Zenith’s controls were lighter than a single-pilot fighter-ship.
Zenith’s responses to Jeeda’s manipulations instantaneous and without lag.
Jeeda’s commands were being conveyed through her physical connection to helm-
her only connection to Zenith. Her two hands were on the controls just
as she had always piloted and those physical commands entirely controlling the
mechanisms of the ship. It was piloting by instinct alone and it was far faster
than a mental implant could have delivered the data because Jeeda was not
piloting by thought alone. The concept
of using mental implants-the Staval called them links- for piloting the Blue-ships had been considered. The
technology was available with the open Staval data-bases and would work with
humans once adapted for humans but the idea had been scrapped. It was human instincts
which were to be counted on if the human race was to stand against the Antz and
for that to occur the recessives needed the full activation of both mind and
cells. It was this link of mind and cells which gave the recessives their
unique abilities and which would be their only chance of survival when combat
was joined with the new Antz Blue-ships.
Ahead lay the Antz/Staval Armada and towards it Zenith
rushed under Jeeda’s sure control. Jeeda’s face held an expression new to
Welby’s experience. It wasn’t the mad smile of previous eras but the smile was
there nonetheless. It was the smile of the acceptance of the challenge- but
Welby could detect none of the madness he had expected to find there. The madness he had seen in her face on
every instance they had gone to battle together except this time. Welby couldn’t predict if that would be a good
thing or a bad thing as they came within range of the Antz weaponry but he was
fully aware of what Jeeda Collins had become and he was here because he had every
confidence Jeeda would once again win the day. Despite the battle ahead and the
worrisome look of keen anticipation on Jeeda’s face, Welby was confident the
human race had created the weapons which would be the Antz undoing. If not then
Welby was sure this would be the end of the road for the human race. The
remaining human forces would be mopped up quickly with the demise of the 111th,
but if that was to be the outcome,
then Welby could think of no place he would rather be. No matter the outcome
this was where Welby wanted to be. The outcome of this battle would tell the
tale of human’s further place in the Universe. If this battle were lost so too
would the human race be lost and no place far enough to run. This was the
pinnacle battle which would decide human’s further existence and the outcome by
no means assured. Welby felt a kind of keen anticipation himself and even felt
the smallest smile attempt to tug at his lips- at the irony of the whole affair-
but it slipped away and Welby couldn’t bring it back. The cold hard truth was
that the implacable, indestructible human war machine had finally found a
worthy enemy.
Jeeda was unaware of Welby’s scrutiny. Nearly all of her awareness
was directed inward and her instrumentation all but forgotten- including the
main-screen visual feed of the Antz Armada ahead. If she had noted Welby’s scrutiny it wouldn’t have been a new experience.
When Jeeda flew into battle every eye that could find a spare moment found
itself mesmerized by the Admiral’s expression- usually that of mad glee. Welby
had nothing to do at the moment and shouldn’t have been here though now that he
was, there was little for him to do.
The battle was entirely in Jeeda and Zenith’s control.
Under Jeeda’s calm sure control Zenith twisted and floated
sinuously through the first stalks of blue fire erupting from the forward ships
of the Antz Armada- even as the alarms went off warning of that incoming fire.
With a calm ease that astonished the four others aboard- Zenith included -
Jeeda floated the massive ship effortlessly through the bolts as if somehow
they were magnetically repelled by them and the bolts themselves pushing Zenith
out of the way. With a familiarity that was scary Jeeda rode the bolts, moving just out of the way and the bolts
flashing by only meters from the hull of the ship, so that at the next moment
she might step Zenith in the other direction to avoid the bolt which arrived
just where they had been. The visual feed became a solid mass of blue fire as
Zenith closed and then the enemy was targeting Zenith with everything it had with
a clear line of fire.
Welby could see nothing but blue streaks of fire reaching
out from the Antz on the forward screen and Zenith dancing among them with outward
confidence. Zenith seemed to be buoyed upon waves of magnetic or some other
type of physical repulsion issued by the bolts themselves. As two magnets could
not be forced together backwards neither could the blue bolts force themselves
onto the ship- as if Zenith was being magnetically pushed away by some force
within the bolts themselves. Zenith’s velocity was slow and graceful yet the
walls of blue fire pouring around them left Welby with no doubt as to the
danger they faced. Welby could make nothing of the mass of blue which flashed
around them so he watched Jeeda because it was the emotions now visible on her
face that told the tale for Welby. Jeeda’s hands were fluid gracefulness upon
her controls and her face told the tale of her new confidence. A sudden new
confidence told by the look of retribution now written on her face, written on
a face that now knew the Antz could
be defeated.
Jeeda rolled and twisted Zenith through the barrage operating
on instinct alone. Her wholeness of
awareness was giving her an almost precognitive warning of the incoming fire
her consciousness could not fathom until Zenith was sliding through yet another
barrage unscathed and it was she who had piloted them through it. It wasn’t
precognitive ability however but her heightened awareness and reaction time that
allowed her to act before her mind could fathom what she was doing- faster than
her mind could send electrical signals across synapses much less the added
processing time of having to think it through. The Staval energy beams traveled
much faster than electricity across synapses and Jeeda’s visual perception of
the battle was little different than Welby’s though through her cognizance of
her cell’s awareness in her mind’s eye she could see the bolts coming almost in
slow motion. Then suddenly Zenith herself caught up to real-time as the fire
cleared for a millisecond and Jeeda launched Zenith directly at the Antz Armada.
Instantly Zenith’s cannons were pouring blue fire at the suddenly scattering
Antz Armada, scattering before the blizzard which was the 111th
descending upon them from every vantage and then Jeeda had her first glimpse of
the true power the Blue-ships wielded. Zenith’s first shot completely
obliterated an enemy and suddenly it was every ship for itself.
“Registering multiple entry points!’ Zenith warned but if
Jeeda heard it wasn’t apparent. Jeeda was fighting her own battle, her
attention turned entirely inward, her concentration on fighting the battle
which she was sure would end with the destruction of the Antz Armada, but it
was a battle which had just become numerically unbalanced. What was to become
an unending parade of Antz Armadas began entering real-space around the battle,
flanking the 111th as it decimated the first decoy Armada. Then they
joined the battle.
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