Leanna O’Regan didn’t open her eyes immediately, as she felt the blanket she was laying under yanked away from her roughly, leaving her exposed on the bench inside the large helicopter’s passenger cabin. The bright mid-day sun shone through the windows of the cabin, letting a bright shaft of light strike her directly on her face and making her squint and sleepily bring a hand up to shield her eyes. She groaned slightly and tried to turn her back to the bright sunshine by rolling over on the bench, but her wrist was grabbed suddenly by a black-gloved hand preventing her from trying to go back to sleep.

Dante Valderez lifted Leanna up to a sitting position with his tight grip on her wrist, making the young woman blink in anger and lash out at him with her free hand. She was able punch the older man in the thigh of his black uniform, but it had no effect on his grip on her and it gave him the opportunity to grab her other wrist. Now holding Leanna’s wrists above her head, Dante brought her arms down and held them in her lap, preventing her from moving. He leaned forward into her face, his cold black eyes level with hers, and the mouth-piece of his respirator almost touching her nose. She stared defiantly back into his eyes, still focusing from being shaken awake. Her long black hair tumbled over her cheeks, and brushed against the tubes leading out the mask and around Dante’s shoulders to the gas cylinders strapped to his back. She coughed and broke her gaze with the Commander, looking up his forehead to his scarred, bald skull. She looked past his head to see that Lucretius was in the helicopter’s cockpit with a headset on, talking hurriedly and looking more pale than usual. The young man would glance back to them every now and then, but was focused on his radio conversation.

Without a word, Dante released Leanna’s wrists, and stood up straight again, swaying a bit as the helicopter gently banked. Leanna moved her gaze from the front of the aircraft to one of the windows, and saw the ocean waves speeding by quickly, not far below.

“Commander Valderez! General Thompson is ordering us to not approach the QuadriStar and to move to an observation position immediately!”

Dante’s cold eyes flashed with anger, and he barked at the young man standing beside him, “James, watch over her!” He abruptly turned to the cockpit as James sat down beside Leanna and put his arm around her to grab her shoulder. Leanna tried to squirm and shake his hand off his shoulder, but James hissed quietly under his breath so she could just hear above the vibrating cabin and thumping blades whirling above them, “Cool it! I’m on your side!”

Leanna clenched her jaw in response and looked instead ahead through the cockpit windshield to see the massive grey battleship filling their view. Other smaller helicopters were lifting away quickly from the elevator launch pads, such that as one took off, another one below was lifted up to be released, like a zipper unzipping. They helicopter they were riding in was slowing to a halt, and now was hovering in front of one of the control towers rising high above the hulls and multi-level decks. The sky around them was buzzing with helicopters rushing away, and in the distance they could be seen hovering above the ocean surface and pointed towards the resting battleship. “The Starburst formation!” James whispered urgently, “All squadrons of helicopters are deployed to protect the QuadriStar from attack. No one has told us specifically why, but my guess the battleship is at its most vulnerable in this hull orientation.”

Leanna ignored James’s commentary, and was focused rather on the conversation Dante was having with Lucky, who was shrinking back from the superior officer who was becoming increasingly agitated.

“Tell General Thompson to stand down the attack! I have not given him all the coordinates, and- damn the encryption, I need to talk to him now!” Dante shouted at Lucky, grabbing the headset off the younger man’s sweating head, and started shouting into the microphone, “General! Stand down from Starburst! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Dante listened to one of the earphones of the headset, and then threw it back at Lucky in disgust. “Idiot!” he roared, and turned to the pilot, pointing angrily at a large landing platform near the base of the command tower they were hovering in front of. “Pilot! Land there, now!”

The pilot complied immediately, and the large black helicopter jerked sharply as it dove down to the lower decks of the battleship, making all the occupants roll with the aircraft and reach out for something to grab on to. The helicopter landed hard on the landing pad, making it bounce. Dante didn’t wait for it to stop moving before he slid open the side door and jump down. “Everyone stay on board!” he shouted as he bounded away down the stairs from the landing pad to one of the deck entrances, leaving the pilot, Lucky, James and Leanna to watch all the activity of the hands on deck scurry around and follow their list of assigned tasks.

Dante ran two steps at a time up the winding stairs of the control tower, and reached the top to burst into the command center, his breathing ragged and erratic behind the respirator mask. All the officers looked up from their command posts, startled to see the black-uniformed man bear down on an irritated-looking General Thompson, who was standing before one of the long windows of the control tower overlooking the decks of the QuadriStar. “Stand down, you fool!” Dante rasped loudly at the annoyed General, “I haven’t provided all the coordinates for the guided missile strikes!”

“I know, but I had no idea of where you were or what you were doing last night, and I had to take matters into my own hands,” General Thompson said calmly, his eyes squinting at the heaving man in front of him. “There are PAB reports that CIM operatives are preparing to commandeer radio and TV stations across the state to broadcast a call to arms. I thought I would demonstrate the awesome power of the QuadriStar to quell any thoughts of a rebellion.”

“You would show our hand at this early stage?” Dante said, still breathing heavily, and swaying at bit where he stood. “Give me a day to give you all the coordinates of the CIM bases across California. We can bring down the enemies of the President in a single attack.”

The General frowned and then sighed, “Alright, you have one day, Commander, to provide the coordinates of all CIM bases. Better to strike once in a debilitating attack.”

Dante visibly relaxed on the General’s concession, and bowed slightly, his composure regained, “Thank you, sir. I will have all the coordinates ready by tomorrow noon.”

“Well, fine,” General Thompson said, his voice brittle with disappointment, “but, since the QuadriStar is now in the Starburst configuration anyway, we shall continue as planned, but without the guided missile attack.” He turned to one of the grey-uniformed officers nearest him and ordered, “Stand down the guided missiles, we will not launch them quite yet.” 

“You’re still proceeding with Starburst?” Dante asked angrily, “It won’t accomplish anything if it’s not calibrated and targeted correctly.” 

“No, but the President wants a demonstration today of the QuadriStar’s rather unconventional weapon of mass destruction. Self-guided missiles and armed drones he can understand. These are still pretty cutting edge technologies for 1977,” the General smirked, “but weather control? That’s pretty far out there, as the kids today would say!”
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*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***