***The Hills of Time***
                  ***By George Pollock, Jr.***

                       ***Chapter 2***
               ***Those Who Are About to Die***

   Lufy Campbell woke up in hell, among a million tiny flames.
   She could see them through the window.
   How interesting, she thought.
   She had no idea that hell had windows.
   And in front of the flames, looking through the window at her, was a 
Paranoid.
   She fought to focus her eyes. As she did, the Paranoid's face started to 
turn slowly. It started to ... roll.
   Wait, she thought.
   Not a face.
   A head.
   The head of a Paranoid's exoskeleton.
   And nothing else.
   Lufy sank deeper into her chair in disgust.
   Chair?
   In hell?
   She squinted and looked around in the darkness.
   Small flashing lights. A blue targeting screen. Hand controls.
   Mother in heaven, she thought.
   I'm alive ...
   Alive!
   In my ... cockpit.
   In my fighter!
   She started. Sigma Narse! The battle! The Paranoids! Where the hell am I? 
Where's the fleet?
   She caught herself. Whoa, girl! Easy! Stop! Think, damn it, Lufy, think!
   Slowly, she remembered.

*******

   She had been chasing a Paranoid drone when suddenly, half of space turned 
white.
   Planet Destroyers. The white death.
   She recalled only one thought from that moment:
   The fools. Damn them all.
   She broke off her attack immediately and pointed her fighter into space. 
Full power to engines and aft shields. It was her only chance.
   Behind her, unable to change course in time, the Paranoid drone flew into 
the approaching white light. And was gone.
   Lufy felt the G-forces of full power pushing her deeper into the pilot's 
seat. The whine of the engines filled her headset and stabbed her mind. She 
groaned in pain.
   On the sides of the cockpit canopy, she saw space start to turn white.
   "SHIT!!" she screamed. "NO!!"
   The shock wave hit. Lufy was slammed hard into her seat. She felt her back 
hit the chair frame through the cushions.
   For an instant, she felt the acceleration as her fighter was picked up by 
the shock wave like a leaf on a torrent.
   Then something strange. Very strange.
   The last thing she felt.
   Her blood flowing as one from her brain.
   Whiteness engulfed her fighter.
   Blackness engulfed her.

*******

   Lufy looked outside again.
   Straight at the slowly spinning head of the Paranoid just outside the 
cockpit canopy.
   She watched the eyeless sockets fill with shadow as the back of the 
metallic head came into view.
   Poor soul, she thought.
   Even if it was a Paranoid.
   She looked deeper into space. Among a million stars, she saw a huge debris 
field so thick, it looked like a swarm of insects. Pieces of planets. Shards 
of spacecraft.
   Bits of bodies.
   She looked again at the Paranoid's head. It was drifting away. Soon it was 
a point of light among the others.
   Only then did she notice the bumping sounds. Other debris was drifting 
past and striking her fighter. Gotta move, she thought, before something big 
flattens me.
   She checked the instruments. Systems were low-powered but seemed all 
right. She punched the ignition keypad. The startup whine followed. Thank the 
Mother, she thought.
   But what next? Think, Lufy!
   OK, gotta clear the debris field. See what's left.
   If anything.
   If anyone.
   Damn ...
   She suddenly realized how small her cockpit was.
   Was it all that was left of the Solnoids?
   Was she?
   "NO!" she exploded. She breathed heavily. Then quietly, "It won't end like 
this. I won't let it!"
   In anger, she pushed the controls forward. The fighter advanced slowly, 
then gained speed as the engines gained power. The debris started moving past 
Lufy faster.
   "Not like this ..."

********

   Lufy cruised for a long while, then cut speed when it became apparent that 
finding another Solnoid craft would take longer than she hoped.
   "This is Group Leader Lufy Campbell of the Solnoid Lorelei Fleet, calling 
any Solnoid ship. Please respond. Over."
   Static.
   "This is Group Leader Lufy Campbell of the Solnoid Lorelei Fleet, calling 
any Solnoid ship. Please respond. Over."
   Static.
   Lufy sighed. No contact since she started hailing.
   No contact with the living.
   The dead were all around her.
   Lufy knew that death was part of war. But she had been lucky. She had 
always outrun it. Not only her own death, but the deaths of others. You 
rarely saw the faces of those killed in space. She had mourned friends -- 
mourned them deeply -- as their fighters vaporized under Paranoid fire, but 
it was final and complete. If you were lucky enough to survive, you thanked 
the Mother. Memories were all that were left of the dead. No bodies.
   Until recently.
   First was the shattered cyborg Bronz-X pilot who had fallen out of its 
craft after Lufy's first battle for the Lorelei Fleet. Fallen -- and bled -- 
practically at Lufy's feet.
   Then, after the destruction of DAMIA, she had witnessed the pain and 
screams of the wounded on the recovery ship.
   And then today ...
   Lufy screamed when the first ruptured Solnoid body suddenly almost hit her 
cockpit canopy straight on. 
   The body's internal pressure had exploded when the woman had been thrown 
violently into the vacuum of open space. Frozen blood coated the torn 
uniform. Pieces of organs and tissue floated loosely from fissures in the 
body. From the helmet the woman wore, Lufy knew that she had been a tactical 
officer on the lower decks of a large ship. 
   She couldn't tell how old the woman was. The face had been exploded off.
   As with the Paranoid's head, Lufy had stared in horrified fascination 
until the body passed behind her fighter. 
   But soon, she became used to seeing the dead slowly dance around her ship 
in the weightlessness of space. 
   Dozens of them. Scores. 
   Hundreds.
   Thousands.
   I was right the first time, she thought.
   I did wake up in hell.
   Then -- in the darkness of her cockpit -- in the quiet of her mind:
   Mother ... hear me.
   I don't pray to you that much, I know. 
   But please, please tell me:
   Did we finally kill ourselves off this time?
   If we did ... forgive us. Give them peace.
   But ...
   Why ... me?
   Why am I still alive?
   Why?
   Mother ... WHY?
   Someone ... please talk to me ...
   "This is Group Leader Lufy Campbell of the Solnoid Lorelei Fleet, calling 
any Solnoid ship. Please respond. Over."
   Static.
   Lufy sighed again and changed the ship's heading for a sweep of a new area 
of the system.
   Behind her, as the fighter moved off and disappeared, the dead danced 
slowly.

