Free Planet Predators by Saxon Andrew Page A

Chris’s shoulder, “I wish we had more planets working on this than just Dundee.”
    “Two more have had the initial colonists land and are getting set up to start construction within six months. We worry about having all our eggs in just two baskets as well.”
    * * *
    Arvolo looked at Dr. Levin and wondered how much longer this class was going to take. The other five students were taking notes at a copious rate and he was fighting falling asleep. He leaned forward and put his head on his hand and fought to stay awake.
    “Are we boring you, Captain Arvolo?”
    Arvolo didn’t even take his head off his hand, “You’re coming close to talking me unconscious.”
    The other five students turned and looked at the big Cuban shaking their heads. Dr. Levin’s eyes narrowed and he said, “So you think you know everything about this control board?”
    Arvolo sat up straight and sighed, “The board is self-explanatory; everything has a description under the knob, pad, or switch. I do see that you could have done a better job of organizing it.”
    Levin was angry, “Oh, is that so!”
    “You have the thruster control on the upper right corner and the engine power in the lower left corner of the board. If you had them together a pilot could vector thrust and control the power delivery with one hand. You’ve made it a two hand operation. A pilot might find that he needs to set the drive for Sierra Space while attempting to avoid being fired on. Your board only allows me control evasive maneuvers because it is a two handed operation.”
    Levin looked at the display on the wall showing the control board and saw that Arvolo was right. He looked back and said, “Is there anything else, Captain?”
    “As a matter of fact there is. We discovered in our first fight with the Blue Giant Scouts that they would crowd Sierra Space and bump us back into normal space whenever we tried to escape. There ought to be a button that can be enabled on the drive that would automatically apply thrust when a ship enters Sierra Space. There was always a moment before they could bump me into normal space and that’s all we’d have needed to escape if thrust was applied automatically. I’m just saying.”
    “Captain, do not look at your board.” Arvolo continued to stare at Levin. “Now put your left hand on the sensor control and your right hand on the weapons select lever.”
    Arvolo reached forward and Levin came around and looked. “Your right hand is not on the weapons select lever.”
    “No, because before I could select a weapon, I would have to push the weapon slave control that would transfer weapons to my board.”
    Levin saw his hand on the slave pad and stared at Arvolo. “Captain, how long did it take you to memorize that board?”
    Arvolo shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe three seconds.”
    Dr. Levin pushed his com, “Dr. Morrison, I’m sending Captain Arvolo to your location to make some changes on the Ninja’s control board. Try to do it quickly so we can start flight training in four days.” Levin looked at Arvolo, “Captain, do you know where Dr. Morrison is located?”
    “Yes Sir, I do.”
    “Go tell him what you just suggested.”
    “I think we should also have power to the engines controlled by a slide instead of a knob so we can use our palm instead of our fingers.”
    “Tell Dr. Morrison.” Arvolo stood and left the classroom.
    Isadore looked at her board and knew she didn’t know her board as well as Arvolo knew his. Well that just would not do; he was not going to do a better job than her. She knew there were fifty controls on her board and she stayed after class teaching herself how to find them blindfolded. She decided that she had made a mistake putting the Crazy Cuban into a category of egotistical bombasts that loved to hear himself talk. She was going to check out whether he was truthful about learning that board in three seconds and then she would know for sure.

Chapter Six
    “C