Wing Commander Page #3

but none of us need to be

reminded of thatfact...

so you die, you never existed.

Understand?

Yes, ma'am.

Taggart, sir.

Ah. I know of you,

Mr. Taggart...

but I'm afraid I don't know you.

And yet you come to me

with classified orders...

from Admiral Tolwyn.

Oh, I see. The captain

doesn't trust me...

Blair, or the disk.

Would you?

Well, uh...

no.

No.

This tactical schematic outlines

a nightmare, Mr. Taggart.

It tells me that the Kilrathi

may have a Navcom...

and with it the capacity

to jump into Earth space.

And based on that nightmare...

it orders me to take

radical action...

which, if it and you

are a lie...

could compromise this ship

and its crew.

So I'm bound to ask you,

Mr. Taggart...

what proof do you have

that this is authentic?

Where did you get this?

Tolwyn...

thought it might be useful...

if I ever had

to convince a captain...

to follow his orders.

Mr. Obutu.

Plot a course

for the Charybdis quasar.

Full speed, if you please.

Sir, the nearest

jump point to the Charybdis...

is four days hard travel

from our current location.

There's a class-two

pulsar eleven hours from here.

We can jump there.

It's not on the chart, sir.

Navcom does not have

those coordinates.

I have them.

No one's jumped a pulsar

forforty years...

and even then,

they were Pilgrims.

I don't believe we have

a choice, Mr. Gerald.

If the battle is to be decided

in the Charybdis quasar...

then that's where we have to be.

Plot your course, Mr. Taggart.

Sure.

Sir, that ring means nothing.

This ring has been in Tolwyn's

family for sixteen generations.

And any man who carries it...

has the admiral's

full confidence!

Prepare for the jump.

Hey.

We goin' out?

No. Just me.

I pulled security

with Lieutenant Forbes.

Why'd you wake me up?

Remember back at the academy?

You promised you would

take that thing off.

It brings me luck.

It's gonna get you killed.

I was wearing it

when I made the jump.

Yeah, but that had

nothing to do with luck.

That was about training,

skill, desire.

Now, please.

Take the cross off.

It's who I am.

You don't even know

what it means.

This is the big show.

And you gotta have someone

watching your back.

It's either kill or be killed.

And you know what?

I can't always be there.

Hey, I'm tryin' to be

Mr. Sensitive Guy.

It's just... Ahh!

I don't even know why I bother.

All right. Wish me luck.

Luck?

What about desire?

You seen Lieutenant Forbes?

You know I got desire.

Hey, Marshall...

Luck.

Mmm.

Message from Earth Command.

Their defenses

are on line, sir, but...

They don't believe...

they can withstand

a Kilrathi battle group...

without the support

of the fleet.

But they willfight, sir.

Earth will never surrender.

What's our status?

We're running

at one-hundred-and-ten percent.

We've already lost three ships...

two at jump points, and one's

reactor core melted down.

Run at one hundred and twenty.

Now, if Dibbles had

the flying skills of a woman...

he'd still be alive.

You gotta be kidding me.

Don't take it

personally, Nugget.

It's a question of estrogen.

Women can outfly

and outshoot men.

It has been proven...

that we can keep track

of up to four enemy fighters.

No, it takes balls,

big balls...

not ovaries, to maintain

four enemy fighters...

and that's a fact, Jack.

All right, watch this.

Con. Con. This is Delta Two

requesting permission to land.

Delta Two,

you're clear to land.

Delta Two, you're coming in

too hot. Abort. I repeat, abort.

Delta Two. Do you copy?

Sh*t!

Delta Two, you are inverted!

Hoo hoo! Not anymore.

Aaahhh!

Now, what were you saying?

Delta One!

Whoo!

What are you people

lookin' at?

Carry on about your business.

Nothin' to see here,

ladies and gentlemen.

Whoo! Oh, now,

that was a sweet three-sixty.

Actually, that was a five-forty.

Did you just do that

to impress me?

I'm just trying to redirect

some of that testosterone.

You're a total...

maniac.

Todd "Maniac" Marshall

at your service... ma'am!

Ha ha ha ha!

Ohh, sh*t.

You're needed

on the bridge, Captain.

I'll be right there.

You don't want to be here

right now.

Justfor you, sir.

Trying to bribe me?

No.

No. Um...

thanks, Angel.

The flight boss would've

brought us up on charges...

if you hadn't said something.

Yeah. Yeah, what the hell

were you thinking?

Look, I wasn't.

Not with my head, anyway.

You're one of my best pilots.

I cannot afford to lose you.

I was just...

showing off a bit

in front of Maniac.

Maniac?

Lieutenant Marshall.

He has a new call sign.

I see.

Well, I hope itfelt very good.

Better... than...

sex.

Bullshit.

Better than sex with myself.

You just see that

it never happens again.

Sir? Can I talk to you?

Yeah.

Go ahead.

My whole life...

I've taken crap

because I'm part Pilgrim.

And I don't know why.

Sit down.

You're one of the last

descendants of a dying race.

Pilgrims were the first human

space explorers and settlers.

Forfive centuries...

they defied the odds.

They embraced space...

andfor that,

they were rewarded...

with the gift of a flawless

sense of direction.

They couldfeel

magnetic fields...

created by

quasars and black holes...

negotiate singularities...

navigate not just the stars,

but space-time itself.

Like a Navcom A. I?

No, no.

You've got it backwards.

The billions of calculations

each second...

necessary to lead us through

a black hole or a quasar...

is the Navcom recreation

of the mind of a single Pilgrim.

Then why'd the war start?

You spend so much time

out here alone...

you end up losing your humanity.

When Pilgrims began to lose

touch with their heritage...

they saw themselves

as superior to men.

And in their arrogance...

they chose to abandon

all things human...

andfollow what they called

their "destiny".

Some say they believed

they were gods.

You believe they were gods?

No.

But I do believe

they were touched by God.

And like it or not...

you've got some of that

inside you.

I have to get to the bridge.

We'll be jumping soon.

I want you to be there.

This thing's

eating suns for breakfast.

Let's go.

What the hell are we doing here?

You know what we're not doing.

Turning around.

This is the captain.

Prepare for a level-five

jump-point interphase.

Secure all stations.

Attention. Attention.

Course error.

Adjust course immediately.

Steady as she goes.

Captain, the ship is headed...

into the PNR zone

of a class-two pulsar.

One minute until

gravitational pull is 100%.

What about it, Mr. Taggart?

The readings are wrong.

The sensors are not calibrated

to the pulsar.

They've already been warped

by the gravitationalfields.

Captain, I must insist

we change course immediately.

No!

Manual override!

Forget you,

artificial intelligence...

or we're all dead.

Captain,

I think you should reconsider.

Steady as she goes, helm.

Aye, aye, sir.

Warning. Warning.

Jump coordinates incorrect.

This is the captain.

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