*********

   A dull-metal tube with a nozzle and a reservoir.
   Infinizene 248.
   Lufy studied the hypospray. Seemingly endless time had passed as she 
scanned for friendly craft. She was at quarter-power now, trying to conserve 
fuel. The fighter's sensors had limited range, and all she had seen was 
wreckage.
   And carnage.
   She had taken the hypospray out of the pilot's survival pack a few minutes 
earlier. She had to consider her options.
   Cryofreeze.
   She remembered the last time she had known cold.
   Alpha 12.
   In a battered red Struggle Suit, amid her and Rabby's battle with Paranoid 
drones, Lufy had overheard the frantic shipboard exchange on her com -- the 
jump to light speed couldn't be delayed.
   Rabby, in a crippled fighter, begged Lufy to return to the Star Leaf with 
her.
   But Lufy's Attacker blood rage -- sharpened by her battle wounds -- was 
too strong.
   "Com'on, you Paranoid zombies!" she screamed as she fired her weapon in 
all directions. "I'll kill you all!! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!"
   In a red blindness, she blasted away the last Paranoid drone she had been 
chasing.
   Her Struggle Suit's power gauge hummed into the red zone. No more 
propulsion or firepower. Only life support was left. She remembered breathing 
heavily, trying to recover, while floating in space. Finally, she turned back 
toward the Star Leaf.
   To see the light drive's exhaust port glowing white -- and the shimmer of 
the spatial warp.
   Then a flash.
   And they were gone.
   The people who grudgingly took her in after she crash-landed a fighter on 
their ship during a battle. The people who she thought were greenhorns who 
shouldn't be in space.
   The people who taught her -- in a few precious hours -- the meaning of 
caring for one another.
   Gone.
   Eventually, she felt the surviving Bronz-D combat robot cradle her. She 
stared weakly at the patch of stars the ship had disappeared into.
   She felt tears.
   Her first in so long.
   And for the longest time after that, she and Bronz-D floated in the silent 
freedom of the stars.
   Until the cold came.
   The blue searing cold started in her toes. Then the hard pain took the 
feeling in her fingers and hands. And legs. And arms.
   Then the ripping cold crept into her chest, making each breath a stabbing 
terror.
   Until at last, there was a gasp.
   And darkness ...
   Back in her cockpit, Lufy stared at the hypospray.
   Finally -- slowly -- she opened the waste-ejection chute and put the 
hypospray in. She closed the chute and pushed the ejection keypad. There was 
a whoosh of vacuum as the chamber was emptied into space.
   Outside, drifting up and away, the hypospray tumbled through the blackness 
until it disappeared.
   Lufy watched it vanish. Then she rummaged in the survival pack. She pulled 
out the standard-issue sidearm and studied it.
   "Mother, I swear," she said quietly, "I won't freeze again ..."
   She put the gun aside.
   "Ever ..."

