Hello, my name is Jack.  We all do battle every day, even though most of us never realize it.  Some of us use rifles, pistols or great warships.  Some use the natural wits we are born with.  We are most dangerous of course when we use every weapon at our disposal.  I am alive now because many people in my life taught me how to use all of those weapons to survive.  In many ways, the battle of wits is the one I enjoy the most, as the vanquished always have a chance to return and do battle again.

 

 

Wits

 

Jack hurt.  He felt pain in his body from the rough handling he’d taken lately, both from Samantha and the other Cowboys.  More than that though, his soul ached.  He’d wondered more than once, in his darker times, if he even had one.  He’d never felt this ache when he left before, but now, standing in front of his massive Avenger, the realization that he was leaving a piece of himself behind hit him like the proverbial ton of bricks everyone always talked about.

“Jack?” Betty asked from the tarmac next to him.

“Yeah,” Jack answered her unvoiced question.  “Just give me a moment.”

“She’s home.”  Betty’s voice was kind, reassuring.  “She’s not watching you.”

Jack cleared his throat.  “I know.”

She rested a feathery hand on his shoulder.  “I understand.”

Jack smiled at her.  “Thank you.”

She cocked her head to the side and turned towards Charles’ fighter.  “He’s wondering what’s taking you so long,” Betty relayed to him.

“Nothin’ any more, Chief,” Jack said, trusting Betty to transmit his words.  He sucked in a deep breath and smiled.  “Betty?”

“Ready,” she said with an answering smile.

He felt New Earth’s heavy gravity melt away under the power of the Avenger’s grav plating and pulled in a deep breath.  The air still felt too much like soup in his lungs, but it was good to feel the kilos melting off him.  A quick push of his toes sent him flying up into the air in a shallow arc that allowed him to step onto the long nose of his star fighter.  He step down into the cockpit, lowered himself into the pilot’s seat, and chuckled as the canopy lowered down to seal him in.

He carefully snapped his restraints in place, not wanting to hurt any of his bruises, before nodding to the twenty-centimeter small version of Betty sitting on the console.  As usual, the moment the cockpit closed, she reverted to her favorite yellow sundress.  Well, to be fair, it was his favorite too.  It fit her in a way the uniform never would.  “Cowboy Five, ready,” he said after a quick scan of the instrument panels showed that they really were ready.

Betty was on the ball as usual.  She smiled and crossed her legs, leaning back on the console.  She was home, literally, and she relaxed into it fully.

“All Cowboys,” Charles’ voice came over the comm. system, “launch and maintain overwatch positions over the shuttles.”

“Roger that,” Jack answered before nodding to Betty.

Betty sat back up straight, crossed her arms with a nod, and Jack felt the last of the kilos melt away as the Avenger’s grav plating removed virtually all gravity from the equation.  The barest hint of maneuvering thrusters pushed them away from the ground with ease, and he kept his eyes pealed as they rose up into the air in silence.

Jack looked down on the glistening buildings of Leif Erikson Spacebase with a critical eye.  They weren’t entirely clean of course.  Litter floated in pools of water, clogging up drains.  Tree limbs and leaves lay everywhere, and more than one vehicle huddled against the ground, smashed by a falling limb.  Fallen limbs and leaves covered the outskirts of the base, where a veritable forest had grown over the years.  They would be cleaning the mess up for a while.

But that was not his concern.

The shuttles floated up into the air, huddling under the protection of the fighters, and Jack felt the faint acceleration as they began pulling up as well.  The shuttles and fighters moved up through the atmosphere at a smooth clip, main engines engaging as they left the ground behind.  Jack’s Avenger stood up on end, yearning to get out of the soup.

The air brightened as both suns came into view, and then darkened as they approached vacuum and the air became sparse.  The Avenger’s engines split away from the hull, giving her better maneuverability.  Jack looked around to see the other fighters, whether Avengers or Hellcats, and the shuttles doing the same.  Finally out of the last vestiges of atmosphere, the main engines came to full life, and the formation of fighters and shuttles rocketed away from New Earth, making for the Peloran task force in high orbit.

