Chapter Perspective: Waverly

“Signal locked Captain,” I called over my shoulder as I frantically moved between the consoles. While Killian might have been the one to get his decoy signals working, the interference they were causing was something that I apparently had to handle.

“Good, Nova start running a sweeping pattern, something like routes 1 or 10 for the drones, let me know which one you decide to take and-“

“10 Captain,” Novarod called back before Curtis could even finish. I could tell he had been itching to get the ship moving, the fact that we had just been sitting ducks having itched at the back of my mind as well.

“10 it is,” Curtis replied before I could hear the faint sound of static in the hall behind the bridge door. “Sullivan, prep drone paths 1, 3 and 11, launch them in two minutes exactly.”

“Heard Captain,” Killian quickly replied.

We were definitely on track with our communication skills this time, maybe a bit too much. The intercom was useful of course, and there were the direct lines, there was just something about the antiquated static sound that came with the intercom clicking on that grated at my nerves. I’d need to see if there was something I could do about that. Gah, focus Sera.

With more paths about to come online, I’d need to make sure we didn’t jam the ship’s signal, especially when we started the approach. I opened up a digital patching panel and began adjusting the drones into more reasonable chunks, careful to keep an eye on my active vessel radar.

“Captain, should I begin extending our scanners? While we have line of sight visuals on two satellites from the view window, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the three moons this planet has, what if something is hiding behind one of those?” I called over my shoulder, closing down the digital patching screen and looking over the long range capabilities that we had yet to touch.

The maps of this place had seemed to be thorough enough in regards to the satellite’s that surrounded the main planet, but whether Curtis knew or not, the moons were here and it felt like an oversight for either the alien race we were checking on in this simulation or a bizarre trap test. Nothing about this trial exactly felt right to me though, what part of our job was espionage and why would we be training for it if the only threat Star Launch had encountered so far was some weird form of Space Madness?

“Negative, that offers them a channel to discover being hit with, we need to stay hidden for now,” Curtis answered, cutting through my thoughts and I nodded. “It’s a risk, I’ll admit, but either choice is a risk,” he said without any prompting, as if trying to justify his decision.

“Aye Captain, then we are ready to be masked,” I replied.

“Captain, the monitoring chip on our drone is firing, it looks like the satellite has indeed locked on it’s frequency and is now tracking,” Killian said over the intercom and in the reflection of one of my monitors I could have sworn I saw a row of sparkling white teeth appear in a wide smile on Curtis’s face. “The third wave of drone signals has also been launched, shall I execute the second phase of the drone’s protocols?”

“Not yet, Doc run your path for three minutes, we are all ready on this end as well so let’s not waste any more time,” he said.

“I just want to say, when I execute this perfectly I’ll be accepting all Kill’s desserts as an apology for his comments on my flying,” Doc cut in over the intercom. “But, uh, heard Cap. Let’s do this.”

“I swear, everything a joke to that guy,” Vicky sighed, tapping away on her own monitors.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Novarod spoke up and I looked over, seeing the marble of a planet moving out of our field of view as he took our ship in a sharp, sweeping turn that allowed me to see Doc’s drone in the distance.

“What do you mean?” Curtis asked, an eyebrow raised.

“He’s literally making comments on the different foods each of his turns and moves remind him of, in my ear this whole time,” Novarod called back with more amusement than annoyance in his tone.

“You could always mute him or tell him to shut up?” Vicky offered and I saw Nova shake his head.

“I don’t know, I kinda like the energy, keeps it light and keeps me on my toes,” he shot back.

“Anyone ever told you that you kinda become a different person when you’re in the cockpit?” I asked, swiveling my chair to the side to get a better look at the sandy haired boy who only offered a shrug without ever moving his hands from the controls.

“Not really, that a good thing?” he asked.

“It is, you have more confidence, same when talking about the flight paths,” Curtis said. “It’s a mental thing more than likely and unfortunately a topic of discussion for a later point. Novarod, pull her around and get on Doc’s tail.”

“Aye Captain,” he shot back and I felt the ship hum slightly as he accelerated to move us into position.

“It’s now or never Doc,” Curtis called over the intercom then looked over to me, “Do it, Sera.”

“Heard Captain, time we went dark.”