Excerpt: I Miss You

“Superior 1501-255-330 to Alpha! Superior 1501-255-330 to Alpha! Target has been sighted!”

Deep within the ultra-efficient mechanical bowels of the Star Watchtower, two elegant, sinuous figures in full body smartsuits watched a wall of flickering displays. Fully adapted for space travel and long range teleport, one a striking yellow, the other a more subtle shade of cyan that blended in to the cold metal structures in the background whenever the range of blue lights blinked on – the lighting was adapted for their nocturnal eyes – they both had the jagged, spiky collars that marked them as of a commanding rank, the golden slightly higher rank than the blue. The one she was addressing over the intercom was of even higher rank - in fact, she was the Alpha of the entire Watch, equivalent to the General of an interplanetary army. Her face did not appear on the display – the Superior did not have authority to see the Alpha's face – but her voice was the same as that of all Starmen – a mechanical near-monotone with a hint of static.

“Input co-ordinates.”

The Superior did as she was told. The tiny ship they were tracking appeared as a small red blip on the map of the galaxy.

“How conveniently close to a Watchtower. The target must not know that he is being followed.”

“But we shot him down...”

“Unit Final 1101-095-706 did not leave stealth during the attack. It is possible that the target did not pick him up on his radar at all.” said the Superior, “But still, it is best not to be optimistic when fighting even an ordinary Dictory warrior. I have authorised you to send two units of Finals and two units of Ghosts to intercept the target. You are in command.”

“I will not fail you, Alpha.”

“That would be a wise choice, Superior. This close to your base, you would be leaving yourself open to infiltration and attack. Remember who you are fighting.”

After a couple of seconds' lag, the new orders were uploaded to the base computers. Superior 1501-255-330 set about deploying the ships, keeping a close eye on the flashing red blip. She turned the Watchtower's shields to maximum as well, and set all the automated defence systems to 'paranoid'. The metal diamond in the sky flared cyan, briefly highlighting its shining facets and the beauty of its mechanical workmanship as it spun on its axis. Then sixteen bolts of light, eight red and eight purple, shot out of it like comets.