Echo-1 The Whale

16: Fighter Training Revelations

Space was stupendous, to ponder being one small part of one small galaxy amongst countless others in a limitless universe can make one feel minuscule and meaningless. For dominant species accustomed to terrestrial life, this can bring about a sense of confusion and despair. On the other hand, as a being moving among the stars I had the feeling of being part of the universe; the part of the universe that gets to experience itself, the eyes and ears of the universe. Not that I had ears anymore, but I could still take in the monumental silent majesty of outer space.

Floating in my robot suit fixed inside my space fighter, I gazed out into the stars. The blackness of the negative space between them seemed at once not to exist and at the same time to consume all.

In the middle of my existential conundrum, my twin robots started to sing a little electronic song that sounded like a soft Mozart piece played on a Moog synthesizer. I leaned back and felt very comforted by them. It was a beautiful universe, so quiet, so peaceful, so sublime.

"Thanks, guys."

Our little space moment was interrupted by a camouflaged man-tank climbing around on the outside of the ship. He jumped free as two of the remote ships whizzed by. Death fired his jetpack and went sailing after them.

"Let's see what you can do."

A laser blast struck my fighter and sent me tumbling. That was the first time I saw the sheer magnitude of the Banga. Her huge mass sat stark white against the blackness of space. She kept passing my field of vision as I spun. 

Another blast hit my fighter, this time adding a gyroscopic twist to my out of control spinning. There was a sun and a solar system nearby. Its brightness shined at me every second rotation. Banga, blackness and stars, Banga, sun, small planets, Banga, blackness and stars, Banga, sun, small planets, repeat, repeat, repeat. I thought I was completely disoriented until a third blast sent me spinning like a top.

"Power failure." "...Switching to backup," chimed my droids.

The fact that this was a live-fire training exercise finally dawned on me. 

Engage thrusters, level fighter, throttle forward. 

The tracking system showed a remote ship coming around for another pass at me. I tried X's move from when we were racing in the Robo-a-gogos. I dropped my fighter in space, went in full reverse below the droid ship, which flashed by above me firing into empty space. I hit all three thrusters and put myself in a position behind it. 

Left, right, up, down, increase speed. 

It moved like a fly trying to avoid a swatter.

Small and fast, the droid ship changed direction constantly, but I was on its tail. My fighter was equally agile and quick. I learned its handling quickly. The droid ship must have anticipated it would not be able to lose me. It turned around and faced me, while still simultaneously racing away and constantly changing direction. My intuition told me it was going to fire. 

Power dual cannon. Lock. Fire. 

I saw the red glow of the droids weapons start as my shots hit it. There was an explosion and I flew right through it. The small bits of metal left behind tinged off my hull. I looped back around engaged the fighter's vacuum and sucked up all the debris. I was an environmentalist on the battlefield.

"Hands, I suspected you were the save the world type."

X was laughing over the communication system and of course, she played music. This time it was Queen, the Flash Gordon soundtrack. I hadn't heard those songs in years.