Everything Has A Purpose.

Interstellar Space. 2414.

Fleet 1. Battle Group 2.

New Naval Designation: U.S.S. PEGASUS.

“Misaki!”

The Warrant Officer looked up, “Yes sir?”

“You’ve been on my bridge for the past 22 hours. Get out,” The Captain said.

She sighed, “Yes Sir.”

The girl stood up and left her console. She was barely even the legal age to be IN the military but circumstances required it.

She almost mindlessly wandered out of the command sphere and down the hallway towards her quarters. She had to duck to avoid some fallen beams and panels and in some areas she had to detour her route to her quarters as some of the bulkheads had been destroyed in the last battle.

The 17 year old pulled out a small recording device from her pocket and turned it on.

“Communication’s officers’ personal log, 2414. That last attack killed 37 more on the Pegasus and 1345 in the rest of our fleet. Fleet 2 was out of range thankfully but we’re down to 989,234,456. We’re still losing people and yet the President still calls every day to THANK us for what a great job we’re doing,” she sighed, “We’ve been going at 33 P of C for the past month now and yet those ships keep coming. We can still see them following us.”

She turned a corner. An empty hallway that led down to empty space. A heavy frigate drifted by. Beyond it were the stars.

“Note to self: Get damage control on bulkhead 345,” she sighed before turning around, “They’ve been following us for the past year now, each time they assault us and wear us down and we just barely push them back. Each time the civilian fleet drops a nuke and accelerates away while we hold off the nut bags. We only have to lose once.”

She continued down the hallway, passing crew members every now and again before finally reaching her quarters buried deep in ship.

“Either way, we can’t go back. And those stars better be worth it.”

She stepped inside her quarters. Some things were scattered all over the floor. She didn’t bother to clean any of it up. She offed her device.

She walked over her desk and sat down at it. She laughed sadly, “Funny thing is we didn’t even get everyone when we left.”

She turned on her console, “Record Message.”

“Begin Speaking,” the computer replied.

Kana smiled sadly, “My dearest brother. By the time any of our messages are sent home we’ll be over Four Light Years away. That’s assuming you’re even allowed to get them. Four Light Years… I can’t even fathom that kind of distance. I’ve attempted to do the calculations but with our speed varying so much it’s hard to really calculate it. Needless to say, our ages will begin to differ due to time dilation.”

She sighed. A few tears landed on the desk, “Friday I turn 18. And right now, I’m the communications officer for the Pegasus. I bet you’re wondering how I got that job. Well for starters, I’m the only one who understands enough about Ansible channels to sort through all the incoming messages this ship gets every day. And you get the job, only if every other semi-qualified person has been killed, maimed, or incapacitated in some way. The last guy had his console explode in his face…”

Kana looked up, “To be honest brother, I’ll never be able to see you again. I doubt I’ll even hear from you considering our circumstance but… a girl can hope can’t she? But hey… it’s not all bad out here… Tomorrow I’m having dinner in the mess hall with the weapons officer. You’ll never guess how old he is. But he’s nice and I kind of like him, even though he just turned-”

“All senior officers please report to the bridge.”

She sighed, “I’ll finish this up later.”

She stood up and zipped up her uniform before prying her cabin doors open and walking out towards the command sphere. The girl sauntered back to her console.

“Misaki, reporting sir.”

The captain looked up from a pad in his hands, “Ah, Misaki, just the person I wanted to see. I understand you’ve had some experience with old fashioned subspace frequencies, yes?”

“That’s correct, we used to work on old transmitters and receivers back in AP communications.”

“Well good, cause we just received a transmission reflected off an interstellar planetoid that’s using old short range subspace frequencies.”

“Reflected sir?”

“It originated from Sol but was projected out about 3 light years before being reflected back at us. Since we’re not doing anything important, Halsey wants us to analyze it.”

“Yes sir,” Kana sighed and cracked her knuckles, “Alright, let’s see what we got here.”

***

A loud rumbling got everyone’s attention as a bright light sailed over the compound. A light thump was felt off near the courtyard.

“And here comes Grace,” Dane said standing up, “Come on.”

“Uh, what about Jett?” Spitfire asked.