*******

   eep.
   "Zzzzzz ..."
   Eep.
   "Zzzzzz ..."
   EEp.
   "Zzzzzz ..."
   EEP.
   "Zzzzzz ... Unhhh ..."
   EEP!
   "Unh ...?"
   EEP!!
   "Wha' ...?  OH, SHIT!!"
   In a spasm of reflexes, Lufy slammed the fighter hard to port, skimming 
the planet fragment that filled the cockpit canopy. A breakneck swirl of 
brown changed suddenly to white streaks on black as she pointed the small 
ship back toward open space.
   She breathed hard for a few seconds, trying to regain control. Her heart 
was racing as she leveled the fighter out again. The sensor's proximity-alert 
beep trailed off, leaving only the hiss of static from the com system.
   Damn, Lufy thought. Nodded off. 
   "Mother," she whispered, "please don't do that to me again ..."
   She looked around, still trying to calm down. Even considering the 
fragment, the debris had thinned out considerably from what she remembered. 
Must be on the edge of the system, she thought. Wonder whether anyone else 
made it out.
   They'd better have, she thought, or I'm gonna be pissed.
   But ...
   Where could they have gone from here?
   Where could ... I ... go?
   Sigma Narse was in a remote backwater of the quadrant. Lufy knew that she 
couldn't get to any nearby systems just in a fighter. There were no habitable 
planets nearby, anyway.
   And she couldn't get to Terra.
   She looked deeply at the stars.
   For the first time in her life, they seemed forever beyond her.
   Slowly, she looked down at the gun she had put aside. She rested her hand 
on it and sighed.
   Mother ... hear me ...
   I was angry and scared when I took this out.
   I've always had the courage to fight. I've always had the courage to live.
   But now ...
   I don't know whether I have the courage to die ...
   She grabbed the stock of the gun and closed her brown eyes.
   Help me ...
   Talk to me ...
   Somebody ...
   Silence.
   Breathing.
   Static.
   A crackle.
   "... calling any ..."
   In electric surprise, Lufy opened her eyes. For an instant, she sat 
paralyzed.
   And listened.
   Static.
   "... need of immediate assistance. Please come at once. This is the 
Solnoid escort ..."
   Static.
   Lufy's hand whipped away from the gun and frantically adjusted the com 
system. "YES!! YES!! WHERE ARE YOU?!" she shouted, almost laughing.
   "... any craft receiving this. We are in need of immediate assist ..."
   "Come on! COME ON!!" She punched keypads wildly, trying to get a fix on 
the signal. She had noticed that the message was repeating. Automated 
distress signal, she figured.
   But that could mean ... there still might be no one alive to find ...
   "... Star Leaf calling any craft receiving this. We ..."
   "The Star Leaf?!" Lufy froze. The Star Leaf. Had it survived the mission 
to Chaos 10 years ago? Was it still in service?
   Faces flashed in a stream in her mind: Catty -- though she didn't know 
then that Catty was an android.
   Pony. Patty. Little Rumy. Eluza.
   And Rabby.
   "Swabby" Rabby ...
   The friend who fought at her side at Alpha 12. Fought to save her 
crewmates. Fought for Lufy's forgiveness after their stupid argument. Fought 
and earned Lufy's respect.
   And love.
   Would Rabby still be on the Star Leaf? Would the rest of them? Was it 
possible? After 10 years?
   Could they still be alive?
   "Please come at once ..."
   "AHA! GOTCHA!!" she cried in triumph. The directional finder started 
flashing, indicating a positive lock on the signal. She checked the 
coordinates and set the fighter's course. Grabbing the hand controls tightly, 
she powered the ship to full speed. The thrill of acceleration pushed her 
body into the seat.
   She smiled. "Lufy's on her way, Swabby. I'll find you ..."

*******

   "Oh, Mother ... Oh, Mother above ..."
   On highest magnification on the sensor readout, Lufy barely saw a 
Kularis-class escort carrier.
   Or what was left of one.
   "Oh, no ... Please, Mother, no ..."
   She had been hailing the Star Leaf continually while homing in on the 
distress signal. No response other than the automated message.
   Now, even from this far away, Lufy could understand why no one was 
answering her hail. Preliminary images showed the port wing torn off. Damage 
to the belly and engine area.
   And the forward catapult doors were open.
   Damn.
   Had they abandoned the ship in the Blossom escape vessel?
   If they had, Lufy thought, there's no telling where they would be by now.
   "This is Group Leader Lufy Campbell of the Solnoid Lorelei Fleet, calling 
the Star Leaf. Please respond. Over."
   Static.
   "This is Group Leader Lufy Campbell calling ..."

