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Flame
Date: July 16, 2199
Setting: EDF Underground Airbase, Great Island, Japan
All around her, Feria Noble heard the racket of planes being washed and repaired. Only a few more squad members needed to straggle in before oh-eight hundred. She leaned against her silver plane, watching as her fiancé pulled something out of his flight-suit pocket.
"Here." Hinata held out a closed hand.
"What's this?" Feria reached out an open palm to accept his gift.
"I… couldn't get you anything else… and since I never gave you a ring…" He took her hand and laid the object in it.
Feria stared at the gift. It sparkled in the hangar lights – a small, red crystal, strung on a leather cord.
"Hinata… I…" Tears welled up in Feria's eyes as she clutched the carmine to her heart. "You didn't have to."
"I wanted to." He gave her a lopsided grin. "I had to let all those other flyboys know you're taken somehow," he said, gesturing all around them.
Feria eagerly fastened the carmine around her neck. She held the stone in her palm. It was beautiful, polished perfectly, unlike anything she'd seen in the underground cities. With the Earth in such dire straits, no one had the time for a craft like stone-cutting now, unless it was for industrial equipment.
"Where'd you get it?" she asked.
"Dad gave it to me when I was little. He found it on one of this expeditions on Mars. When he got home, he had it cut and set. He put it on this cord, so I wouldn't lose it – said it would always remind me of him if… something ever happened."
"Hinata…" Feria was speechless. "I can't take this from you."
"Yes, you can," he replied, closing her hand over the stone. "You're the woman I love. What's mine is yours. Now, it will remind me of my father and my fiancée."
Feria tucked the carmine under her flight suit and zipped it up. She glanced at the time, displayed at the front of the hangar, oh-seven fifty-seven. She turned toward the conference room as other pilots trickled past. "I… have to go."
"I know," Hinata said. "I have to get back to my hangar too. There's supposed to be some big announcement today."
"I heard," Feria replied. "Any idea what it's about?"
"No," Hinata said. "But I think it has to do with the coming offensive."
"Maybe," Feria agreed. "I'll see you tonight." She gave Hinata a hug. "I love you."
"I love you too, Spitfire," he winked at her and let her go.
Date: September 9, 2199
Setting: Pluto-space, near Yukikaze
"Get out of there!" Feria warned as two enemy fighters locked on to Hinata's plane.
Hinata jerked left, straying out of one fighter's laser spray and just under the other's.
"I'm on them," Feria said, targeting the first enemy craft. She shot true, sending the hostile spinning away, less a wing and half its tail.
"Get back to the ship," Hinata's voice crackled over the radio as the other plane continued to dog him. "Get the information to Captain Wildstar on Yukikaze. The flagship's data transfer system is down."
Feria tried to get a lock on the second enemy plane, but it was so fast. She got off a shot. Missed. She pushed her little fighter to its limit, screaming by the wreckage of her squad-mates' planes.
Hinata continued, "Two-twenty-seven is only getting video and audio messages, and not very well at that."
"I'm not leaving without you," Feria insisted, taking aim at the other plane again.
"No time," Hinata replied as three more hostiles appeared. "Take the information, Feria! We've sacrificed too much for this not to make it back to Earth."
She heard a soft blip as her computer finished the transfer from Hinata's plane.
Her throat went dry as four enemies swarmed in, locking on to Hinata's fighter. He sent his plane into a sharp climb, but they all stayed on him.
An explosion bloomed in Hinata's engine.
"Go!" The single word echoed through Feria's comm as her love's fighter exploded.
"Hinata!" Feria screamed into the radio. "Hinata, answer me!"
Nothing.
She ran, pushing her little plane through the debris fields, tears streaming down her face as she dodged scraps of silver and green fighters. Her vision blurred. She blinked it clear with a sob and bit her lip.
Two enemy planes were on her tail within a few seconds. Fear coursed through her. If Hinata couldn't outmaneuver them, what made her think she could?
Up ahead, she caught sight of the Yukikaze, fighting to shield Captain Avatar's wounded flagship.
"Dragon Two to Yukikaze," she tried to raise the gunship.
Nothing.
Lasers streaked all around her, flashing violet-red. She cut right, heading for a listing enemy destroyer. The emerald hull loomed close. Half an instant before she ploughed into it, Feria yanked as hard as she could, zooming up a hair's breadth from the hull.
Her pursuers slammed into their own ship, rocking Feria's plane with the explosion.
She shook as she let out a relived sigh, still trembling as images of Hinata's plane flashed through her mind.
Yukikaze was still close. She darted back through the wreckage, avoiding the enemy capitol ships.