“He won’t be up at least until tomorrow so we should be fine. Between now and then we should probably relocate him to a hospital bed.”

“Good idea.”

“We should strap him down too just to be safe?”

“Uh,” Fleetfoot started, “Why should we strap him down?”

“Because he’s like me. An advanced military robot with centuries’ worth of fighting experience all programed into his head. Plus that damn arm of his just magnifies everything. Only problem is he was in an attack a few years ago and because of it he has a piece of shrapnel embedded in his head making him a LITTLE mentally unstable. So if anyone wants to risk him turning this place upside-down when he wakes up then be my guest.”

“Handcuffs will be fine,” Spitfire said, “Now come on, I’m sure you both can’t wait to get your answers.”

“Yeah.”

The trio walked out to the courtyard where an object had landed. Bright flood lights prevented those who were outside already from really getting a look at it. Many of the Wonderbolts had their sidearms pointed at it.

Dane moved through the crowd, “Gin it’s alright. You can come out anytime you want.”

A voice came from the craft, “Tell those… people to put the guns down and I will.”

Spitfire sighed, “Lower your weapons.”

Many of them turned to look at her with questioning looks.

“DID I FUCKING STUTTER?! LOWER YOUR FUCKING WEAPONS! ALL OF YOU!” She yelled. Dane gave her an inquisitive look.

It seemed that the fear of Spitfire’s wrath was greater than the one of whatever was inside the ship and many lowered their guns while some simply dropped them.

“Alright, you can come out now you crazy ass bartender,” Dane yelled.

The door to the shuttle opened. A figure stood bathed in light. Slowly she stepped out as the lights on the ship dimmed.

Gin stood before them… with an assault rifle on her back.

“She’s got a gun!” Lightning Streak yelled and raised his revolver. Gin instantly had her gun in her hands and had it pointed at the Wonderbolt’s head. Instantly the rest of the guns went up.

Spitfire sighed, “Oh for the love of- lower your guns. She’s a FRIEND.”

“Captain she’s armed!” Fire Streak responded.

“I know that you brick. Now lower your weapons. I know who she is and if you don’t shoot at her she won’t shoot back. However if any one of you fires at her I can guarantee that she’ll be the last person to go down.”

“Captain she could be hostile!” Rapidfire added.

“Guys I have closet full of boots that all need asses to kick so if any of you are volunteering, keep your guns up. Otherwise lower them before you’re all shitting shoes for the next week!”

Slowly the guns went back down and back in their holsters. Gin lowered hers and threw it over her back.

“Good,” she said, “Now that we all understand each other…”

She walked through the crowd and marched up to Spitfire, “YOU have a FUCK TON of explaining to do.”

“Yes I know; I’ve had to listen to Dane bitch at me for the past two hours,” she rolled her eyes.

“Well get to it.”

“Fine,” she sighed, “Follow me. The rest of you, on your way. I’ll introduce her later.”

***

The trio walked into the living area with Fleetfoot close behind.

“I thought I said for you all to go off and mind your own business for a while,” Spitfire sighed.

“I’ve been your best friend since Primary School. I’m staying,” she said firmly.

“Fine.”

Gin walked in glancing at Jett’s unconscious body before taking a seat on a sofa next to Dane.

“Alright,” Gin said, “Talk.”

Spitfire rubbed her temples and sighed, “Okay, by now you’ve probably figured out that I’m not human or at least human by your definition of it.”

“You don’t say?” Gin rolled her eyes.

“And you’ve also figured out that… this is kind of where I’m from and everything.”

“Get to the point.”

“Fine. Everything you know about me from Earth and all that is true. How Jett found me in the forest that day, all the stuff that happened after that, how I fell in… you know already. All the fun things the four of us all did, that was real. Every moment of it was real.”

“So how did you get to Earth?” Dane asked, “And how against all probability did Jett just happen to find you like that?”

Fleetfoot spoke up, “We were doing a show, if you haven’t noticed we do airshows and stuff, aerial acrobatics, shit like that. But we were at the start of a new season so we thought we’d do something different.”

