Birds of Prey finished eating and got up from the table.
"I guess the solved their problems," Douglas said.
"Yep, and I don't know whether that's good or bad," Ben observed.
THE LEXINGTON: CREW QUARTERS
"Here is the code," Brian said as he handed a piece of paper to Trevor.
"Thanks. Meet us at hangar three at oh one thirty."
"You're not going to go leave at one and leave me behind are you?"
"Never. You have the word of The Hawke. I don't leave my friends behind."
"Did you say friend?" Brian asked quietly.
"Yes."
Brian smiled briefly, then put his unemotional face back on quickly. "I have one more favor to ask," Brian said.
"What's that?"
"That Zjan-Ren never finds out I went with you guys."
THE WONDER BOY
So far it had all gone according to plan. Scottie had let them sneak out of the hangar. The were now riding in the blind spot of the Lady Lex waiting for the launch of the "Raptor." Right at oh three hundred the "Raptor" left her berth and took off in the expected direction. The "Wonder Boy" went after her, Dylan maintaining the proper distance. The adrenaline through the boys' blood streams more than made up for any tiredness they felt.
The boys went about their duties as Brian sat in the jump seat usually occupied by Kalon or one of the other crew instructors. Except for Trevor and Ian the rest of the Birds of Prey pointedly ignored him. But Brian had one thing going for him that had nothing to do with him directly. The redemption of Ian at dinner after he formulated the plan they were following had shown a the tougher boys that things weren't always as they seemed; even a dork can find occasion to soar like an Eagle.
THE RAPTOR
The crew of the "Raptor" consisted of eight men tightly squeezed into the small student shuttle: Kalon Masters and Ensign Anderson, of the "Lexington" crew to fly the shuttle; Master Sergeant Flint, Sergeant Masters, Corporal Bennett, Corporal Eckstein, and Colonel Stone of the Marines: and Harrison Wolfe. Kalon couldn't help but be amazed at how the English teacher managed to get himself into the middle of things. Kalon piloted the shuttle with Anderson acting as his engineer and navigator.
"We fly in warp for thirty minutes. When we drop out we should be about a five hundred thousand clicks from the planet. Then we sneak up to it and land near where the old SFA compound was," Colonel Stone said.
"All of the intelligence I have says there is little there in the way of detection devices. The SFA took all their equipment when they abandoned the outpost," Harrison Wolfe said.
"How recent is your intelligence, Mister Wolfe?" Colonel Stone asked.
"Admittedly, not very recent."
"Then we approach the planet with all caution."
"That's strange," Ensign Anderson said. "I just got a blip on our rear sensor."
"Is it still there?" Stone asked.
"No, it just came and went."
"Do your friends have shuttles flying watch, Mister Wolfe?" Stone asked.
"They'd have to have a pretty large fleet to cover all the ground they'd need to. I doubt it."
"It's probably just a glitch on the sensor. Even a new student shuttle like this doesn't have the best equipment made," Kalon observed.
A couple of minutes later Anderson said, "There it is again." Kalon looked down at his screen, but saw nothing. "Gone again."
Suddenly the lights flickered off, the hum of the warp drive stopped, and the "Raptor" fell out of warp, coming to a complete stop. The lights came back on using emergency power.
"What happened?" Stone asked.
"I don't know. We just lost all of our power," Anderson said.
"This isn't something your friends who keep appearing on our sensors did, is it Mister Wolfe?" Stone asked.
Wolfe didn't answer.
THE WONDER BOY
"They dropped out of warp," Chandler said. "Are we there already?"
"No, it's too soon according to these plans," Ian said. "Something must be wrong."
"Drop out of warp," Trev ordered.
The "Wonder Boy" dropped out of warp. "There's the `Raptor'," Chandler said, checking his instruments. Trevor could now see her out the window.
"She's on emergency power," Ian said.
"How do you know?" Spencer asked.
"By the way the navigation lights are flashing."
"What do we do now?" Kyle asked.
"You have the coordinates of the planet, right Ian?" Trevor asked.
"Right here," Ian said pointing to his notebook.
"And the coordinates of the place the boy is?"
"Yes."
"Well, then," Trevor said. "I don't know what happened to the `Raptor', but somebody has to rescue that boy. It might as well be the Birds of Prey."
"I love it!" Spencer said. "Let's do it!"
All of the boys cheered except Brian McDowell. He was just realizing he was getting more than he had bargained for.
"Put her in warp, Ian," Spencer said. "Let's go kick some ass."
THE RAPTOR
"Sir, a shuttle just dropped out of warp," Ensign Anderson said.
"Can you get weapons up?" Colonel Stone asked.
"Negative, sir. We have no power for the weapons. It's all currently in life support."
"Then it looks like we might be in deep shit," Stone observed.
"I don't think so," Kalon said with a smile. "That shuttle happens to be the `Wonder Boy'. That's who's been following us."
"The `Wonder Boy'? What are they doing following us. That's the shuttle of Ben and Douglas. They're not that stupid," Stone said.
"Sir, the shuttle has just gone back into warp, on a heading for the outpost."
"Goddamn it! Ben and Douglas are two of our most reliable cadets. What the hell to they think they're doing?" Stone shouted.
"Oh, I don't think you're seeing Ben and Douglas dashing off to the rescue," Harrison Wolfe said with a smile. The Lady Lex was full of audacious boys, but only one group had the skills and the audacity to steal a shuttle. "I think you're seeing Trevor and The Birds of Prey."
Kalon looked out into space. "Well, whoever it is, good luck to them. They'll need it."
To be continued.....