The First Starfighter, Grace Goodwin [popular novels .TXT] 📗

combat speed is one half the speed of light.” He sounded proud of the specifications. “Short-range travel approaching light speed, but we can’t go far. That’s why Starfighters need a base nearby.”

“And why Queen Raya’s Scythe fighters don’t attack every day. They are short-range fighters as well?”

“Correct.”

“Are we faster than Mach 1?”

“I do not understand the term.”

“Faster than sound? Are we faster than the speed of sound?”

He blinked at me as if confused. “Much, much faster.”

I wanted to pump my fist in excitement, but I was a grown woman, not an eight-year-old. “Coordinates, my handsome copilot?”

He stared. Longer this time. “Are you feeling well?”

The burst of laughter caught me by surprise. I’d had my world rocked in a control room by the hottest alien I’d ever met. I’d had an orgasm, thank you very much. So had he. And on top of all that, I was flying my dream ship right now. For real. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

With a frown on his face, Alex sent the coordinates to my view screen, and I took off, literally, like a rocket.

Full. Speed.

“Whooooo!” My shout of joy was pure, from the heart, as going “much, much faster” than the speed of sound pressed me into my seat. This was freedom. This was a dream. This was so damn perfect I felt tears gathering in my eyes as I directed my ship like I’d flown her a thousand times.

Because I had. Even the sounds coming from the engines and the soft whisper of my own breathing inside my helmet. Everything felt comfortable and familiar. It was so easy. I ran the ship, checked systems, monitored fuel, and kept one eye on my scanners, watching for enemy ships without even thinking about it.

We made it to the small cluster of space debris Alex had indicated in just a few minutes, and I pulled back on the throttle and moved into synchronous orbit with the giant rock in front of me. It was more like a small planet, really. Maybe a dwarf planet?

“That was amazing.” Every cell in my body was buzzing with life and excitement and possibilities. I hadn’t been this happy about anything since I was a kid. Hell, not even then, not with my drunk mom and missing dad. I’d known I wouldn’t have the same options other kids had. But look where I was now. Holy shit, just look. Outer freaking space. In a starfighter that I had named, that was built for me. Me!

And Alex was next to me. And he was mine. MINE!

“What next?” I asked. “I don’t want to go back yet.”

Alex smiled. Finally. It changed him. He looked hotter than ever and… happy. “I am not surprised. Your skill cannot be denied. You are, indeed, an Elite Starfighter.”

Watching the debris field float in front of us, my finger twitched on the trigger. “Can we blow some stuff up? You know, one of the little ones?”

The smile slipped away. “Absolutely not.”

I wanted to pout. “Why not?”

He laughed but answered my question. “Blowing up any of these stable clusters could send a fragment to Velerion and cause a massive impact.”

My eyes widened at the thought. “That would be bad.”

He laughed louder. “Yes, bonded one, that would be bad.”

I shrugged that off. “Okay, so we don’t want to cause Armageddon. How am I supposed to practice?”

He raised a dark brow and studied me. “Do you need practice?”

Damn it. That was the million-dollar question. “No. My accuracy rating is over ninety-eight percent in the ga—I mean training.”

“We should return to base,” he replied. “You are running on excitement. When you crash, you’ll want nothing more than warm food and a soft bed.”

“And you.” The words were out of my mouth before I even thought to sensor them. I bit my lip and blushed.

The laughter faded from his eyes as we looked at one another over the control console that separated our two pilot seats. His eyes narrowed. Heated. “That can be arranged, my Jamie.”

A warning beacon sounded, the cockpit’s interior color switching to red. The sound was familiar, but I had no idea about the red light. Or the fact that it made everything seem urgent and tense.

“Fuck,” Alex swore under his breath.

My heart skipped a beat because that was extreme.

“This is Outpost Gamma 4. We are under attack. Repeat, this is Outpost Gamma 4, and we are under attack.”

8

Jamie

The same female voice who had directed me out of the launch bay back on base came through my headset now. “Gamma 4, this is Arturri. What is your status? How many ships do you have on scanners?”

I glanced at Alex as we listened. Since he had automatically switched into fighting mode, this was serious.

“Velerion, this is Gamma 4. Status update, shielding is holding but is down to thirty-two percent. They’re jamming our scanners. We have visual confirmation of three Scythe attack ships. Repeat, visual only. Confirmed three Scythe fighters.”

“Gamma 4, this is Velerion. Confirmed, three Scythe fighters.”

A loud boom sounded through the comm, and I flinched as if the rock and debris had exploded inside my helmet.

“I thought you said we were out of attack range because of Velerion’s orbit!” I practically yelled at Alex.

“Gamma 4, this is Velerion. We are scrambling a starfighter. Estimated arrival fifteen minutes.”

“We are out of range,” Alex replied, which meant the enemy was doing something that hadn’t been anticipated. “They should not be attacking us now.”

“This is Gamma 4. We’ll be dead by then. Shields at five percent. We have children here.”

Kids? They had kids on whatever this Gamma 4 place was?

“What is Gamma 4?” I asked.

Alex pulled up a schematic of the structure on a screen before us, and I tried to make heads or tails of the multiple layers of three-dimensional images. I was not an architect, but it looked like a gigantic factory.

“Gamma 4 is a production facility for shuttle engines and shielding components for our entire fleet. It’s a small, hidden base that employs just