“Now seeing as none of you are versed in how magic works you’ll have to bear with me here,” Spitfire continued, “Basically all of us were enchanted with this teleportation spell that our new trick would rely on. But as you figured out it didn’t all go according to plan and well…”

“At the end of it we were short a person,” Fleetfoot said, “Our Captain.”

“Go on,” Dane said.

“After that the next thing I remember is waking up in a guard house in Brazil just outside Rio with some weird black haired kid. Needless to say Jett kinda freaked when he saw I had wings. We got into a little bit of a fight and I punched him in face.”

“How’d that work out for ya?” Gin asked.

“Almost broke my hand. But after that I kinda figured out I was not anywhere I recognized or even on the same planet. Jett promised to help me get home so that’s what we did for 7 months, having all sorts of fun with you guys in between.”

“So how did you hide your wings?” Dane asked.

“I scrunched them down and wore a sports bra and shirt over them. A little uncomfortable but nothing unmanageable. And at night sometimes Jett would take me out to practice for a little.”

“So you must have had a grand old time?” Gin said.

“At first I was scared to hell but after a while it did become fun. But I still wanted to come back but… I didn’t want to leave this lug,” she said glancing at Jett, “That’s probably the only reason I stayed around for so long.”

“So… you stayed around just to be with… that guy?” Gin asked bewildered, “What were you thinking? Were you waiting for him to notice you or something?”

“Yes-I don’t know, maybe. I just couldn’t decide. You try to make the decision to go one place when your heart is in another. Not too easy.”

“Wow you’re more sensitive than I thought.”

“Gin, not everyone has an off switch like you and I,” Dane said.

“I don’t see how that’s an excuse.”

“I highly doubt she grew up under similar conditions as we did. Compared to what the three of us went through, she was sheltered by anyone’s standard.”

“Sheltered?” Fleetfoot asked.

“Yes,” Dane said, “Sheltered. We’ve gotten a good look at your civilization here and quite frankly, you’re a sheltered people. I bet you probably grew up in that floating castle in the sky, had near perfect childhoods, near perfect friends, and, well just look at you now, perfect jobs.”

“Yeah… so?” Fleetfoot asked. Spitfire sat in silence.

“We all grew up with the threat of a nuclear holocaust hanging over our heads every day. None of our lives growing up were good by any stretch of the imagination.”

“What’s a nuclear holocaust?”

“Imagine a weapon that can turn a city to dust in seconds. Now multiply the number of those weapons by hundreds of thousands.”

…

“He’s right you know,” Spitfire sighed, “This place is like a fairy tale compared to their world.”

“And yet you wanted to stay,” Fleetfoot said.

“You become infatuated with a person like that and see how it feels. Otherwise shut up.”

“Fine.”

…

“So…” Spitfire asked, “Are you guys going to…”

“Stay?” Dane asked, “Well considering we’re thousands of light years from our home planet with no real conceivable way back, unless you have anything in mind.”

“Sorry but I’m not sure that spell I used could ever work like that again. I could be wrong but it was all chance that got me there.”

“Then how’d you get back and more importantly how’d you take us with you?”

“My only guess is that the spell was linked to the last place she used it when the accident happened,” Fleetfoot said, “Which is why she appeared in the exact same spot she left. As for the other things, I would guess it was just stuff getting sucked along for the ride just for being in close proximity. Teleportation hasn’t been the most stable kind of magic.”

“So what you’re saying is, you have no conceivable way of sending us, or our ship, back to the rest of our civilization?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Fucking great,” Dane said.

“Dude honestly, what are we even missing anyway? Earth is a wasteland now, buried under a meter of ash with the sun blocked out. And on top of that the Venusians have a fleet with numbers that makes the D-Day invasion look like a fucking appetizer. You said it yourself; if Halsey’s fleet even survived they’re well on their way out of there. Face it, there’s no home left to go back to.”

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. They could still need us. If the Terran Federation is now an exclusively space faring civilization we at least have to try to get back and help them.”

“Dane, it’s over. We don’t even have a clue if they survived. Now, we don’t know if any friendlies are left. We do there’s a shit ton of bad guys who would love to get their hands on you and Jett. Do you really want to risk that?”

…

“No.”

Gin sighed, “Good. Looks like we’ll be here for the time being. I don’t suppose you have a place we can lodge?”

