Mama? Papa?  I might be coming home soon..."

"What the hell's the delay?" Caleb asked, cutting into the static of her link.

She adjusted the link's sensitivity and replied, "Cut the skipchatter unless you got something important to say."

"Sorry, Sarge."

Laura swallowed, checked her thruster control.  Fuel full, thrusters idling at .01%.

"Gold Wing, you are cleared for launch."

"Copy, bridge," Caleb replied.  "Gold Leader away."

Laura felt the flight deck vibrate under her jet as the thruster tubes of Caleb's Starbrute flared bright blue.  Then, with an incredible sudden burst, he jetted off into space.  The other four jets of his wing chased close behind him, at last gathering into a string that turned as though under the direction of one mind.  Laura knew that her own wing would look as impressive and powerful; she just couldn't believe she was part of it.  Six months earlier she'd been standing in a living room on a planet that seemed a lifetime away, screaming at the top of her lungs at her sisters. Five months prior she’d been thinking about going back to school and have even gone to the Hebrew University campus for an application, one she had never filled out. 4 months prior she’d quit her job at CliffTech-Isreal because they had kept pressuring her into taking a management position.  Three months prior she'd been working at an Italian restaurant in Old Town Jerusalem and had served a table of soldiers.  They hadn't said anything to persuade her.  She'd just look at them---and known.

"Red Wing, you are cleared for launch."

"Copy, bridge.  Red Leader away."

When she'd launched from Rahat, she had groaned over how the jet had slammed her against her seat.  Now, with only the little particles of hydrogen to slow the ship, particles that offered no discernable resistance, she slingshoted off the Galaxi at twice the speed, grinning rather than groaning.  The supercarrier shrank to a gray pea floating before a massive orange.

"Gold Wing. ETA to Trojan:  49 seconds," Caleb said.

At that, the asteroid field swept into view on Laura's HUD.  She could look through the image at the actual jagged chunks of icy rock, but their representations on the HUD told her much more than her eyes.  The pitching and yawing planetoids were instantly measured, and their trajectories plotted by the NAV system. she took note of her own wing's ETA and reported it to them.

"Gold Wing. Scatter," Caleb ordered.

Like 5 specks of blue glitter tossed in the air, the jets of Caleb's wing dived into the astral refuse and vanished.

Laura edged her stick forward. "Red Wing.   Insert in 2....1.....go." She hurtled towards a gap between 2 great rocks that each had to be half the size of the Galaxi.  With her NAV system beeping busily, plotting intercept course after intercept course, she made it past the rocks and found herself plowing through a cloud of small, fist-sized stones which struck her Starbrute in a deafening roll of reverberating caroms.  "Red Wing! Break off from leader and take cover!"

The hull of her jet had been built to withstand small meteor showers, but she hadn't planned on testing its design.  The cloud thinned, and then just an occasional chunk streaked past.  She braked hard as she neared a massive rock mottled with ice.  A data bar listed its diameter at .1980 kilometers.  It would do.  She clicked on her retrorocket system and felt the little blasts of power from her ship's nose, tail, and wings as she guided her stick, mirroring the erratic course of the asteroid.

"Gold Leader to Red.  My wing's in position."

Laura checked her HUD.  All but Berkson had found a hiding place.  Berkson's thrusters were idling, and he drifted aimlessly.  "We're almost there ourselves, Caleb." Then she switched her link to the wing's independent channel.  "Come on, Berkson.  Hurry up!"

"Don't rush me!" he fired back. "I'm looking out the right one."

"Blue Wing making insertion," Gluckstein said.

Laura watched her HUD as the 5 jets of Blue Wing began their descent.  Gluckstein's jet threaded deftly into the complex maze, but the 4th pilot on his wing was straying dangerously close to a long, jagged rock that resembled the blade of a dagger.  Laura dialed to Blue Wing's channel. "B-4! Watch your NAV. 9:00! 9:00!"

"Get out there, Weber!"

"There's something wrong with my---I can't---AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The errant Starbrute careened head-on into the asteroid, and as it did so, Laura saw the backside of the stone as it became haloed in light and twinkling, polymeric shards of hull.  Ohmygod!

"We've lost Weber!  We've lost Weber!"

"Web, acknowledge!  Web!"

"Shuddup! She's gone!" Gluckstein said.

"No," another pilot argued. "She might've ejected!"

"Negative on that," Laura said.  "There's no beacon, and there was no e-seq signal on my HUD."

"I don't give a shit about what you got, Levenberg. Get on your own channel.

"I don't wanna hear nothin' outta your mouth, Har-Zahav," Gluckstein interjected. "Got me!"

Gluckstein's hysterical personnel were his own problem now.  Laura switched to Red channel, which still kept her in touch with each wing leader.  "Caleb?"

"I heard everything," he said. "Forget about it.  Just stay hidden. And keep watching."

"Wing Leaders.  Hold your positions.  You should be picking up the enemy attack force on LIDAR," Lt. General Lewitzky informed.

Three alien motherships grew ominously into view on Laura's HUD.  Each blue-gray vessel was composed of a superstructure with a golden, triangular-based pyramid placed at the middle of the structure itself.  They seemed to be structured so the pilot could land on smooth surfaces such as plateaus.  From some unseen gap in the superstructure a flurry of alien fighters spewed into space.

"Galaxi....this is Gold Leader. I'm tied on."

"Copy, Gold Leader," communications officer Rabin replied. "Correct for course..."

Laura frowned and adjusted her link.  "Caleb, what happened?"

"It's not our link.  It's him.  Wait, I think I know why.  Check your LIDAR."

The enemy armada was moving off its projected course.  If they continued, they would avert the asteroid field.

"Galaxi, LIDAR shows the enemy to be...."247Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlbyuHAnPas

"Affirmative, Gold Leader. Will advise," Rabin replied stoically.

"ADVISE? They're moving away!"

"Caleb, sit tight," Laura said.  "Command knows what they're doing."

"The hell they do!  We're sitting here for nothing! Gold Wing. Prepare to move!"

"No, Caleb!"

"Gold Wing.....hold position," Rabin ordered.

Laura heard Lt. Gen. Lewitsky, who must've been near Rabin, ask, "Could they know we're here?"

"No, they'd attack," Krantz answered.

"Caleb?" she called.

He swore through a sigh. "Holding."

The problem posed a single question that command needed to answer: How could the enemy's course be diverted?

Then Laura had part of the solution. "Something's gotta bring them our way."