Read Online Remember the Starfighter by Michael Kan - Free Book Online Page B

attention and giving the man a firm salute. The colonel gave a half-nod, looking more amused than pleased.
    “It’s funny. Months ago, command was considering phasing out some of the human pilots. Wanted to replace the lot of you with more and more sentry drones, and A.I. Maybe even eventually start creating our own machine fleets.”
    “But it looks like you’re relevant again,” the colonel said, with a grin. “Congratulations on the promotion. Sorry it couldn’t be more festive.”
     

***
     
    He held the insignia in the palm of his hand. It was a piece of silver metal shaped in the form of a bird’s feathered wing. The symbol designated him as a captain, a rank he never thought he’d achieve.
    Julian stood next to a row of lockers as he tried on his new officer’s uniform for the first time. He didn’t bother to see how it looked on him; he was just another body in a gray suit. Sitting down on the steel bench beside him, he placed his head into his two hands.
    Am I really ready for this? Am I still whole?
    The questions would have been silly to ask years ago. Before the accident. Before the so-called “injury,” when his head hadn’t suddenly exploded. That was when he was still a full-fledged starfighter. He had been trained for war since a teenager, battle ready to fight and follow orders to the end. But since then, he had changed. Though Julian would not admit it, the doubt had grown-like an infection, his memory shattered into pieces. He could always pretend and feign his way to act like a seasoned pilot. Yet it couldn’t help but feel like varnish, masking the wounds riddling his mind. 
    Everything was out of his control, as it always had been. He tried to calm himself, and hold in his anguish. But he struggled to simply breathe.
    Julian could only massage his face. He wanted to claw away at the frustration.
    “Not having a good day are we?”
    He heard the voice, noting the almost mocking tone. Then came the woman’s mild chuckle.
    “Nalia,” he said, turning his gaze to her.
    She was standing behind him, a grin glazed over her lips. She had dressed herself in a blue officer’s uniform, looking more formal than ever. No ruffled clothes or hair, simply a clean look free of any calamity. Casually, she held her stance, giving Julian a wink. So different when he had seen her before, her body without life, her face scarred by the burns. Now he could only see unblemished skin, the danger they had faced replaced by a smile of sass.
    She came up to hold him, putting her arms around his back in a hug. “I finally found you,” she said, whispering the words into his ear.
    Julian stared at her closely, noticing that, indeed, she had come away fully healed. “Here, feel it,” she said, grabbing his hand to touch against her cheek.             
    “The doctors fixed up my wounds pretty thoroughly, even added an implant to my right eye,” Nalia said. “When I woke up I didn’t even notice I had been hurt, just a numbness in the cheek and some discoloration in the skin.”
    Julian smiled, all too glad that she hadn’t seen what the damage had done to her.
    “I’ve been searching for you these past three days. But S-COM is a mess and orders have been piling up ever since I started. Been working non-stop,” she explained.
    “Don’t worry about it,” Julian said. “I was trying to find you too, but I didn’t have access. I’m just happy to know that you’re okay.”
    She sat down on the bench. “I can’t believe we made it out of there. I thought we were both dead. I really did,” she said as she stared at the wall of lockers in front of her. “I looked over the report. Says a New Terran saved us. Thank God for them.”
    Nalia kept touching her cheek, trying to feel where the scars would have been. She then folded her arms as she spoke in a cold tone.
    “I just remember seeing the view screen on board the Crusader. Our shields were down. Then I remember being hit in the face.