As the formation approached, the engines went silent for a moment before firing forward, slowing them down to match the orbital speed of the massive warships.  They passed through a wall of Peloran interceptors, parasite fighters deployed to watch the flanks of the task force.  Once through the wall, most of the shuttles broke away from the Cowboys and made way towards the warships they were supposed to supply.  Only a single shuttle continued with the Cowboys.

They passed by a bone white destroyer covered in golden runes, and Jack focused on it, trying to read the name buried in there.  He frowned as he realized he still couldn’t find it.  He grunted in annoyance.  He’d even been practicing.  But he still just couldn’t read Peloran in the wild.  They left the destroyer behind and the massive kilometer-long battleship it escorted grew in front of them.

A final burst of engines brought them around to match course with the Guardian Light and the fighters came to a halt relative to the task force command ship.  The shuttle pulled ahead and slipped into the large, bone-white landing bay in the rear of the battleship, slowing to a halt before lowering itself to the deck.  The new recruits, several Hellcats and a couple Avengers, followed the shuttle in first, leaving the original Cowboys to cover their, in some cases very shapely, rears.  Then the veterans flew in on puffs of rocket power, piercing the energy wall covering the landing bay with their long noses.

Jack and Betty’s Avenger slowed down to a soft landing, landing gear taking what little shock there was with ease.  Jack breathed a sigh of relief as the canopy opened to let in the Guardian Light’s air.  He breathed deeply of the air that just felt right.  He unbuckled his restraints and pushed himself gingerly to his feet.  It was easy, the gravity just right.

“Well give me pigtails and call me Goldilocks,” he whispered, stepping up out of the cockpit.  He looked and saw a full-sized uniform-wearing Betty laughing at him with a wicked glint in her eyes.  “No!” he added, stabbing her with a finger that went through her chest without any resistance.  “Bad Betty!”  She just laughed harder.  He raised an eyebrow at her.

She continued to laugh, not mollified in any way by his scolding, and nodded towards the floor.

Jack stifled a snort, a snort would hurt after all, and jumped off the fighter.  Betty’s grav plating generated an invisible wave of gravity he surfed down to the deck.  He stepped off with an easy gait and turned to see the rest of the pilots climbing out of their fighters.

He moved away from the fighter, looking for Hal.  He heard the hum of the holoemitters in his uniform come to life as Betty transferred to it and continued to scan for the ship’s cyber.  Finally he saw the Guardian Light’s cyber in the distance, walking out from under the giant tree at the end of the landing bay.  Jack focused on the cyber, saw the soft edges of his form and the way the air moved around him.  It was Hal’s real physical avatar, not a holoprojection.

“We should meet him well,” Jack whispered to Betty.

“Agreed,” she answered back and cocked her head to the side to signify that she was passing the message on to the other cybers.  Every other cyber leaned in to their pilot and whispered to them in unison, and Jack smiled as the pilots turned to look at Hal.  Then they allowed their cybers to shoo them into formation.  Jack suppressed a chuckle at how easily they allowed themselves to be handled by their better halves, even Charles who took up his position ahead of the Cowboys without hesitation.  Any thought of laughing ended when he caught Betty’s look and stepped into formation before it got any more deadly.

Jack cleared his throat, looked at Hal again, and caught a smile.  Jack’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then he smiled back with a shrug.  He looked around to see the shuttle’s ramps lowering, and nodded slowly.  He still had a little time.

“I’d like to talk to you about something,” he whispered low enough that even the pilots around him could pretend they hadn’t heard, glancing back to Hal.

Hal’s avatar nodded back, acknowledging that the ship had heard him with ease.

“Guardian Light,” Charles said, stepping forward as Hal approached with a waved hand aimed at the Cowboys.  “I present to you the United States of America’s Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112, the Cowboys.”

