Fairy

Author's Note: This will be my first published piece...ever. (Dances around in glee and giggles hysterically.) It's a prequel story to Millennium Potion.

Fairy
by Sara King

         Dallas Kay was a prodigy. A phenomenon. A pain in the ass.

         That’s what Admiral Francisco liked to tell her. “Captain Kay, you are a pain in my ass.”

         It seemed like all the time Dallas wasn’t executing brilliant aerial maneuvers in the crowded airspace outside Osirus Station, she was rotting in front of Admiral Francisco’s desk, listening to him drone on about some imagined breach in Fleet protocol. The ‘pain in my ass’ speech meant it was a good day. On days when he was really pissed, he’d say, “Captain Kay, sometimes I believe you lack the region of the brain required to follow orders.” He’d follow that with, “See this? These are your discharge papers. I had my aide mark them up this morning. All I’ve gotta do is put my name right there and you’re going to fly civ the rest of your life.” Then he’d jab his meaty finger at a blank spot on the page and scowl at her.

         It was just a formality. Both of them knew he wouldn’t discharge her. He couldn’t. She was the most gifted pilot the Utopian Fleet had to offer.

         It was during another two-hour spiel that Francisco mentioned her next assignment.

         Dallas lunged forward in her chair. “Pirates? You can’t be serious. That’s a beginner job.”

         “Not this one,” Francisco said, offering her a file. “What do you know of Captain Athenais Owlbourne?”

         Dallas’s jaw dropped open. “No way.”

         “Orders came in this morning. Beetle just waylaid three government transport ships of Erriat--stole approximately three hundred mil in raw ore.”

         Dallas found herself grinning. “I thought Athenais was a myth. All that stuff about the ghost ship Beetle and its immortal captain, spurned by Hell to reap havoc on the Utopia... Holy crap, this is the best job you’ve given me all year.”

         “Most people would have the sense to be afraid,” Francisco commented.

         “How’s Beetle carrying it?” Dallas insisted. “A converted warship doesn’t have the room to carry that much loot.”

         “The goods,” Francisco corrected, “Are being towed.”

         Dallas got excited. “So she’s running slow.”

         “Yes. And last she was seen, she was headed for our trade hub. Unless Athenais wants to take a trot through uncharted space, she’s going to have to pass not twenty minutes from this station.”

         “Is she stupid?”

         “Brazen,” Francisco said, “But not stupid. We have reports she’s got an ASP. Can fry our computers if we get too close.”

         Suddenly, what he was requesting dawned on Dallas. “You need me to go manual and I’m the only stick-fairy in the Quad.”

         Francisco looked uncomfortable as he nodded.

         “No comp-corrections...aren’t you worried I might collide with my backup?”

         “There won’t be any backup.”

         Dallas froze. “You’re kidding.”

         “You will be given a Peregrine-Class fighter. Long-range. Best the Utopia has to offer.”

         “Do I get to pick my copilot?”

         “You won’t have one.”

         Dallas chewed on that, watching his expression. It didn’t bother her, not having a copilot--they usually screwed something up anyway. But Francisco seemed a little too uncomfortable, almost like he felt guilty.

         “You think I’m gonna croak.”

         Francisco cleared his throat politely. “Fleet Control told me to send in my best pilot. They want the goods returned.”

         “And the pirate killed.”

         “No. Just the goods. The towing grapple is to be severed at the base with short-range pulse to assure the ship remains unharmed. The pirate is to be left unmolested.”

         Dallas’s jaw dropped. “You’re giving me a Peregrine and you’re telling me not to take out Beetle?”

         Francisco gave her a long, hard look. “Dallas, if ever in your life you’ve needed that stunted region of your brain that follows orders, this is the time. The pirate is to be left unharmed.”

         Dallas stood. “If you’re afraid I can’t handle it, just come out and say it.”

         “The pirate,” Francisco said, his voice ominous, “Is not to be hurt.”

#

         I’ve got her now, Dallas thought, jubilant. Ahead of her, Beetle was limping toward the routing hub, trying to make clearance. Dallas fired again, putting another hole in the rear end of the ship. She saw a brief burst of oxygen and supplies explode into space.

         “Captain Kay, damn you, get your ass back to the station!”

         Dallas switched off the link to command and fired again. If the pirates had any sense, they’d all be crowded on the bridge, huddling through their last few moments in terror, reconsidering their lives of marauding and murder.

         Dallas was saving the bridge for last.

(...)



You can get the rest at http://www.bbtmagazine.com. Fairy will be in the next issue of BBT, along with a ton of other fun sci-fi and fantasy stuff. This is one of the best spec-fic magazines I've subscribed to, plus they're a great bunch of guys and they're willing to give an unknown author a chance, so please consider supporting their magazine. Thanks!

-Sara King
http://www.kingfiction.com