Free Ep.#6 - "Head of the Dragon" (The Frontiers Saga) by Ryk Brown Page A

entering the hangar bay, they might need to pay attention to such angles in the future, especially during flight operations, as the unfiltered light in space could be somewhat blinding.
    Everyone in attendance watched in awe as the final step began, and the two walls that separated the three transfer airlocks were lowered into the deck. A minute later, the entire aft end of the main hangar deck was open to space. Nathan thought about the pros and cons of operating an open flight deck. The flight decks on the Earth’s larger Defender-class ships were all open design, with the deck opening from both the bow and stern of the ship with transfer airlocks and hangar bays on either side of the deck. Of course, those ships were much larger and had plenty of space for such an operation. His Explorer-class ship was considerably smaller, and her flight deck had been intended for primarily defensive and support operations.
    As soon as the deck was completely open, deck hands in full pressure suits began to come out from the aft end of the flight deck on either side. Most of them went directly to their work, but more than one took the opportunity to walk out onto the flight apron and look out into space. Nathan understood their curiosity, as this might be the only opportunity they would ever have to witness the vastness of outer space first hand.
    A minute later, two fighters landed on the flight apron and rolled into the main bay. The major had launched several fighters in order to run recovery drills. He had every intention of getting the bugs worked out of their open deck procedures as soon as possible, which was just fine with Nathan, as they had no idea when another imperial ship might appear.
    The two fighters split, one rolling to starboard and the other to port. They entered the mid-deck airlocks on either side, the doors closing quickly behind them. Nathan watched the monitors showing the view inside the mid-deck transfer airlocks as the platform descended to the lower level as it pressurized. By the time it reached the bottom, the atmospheric pressure within the tube was normal, and the door to the lower deck opened allowing the fighter to roll into the cargo bay below.
    “We were able to move most of the cargo to other compartments,” Major Prechitt stated, “so we have enough room in the cargo deck to use it as a hangar. We’ll be able to use the fighter alleys for quick recycles during combat, which we’ll be practicing fairly heavily for the rest of the day. Otherwise, we can do most of our work down below.”
    “Excellent work, Major,” Nathan praised. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    As he made his way out, Nathan watched the next two fighters roll in from the flight apron and immediately turn into the fighter alleys where they would be recycled and launched again. He wished he could jump into the cockpit of one of those Corinari fighters and go shooting out the launch tube, even if only to turn around and immediately land, but he was the captain now, and he had other responsibilities.

    * * *
    “Based on the time it took them to repair the hull breach in our bow, Vlad estimates it will take at least two weeks to patch the hole in our port side,” Cameron reported. “And that’s if we are docked inside the Karuzari asteroid base.”
    “I don’t see that happening any time soon,” Nathan said. “From Jessica’s initial report, it sounds like we won’t be getting any more help from the people of Corinair—at least not from their industrial sector, that’s for sure.”
    “Well, we’re still pretty good on rail gun ammunition,” Cameron stated. “Simple slugs, but plenty of them. We’ve also got more than forty missiles and ten nuclear torpedoes.”
    “Yeah, those missiles didn’t seem very effective. Their point-defense systems kept taking them down. We need torpedoes more than anything else. It takes at least two of them to take down one of their ships, and that’s if the