Hal smiled at the assembled pilots.  “You are well presented.  Your base of operation welcomes your return.  I look forward to knowing those of you I have never met before.”  A holoform flickered into existence next to the avatar.  “If you will please follow me to Cowboy Country,” the holoform asked and waved for the Cowboys to follow.

Jack began to move with them, but stopped when the avatar caught his eyes, giving him a slight shake of the head.  Jack nudged Jessie, glancing towards the Cowboys, and Jessie accepted the command with a tilt of his head and a smile.  He helped escort the Cowboys after Hal, leaving behind only two other pilots.  Jack raised an eyebrow at Charles and Jay, wondering what exactly was going on.  They all turned to Hal, waiting for the cyber to tell them.

“Aneerin would like you to join him on the observation deck if you are willing for a…planning session,” Hal said in explanation.

Jack looked at Betty in surprise and she smiled back, letting him know she wasn’t concerned.  Or surprised.  He frowned at her, wishing she’d told him this was going to happen.  Her expression took on an innocent look.

“We would love to,” Charles said to Hal.  “Come on boys and girls,” he added and stepped off to follow Hal’s avatar.

Hal and the cowboys stepped onto a lift, the door shut, and Jack felt it accelerate for the kilometer-long run from one end of the battleship to the other.  He felt it vibrate slightly as it hit terminal speed of just over 100 kilometers an hour before beginning to decelerate.  Jack swallowed and felt his ears pop.  Even with complete command of gravity, the Peloran still hadn’t licked that little side effect.  The lift slowed to a halt, the doors opened, and they stepped out into one of the largest rooms on the battleship.  The clear forward bulkhead showed them star-filled space ahead of the flagship.

Despite the thickness of the clear armor, Jack felt exposed.  In his fighter, at least he could dodge.  Here, he would be a sitting target if something shot at them.  Intellectually, he knew he was safer now than he had been on Leif Erikson Spacebase, but that didn’t stop the inner paranoid from gibbering in terror.  Jack stuffed the inner paranoid into a deep, dark hole and smiled as if there was no other place he’d rather be at the moment.

Aneerin, wearing his normal white uniform that blended into the white walls, cleared his throat to get their attention and waved them into the large empty room.  “It is good to see you again,” he said in his calm tone.  He turned to face the stars with a smile.  “We shall see battle soon I think, and viewing hyperspace with friends is always preferable to alone.”

Jack blinked in confusion, looking around to see the other Cowboys doing the same.  Aneerin considered them all friends?  For the first time Jack wondered how many people Aneerin counted in that column.

“I’m sorry,” Charles said and cleared his throat.  “We’re leaving now?  I thought we were planning an exercise with all of the squadrons in the task force.”

Aneerin chuckled.  “We are entering hyperspace now,” he said with a smile.  “We are not leaving.”  He aimed a look at Jack.  “We will I think be here for at least another day or two.”

Jack’s instincts started to tingle, and not just because Aneerin wanted to talk to him.  Something was going on here, something he’d not considered, and now his subconscious was trying to alert him to it.

“Hal?” Aneerin asked with a smile.

Hal nodded, and then his eyes began to flicker back and forth as he communicated with the other ships in the task force.  “We are ready to jump,” the cyber finally announced.

“Jump,” Aneerin ordered.

Jack closed his eyes, a bright flash turned his vision red through his eyelids, and darkness returned.  He blinked stars away and peered into the chaotic, twisted rainbow of colors that was hyperspace.  Gravity itself flowed and rippled here, viewable by the naked human eye.  It was truly beautiful.  Jack pulled in a deep breath and nodded.  It was almost as beautiful as a morning sun bouncing off a mist-covered lake.  Almost.

“Plot a course for the Hyades Cluster,” Aneerin ordered, pulling him out of his momentary lapse.  “Maximum depth, maximum speed, and engage,”

“Engaging,” Hal answered.

