Snake Speed

Alekai touched the monitor and lowered the volume. This girl had a beautiful singing voice, but she could also scream at a pitch that was ear-piercing!

At the same time, the First Engineer was coming through on another frequency. "Team Vartis! Hang on! We're sending reinforcement. Keep them off your tail until we can get to you.

"Anastasia, two Scorpions on our tail. Two Wasps on the horizon." Jesse was calling out the details.

"Team Vartis. We got them tracked. Scorpion and Wasp Mother ships are de-cloaking."

As Jesse fielded the communication lines, Alekai focused in on the combo flight-fight maneuver. There was no way to simply flee. He had to give back as good as he got.

Alekai's adrenaline began to flush his system and he hissed with serpentine anticipation. The familiar feel of his Triumph's handlebars came rushing back at Alekai.

He could see the scorpion ship moving towards them. Muscle memory kicked in and he revved his motorcycle handles in anticipation.

His amber snake eyes saw in slow motion, everything that was about to happen. The scorpion ships were coming at them lightning fast, but due to his strange hyper snake ability, they were nowhere near as fast as he could move.

There was still plenty enough time for him to take evasive action.

Alekai had always known he had agility the likes of snakes as they strike their prey. He had never used this agility much more than to time perfectly, his motorcycle jumps.

What he was only now grasping, after having fought against these ships was the fact that this snakelike agility gave him the strange ability to slow down time.

Of course, Alekai wasn't a god and he never thought of himself as one. He was just a unique and strange freak of nature who could do a few things just a tiny bit faster than those around him.

It wasn't a frozen-in-time type of slow down. Everything still moved and flowed around him in their normal timed sequence, but he was able to speed himself up enough so that it looked as if everything slowed down.

Time slowed down enough so that he could do what needed to be done at normal snake speed before it all revved back up again, to normal human speed.

One of the two scorpion scout ships fired a pulse weapon from its weaponized tail. It aimed for the trajectory he was heading towards.

Well fine then!

If he couldn't go there, he'd go elsewhere!

Alekai's mind quickly calculated a new trajectory and he tapped it into the virtual monitor in front of him. If he had a super power, it would be blazing fast math calculations in his head.

The Gear surged into power, awaiting his next command. With a quick twist, he cleanly evaded the pulse weapon and shot under the belly of the beast.

Suddenly, Alekai was staring up into the unprotected underside of the second scorpion ship. His evasive maneuver had gifted him a clean shot of its underbelly.

Let it never be said that Alekai did not take gifts of opportune.

Not even a second had passed and his fingers had danced on his super-tricked out handlebars, sending a volley of missiles directly into its gut.

At the same moment, he dropped down as fast as he could move the Gear and held on for dear life.

Please God, let Jesse's shields hold.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! WHUMPPP!!!

Two silent flares of light pressure echoed each other, radiating through the space surrounding them. The second scorpion ship had exploded next to the first scorpion ship. The detonation hit the sister ship, sending both of them into a double explosion that was blinding and horrifying to behold.

Their massive shockwaves sent the Gear tumbling end-over-end until Bessie was able to stabilize the Gear enough so that it could maintain equilibrium.

"WARNING. SYSTEMS OFFLINE. WARNING." Bessie sounded the alert as the Gear tumbled end-over-end from the impact of the massive shockwaves.

"Damn it! Hang on Alekai. I'm going to try and bring her back asap!"

Jesse fought with the controls, trying to bring Bessie back online. As she banged on the control panels, cursing and screaming like an old sailor, Alekai readied the handlebars.

He needed to be able to get the Gear under control and moving in the right direction as soon as Jesse could feed power back into his Triumph.

It took a few more precious minutes before Jesse could stabilize Bessie enough so that the Gear could maintain its equilibrium and come back online. As power flared back into Alekai's handlebars, the First Engineer's voice came screaming into the speakers.

"Team Vartis! Come in Team Vartis!" The First Engineer was yelling into the speaker. It sounded like he had been trying to reach them for a few minutes and was not receiving any response from them.

Alekai winced but did not have time to respond. They still had to get back to the hangar and the silent pressure blasts had thrown them even farther from the hangar doors.

"Anastasia, we're back online. We hear you." Jesse responded to the Anastasia.

"Oh thank the stars! We couldn't reach you for a minute there."

As Jesse reassured the First Engineer of their safety status, Alekai once again diverted his energy towards getting them back into the hangar.

He was so grateful she was handling all their communications as he could not think of what to say to the First Engineer at this time. He had been told in no uncertain terms by the First Engineer to LAY LOW and he had done the exact opposite of that.

The visible proof of going against that order was now splayed out in spectacular visual detail.

As they passed by the area where the two scorpion ships had exploded, the extent of the damage could be seen on the dark explosion stains that had melted the pretty fuchsia color from one large prominent spot on the Anastasia.

Alastaire rubbed his eyes.

This was the reason why starships were never painted ridiculous girly colors. Space was a harsh environment. The ships were always either painted black for cloaking purposes or left with its bare metal color.

A half-burned purple lotus flower look was hardly fashionable.

It might pass for being edgy looking though, he hoped.

"Team Vartis to Anastasia. We are returning to base." Jesse's voice could be heard calling out to the Anastasia. "I repeat, we are returning to base."

"We saw the scorpion fight, Team Vartis. That was some crazy maneuvering skills Second Lieutenant Jessica Chantal. You deserve a medal for that."

"Oh but—"

"Absolutely! She's an amazing pilot!" Alekai interjected.

"Don't downplay your weapon fire either, Striker. That was one of the cleanest shots to the belly I have ever seen!"

"Thank you!"

The First Engineer cleared his throat. "We have several other Fighter Gears deployed to handle the apoidean ships on the far side. You kids get your butts back into the hangar!"

"Yes sir!" Jesse responded with as much assuredness as she could muster.

Once they disconnected the call with Anastasia, Jesse's voice came through the speakers on their private channel.

"Alekai."

"Hmm?"

"Why did you lie to the First Engineer and told them I was the one who piloted the Gear in that evasive maneuver?"

"Because what I did, sabotaging the command controls, is illegal and could get us both into big trouble."

"But all that was YOU, saving us and moving us out of danger. I didn't do any of that."

"You're a turtle. Speed is not your forte. What you did for us was just as, if not even more important. It's just not visible and never gets any accolades."

"And what was that?"

"You supplied me with core power where I needed it most! And you shielded us, Jesse. Without your double shields, we'd have been dead a long time ago."

Jesse was quiet for a moment. Alekai waited for her to respond with something. Even an explosive anger was better than this silence.

"Jesse," he tried again. "You have command of the navigation systems. I promise you, I will only take over if there is critical need and we're in danger. You just gotta trust me."

A few minutes later, he could hear Jesse's soft voice floating through the speakers.

"I do trust you."