“We have extra rooms where you can stay,” Spitfire said.

“You can bunk with me, Dane,” Fleetfoot said, “I mean… if you want to.”

“Thanks but no thanks. I still have some… personal things to sort out… You know, coming to terms with how my entire civilization and way of life has been destroyed and how the three of us are likely the only surviving remnants of a once powerful empire… You understand right?”

Fleetfoot blinked though she looked slightly dejected, “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

A flash of blue behind them got their attention. Dane stood up.

“Yeah we better get him into a bed, stat,” Dane said.

“There are some cuffs in the armory,” Spitfire said.

“I really think we should strap him down.”

“I really think you’re overreacting.”

“Really? He tore a car apart with his bare hands.”

“Well you did piss him off.”

“You know what, fine. Do what you want. But I don’t want to hear it when he breaks free and disappears again like he always does.”

A few minutes later they had dragged him down to the infirmary and placed him into a hospital bed. Dane and Gin had been shown to their guest room. It included two separate bedrooms and a bathroom.

“Well this has been a crazy day,” Gin said.

Dane cringed and rubbed his head.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I’m just… processing this still. Literally,” he blinked.

“Well it looks painful.”

“I’m processing it all still. Everything that has happened in the last few days is all being processed. For you it’s like lack of sleep.”

“I thought you don’t need sleep.”

“Well when an apocalypse happens followed by… all this you tend to suspend a few things.”

“I see.”

Gin walked over to her bed, “Well Spitfire did give us a pretty big room with some pretty nice beds. You gonna go to sleep tonight?”

“No. I’ve got some things to sort out.”

“Well suit yourself. I’m going to go take a shower.”

“Hey before you go, where did you leave the ship?”

“Right where you told me to. And yes I powered down all the weapons systems.”

“Good. We’re going to need to figure out what to do with that at some point as well.”

“Another day perhaps.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’ll be in the bathroom if you need me.”

He nodded, “Alright.”

Gin marched into the bathroom closing the door behind her. Dane himself paced over to the balcony. The cool night air blew over him as he stared at the clear night sky. Down below was the glow of a small rather insignificant town in the valley floor.

“There must be some way out of here…” Dane whispered, “Said the joker to the thief.”

***

Gin moaned and pulled herself out of bed.

“Motherfucker I had the weirdest dream,” she sighed before standing up and glancing over at Dane who was still out on the balcony.

“Oh that’s right, it wasn’t,” she said slowly getting dressed.

“Morning,” he said.

“Good morning. How long have you been awake?”

“All night.”

“You’re turning into Jett now.”

“Well someone has to considering he has no clue who he is.”

“Yeah.”

There was a knock at the door.

“Wonder who that could be,” Dane sighed walking over to the door. He removed the deadbolt and unlocked the door, opening it up to reveal one Echo Fleetfoot.

She blinked, rubbing the back of her head, “Uh hey.”

Dane blinked indifferently, “Hello.”

“Uh, I was just wondering if you guys wanted to go get some breakfast,” she said.

“I don’t really need to eat an-”

“-We’d love to,” Gin said glaring at Dane.

Fleetfoot perked up, “Oh, uh, well great. Follow me then. The mess hall is this way.”

She started walking down the hallway happily humming to herself. Gin walked next to Dane.

“Why are we doing this?” he whispered.

“I know you’re depressed as fuck about everything being gone but we really need to look at this situation here. The sooner we accept it the better.”

“Well forgive me if it’s just a little difficult to leave our old lives behind completely.”

“Oh don’t give me that. You never got along with your foster parents with the whole robot thing and my parents are dead. We weren’t leaving too much behind except maybe my club. Jett had very little people he really cared about and since most of them are here anyway he didn’t lose much either and neither did you. We all have each other, no matter how fucked up the situation is.”

“Jett doesn’t know who any of us are.”

“Well at some point he’ll unfuck himself but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You don’t turn your back on family.”

Fleetfoot led them into the mess hall. Not many were in it. Only Rapidfire and Lightning Streak and they offered friendly greetings.

“So yeah, welcome to the cafeteria,” Fleetfoot said, “You can pretty much get whatever you want for breakfast here.”

