Frozen Enemies Read Free

flapping mouths and stand by a ship. On the double!”
    All the students knew exactly what the sergeant expected of them. In silence, they each made for the nearest Privateer and stood at the nose of the craft. As he approached a ship, John reached out to touch it. Beneath his fingertips the sleek craft felt like ice. John could see circular vents in the Privateer’s otherwise smooth shell. The LightFast engines , he thought to himself. The other students were murmuring excitedly.
    “Settle down,” barked Jegger. “I said the Xi-Class Privateer was unlike anything you’ve flown before and I meant it. Completely different controls to the t-darts you’re used to, so I want you to follow my orders very carefully.” The sergeant paused, pacing in front of the ships with his odd gait to make sure that everyone was paying attention. Satisfied, he continued. “Each craft has been programmed to respond to its new pilot. Speak your name to open the cockpit. Get in and fasten your safety harness.”
    “John Riley,” said John. A crack instantly appeared in the shell of the ship beside him. Silently, a hatch opened. John stepped in, settling himself into a seat that moulded itself around him. A thin harness dropped from above, its straps moving as if they had a life of their own, fitting neatly around his body.
    The door slid closed again. “And again: wowsers ,” John whispered to himself as he looked forward. From outside, the Xi-Class Privateer had looked like it was made from solid, polished stone. Now, the shell was clear. He had a perfect view of the hangar. Sergeant Jegger stood a few metres away, adjusting his headset.
    “All right, cadets. The first thing you’ll have noticed is that there’s no control panel in front of you.” The sergeant’s voice sounded in John’s cockpit, although he couldn’t see any speakers. “The Xi-Class Privateer is piloted using a mixture of voice commands and the controls on the pilot’s seat.”
    John looked down. Sure enough, there were touchpads glowing green at his fingertips.
    “Charts, maps, and any other information you need will appear directly on the ship’s Formalite skin,” Jegger continued. “Try it. Ask for your home planet.”
    “Earth,” said John.
    An image of planet Earth appeared in the curved shell, slightly to the right of John’s vision. He felt a tiny pang of homesickness. “Set course for Earth?” asked a confident male voice.
    “Errr, no. No, thanks,” he said quickly.
    Further conversation with the Privateer’s computer was cut off by Jegger’s voice again. “The computer will take care of long-distance navigation, but you’ll need to pilot for take-off and landing and know some basic emergency manoeuvres. Speed is at your left hand, direction is at your right hand...”
    As the sergeant explained how the craft worked, John listened carefully. He’d become quite good at flying, but his first-ever attempt at piloting a t-dart had been a disaster, as he had ended up crashing into Kaal. Since then, he’d been taking extra lessons and had even saved his classmates’ lives by flying an old shuttle off the exploding volcanic planet of Zirion Beta. Learning to fly a completely new type of ship, however, was still nerve-shredding.
    “It can take some getting used to, and there’s only one way to do that,” Jegger told the students. “On my go, tell your computer to disengage docking locks, start engines, and display speed. Take your craft up slowly and circle the hangar at twenty kilometres per hour. Tarz. You first. Go .”
    As John expected, the first ship took off smoothly. Emmie was a natural-born pilot, who had an instinctive understanding of flying. For this reason, Jegger often chose her to demonstrate new moves or tactics. Emmie usually showed the rest of the class that whatever Jegger had asked of them wasn’t impossible, no matter how difficult.
    “Talliver. Go.”
    The second Privateer took off with a barely perceptible wobble.