The red alert klaxon sounded and the crew quickly changed into their survival suits moving to action stations all over the ship. Those who were off duty reported to emergency shelters for sleep, or damage control stations if they were on their downtime. It had been twenty-nine days since the PRE fighter wing had first been discovered and now an hour before they reached weapons range the squadron prepared in case of hostile action from any of the fighters.

More than a few things had changed since the squadron had first come in contact with Treecy de Santos including the look of the destroyer and the effectiveness of the crew. A lot of it seemed natural and as if it had always been that way by the time Nemo had reminded Colonel John that they should prepare for an engagement with the fighter wing. For one, Colonel John now saw the handsome AI standing next to him wearing the Federation uniform and holding a fleet-issued tablet. Nemo wasn't solid, Colonel John was able to pass his hand right through the image of Nemo, but it was nice to have a presence to look to when speaking to the AI.

As Colonel John looked at his display panel everything was laid out in a much more user-friendly and intuitive manner. All decided by his own preferences. Much of the uncomfortableness of the survival suits had also been upgraded by the destroyer's AI. The sizes now better fit the individual rather than a set collection of Federation-issued survival suits.

Now that the AIs of each destroyer were more intelligent the squadron's formation was perfect at all times. The pilots only had to be ready for radical maneuvers in the event of AI malfunction or major system failures. The formation of these destroyers as seen by the PRE fighters was absolutely terrifying.

The leader of Flight 759 keyed up the com channel between them and said, "This is Mantis, I want you guys to look hard at what's in front of us. I have no idea what kind of Bandits those are, but they are well beyond our ability to shoot down, so for fuck's sake no one gets an itchy trigger finger."

The pilots of flight 759 all came back with, ""Roger.""

"Mantis, this is Scooter, have we been given docking assignments?"

"Scooter, Mantis, affirm, we'll be under AI control. Bandits will have control."

"Copy, Mantis. Scooter out."

A deep masculine voice sounded over the com channel, "Seven Five Niner, this is Six Seventy-Three Docking Control, please switch over to AI control and we'll get you on board for a hot meal and some R&R, over."

Each of the six PRE fighters found itself under AI control and was brought into the docking bay of a different destroyer. As the flight leader of 759, Mantis's fighter was brought aboard Nemo. Nemo wasn't designed to house an older fighter such as the PRE mark three but similar-sized fighters from the Federation could fit easily so Nemo merely had to adjust his docking clamps slightly to get a snug fit.

Mantis and her copilot opened the hatch allowing for the crew crane to pluck them out of the constrained fighter's cockpit. The PRE survival suit was much bulkier than the sleek Federation suits so the crane had to be altered slightly before pulling the two pilots out.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Once they were on the ground Lieutenant Dedmon, Treecy and two NCOs with pulse rifles were there to greet them. Lieutenant Dedmon held out her hand and asked, "I'm sorry to have to ask this of you, but I'll need to have your sidearms." The two pilots shared a look with each other and then carefully handed over their sidearms. "Do you have any other weapons in your possession?"

Mantis nodded and then said, "I do have a blade, but I can't get to it until I am out of the suit."

Lieutenant Dedmon tapped the side of her helmet and then said over the com channel, "Two on board, danger level yellow."

The tone for condition yellow sounded a few minutes later and then Lieutenant Dedmon unsealed her helmet with Treecy and the NCOs following just behind her. She then motioned to a rack in the docking bay, "Feel free to get out of those suits. You can store your gear here. I'll need that blade from you, obviously and then we'll bring you over for a debrief and some chow."

Mantis then unsealed the bulky helmet. The copilot helped to remove the bulky suit. Colonel John walked into the docking bay with Captain Zigsankowski who whistled as he saw the old PRE fighter. "Would you look at that? I haven't seen one of these since my academy days."

Once Mantis had the helmet off they all looked at her with a little surprise. Colonel John raised his eyebrows, "Well hello, you must be the Flight Leader for Seven Five Nine, Captain...?"

If they hadn't met Treecy de Santos, they might have called her the most beautiful woman they had ever met. She shook out her long black hair before tying it back in a ponytail and then put on a brown peak cap. Then she handed over a short knife to Lieutenant Dedmon and with a husky rather deep yet feminine voice said, "Captain Zheng Shuang." She gave a crisp PRE salute. She looked around and then asked, "I'm sorry if this sounds like a strange question, but could you tell me what year this is?"

Colonel John sighed, "That question is not as strange as you might think. This is the Federation's 673rd Bombardment Squadron part of the 311th Bombardment group under General Yu Tian Ting, Colonel Donald G John commanding. Before I answer that one, could you tell me what year you were from?"

She looked at all of their faces before saying, "We entered the Gate on November twenty-third at ten hundred, 4656 AD."

"Before the war, no wonder." He sighed, "Well, you might not believe it, but the current year is sometime after 9829 AD. We are from fifty years in your future, the year 4706 AD. We also came through a gate. Come, let's get you two some hot food. We can talk more after you eat." As they walked over to the officer's mess Colonel John said, "The people born in this era call it 5022 PB with PB standing for Post Bellum which means after the war. At least, that's what we believe. We have only met a single person from this time frame and she also came here through a gate so it's entirely possible that we are much further in the future than we think."

Captain Zheng Shuang frowned and then said, "No, I believe you." She motioned to her copilot and asked, "Professor Singh can you explain your hypothesis?"

The shorter man nodded and said, "We found a ruin on Mars that had instructions for building a new kind of gate interface. One that would fit inside a fighter. Only, we were unable to understand the coordinate system they were using. We were attempting to visit the colony world Staarahom but ended up coming out in this system instead. Our journey here took a month instead of a week so we knew that something had gone very wrong. The AI on the fighter was unable to calculate our speed which meant we had to have gone well beyond its limits to measure. That put it well beyond four times the speed of light. Meaning that it was possible for us to have been sent very far into the future."

Treecy had gone pale and spoke up, "Staarahom is my home world, that's where I was trying to go."

Colonel John rubbed his forehead and nodded, "We were headed to Staarahom from New Dubai. Professor, is there a gate here?"

He looked at Captain Zheng Shuang who nodded and then said, "There is a gate."

"Well, that is good news then, because we have a working gate interface here." Colonel John smiled. He clapped his hands together and started rubbing them, "So, how does fried chicken sound? I don't know about you all but I'm starving."

As they sat down and started eating Nemo walked up to Colonel John and showed him a transcript from the other debriefs on his tablet and saw that most of what Captain Zheng Shuang and Professor Singh had said had been confirmed by the other members of 759. The only thing Captain Zheng Shuang and Professor Singh failed to disclose were that they were given the gate interface by an alien race instead of finding directions on Mars.

Colonel John pulled out his flask and asked Captain Zheng Shuang, "Care for something a little stronger than that tea?"

She smiled at him and took the flask taking a drink, "This is... Scotch?"

He nodded and took the flask back taking a drink himself and then asked, "Can I ask, why did you leave out that you had contact with them?"

She looked at Professor Singh and then sighed, "One of my men couldn't keep his mouth shut, right? Well, it doesn't matter now I guess, since the people who gave us that order have been dead for centuries. They are called the Gah. They came to Earth shortly after the Federation accidentally uncovered the first Gate."