“Bacon?” Dane ginned.

“Sorry, we’re mostly vegetarian here. We don’t really have anything from the griffin menu.”

Dane gapped, turned to Gin and said, “This isn’t paradise, this is hell. I’d rather risk the Light Years than stay here!”

“Dane shut the fuck up before I knock you fucking head off. Get used to it you bastard!”

“Maybe you didn’t hear me but there is NO BACON.”

“I was serious when I said I would knock you head off.”

Fleetfoot looked panicked, “Well, uh we have other stuff! Pancakes, eggs, hash browns-”

“We’re fine,” Gin smiled, “Thank you. Sorry this bastard is so rude. Now fucking apologize you robotic bastard.”

“Do I have to?” he whined.

“I’m gonna fucking rip your arms off if you don’t.”

Dane sighed, “Fine, I’m sorry Miss…”

“Fleetfoot, Echo Fleetfoot.”

“Yeah I’m just gonna call you Echo.”

“Fine with me. Now come on, let’s go grab a table.”

“Please tell me you at least have coffee here,” Gin said.

“That we have plenty of.”

“Thank the fucking Gods.”

The trio went up and grabbed some breakfast before heading to a table.

“So…” Fleetfoot starts to break the ice, “Where are you guys from? Obviously you’re from the same place as Jett but… where exactly is that?”

Gin and Dane looked at each other before Dane pointed upwards.

“Okay… where exactly is that?”

“We don’t come from this planet. We’re from a world far beyond most of the stars in your sky,” Gin said, “Only now all the good in that world has gone or is heading for new worlds beyond, making us refugees from a dying world.”

“Wait… you guys are aliens?!”

Dane cringed, “Well when you put it that way…”

“Oh my gosh, you’re not gonna spit acid at me or something? Or rip my head off, or infect me with some alien virus, or-”

“Do we look like those kinds of aliens to you?” Dane asked, “I’m just a robot and she’s a bartender. That’s all we are.”

“Oh, phew,” she sighed, “I never figured an alien robot would be that cute-”

Gin choked on a bagel and Dane jerked up, “Excuse me?”

“What? You’re pretty cute for a robot boy,” Fleetfoot blinked.

Gin started turning blue and fell out of her chair onto the floor retching.

“Uh, well, um, you do know that Jett and I share the same face?”

“Maybe, but yours is different. You’ve got those cute freckles on your cheeks and nice green eyes. And your hair is white.”

Rapidfire had run over and was now doing the Heimlich maneuver on Gin.

“We’re still identical number 4 models. We just have minor cosmetic differences.”

“Maybe, but still. I’m just some angel girl so what do I know?”

By now Gin had successfully coughed up her food, thanked Rapidfire, knocked out Lightning Streak for attempting to grope her and was now back in her seat.

“Excuse me for a second but ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?!”

Fleetfoot blinked, “About what?”

Gin started twitching, mumbling something under breath before calmly getting back control of herself.

“I’m just gonna leave for a second.”

Fleetfoot blinked, “What was her problem?”

Dane sighed, “Long story that I don’t need to go into.”

He stood up and followed her. Gin was standing in a corner pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Hey, uh-” Dane started.

“Small word of advice,” she said, “Don’t fuck up.”

The door to the cafeteria burst open and a certain flame headed girl stumbled in.

“Oh hey Spit-” Fleetfoot started.

“Don’t talk to me, I had the worst night of my life. Just get me some coffee.”

Rapidfire ran up with a mug, “Here you go Cap.”

She accepted the cup, “Thanks.”

She turned to Dane, “So… do you think he’s up by now.”

“His system should be done rebooting by now. There may be some damage considering what I did to him but nothing repair systems couldn’t handle.”

“Alright, let’s get down there. Morning Echo,” she nodded.

“Morning Cap.”

***

Spitfire, Dane and Gin entered the infirmary.

Dane immediately face palmed before turning to Spitfire.

“You see? I told you we should have strapped him down but NO.”

The trio was staring at an empty hospital bed with a pair of torn handcuffs attached to it. A broken

picture was on the floor. Above the hospital bed was an open window.

“How the hell was I supposed to know he would get away?” She asked.

