Operation Chimera Read Free Page B

end of a queue. An E2 pushed a cart along, collecting duffels from those boarding. One by one, they stacked their bags. At the sound of running, most of the line turned to the sight of LT Summers sprinting from the top of the metal staircase. He ran past the end of the line to toss his bag on the cart, earning a disapproving smirk from the Airman Apprentice pushing it, which softened as Summers returned to the end of the line.
    The boarding stairs led into the shuttle just behind a two-seat cockpit. To the right, the shuttle’s interior held forty seats. Around the outer walls, folding cushions in small hollows formed chairs out of the walls. Down the center, an island of back-to-back seats had already filled with other personnel. Most everyone else in here wore dark grey or black suits; flight crew, engineers, and support staff. Another four pilots in the rear wore white, and exchanged knowing nods with the new arrivals. Emma, Aaron, Liam, and Zavex filed to the side and squeezed into the wall seats.
    As soon as Emma’s weight hit the cushion, a passive restraint system encircled her chest and pulled her snug against the seatback; the same happened for the others. Zavex made a throat noise at the sudden event, which called to mind the image of someone punting a chicken.
    The torc did not bother to translate it.
    Emma’s nerves got the better of her and she chuckled. Zavex seemed embarrassed, while Aaron frowned at her visible unease. Michael was the last one in, and got the seat closest to the door. He held his arms out, expecting the harness, and let them flop onto his legs once it deployed. The shuttle lights dimmed.
    “Good afternoon, everyone. In the event that I have an unexpected stroke during this ten minute flight, do we have any pilots on board?”
    The cabin filled with chuckling.
    “Good.” The room outside the shuttle moved as the craft rose into the air. “You’ll be on the
Manhattan
within twelve minutes, don’t bother trying to nap. I may be a lowly shuttle driver, but I want you all to know you have the Horizon crew’s deepest thanks for what you are doing.”
    The laughter subsided to a somber silence, which remained for the next eleven minutes. Emma stared at Michael’s hand, dark against the white cloth over his leg. Not as dark as Zavex, whatever he was, he was space-black, but he was also an alien. She did not want to be rude. Light shimmered in through narrow view strips between the wall seats. Two inches wide, the windows were added as an afterthought; it cost two seats, but after thousands of complaints, the head shrinkers accepted that humans do not like being stuck in a metal box with no windows.
    “It’s been twelve minutes, are we still orbiting the station?” whispered Emma.
    Michael, in the seat to her left, peeked at the window. A stripe of blue light ran from his forehead, over one eye, and off the ridge of his jaw. “Nope. That’s our new carrier. It’s the first of its class. If they make any more, they’ll all be Manhattan Class fighter carriers.”
    “Bloody stonker.” She gasped at the wall of metal and light sliding past outside. They were so close to the carrier that it looked like a space station.
    “Means huge,” said Liam in answer to Aaron’s confused look. “The damn thing’s almost a mile long.”
    The sliding surface changed direction, panels and plates slid upward as much as to the left. Moving like a train of disconnected cars, the sixteen shuttles continued alongside the massive ship. They descended to the underside of the
Manhattan
, entering a recessed hollow that contained the fighter launch bays as well as shuttle docking facilities. Dozens of meters of hull protected the open portals from hostile fire; in order to get a shot through a launch bay, an enemy would have to fly right into an inverted canyon of steel ringed with pulse laser turrets.
    Moments later, the shuttle settled onto its pads and they disembarked. The landing bay held the same