Fire and Ice

Chapter 17 [] Ender

The simulation launches us farther from from Eros with every second. We hurtle through space for what seems like minutes before we slow to see a group of IF fighters that I assume we will command. I assign squadrons out and glance over to see Kayleigh pull up her fighter assignment and grin. I turn my eyes back to my own screen. The battle lines form up and I see formics appear out of the left corner. There doesn't seem to be a central ship, just a bunch of fighters. I take a deep breath and type out orders.

†††

Ender assigns me to the outside flank, in charge of cleaning up strays. Alone. He must be planning on using the Molecular Detachment Device. I grit my teeth and tap my controls to have them pop up as holoscreen. I place my hands on the controls and launch my ship into the space.

The other ships fly out and push the other formics back, forcing them to clump tighter. I take off toward the right outskirts.

Left. Right. Six o'clock. Spin... And fire! I fight and flip in the zero gravity, taking out the formics as quickly as I can. I glance and see that no one is cornering them from behind.

"Ender they're going to swing around us from behind," I whisper. He looks over and shakes his head. I turn back and see them fan out from the back.

"Ender!" I hiss. He taps on his screens to order the fighters back. I turn back and see everyone retreat. A small clump of formic fighters retreats and disappears.

I pull my fighter back instantly, leaving it in attack mode.

"Something's not right Ender," I say.

"I've done this Kayleigh. So many times. It's fine," he says. I plop back I to my chair and open a link to Petra.

"Something's off," she says.

"Convince Ender," I smirk. She pulls a small squadron out from the larger group, keeping them parallel to my fighter. Ender fires the M.D. Device, wiping out the formics force to the erupting cheers of the audience. I see Petra whisper to the other toon leaders, each pulling out small forces and contacting Ender.

"Are you guys sure?" Ender inquires. I turn to him.

"Weren't there more fighters?" I whisper. His eyes widen.

"They lied," he whispers back. "This is a real battle." He turns and slams his hands into his control panel. "I should have known. Everyone pull back as fast as possible. Kayleigh, do what you can." Green light.

I take off at top speed.

I pull up my cloaking device as I hurtle toward the spot I saw them disappear. They uncloak and... Shit.

Blue phasers start firing from the center of their fleet. I yank my ship up out of the way and spin underneath their fleet. It hits several ships, many docking ones included.

"What do we do?" Bean asks.

"Rip them up from all angles. Don't let them get too close," Ender orders. A chorus of 'yes sirs' echoes from around the room. I keep quiet under their now exposed fleet, waiting...

"Spread out, keep all deflector shields up," Ender orders, Petra and Fly swooping in on the left. The formics branch out to attack them, one by one... There. I fire my phasers. Right  toward the center of the fleet where I think their deadly blue phaser is. I uncloak and launch, guns ablaze, toward the units attacking Ender's fleet. I see blue light expanding in the corner of my screen, engulfing several formics nearby. I look over at Ender and see him go wide eyed and call franticly for a retreat. I put up every shield I can to keep IF fighters near my ship safe as we hurtle toward the edge of the battle, past our docking ships, as far and fast as we can.

But the phaser keeps coming.

What can we do? There aren't any nearby planets... Wait. Are there?

I franticly begin running analysis after analysis on the surrounding space, looking for something slightly out of the ordinary... To our backs.

A large dip in space. Absence of stars. As though something very large and heavy is sitting in a pocket...

"There's a planet behind us," I whisper.

"Are you sure?" A voice says softly near me. I jump, startled, and whip franticly around to find the source and see... Ender. Staring at me, wide eyed. Calculating. "Are you sure?" He asks more firmly.

"Pretty certain. Bean, Alai, double check the coordinates I'm sending you to see if you can find a gravitational anomaly."

"Yes ma'am!" They chirp, tapping quickly at their screens to calculate.

"Call all ships to dock," I mutter quietly. "Give me an unmanned fighter. I'll draw their fire," I tell Ender, pulling my chin up slightly to look at him.

"Why?" he asks.

"This is our most advanced fleet of ships. We can use them to snoop around some more. And, we can take out all these formics and one of their planets with the M.D.Device."

"Why?" he says again and I recline into my chair, confused. I click off all comms links, but not before I hear Bean and Alai separately confirm the planet and Fly call for all ships to dock.

"Why do we have to fight?" Ender says, his voice cracking. "I'm so tired of it. We don't even know what they want! I don't want to do what the adults tell us to do forever." I inhale deeply and get up to kneel beside his station. I turn off all of his open comms links, and then remove both of our headsets. I see the adults' faint shadows behind the one way glass jump up and begin running around the observation booth.

"I'll make this quick. I want planet wide unity. You want an end to this war without every formic dying for some godforsaken reason. I thought winning this war would be the fastest way to it, but the last few days have proven... otherwise. Fight this one battle for me. Help me end this group of them, we'll find a way to make peace. All of us," I say. He keeps his face carefully neutral.

"You make good speeches," he remarks, turning back to his screens. I see the doors open out of the corner of my eye. "Fine. What do we tell them?" He asks as he reaches for his headset.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, also picking up my headset. I stand up straight, look Graff straight in the eyes and smirk. I heard you wanted us to be friends, Colonel. I'm afraid this will be more than what you asked for.

"Kayleigh... what," Ender stammers, but only for a split second. I swiftly cut him off with a small kiss to his cheek. Flicking my hair over my shoulder, careful not to whack poor Ender, I straighten. Ender's face is dusted with red across his nose as he leans away from me in his chair, still stuttering and stammering. I turn to walk back to my seat, delicately waving at our now large group of spectators, who all saw my nonchalant kiss. Graff is fuming as he storms back toward the observation deck.

"Wow, Ender. My man, my guy. You gotta tell me how you did that," Alai smirks into our headset.

"Yeah Ender, save some for the rest of us," Petra calls jokingly, a twinge of hurt leaking into her voice. Oops. Forgot she had a feeling or two for him. I'll apologize afterword.

"Do what Kayleigh said. Dock. Prepare to fire Dr. Device at the planet. Prime engines for a jump to lightspeed, but don't get your hopes up about getting out," he orders, and all screens light and swirl and change with a new purpose.

I keep my features in the careful smirk of a girl who just kissed her crush, but inside I plan our next moves. Ender can handle it from here.