*******

   "... the Star Leaf. Hey, you guys! Wake up and talk to me!"
   Eluza, Rabby, Patty and Catty stared at the com station board.
   After a long silence, Eluza spoke softly. "I don't believe this ... She's 
dead ..."
   In shock herself, Rabby whispered, "So were you, Eluza ..."
   "The group leader was found frozen at Alpha 12 recently," Catty explained 
quietly. "I'm glad she survived the cataclysm."
   Rabby nodded. "Me, too ..."
   Patty started chuckling. "Of course. Of course ..." The others looked at 
her. "... The apocalypse comes -- and Lufy walks away unscathed ..." She 
shook her head and smiled. "She wouldn't have it any other way ..."
   Rabby was still recovering from hearing Lufy's voice for the first time in 
10 years. She tapped a keypad. "This is the Star Leaf to Group Leader 
Campbell. Hey, Lufy! This is 'Swabby' Rabby Ciera! Good to hear your voice 
again! Over."
   Static.
   "Lufy, this is Rabby Ciera on the Star Leaf. Please respond. Over."
   Static.
   "Lufy, this is the Star Leaf. Please respond. Over."
   Static.
   "DAMN IT!!" Rabby pounded a fist on the board and turned to Eluza. "It's 
like I said before! We can't call out!!"
   Eluza nodded. "But now someone knows we're here. One step at a time, 
Rabby. Keep trying to get  through to her -- and be patient. Catty, track 
Lufy on sensors."
   "Aye," the android said and headed back to her station.
   Eluza turned to the ops officer. "Patty, what's the status of the 
batteries?"
   "I've cut power to all but essential systems. For the record, among other 
things, we now have no hot water, laundry or food synthesizers. It'll be 
field rations from now on, Eluza."
   The captain winced. "As if our situation weren't bad enough ... All right, 
keep working on conserving power."
   "Aye."
   The bridge doors opened, and Amy entered. Eluza saw concern in the nurse's 
eyes.
   No, more than that: Worry. Fear.
   Amy walked over to Eluza, but the older woman saw that Amy was focused on 
Rabby's splint as she approached. "Report," Eluza said.
   "Captain," Amy said hesitantly, "I can't get to the med room."
   "Why not?"
   "That block has been sealed off by an airtight door. If there's a hull 
breach there, that would explain why I couldn't interface with the medical 
database. I can't get to any of the medicines or equipment in sickbay. I'm 
... sorry, Captain." She looked at Rabby, working the com station. "The 
commander might have to wear her splint longer than I thought ..."
   "I see," Eluza said. "What medical supplies can you get your hands on, 
otherwise?"
   "Well ... I have my pocket scanner. And there are first-aid kits 
throughout the ship."
   "Then collect as many of them as you can and put them where we can get to 
them quickly."
   "Yes, ma'am. I also have some ... drugs ... in the med bag I always carry 
..."
   "Add them, too. Make it so."
   "Aye." Amy turned and headed off.
   Eluza watched her go. She's a child, she thought. Like so many others who 
grew up to die in this filthy war. At least she survived the bloodshed.
   If for only a few hours.
   Oh, Mother ...  please ...
   Help me keep her and the others busy, so they won't have too much time to 
fear.
   Because even a million first-aid kits won't change our fate ...
   Eluza shivered.
   Only partly because of the growing cold.

*******

   The poor 'Leaf, Lufy thought.
   She was approaching the carrier slowly from the port stern. It looked as 
if a huge creature had chewed the ship raw, then spat it out as unappetizing.
   It looked dead.
   Hope that wasn't true of the crew, she thought.
   She guided the fighter slowly around the stern, past the gaping wound that 
had been the engine room. Mother in heaven, she thought, how did they survive 
that? She noticed that the hangar bay just below seemed unscathed. But it was 
in shadow, so she couldn't tell for sure.
   The small craft turned to scan the starboard side. The larger ship's 
starboard wing was still in place. Lufy watched the vessel's name -- STAR 
LEAF -- crawl by in giant letters.
   Every gravestone needs a name, she noted morbidly.
   "Stop that," she whispered to herself.
   On her left, the giant Solnoid symbol passed by: a yellow inverted 
triangle with a thick black border cut off at the corners, leaving an 
irregular hexagon. Lufy had never been entirely fond of it: She thought it 
looked like the center of a target. Just what you needed on the side of your 
ship during a battle. She had always wanted to meet the person who thought up 
the symbol.
   So she could shoot the fool.
   The fighter slowly approached the bridge. Lufy brought the craft in 
closer, so the port wingtip almost grazed the Star Leaf's hull. She leaned 
toward the canopy, hoping that doing so would help her see better through the 
bridge windows.
   Please let someone be there, she thought.
   It dawned on her that more than anything, that had been a prayer. She had 
done that a lot today. Capt. Nebulart had asked her to pray back on the 
planet Embryo before the successful -- but tragically short-lived  -- 
terraforming.
   No doubt: The captain had started something for Lufy.
   And there was light.
   A yellowish-red light filled the entire bridge of the Star Leaf. Emergency 
lighting.
   And a silhouette.
   A head. A chest. Two arms.
   The head turned to one side. The mouth moved. Quickly, other shadows 
joined the first.
   Lufy pounded a fist against the cockpit wall. "YES!! MOTHER, THANK YOU, 
YES!! HA!!" She laughed in triumph and stopped the fighter. Pressing her 
forehead against the canopy, she concentrated to make out the first figure's 
features.
   As Lufy's eyes adjusted to the dim light she was looking into, details 
emerged:
   Long darkish hair. Brunette? Redhead?
   Big eyes. Light in color. Green or blue.
   Large earrings flashed. Striped in thirds.
   Striped earrings?
   Wait ...
   Red hair?
   Blue eyes?
   Oh, Mother ...
   Oh, Mother above ...
   "RABBY?! RABBY!!" Lufy waved like a madwoman. "RABBY, IT'S ME!! LUFY!! 
SWABBY!! IT'S ME!!"
   To her relief -- and gratitude -- the figures in the window started to 
wave back.