Gin sighed, “Can we worry about that later and work on finding the bastard?”

“Fine.”

“And I still want to know how you hid your fucking wings like that for 7 months,” Dane said.

“Did I not already explain it to you?”

“Not the beach part.”

“Another time perhaps.”

***

Interstellar Space. 2414

U.S.S. MIDNIGHT ETERNITY.

Admiral Halsey stared at the pad in his hands. Captain Hawk stood by near his desk.

“So… you mind summarizing this for me again?”

“I would but you already know most of it. Bottom line is that we have more ships damaged, more dead, less ammo, etc, etc. But the fleet at least is staying ahead of them so if we can get a respite for a month or so we can get some repairs and rearm.”

“I see. How long do you think they’ll keep following us?”

“Current estimates are rather erratic for now but best estimates have it at another six months before they have to turn back for Earth.”

“I see. What about that transmission?”

“Just an old subspace reflection sir.”

“We still have people that can analyze those things?”

“A few. There are a few still out of sickbay with the education.”

“I see…”

“Well if that will be all sir I have some death reports to file.”

“That ship. The Pegasus. Who analyzed it?”

Hawk turned and pulled a pad out of his pocket, “Warrant Officer Kana Misaki. Chief communications officer on the Pegasus. Parents died on Earth in the attack, older brother was among those who didn’t make it.”

“I can only imagine how many others have similar situations.”

“There’s more. She’s 17. Just out of high school.”

“When did we start doing that?”

“What? Recruiting kids? A few months ago after they started knocking off our senior staff every other battle. Don’t worry sir, she and many others like her are skilled in what they do or else they wouldn’t be up there. Even if they are just kids.”

“How long do we have now?”

“Sir?”

“Until we reach our destination.”

“15 years at least. And don’t worry about the civilian fleet. They’re doing just fine. They miss having a sun overhead but other than that we have the beginnings of a civilization just a light minute out. And again, the president sends his thanks and the ‘thanks of the Terran People’ as he put it for our protection.”

“Yeah… and yet these bastards still keep coming. And I don’t think we can last another six months…”

Hawk smiled, “I can see the gears turning George, what are you thinking?”

The admiral looked up, “Say Hawk, what have our pilots been doing all this time?”

“Overall? They’ve been doing a patrol around the fleet, holding off the rare fighter assault every now and again and in some cases they’ve replaced gun crews on ships that have lost automatic control.”

“Hmm… Call a meeting at 0900 tomorrow for all our flyboys. I have an idea for how to get these dogs off our back.”

***

U.S.S. PEGASUS.

Kana sat in her room staring at the signal on her screen. She was able to determine its origin and just how long it had been traveling before reemerging into normal space. But just what was in it was what was bothering her. She had been trying to decompress it for the past hour but considering its age it was a wonder it hadn’t degraded yet.

The signal was at least 10 years old if not more and had emerged inside the solar system somewhere between Earth and Mars. But just exactly what was contained in it continued to be a mystery… Until now.

She ran her last program and watched the program reveal itself.

“Decompression complete. Would you like to play the file?” The computer asked.

“Yes. Play it,” Kana said.

Static began to play through the speakers. But soon a coherent voice emerged.

“All Decks this is the Captain speaking, evacuate the ship immediately. We have lost atmospheric stabilization and we’re venting fuel into space. Get to your designated escape pods and shuttle craft. All personnel on Deck 2 you’re atmosphere has been compromised. You have two minutes before automatic atmospheric venting. Evacuate your deck immediately…”

-TO BE CONTINUED.

Author's Notes:

NEXT TIME ON CYBERFIRE.
-Jett is still missing while Spitfire and company struggle to find him.
-Starry Skies' teammates are starting to get suspicious about where she's been going.
-Meanwhile in deep space, Warrant Officer Kana Misaki struggles to learn more about her mystery signal and what it means.

I couldn't just leave without saying goodbye of some kind but sadly, I must say goodbye for a while. This weekend I start taking the SAT Subject Tests while next week is my Statistics Final. The entire month of may I will be hit with the bricks and unable to write period. But I do have events storyboarded so it's not all bad. But until next time.

-JC6.