Chapter 2: Atlantis

"Isn't Commander a high rank for such a small command?" asked Lieutenant Tanaka, puzzled.

"Normally yes, Lieutenant, but if this project proves a success Commander Koenig is destined for command of a flotilla of these boats. It's always good for the Fleet Commander to have experience with the ships he's ordering out — maybe he won't try to order them to try operations that will only result in shattered hulls and dead crew."

"Yes, Sir, I think I understand."

"If this voyage is successful," Marcie advised, "we're prepared to go into a crash building program. Between three colonies, we can turn out over twenty a month."

They were walking down the corridor toward one of Fort Drum's cavernous hangar bays, where they'd catch a Galileo-class shuttle for the surface. The Admiral had wanted to see more of Atlantisat's defence system close-hand rather than simply transport down to the surface. Bells rang indicating two bells on the forenoon watch, sailors hustled and through the windows Hangar Bay Five was a mass of carefully controlled chaos.

As was Navy protocol since before Lord Nelson's time, Lieutenant Tanaka boarded the shuttle first, followed by Marcie and then by the Admiral. Marcie took control immediately — by this time in the tour the Admiral took it for granted that a 13-year-old Commander could fly a shuttle — and went through the standard checklist. As the shuttle was hurtled by the launch catapult into space, it was joined by two F105 Arrows from the 219^th Squadron, the 20^th Space Wing's "Golden Hind" crest emblazoned on the nose. "Feer the Deer", the deliberately-misspelled crest advised the Sa'arm.

He took a close look at their escort. The new Arrows were hulking beasts, carrying two crew, a pilot and a bombardier, in tandem. Inside the cavernous bay between the engines was space for one of the same type of missile the Archerfish carried, or any other ordnance they cared to mount. It could also carry tanks to extend the Arrow's range far beyond the star system she was launched from. It also carried an internal Gatling gun firing DU rounds and a sensor package that guaranteed its lethality against anything smaller than a Hive ship. It was not an aircraft, it was a true spacecraft never intended to operate in an atmosphere, but those massive engines could allow it to deliver its crew safely to the ground on Earth if it needed to.

The Galileo class shuttle entered the atmosphere so smoothly that the transition was unnoticeable. Marcie glided the craft expertly over an empty expanse of ocean. Suddenly in front of them, the water boiled in eruption in two places. The impressive sight of a Comedian-class submersible carrier and a missile-carrying A-1 class attack submarine. "There's the Lucille Ball, and I think that's A-1 herself, the Class Boat," Marcie pointed out. The carrier launched a pair of A-20 Super Warthogs and two F-50 Space Sabres, and the attack sub contributed her stubby little nose-mounted F-109 Yellowjacket interceptor/scout. The five planes came up to escort the Admiral's shuttle.

Marcie made a gentle banking turn to bring the shuttle and its escorts around behind the pair of submersibles. The A-1 had advanced beyond the Lucille Ball, whose thrusters were apparently on station-keeping. The attack sub opened up two of her vertical launch tubes and fired off five cruise missiles: an Ursa Major and four Ursa Minors. The ordnance flattened their arcs toward the horizontal, pulled far ahead of the little squadron and smacked powerfully into a tiny islet within ten centimetres of each other. The Admiral was impressed, both by the accuracy and by the firepower.