Jack felt the ships go deeper into hyperspace, away from the wall that separated them from normalspace.  The multihued colors of hyperspace grew more muted as they moved farther away from normalspace, deeper into the regions were hyperspace acted less like anything humanity naturally lived in.  He felt the ship shudder around them as a band of stressed gravity smashed into them.  And then they were moving forward into a mass of gravity bands so tight Jack couldn’t imagine how they were moving between them.  And more than once the ship shuddered as Hal failed to completely avoid them.

Jack licked his lips, forgetting the beauty of a few seconds ago.  “I thought we weren’t leaving yet?” he asked, really hoping for some encouragement.

“Oh we aren’t,” Aneerin answered in a brisk tone.  “We are simply going deep to avoid Shang scouts.  They cannot follow us this deep.”

“Of course, we did lose the couriers from Independence,” Hal supplied.  “So it would seem they can now.”

“Yes,” Aneerin whispered, bringing a hand up to rub his jaw.  “Most unfortunate that revelation is.”  He nodded as if deep in thought.  “We will have to go deeper then.”

Hal’s face seemed to tighten.  “Of course,” he said without protest though.

Aneerin pulled in a deep breath and set his jaw.  “Go ten percent deeper and look out for storms.”

Hal swallowed, placed his hands behind his back, and nodded.  The ship dove down further, the intermittent bangs becoming a steady thrum of gravity slamming against the ship.

“Is this safe?” Charles asked, a shade of worry in his voice.

“Absolutely not,” Aneerin answered, though his tone didn’t reveal even a hint of nerves.

“If this isn’t safe for a Peloran ship, what about the rest of them?” Charles asked, waving a hand at the Terran warships in the Guardian Light’s wake.

Peloran pulled in a deep breath before answering.  “With all the upgrades we performed on them, they should be able to follow us.”

“Should?”

Aneerin smiled.  “It is best to find out if they will break now, before we have traveled far, rather than later when we are attempting to break into the Hyades Cluster.”

Jack shivered at the idea of testing the new systems like this.

Aneerin nodded towards Hal and eight chairs appeared in the middle of the room.  Aneerin and Hal sat down in the ones with their backs to hyperspace and waved for the Cowboys to sit.  His face took on a speculative look.  “Do you know why we’re here right now?” he asked with a matching smile.

Jack and the others exchanged confused looks as they sat down.  He finished with a long look at Betty, who just smiled back at him as if he knew exactly what was going on.  He blinked and frowned at her for a second, before shaking his head and returning his gaze to Aneerin.

“Do you mean the metaphysical question of why we exist?” Jack asked with a wry smile.  “Or why we are at this spot at this moment in time?”

Aneerin smiled at him.  “I think I understand the first question.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose.  “Care to share the secrets?”

“Perhaps later,” Aneerin answered with an amused wink.

“You said something about battle,” Charles interjected.

Aneerin nodded towards him.  “Correct.  The important question of course is who will we fight?”

Charles, Jack, and Jay exchanged confused looks.  Their cybers of course just smiled.  Jack sighed and rubbed his forehead.  They were being tested.  He hated tests.  He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs.

Aneerin aimed a raised eyebrow at him.  “Jack?  Can you tell me your interpretation of The War in the Outer Colonies?”

Jack frowned, glanced at a smiling Betty, and rolled his eyes.  Reluctantly, he gathered his thoughts, ran his mind over the reports he’d read over the last month, and quickly checked his conclusions again.  “You know we don’t hear much from the O.C.,” he said.

“I know,” Aneerin answered, with an understanding smile.

Jack grimaced, shook his head, and sighed.  “Well, from what I’ve read, there’s a lot of wailing and very little gnashing of teeth going on out there.”

Aneerin gave him a questioning look, and Jack had the pleasure of actually, for once, catching the older man off guard with something.  And that pleasure made him a bit more verbose.