*******

   "Well," Patty said after she stopped waving, "she's here. Now what?"
   Eluza looked at Rabby. "Did you ever get through to her?"
   The redhaired woman shook her head. "No. I tried routing the outgoing 
signal through every circuit I could think of. No dice."
   The captain sighed. "Patty, do we have anything we could use to make 
placards?"
   "Placards?"
   "Something she could read from where she is."
   "I ... suppose. I'd have to scrounge something up."
   "Do it. We have to get a message to her somehow."
   "Aye, Captain." Patty turned and left the bridge.
   "Catty," Eluza said, "do you have any sort of internal transmitter that 
could contact Lufy?"
   The android thought. "I'm sorry, Captain. I can interface data directly 
with a computer, but I can't transmit free thought other than through writing 
and speech. I also have a sort of ... distress signal ... within me. But it 
doesn't transmit speech -- or even text. It wouldn't help us here."
   "Can it be modified to transmit messages to Lufy?"
   "No, ma'am, it can't." 
   Eluza nodded. "All right, then. We'll ... write her a letter."
   Rabby chuckled at the joke but was cut short as Lufy's voice boomed across 
the bridge. "Hey!! Ain't you guys gonna say, 'Hello'?!"
   Rabby looked out at her friend: The same dark eyes. The blond hair with 
the shock of green in front. Barely, she could make out the red star tattoo 
on the Attacker's right cheek.
   Ten years. She hadn't changed, Rabby thought. But freezing did that for 
you. She knew. She knew all too well.
   "Hey, swabby!" Lufy called. "I see ya by the window! Can you hear me?"
   Rabby nodded broadly.
   "Can you get on the horn?"
   A broad shake of the red hair.
   "Can't transmit, huh?"
   Nod.
   "OK ... Hey  ... you all right?"
   Nod.
   "Good. Nice to see ya again, red. Been taking care of yourself? Ya don't 
look 10 years older. Did ya trip and fall into a cryofreeze unit? Ha!"
   Slowly, a nod.
   "Oh, shit! Sorry! Sorry! Oh, Mother, swabby ... I didn't know ..."
   Rabby shrugged.
   "Look ... um ... we need to get me in there with you and the others. Any 
ideas?"
   Eluza's voice came softly from behind. "Rabby ..." The first officer 
turned around. "Let's talk."
   Rabby nodded. She spun back to the window and put up a single finger. 
"Hold on," she whispered. Then she turned and joined Eluza, who had stepped 
away from the windows.
   The captain sighed. "Rabby ... this will sound horrible. ... If ... Lufy 
somehow gets on the ship ..." She looked toward Catty, across the bridge, 
then lowered her voice. "If Lufy gets aboard ... she'll face the same thing 
we face if we aren't rescued. She'll freeze, Rabby."
   Rabby felt a cold surge in her heart. For a moment, her mind shut down at 
the thought of Lufy's possible death. 
   Not her death. Lufy's.
   The captain continued: "She can still search for help, Rabby. That would 
help us all."
   Rabby shook off her shock. " 'Luza ... she'll be just as dead in her 
fighter as she would be in here. ... If ... I were her, I'd want to die among 
my friends ... not alone in a cockpit ..."
   "I understand ..."
   "And I don't think she'll last as long in her fighter at this point as she 
would in here, Captain ..."
   Eluza's purple eyes flashed. It was "Captain" again.
   Rabby pressed her point. "What do you plan to do, Captain? Are you going 
to refuse to let Lufy land?"
   "She IS under my authority at this point, Commander."
   "Request permission to speak free ..."
   "Just say it, Rabby."
   "OK. I don't think you have the right -- at this point -- to keep Lufy 
outside because MAYBE she'll find someone else. Her best chance for whatever 
survival she has left is in here with us."
   "I have to do whatever I consider to be best in the broader interests of 
this ship."
   "DAMN IT, THIS SHIP IS DEAD!!"
   Eluza gasped.
   Catty spun around in surprise. 
   Rabby quickly realized how quiet the bridge had become.
   An uncomfortable silence. A long one.
   Finally, Rabby bowed her head and said, "I'm ... sorry, Captain. ... But 
... what we've been through ..."
   Eluza regarded her coolly for a moment. "Rabby ...," she finally said 
quietly, "you get to do that once in my presence. Once. And that was it. You 
will never -- never -- do that in front of the crew. It's bad enough you did 
it in earshot of Catty. ... Do you understand?"
   "... Yes ..."
   "OK ... Then I'll make another confession to you."
   Rabby looked up.
   Eluza leaned forward and whispered: "Commander ... you're right. ... This 
ship IS dead ..."
   Rabby shook her head. " 'Luza ... don't make Lufy die out there alone ..."
   Rabby never knew what Eluza's answer would be.
   "Hey, you guys!" It was Lufy again. "I'm gettin' bored out here! I'm gonna 
put 'er in the hangar bay. See ya there!"
   Eluza started. "NO!! Damn it, no!! Catty, wave her off! Wave her back!"
   The android ran to the window. "Captain, she's already turned away!"
   "Shit!" The captain rushed to the window. "Damn her!"
   Rabby joined them. "What's wrong?! What's wrong with the hangar bay?!"
   Catty turned. "Commander, Patty -- Lieutenant Commander Wellington -- said 
the hangar bay force field was inoperative. It's an open vacuum down there. 
If the group leader lands there, she won't be able to turn her fighter around 
without a ground crew. It'll be a one-way trip into the ship ..."
   "... And she'll die trapped in her fighter on the flight deck ..." Eluza 
whispered.
   Outside, the small craft grew smaller as it headed for the Star Leaf's 
stern.
   "Oh, Mother ..." Rabby whispered. "Dear Mother, no ..." She grabbed 
Eluza's arm. "We have to DO something!"
   The captain thought. "Spacesuits ..." she finally said. "The Lorelei Fleet 
members' suits! They're in a locker outside the hangar bay! They left them 
there when they transferred from their gunship after it got shot up. We could 
at least try to get to her in them before she tries to open her canopy."
   Rabby was already heading for the doors. "Then let's go!"
   Eluza and Catty followed quickly, grabbing three com headsets. As Rabby 
reached the doors, they opened to reveal Spea on the other side. The small 
brunette jumped back in surprise to see the others approaching her. 
Recovering quickly, she said, "Captain, there's something about the fighter 
pilots' stasis quarters I
need ..."
   Eluza cut her off. "No time, Spea! We have an emergency! Keep your headset 
on, stay on the bridge and keep in contact with us! We'll be outside the 
hangar bay!"
   And with a quick turn around a corner, they were gone.

