Humanity Endures

Part 10 - The Eleventh Hour | Chapter 3

The hangar being as large as it was, and with Farlina having been tied up in a brief conversation with one of Theten's pilots — an Earther man named Vkaelin — she had to sprint briefly to reach her friend. However, when she was half-way there, Farlina was briefly stopped, her right arm having been lightly grabbed by a nearby Leselah. Just as Farlina began stammering a question that translated roughly to "What!?" Leselah answered, "I rarely see you, and I have a feeling that this trend will continue, so while I have the opportunity to do so I just want to say thank you, Farlina. You, as far as I'm concerned, are the one thing that's kept this ship and squadron not only in one piece, but functioning flawlessly for so long. You've fixed my squadron's fighters countless times, and you've kept us competitive with every other ship in the galaxy: you have my respect, and my thanks."

Letting Farlina go, she continued, "Now go. I'm sure you have something more important to do than listening to me."

Just as Leselah turned to walk away, however, Farlina called out her name; she stopped and turned to face Farlina, her expression expectant, yet pleased. Farlina, pausing and thinking for a few moments, then admitted, "Your words of thanks mean a lot, though in this coming battle it'll be you and those like you who are responsible for not only keeping our ship in one piece, but ensuring the enemy's ships don't stay that way. Clever engineering can only go so far without people willing to risk everything, and the entirety of my job is simply done so that you can do yours as best you can; if thanks is to be given, I should be giving it. Thank you, Leselah."

Farlina saluted, and Leselah returned it. Both of them wanted to remain there, but they both had other duties to attend to; the two quickly turned away to resume their tasks, but they each lingered in each other's thoughts as someone they could count on in the wars and battles to come.

Catching up with Theten, Farlina caught his attention, saying, "Now, I'm sure you're aware that I did more than just get you a fighter squadron — in fact, it might even be just as good a gift as the fighter squadron itself. Do you care to join me, so that I may show you what it is?"

Theten turned to face Farlina, and replied, "But of course; lead the way."

Jogging down the expansive chamber, Theten repeatedly fired questions towards Farlina about the nature of her gift, receiving the tantalizing response of "You'll see" each time. After about a minute and a half of light running, the pair had reached the end of the chamber; Farlina indicated that the gift was in the main launch tube, and that in order to see it from the outside — the main entrance connected to the gift's cockpit — Theten had to enter the launch tube through a maintenance hatch. Thankfully, such hatches were not hard to come by, and Farlina, deploying her pressure shell over herself to protect against the vacuum, had located and clambered through the nearest one in just a few seconds; Theten followed suit.

As the dark confines of the launch-tube were illuminated by the blinding glare of a set of spotlights, Theten's eyes came to rest on the ship Farlina had created: proudly resting within the launch tube was a massive, state-of-the-art, cube-shaped fighter craft, every facet of its design maximizing two things — armament, and elegance. Its cubical hull was lined with weaponry, possessing everything from a genetically-engineered biowarfare missile, to multiple gauss turrets, and Theten was amazed; not only was the fighter one of the best he had ever seen, but despite all of the improvements made to it over the years, it still perfectly resembled the older craft that he had used to win his dogfighting tournaments on Nahmatiix, when he and Farlina had last worked together. Farlina, speaking over a private radio channel, announced, "Feast your eyes, my old friend, on a modernized, improved version of the very same craft that I built specifically for that career-forging dogfighting competition seven years ago. That design, with you inside it, beat Nahmatiixian pilots once before, and I trust it will do so again; this thing is the most heavily armed fighter on the entire Ruthless, the most durable, and, without question, the most expensive. To make things even better, for the sake of quick movement across what will doubtless be a nigh-impassable battlefield, it has a quick-breaching remnant drive built securely into its hull. My dear friend, this craft is not only immensely deadly, but it is the most recognizable fighter in our fleet — a combination of traits that fit you well, for if I recall correctly, when you were telling me what you wanted for a fighter so many years ago, you said you wanted to 'Win, and look awesome in the process'."