Pain stung her heart as her tears stubbornly kept coming. "This hurts more than I could have imagined," she whispered, feeling the cool touch of the carmine over her aching heart. "I love you, Hinata. I'm sorry we never got to do all the things we talked about or live the life we planned together."
Still weeping, she sped back toward her home ship, Ryu.
Her chest tightened as she approached Ryu's coordinates.
"Dragon Two to Dragon Lead," Feria tried to bring up her squadron mates. "Dragon Lead?" she tried again. "Four? You there? Jean?" Nothing. "Three?"
She took a deep breath. "The radio's down. That's all," she told herself as she whisked by the wreck of an EDF ship. She caught sight of the name emblazoned on its side, Georgetown. She bit her lip and kept going. Another wreck. Luminia.
"Ryu, this is Dragon Two," Feria tried to raise her ship on the radio again. No one answered. Then she saw it, another wreck up ahead.
Her breath caught in her throat as she came close enough to make out the name on the hull and the blazing head of a dragon.
"No…" she whispered.
She gritted her teeth and flew past the dead ship, recognizing the same emblem on half a dozen slagged fighters, drifting in pieces around Ryu.
Only a handful of enemy planes still wandered the debris. The rest had already returned to their ships.
"No one left to shoot down," Feria muttered bitterly through her tears.
She shot through the destroyers easily, dodging their laser blasts, aimed, not at her, but at the capitol ships. She felt like a fly caught in a whirlwind.
Feria checked her computer core. The information from Hinata was still safely there.
She concentrated on weaving through the next knot of enemies. Her radar told her Yukikaze was still close by. If she could make it into transfer range, everything would be alright.
What was she thinking? Nothing was alright. Hinata was gone – her shipmates dead or dying, and the fleet…
"God, let me make it in time," she prayed. "Before they shoot me down."
Feria swept around a large enemy ship.
There it was, the Yukikaze, engaging several enemies at once, but still standing.
"Dragon Two to Yukikaze," Feria tried her radio.
"Go ahead, Dragon Two," came the quick reply.
"Retrieval complete," she said. "Transferring data now."
"Transfer complete," came the reply several seconds later. "Proceed to the flagship."
"Roger that," Feria choked around another wave of grief.
She shot past Yukikaze, headed for Captain Avatar's ship. When she found it, the flagship was smoking, listing to one side, but not out of the fight.
"Dragon Two, on approach," she hailed. The hangar door cracked open to receive her.
Date: October 1, 2199
Setting: EDF Underground Facility #3, Nova Forrester's Quarters
"I just… I can't believe he's gone…" Feria said, leaning over. "It's been almost a month since the battle and I – I can't get it out of my head." She held her face in here hands as she wept. "I miss him so much, Nova." She looked over at her friend, sitting next to her on the thin bunk. "I know he's not in any danger or pain now, but I can't help it."
"I know," Nova wrapped her arms around the other woman. "You loved him – you're going to miss him, Feria – maybe for a very long while."
Feria pulled out the carmine crystal and stared at it. "They sent me a draft invitation," she said.
"For the new ship?" Nova asked.
"The re-built Yamato, yeah," Feria wiped some of her tears on her sleeve. "I don't know if I should take the position."
"They want you as a pilot?" Nova asked, pulling back to look at Feria.
"For the Black Tigers." Feria laid a hand over the patch on her jacket – a red dragon. "I don't know if I can just give it up, you know. I was with Ryu for four years, Nova – four years. Those people were my family. That's where I met – Hinata," she choked.
"You don't have to do it, Feria. They'll understand. Earth still needs good people on other ships – on Earth even."
Feria chuckled mirthlessly. "What other ships?" she asked. "Two-twenty-seven? It can't even fly straight anymore. This long-shot is the only ship we really have."
"Do you know about the mission?" Nova asked.
"There was a briefing in my invite packet," Feria nodded. "A hundred and forty-eight thousand light-years one way is quite a haul… I don't know if it can be done."
"It has to be," Nova said, determination in her eyes. "There isn't another option."
"A miracle," Feria muttered.
Nova nodded. "I suppose, but where's the adventure in being handed a solution?" She smiled at her friend. "Besides, I've never know you to forgo an adventure."
Feria fingered her carmine. "No, I guess I haven't. Are you going?"
"I am," Nova said. "I know it's where I need to be. You coming?"
Feria sighed. "Yeah. I'll come." She smirked at her blonde-headed friend. "That pretty face is going to get you into trouble one of these days."
Nova smiled.
Feria clutched the crystal, the pain of loss lessened just a little, but still hanging on to her aching heart.