*******

   Gonna do it right this time, Lufy thought. Had to.
   She recalled the first time she had landed on the Star Leaf.
   All right, she admitted: She had crashed onto the Star Leaf.
   It was during a battle with the Paranoid -- one of so many in her life, 
she wasn't sure where it had been. All she remembered was that the battle 
section of her fighter had been disabled and she had to jettison it. Shedding 
the bulk, her escape section became nimbler but had limited range. She had to 
set down on a carrier soon.
   That's when she saw the Star Leaf.
   As she acquired the approach vector, she got word from the ship -- from a 
flustered, harried Rumy, she later learned -- not to land.
   The hell with that, she thought. With a curt dismissal of Rumy over the 
com system, she flew full-bore into the hangar bay.
   Straight into the fighters still berthed there.
   But she had survived. That's all that mattered.
   The crew members, all six who were left aboard, were pissed. Especially 
that redhead Rabby. A swabby who hated Attackers for what she called their 
arrogance. Lufy called it the thick skin you needed to survive. What the hell 
did that Navy puke know, anyway?
   And when Paranoids later threatened the ship, Rabby had insulted her by 
suggesting that Lufy got her Attacker medal without giving a damn for the 
wing fliers Lufy had lost.
   Well, that was it.
   "Here's what I think of medals," she snarled at Rabby. She ripped the 
medal from around her neck and flung it to the deck, where it clanged and 
cracked.
   Then she ran off for the hangar bay.
   But moments later, Rabby was in a fighter, too. Well, the swabby had guts, 
if nothing else. And she had Lufy's medal in her hand. "Let's see if you 
really deserve this," she said.
   Then they flew off to face the Paranoids approaching the stranded Star 
Leaf.
   At Alpha 12.
   Where Lufy found respect and admiration -- and love -- for the brave soul 
Rabby was.
   Lufy remembered the end of that day too well. A day that lasted 10 years 
in the cold of a false death. She didn't care to replay it now.
   No matter.
   This time was going to be different.
   Gonna do it right this time.
   Lufy's fighter turned the corner of the Star Leaf's stern, headed for the 
hangar bay just below where the engine room had been.
   Darkness. Well, the ship had been beaten up badly, she thought. Couldn't 
expect them to waste precious power on lighting the bay.
   Just as long as the force field that separated the bay from the vacuum of 
space was working.
   Lufy tapped a keypad, and a circle of light burst onto the Star Leaf's 
hull from the fighter's landing lights.
It slowly moved over torn metal, then crept into the depths of the hangar bay.
   It wasn't pretty: A fallen beam. Lots of debris on the flight deck. Cables 
hanging like vines. Tricky. But just enough room among it all to put down.
   And this time, Lufy noted, there were no other fighters berthed.
   Thank the Mother for that, she thought.
    She positioned the fighter for her approach. The ship's thrusters burst 
briefly as she made the final adjustments for entry.
   She sighed. Well, no time like the present ...
   Lufy pushed the hand controls forward. The engines' whine built as the 
craft slowly moved toward the Star Leaf. Soon the carrier's stern filled the 
forward canopy. Lufy focused on a clear spot at the far end of the hangar bay.
   Steady ... steady ...
   The opening of the hangar bay slowly advanced past her side canopies.
    Good ... steady ...
    Now the sparkle of the force field as we pass through ...
    The sparkle ...
    The sparkle ... ?
    What the hell ...?
    Mother ...
    "SHIT!!" Lufy cried. "The field isn't working!! Damn it!!" 
    Immediately, she pulled the controls back to stop her forward progress. 
The engines' whine stopped. She breathed deeply, trying to clear her head.
    Now what?
   Think, Lufy, think!
