Wisdom in the Dark

Chapter 14 - Jak

A full rotation later saw Jak pull overtime on patrols.

He didn’t want to think about Myra.

He didn’t want to be inside Myra’s home.

The fact he considered the hut he shared with his wife her home as opposed to their home told him something was wrong.

But Jak was stuck on Callisto. Stuck in Pyc Village. Stuck with Myra. There was no going back to his family, the Wodniki Village, or Ganymede.

So Jak filled his wake periods with patrols and his sleep periods on the opposite side of the bed avoiding Myra. His father’s words about being the man Myra needed nagged at Jak, and his conscious told him to talk to her. Jak pushed that aside. Instead he mounted up in his Sylph each wake period and ran through reconnaissance patterns with Ctik and the other Sylph pilots.

This wake period was like the last seventeen. Jak provided a pre-flight brief to the other three pilots, then boosted out of Pyc Village to cover the skies there and over the Holowycz Forest.

“Interesting we call it the Holowycz Forest,” Ctik said several wake periods before. “It belongs to the Pyc now. The Holowycz are dead and gone.”

“The Holowycz still haunt it,” Akos had replied. “Or so the people who have mapped the forest the most say. They say the spirits of the Holowycz haunt it now.”

Jasny had scoffed at Akos’ fears. “Old wives stories.”

“Tell that to Cmik,” Akos had replied. “He said he saw one of their ghosts. Returned to the village as white as a corpse.”

“Cmik’s wrong in the head,” Ctik had countered. “Always has been.”

But Ctik’s and Jasny’s words hadn’t calmed the minds of Akos, or any of the other Pyc Villagers.

Jak flew over the far northwest reaches of the Holowycz Forest. As Jak looked down at the trees below he could see Pyc Family members foraging through the forest. He longed for the chance to be down there with them and hunt again. He wanted to range through the forest, exploring its secrets. But the thought of having to deal with Myra surfaced, and Jak buried his desire to hunt for the time being.

“Jak, this is Ctik,” Myra’s cousin called over the communications channel. “All clear in the southwest sector.”

“Good copy, Ctik,” Jak replied. “All clear in the northwest sector, too. I’m going to continue my pattern.”

There was a pause before Ctik’s reply. “It’s quiet, Jak. Go home.”

“Negative. I’m the Patriarch of Pyc Village. I need to be seen guarding the people.”

“Roger, good copy,” Ctik replied with a sigh.

Jak chose to ignore Ctik’s reaction. He didn’t care. Patrols were safe. Patrols kept him away from the Pyc referring to him Myra’s wife. Patrols kept him away from Myra. So Jak kept flying.

The Sylph vectored east, then south with Jak’s touch on the control stick. The neural interface helmet engulfing Jak’s head did the rest, and the Sylph moved a mere half nanosecond after Jak’s thought and movement. The Holowycz Forest rushed by below him again in a blur of dark greens. Soon the forest seemed to dissolve into the light greens of grass as the Holowycz Forest ended and Pyc lands began.

Moments later the Pyc Village grew in Jak’s vision. He could see the ovoid, gray shapes of the Pyc shuttles before he spotted the dark blue of the Pyc Village domes.

Suddenly, Ctik’s voice crackled over the communications channel, excited.

“Jak, Ctik, something came up on the scans.”

Jak was immediately at full alert, ripped from his dour mood and thoughts of Myra.

“What is it?” Jak asked, heart racing.

There was a long pause – too long – as Jak waited for Ctik’s response.

“Ctik, Jak, come in,” Jak called, almost yelling the words.

The only thing that would come up on the scans would be another Sylph, or a shuttle. Jak’s family wasn’t scheduled to visit the Pyc Village, and all Pyc Sylphs were accounted for. That meant they were craft from another Family, and that meant and attack. The Pyc Village needed to be warned. The women, children, and elderly needed to be evacuated to shelter, and the militia called to arms.

“Ctik?” Jak exclaimed.

“Jak, Ctik,” Ctik finally replied. “Nevermind. It was nothing. It popped up then disappeared. I’ll have Orguz and his techs check it when I get back.”

A heavy sigh of relief escaped Jak’s lips. It wasn’t an attack, just a scanner malfunction. Myra and the Pyc Village, Jak’s new Family, were safe. No one would die today. No alarms needed to be sounded. Jak leaned back in the cockpit seat, the material crunching and creaking as he did.

Without warning Jak’s cockpit turned red with warning lights, and his computer squeeled for his attention. What was going on? Jak looked, and six red diamonds filled the black screen of his scanner display.

“Bogies incoming!” Ctik practically screamed the words over the comms. “We’re under attack! We’re under attack!”

Jak whipped his Sylph around, the G-forces ramming him back into his seat. He fought to stay conscious as blackness began to fill his vision. Then he righted the craft and rocketed toward the incoming foe. With a flick of his thumb he switched to weapons hot. The Sylph’s forward twin machine guns and wing-mounted missile launchers whirred and clacked to ready status. Hidden during normal flight, the display in his helmet’s visor now provided him live data of his ammunition count and weapons sytem status. The once soft gold targeting reticle burned bright and bold in his vision.

“Pyc Traffic Control, this is Jak,” Jak said once he switched comm channels. “Enemy incoming. We are under attack. I say again, enemy incoming. We are under attack.”