Date: August 24, 2200
Setting: Onboard the Argo, Med Bay Room 2
Feria opened the book on her tablet and started to read aloud, "'As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place.'" She glanced at Nova, still lying unconscious in bed. "You know, I never really understood why you liked this book so much until I read it," she whispered, stopping and taking Nova's hand. "There's just something about it… It's old, but the story's one that's been played out over and over."
She resumed her reading, but several minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Feria called.
The door hissed open and in stepped Peter Conroy, his flight jacket hanging loosely around his shoulders, hands in its pockets. "Hey."
"Hey," Feria replied.
Conroy took a seat on the other side of Nova's bed. "How's she doing?"
"Not any different," Feria sighed, setting her tablet down on the bedside table. "I wish I could do something else – something that would help her wake up."
"You are," Peter assured. "I'm sure she knows you're there, even if she can't say so. What were you reading to her?"
"Pilgrim's Progress," Feria replied. "She told me it was one of her favorites years ago. I only read it myself a few months back, but I see why she fell in love with it." Feria fingered her carmine as thoughts of Hinata rose unbidden and a sheen of tears covered her eyes. She looked away, hiding them from Peter as she tucked the stone back into her uniform.
"She'll be alright," Conroy said, seeing Feria's distress. "Once we get back to Earth, I'm sure there's something they can do for her."
"Yeah," Feria managed. "Yeah, I'm sure they can help her." She bit her lip. "I just… don't want to lose anybody else."
The two fell silent, both staring down at their unconscious friend and crewmate.
"Feria…" Peter began. "I – If – Whatever you decide to do when we get back to Earth, I'd be glad to have you on my squadron any time."
Feria met his eyes, noticing something in them she'd not seen before. "Thanks…" she said.
"I don't know what I would have done without you this past year. You helped keep everyone in check – more so than I did at times. Even Hardy backed off when you told him to."
Feria smirked. "I had two older brothers. And they were afraid of me before I was three." She smiled mischievously.
Peter laughed. "Remind me never to cross you."
"I wouldn't worry about that too much," she replied, noticing the weight of the carmine over her heart.
"Well… I just wanted to see how she was… and to tell you… that –" Peter hesitated. That same spark lighting up his eyes again. "– that I always enjoy your company, even back when we had to trek through the ship in the dark, with Starsha's hologram – that day that ship was possessed."
Feria smiled. "Yeah…"
Peter stood to go. "I'll see you later."
"See you," she replied as her squad leader left.
Feria pulled out the carmine again. That look in Peter's eyes… It reminded her of Hinata.
Date: August 31, 2200
Setting: Peter Conroy's Apartment; Underground City; Chicago, Illinois, USA
Peter stuffed his luggage back into his closet and took a long whiff of his musty apartment. He was back home – finally. A year was a long time to be away, and he hadn't realized until he'd stepped back inside the small space how much he missed it.
Everyone was moving back to the surface, helping rebuild. Several of the people in his neighborhood were already topside, but he was content to stay where he was for the time being.
He rummaged through the odds and ends he'd picked up as souvenirs along the way to and from Iscandar: a rock from the floating continent, a printed picture of him and Feria at the ship's Christmas party both wearing gawdy sweaters, one of the burnt-out wave motion engine components, and several other little things.
He set each token in its place, where visitors – what few he had – could see them.
He cleared out the rest of his belongings and sat down by the window. Opening the blinds, he gazed out into the underground city.
With a sigh, he picked up his worn, bound Bible and opened it. Something small clunked to the floor. He leaned over and picked up a sealed envelope. Puzzled, he looked for a name or address, but the envelope was blank.
He shrugged and tugged it open, thinking he'd left it there himself and forgotten about it. He pulled out a piece of paper, folded neatly in half. Noticing the slight bulge at the bottom of the envelope, Peter dumped the contents into his open palm.
He stared at the object in recognition and slowly opened the note.
Dear Peter,
Our time aboard the Argo is something I will never forget.
You said you didn't know what you would have done without me, but the same is true for me. I don't know what I would have done without you.
When I was afraid, you were the one who told me everything would be alright. When I was sad, you were there to remind me that there was a brighter tomorrow just around the corner. When I was happy, you were right there with me, sharing in that happiness.
We walked through fires together, fought off enemies we shouldn't have been able to defeat, and saw things we can never explain to anyone else.
If there's ever another adventure I can take with you, I want to do it. You're an amazing person, Peter Conroy.
I've enclosed my carmine. You can give it back to me when we see each other again.
Your wing-man,
Feria