   Can I back out with the forward thrusters?  She looked around.
   Not good. Could get hung up on something I can't see behind me. Damn it!! 
How could I be so stupid?! Damn it!!
   OK ...
   Can I turn around using the side thrusters? Not recommended in training. 
Too clumsy. Better to have a ground crew turn you on the flight deck.
   A luxury she didn't have.
   She checked again. Too close to the starboard wall. Not that way.
   How about to port? Looks OK ...
   Lufy tapped a keypad. The starboard thruster burst, and the ship slowly 
turned to the left. The circle of light in front of her danced over bulkheads 
and doors and wreckage.
   Then with a thump, a snake suddenly draped itself across the canopy.
   Lufy shrieked. She punched the thruster control, and the movement stopped.
   Her heart raced as she studied the serpent. Where the hell did it ...?
   Wait a minute ...
   Hold on ...
   A power cable ...
   Oh, Mother, she thought. Oh, Mother ...
   You've got to stop playing these tricks on me ...
   Lufy leaned forward to study the cable. It hung from where a ceiling panel 
had fallen and stretched all the way to the flight deck, where it was caught 
in debris. Lufy tapped the thruster again. The fighter moved to the left 
slowly again. The cable stretched for a moment, then went taut. The 
thruster's pitch started to build at the resistance. The cable stayed put.
    She turned off the thruster. Well, that was that. Not going anywhere that 
way. Could get the ship tangled up, and that would be the end right there.
    She tapped another keypad and positioned the fighter forward again. She 
looked ahead. The clear spot on the flight deck beckoned. But that's death, 
Lufy knew. It's a vacuum in here without the force field in place. Can't put 
down there now.
    And I can't get back out.
    And I can't turn.
    Dear Mother ...
    I'm dead.
    She looked down to her side. The gun was still there.
    Well, Lufy thought, at least I found Rabby again.
    And I'll die near her.
    It's so cruel ...
    She's so close ...
    Just beyond the double doors on the far wall ...
    Swabby ...
    Just past the ...
    Doors ...
    Lufy blinked.
    Double doors. Wide enough for a double column of fighter pilots to run 
through.
    Double-wide doors.
    Slowly, carefully, she surveyed her cockpit.
    A single-seater. But taking into account all the equipment on the sides, 
then the frame of the fighter's nose, then the metal skin ... the actual 
width of where she was sitting was ..
    Just about right ...
    Lufy smiled. 
    Why ... not ...?
    If I fail, I'll be just as dead ...
    Quickly, she reconfigured the thrusters so all force would shoot forward. 
Taken together, all thruster force could keep a fighter stationary against 
quarter main power. You'd be trying to move forward, but you'd be held in 
place.
    But if you took the thrusters off-line suddenly ...
    And if you went from quarter to full power instantly after that ...
    Slingshot.
    The computer beeped as it registered the new firing program. A red keypad 
flashed, awaiting her touch to ignite.
    Lufy entered a new course:  Straight ahead. Full power.
    Right at the double doors.
    She sat back for a moment and closed her eyes. This long day at Sigma 
Narse would end in a few seconds.
   As would her life.
   Or she'd be with Rabby again.
   "Mother," she whispered, "as you will ..."
   She opened her brown eyes and touched the red keypad.
   Together, the white flares of the thrusters shot from the bow, as the 
orange flare from main power flamed out from the stern. Lufy felt the fighter 
tremble as the forces fought to a standstill.
    Then the white flares went out.
    At that instant, Lufy was thrown back into her seat as full power kicked 
in. The cable outside strained and snapped.
    And faster than Lufy could ever imagine, the doors came at her.

