Chapter 10

SS Peake, February 23, 2157
High planetary orbit over Saturn

The SS Peake finally finished her deceleration burn and drew up alongside the Saturnian moonlet Saturn CLXXII. Now they could do the deep scans that they needed to complete the mission. The exact center of gravity was mapped out and the engineering staff was soon ready. “This is an insane plan,” said the chief engineer Lt. Commander Roy Bridges. He was a bomber co-pilot who designs starships for fun.

“That’s right,” said Pandora, “and you’re going to make it work.”

For the first time in a long time, Captain Scarlett addressed the spacemen. “Today Colonel Vermillion and I will mark the spots where the installations will take place. Tomorrow we start. If you’re not on the final design team, we have a list of setup work that needs to be done. We launch in forty five days. Questions?”

“Yeah, are you and the colonel getting back together, cause I’d like to know if I have a chance...”

“Eileen...” groaned Pandora. Eileen Collins was her navigator and a self-confessed sex hound.

“Wait ... what ... with me?” asked Alan.

“Either one of ya, I’ve been having these dreams...” the rest of her answer was drowned out by the laughter of the assembled men and women.

“Thank you very much Eileen,” said Pandora, interrupting Eileen.

“Any other questions? Something having to do with the mission or spaceflight in general?” asked Captain Scarlett. Lieutenant Scott Anders raised his hand. “What do you have for us, Fleagle? Don’t stand please.”

It’s a tradition to stand when asking a question of a superior officer, but zero G changes things. They were seated on benches behind long vacuum tables and had Velcro seatbelts to hold themselves in place. The vacuum tables held their notes in place as the officers briefed the troops. Lt. Anders reattached his seat belt and said, “Sir, you and Chief White and I have been flying around together for months. What are the Strike Force Berserkers doing without you?”

Instead of addressing him, Alan and Pandora turned to each other and spoke in whispers. “Tell them,” said Chief Cernan. “They need to know.”

Captain Scarlett turned and looked at the spacemen, who were waiting for him to speak. “In your careers, at some point you applied to be a member of the Strike Force Berserkers. The Berserkers are...” Alan stopped and tried to find the right words. He looked at Pandora and said, “This is a mistake.”

“Do it, you need to at least say it,” she whispered, encouraging him.

The young officers looked at each other in confusion until Alan said, “The following briefing is classified Top Secret. What you are about to hear is not for dissemination to anyone off this ship, and I will probably be charged with treason for telling you but what the fuck, my life can’t get any more fucked up. They can do what they want.” Captain Scarlett stood tall at the front of the briefing room, held in place by Velcro on his boots and on the floor. He took a deep breath and in a shaking voice Alan said, “Chief Cernan and I are the only surviving members of the Berserkers.”

There. He said it.

“What do you mean?” asked Chief White as shocked rumbling went through the room.

“I just read an article about a Berserker raid on a pirate mine in the asteroid belt,” said someone.

“Yeah,” cried another voice. “I saw it too. It was in the Navy Today magazine; they said it was just last year.”

Alan held his hand up for quiet. “That raid happened four years ago. The Navy changed the dates for publication. They don’t want to let anyone know the Berserkers are gone.”

“Gone?” asked Lieutenant JG Beth Moses. “I don’t understand ... I joined so I could become a Berserker.” She had a poster on her wall at the Academy of the Berserkers.

Pandora stood next to him, her hand wrapped in his and she said, “Tell them, they need to know.”

Alan frowned and tried to make eye contact with each of the members of Project Asimov. “We were returning from a training exercise over mercury. Chief Cernan’s wife was expecting, so I sent him earth side on a currier ahead of us. As we returned on the NSS Grissom, the NSS White and the NSS Chaffee, we were drawn into an ambush.”

He paused and tried to push the pain and anger down, then he continued. “The three squadrons from Grissom, the 101st, the 33rd, and the 43rd, were outnumbered eleven to one. We faced over five hundred fighters, and we mowed them down. The battle drew us close to station VS2, and we were ripped apart by heavy artillery that was installed on the station. While we were getting chopped up, deep cover Eastern Block spies killed almost every man and woman on our ships, two destroyers, the NSS White and NSS Chaffee had their power cut and were opened to space. NSS Grissom was in flames. The hand to hand fighting in the Grissom went on for nearly a week. While that was happening, our exit was cut off by Eastern Bloc fighters and we were slaughtered.”

“Eastern Bloc?” asked Eileen. “Really?”

“I took out a Flounder with my fifty caliber guns, I was ten meters away from him so yeah, it was a Flounder. After that I was rammed by a Frogtail and my day was over.”

“Damn!” Eileen gasped. The Flounder and the Frogtails were supposedly the Eastern Bloc’s newest and best. “What happened?”

“The Frogtail exploded and shoved me under the station. My ship was breaking up, so I punched out. I didn’t realize that I was under the station when I ejected, and I ended up deep inside a Pirate controlled station. My capsule had punched through the skin and five decks before I came to a stop.”

“Oh, my gawd,” gasped Jim Dutton. “Then what?”

Alan was quiet for a long time, then in a small voice he said, “They pried me out of my capsule, then,” he tried to say it but he could only say, “two weeks...” The room was silent as they hung on his whispered words. “Six of us survived the space battle and made it aboard the station. I was forced to watch them kill Gerald Carr, Owen Garriott, Bruce Peake, and Amy Fisher ... This ship is named for Bruce.”

Now Pandora looked like she was going to burst into tears. Gerry Carr, Amy Fisher, Alan Scarlett, and Pandora Vermillion, the four musketeers. They were a team. When they had time off, they went everywhere together. Gerry and Amy were engaged, he asked her a week before the battle.

“Sir ... we...” started Lt. Anders, but Captain Scarlett wasn’t listening. He could only hear the agonized screams of Amy in his head.

“I’m the only Berserker pilot left. Thank gawd that Chief Cernan is ... we’re all gone ... all of us ... I’m sorry...” He kicked out of the Velcro footpads and fled the room while Pandora flew after him.