Jack sighed.  “Nobody has enough ships out there to really push any fight, so they’re doing more sparring over position than anything else,” he explained.  “Avoiding big fights if they can.  Really, no commander wants to be responsible for losing the war out there, so they’re not trying to win it.  They’re waiting for the big fleets near Earth to decide the matter.”

Aneerin smiled.  “Good summation.  So they’re irrelevant to The War?”

Jack almost answered in agreement, but something stopped him.  He blinked, and looked at Betty with a frown.  She gave him a pleased smile.  He turned back to Aneerin, a mystified look on his face.  He didn’t know why, but they would be important.  “No.”

Aneerin chuckled.  “Can you explain that?”

Jack shook his head and smiled.  “Absolutely not.”

Aneerin nodded in approval.  “Honesty.  And instincts.”  He turned to Charles and Jay.  “Either of you?”

Charles smiled.  “The Outer Colonies can not influence who wins The War, unless our casualties are so catastrophic that there are no winners of course.  But they will almost certainly have the numbers to influence the Peace that follows.”

Aneerin gave him a quizzical stare.  “So you assume there will be a peace?”

Charles nodded.  “No war can last forever.  Sooner or later, one of us will win and one of us will lose and there will be ‘peace in our time’ for a time.”

Aneerin nodded in approval.  “Your analysis is in accord with mine.  Do you believe the same thing of the Inner Colonies?”

Charles frowned.  “Mostly, yes, though they are some exceptions that could turn The War.”

Jay cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.  “I have noted a difference in how the Chinese fleets near Earth have fought compared to those in the Colonies,” he rumbled.

Aneerin smiled and nodded for the larger man to continue.

“The Chinese commanders near Earth thought they could beat us so they tried to destroy our fleets.  They failed.  The commanders in the Inner Colonies have avoided any major Alliance fleets and focused on easy targets, where they know there is no one to defend.”

Charles nodded in agreement.  “The last report we received of any strike was two weeks ago though.  They have been silent since word of our victory here reached them.”

“Indeed,” Aneerin noted in a solemn tone.  “So what do you think they intend now?”

Jack frowned and scratched his neck as an idea came to mind.  He examined it against everything he knew, looked at it from all sides in his mind for any hole, and grunted as he could find nothing wrong with it.  It felt right.  “They’re coming here,” he whispered.

Aneerin cocked his head to the side.  “What makes you say that?”

Jack shrugged.  “I don’t know.”  Then lightning struck and his eyes opened wide at the message from his subconscious finally got through.  “Wait.  Yosemite.  They have to repeat it to take our fleets out of action,” he said with more intensity than he meant to.

Aneerin nodded in approval.  “Yes.  They do.  So where?”

Jack frowned and glanced around the observation deck.  He caught a shift in Hal’s demeanor and his eyebrows rose.  He glanced at Betty, wondering if she’d caught it too.  She inclined her head marginally, showing she had.  Jack smiled at Aneerin.  “Well, I think he’s about to tell us.”

Aneerin smiled.  “That’s cheating, Jack.”

Jack spread his hands out wide.  “Just making use of every piece on the field of battle,” he said with a wink.

Aneerin shook his head.  “So now we are at battle with one another?”

“Every time we speak, it’s a battle of wits,” Jack said, once again with more intensity than he’d planned.

Aneerin bowed his head.  “Touché,” he whispered before turning to look Hal.  “You have news?”

Hal nodded.  “Scout Fleet is detecting movement.”

Aneerin turned back to Jack.  “New Washington?”

Jack considered the Peloran for a moment before answering.  It felt right.  “It is a good target.”  Then the realization hit and he looked out at hyperspace.  “And that’s why we went so deep.  They saw us leave.  The coast is clear, isn’t it?  So they think?”

“Indeed,” Aneerin answered, approval in his tone.  “Indeed.”  He turned back to Hal and nodded.  “Bring us around.”

Hal nodded.  “Changing course now.”

The ship groaned as it came around, and Jack could swear he felt it battering its way through the gravitic storm around them with renewed determination.  This was going to be a much longer day than he’d planned.