******* 

   What Rabby remembered later was an airy explosion and a deafening screech 
of metal.
   At that instant, the cold, dim corridor she was running down suddenly 
lurched violently, throwing her, Eluza and Catty to the deck. Debris fell 
from the ceiling. The lights flickered for an instant, then slowly resumed 
their feeble glow. She picked herself up slowly and saw the others groaning 
and arising from the deck. Steam puffed out as they caught their breath.
   From around a corner ahead, there was a faint hissing. Rabby knew the 
sound: escaping air.
   Bad news. Really bad news.
   But the hissing's pitch  increased and, with a squeak, stopped. The 
emergency vacuum cocoon in a bulkhead had activated. Thank the Mother 
something still worked on this ship, Rabby thought. She faced the others. 
"You two all right?"
   "I'm undamaged, Commander," Catty said. "But I'm detecting a slight loss 
of air pressure in this block. We might have had a hull breach."
   Eluza was already on the headset com. "Spea! What the hell happened?!"
   From the bridge, Spea replied. "Something hit us from the stern, Captain! 
I think it was Lufy! You said on the com she was headed for the hangar bay!"
   From the shadows behind the three women, a pair of weak voices shocked 
them with the same word: "Lufy?"
   The trio turned to see Shildy and Amy, wearing com headsets, appear from 
an intersecting corridor. The taller woman led the nurse by an arm. Amy held 
a hand to her forehead and moaned slightly. Under Shildy's other arm were 
several first-aid kits.
   "Thought you were in the bow," Eluza said.
   "I was," the black-haired woman said. "I met Amy on the way to the bridge. 
She said you told her to collect first-aid kits, and I decided to help her. 
Captain, what's this about Lufy?"
   "Later," Eluza said. "Bring those kits. We might need them. Follow me!"
   The group fell in behind as the captain turned the corner. They advanced 
through smoke that arose from somewhere ahead. Then suddenly, Eluza stopped.
   "Mother in heaven!" she cried.
   The others halted. Someone gasped. 
   "Holy crap ...," Rabby whispered. 
   The corridor before them was blocked.
   By the nose of a Solnoid fighter.
   The craft's bow was sticking through a double-wide doorway. One of the 
doors curled away from the fighter like the rind of a fruit. Smoke still 
whisped from where metal had scraped against metal. Through some small gaps, 
they could see the plasticlike cocoon sealing the corridor from the vacuum 
outside.
   Below the cockpit canopy, the yellow Solnoid symbol -- scarred by the 
collision -- was visible.
   And through the canopy, they saw a figure slumped forward.
   Rabby screamed. "LUFY!!"
   She ran to the wreck and pounded on the side of the craft. "LUFY!!"
   The figure stayed motionless.
   Like a woman possessed, Rabby scanned the hull for the emergency-rescue 
release. Pulling it, she heard the canopy locks release and the hum of the 
power hinges as the canopy opened.
   Rabby pulled herself up until she was half inside the cockpit. She shook 
her friend's shoulder. "Lufy!! Lufy!!"
   The Attacker's head fell back. Her eyes were closed, and a gash bled from 
just above her hairline. A trickle of blood ran down the right side of her 
nose and touched the red star tattoo on her cheek.
   "Lufy!! Please!! Lufy!!"
   Silence.
   Eluza looked up at Rabby. "Rabby ..."
   The first officer shook Lufy's shoulder again. "LUFY!!"
   A tiny moan.
   Then a loud inhalation. A noisy exhalation. And amid the blood, two brown 
eyes opened slowly.
   Rabby gasped. 
   The eyes seemed empty for a moment, then looked up slowly at the woman 
touching Lufy's shoulder. Lufy spoke in a whisper. "Rabby ...?"
   With tears filling her eyes, Rabby smiled and nodded.
   Lufy kept her gaze. "Heaven ...?"
   Slowly, Rabby reached over and cradled Lufy's head next to hers. "It is 
now,"  she whispered.
   Lufy took a breath. "Swabby ... I guess ... I got out ... and ... pushed 
... like I said ..." She closed her eyes. 
   Rabby was startled to hear ... whimpering.  She pulled back to see Lufy's 
face contorted in sorrow. The first time she had seen that.
   A tear fell from Lufy's right eye. "I ... wanted to ... do it right ... 
this time ... I ... wanted to! ... Wanted  to ... I'm ... sorry ... Rabby ... 
I'm ...so sorry!!" Her head fell forward, and she started to sob loudly.
   Rabby cradled Lufy's head again. "It's all right ... You did fine ... It's 
all right ..."
   Amy walked up to Eluza. "Captain," she said, "she's going into shock. We 
need to get her out of there now."
   Eluza turned. Amy was surprised to see a tear cross the captain's cheek. 
Seeing the teen-ager staring at the track, Eluza brushed  it away quickly.  
"Um ... agreed," she said, almost absent-mindedly. She called to Catty and 
Shildy. "Help Rabby get her down."
   The three unfastened Lufy's safety harness and delicately extracted her 
from the smashed fighter. They lay her down on the deck, her legs elevated on 
Rabby's lap as Amy scanned the Attacker.
   Catty was assessing damage to the Star Leaf. "Captain?"
   Eluza came over. "Yes, Lieutenant?"
   Catty pointed to the area of the wall that the fighter's tip had crushed. 
Among the torn metal was shredded red fabric and countless shards of  thick 
curved yellow plastic. Peeking out from under the fighter's very tip was a 
crushed air-and-thruster pack.
   "The spacesuit locker ..." Eluza noted. "Now we can't even go outside ..."
   Suddenly, the beat of fast footsteps came from behind. All but Lufy looked 
toward the approaching sound.
   From around the corner, Patty appeared. "I heard the crash!" she yelled. 
Then she stopped and realized that the excitement was over.
   She took in the scene, puffing out steam as she caught her breath. She had 
big pieces of cardboard in one hand and a large black marker in the other.
   Her breathing slowed to normal as she saw Lufy. She looked at her old 
acquaintance for a moment, memories filling her eyes.
   Then she peered down at the objects in her hands. She looked at Eluza and 
spoke softly.
   "Guess you won't need the placards, huh?"

TO BE CONTINUED