Space Fighter

A short short story I wrote.

Careening through the upper atmosphere, space fighter squeezed his eyes shut, trying to cut out the flashing lights and screaming alarms, searching for the voices and sounds inside his head. These tones, the frequencies of his thoughts, desires, and dreams, had always competed with the noise around him. He loved space because he could hear himself, hear is heartbeat, and now, he wondered if that deep, silent abyss would finally swallow him, lead him to a loud, burning death above this planet.

“Longitudinal stability warning. Excessive rotation imminent,” his computer said, its feminine voice loud but calm.

He checked his schematic. Another longitudinal stabilizer gone. Only two of four remained. Grabbing hold of a control stick, he programmed its directional input to correspond with motors L4 and R3. Guiding it left and right, he fought his capsule’s tendency to roll. The flames visible through his peripheral windows seemed to burn brighter every time he noticed them, casting an orange glow across the cockpit. He closed his eyes once again, tried to reflect on his life, resigning himself to the violent bumps and pitches of his capsule, his hand unconsciously moving to correct the longitudinal unbalances.

***

He was quiet, and that’s why she liked him. His demeanor bespoke a maturity about him, an importance that she had never seen before. He wasn’t particularly good at anything, but not bad either, with no particular interests outside of spatial engineering. He just seemed to glide through his life, not caring how well he did. Even when he wasn’t doing anything, he seemed preoccupied, those intriguing bluish-yellow eyes turned towards the sky. She remembered the first time she spoke to him on the opening day of university classes, the way he let questions hang in the air before responding, always thinking before he spoke. She fell in love with him that night, when he told her his dreams of becoming a space pilot.

That’s what she said to him the night she died, bleeding in his arms from a gunshot wound to the stomach. He had always wondered what he had done to deserve her. From then on, he would never love again, and he’d always take the toughest missions, hoping to one day join her.

***

There was a flash, so bright it seemed to cut right through his eyelids. He shook off the momentary disorientation, and looked at his computers. Everything was dark. His computer systems had shorted out. No worries. He had built the Atari for resilience. And firepower. He reached up and flipped his circuit breakers. He had always preferred manual controls whenever possible. Even his computer system was practically ancient. No other ship could have made it this far in such a steep ballistic reentry, for the price.

Flashing blue for a moment, some of his computer displays popped back to life. Others remained dark, fried from the electricity. He glanced over to his status schematic. Autopilot and targeting computer were cooked. He almost never used autopilot anyways, and he had no use for weapons at the moment. Again, he closed his eyes, blocking out the noise, peering into his head.

***

Some would say he was a criminal. He preferred vigilante. A natural loner since his parents disappeared, he could never fit in with the massive commercial trade unions, always at war with each other. He hated their ships, always preferring to design his own. He worked as a hired guard for different fleets, without preference, which was illegal. He didn’t care what the fleet was carrying, or who. He didn’t ask questions. Only the money mattered. And he made lots of it. He wasn’t much of a spender, though, using most of his profit on funding the development and construction of new ships, which he built out of old, reliable parts.

His ships were difficult to fly, since his autopilot systems were rudimentary. Sometimes, in smaller ships, he didn’t even install one. He used basic switches and gauges, things that didn’t fail when under the test, like the large multifunction displays of more contemporary craft. His ships were ugly and unforgiving, but they had spirit, and they always got the job done.

***

A vast expanse of blue, this planet was mostly water, with a few small continents. Gazing down upon it through his optical heads up display, space fighter couldn’t see a single cloud, just a dark blue coat, glinting the way the ocean does, inviting him to dive in. He panned his camera around and zoomed in on the vessel he’d been protecting. It was far away, just a small speck at maximum magnification. The only thing he cared about was on that vessel: his daughter, only three years old. He panned his camera around to view the pirates, now burning chunks of metal, following him in this fiery dive. He’d won another fight, odds stacked heavily against him, tricking the pirates into an extremely steep atmospheric reentry with a series of maneuvers. This time though, he didn’t know if he’d make it.

***

Heavy shuttering, and then a high-pitched screech. Horizon flipping once, twice, faster and faster, the capsule at the mercy of aerodynamics. Seconds later, another bang. Space fighter knew what had happened before his computer even processed the information. He’d lost his two remaining stabilizers. Hands in a blur, a deftness with the controls that no amount of fleet training could ever produce, space fighter assigned different thrust vectors to his various control devices. The gee forces of the rotation pushed his body into his seat, an invisible hand pressing into his chest, pulling his head back. An alarm went off, the one alarm he never wanted to hear. Most alarms evoked excitement, this one fear. Structural failure imminent. He managed to confirm his control arrangements, fighting against the gee forces, and reached for his primary control stick. Straining, fingers outstretched against the invisible hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, he was so close….

***

In the skies above Treyon 3, a bolt of flaming red tore across the sky, down past the horizon, out of sight.

 

Reviews

[Roland Corvus]

Really enjoyed this, kept me exited for the brief duration. I'd like to see what happens to space fighter.. He wants to reunite with his only love, but doesn't want to leave his daughter alone, interesting predicament.