Authors: Bennett R. Coles
He read her thoughts. “We’re a lot closer than we should be.”
She clicked her straps and pressed herself back into her chair. Her lower abdomen felt like it was on fire. She turned her eyes to the display.
Rapier
was moving at full speed toward the embattled EF ships, which in turn were trying to flank the Centauris and get to the jump gate. The Centauris were massed on
Rapier
’s starboard quarter and receding quickly.
The torpedo was just moving into their midst.
There was no flash, no thump. Just a sudden, overwhelming pull that tried to rip Katja from her seat. Outside, the stars dropped below the nose as
Rapier
was pulled off course, high and to starboard. Then the ship started to shudder. She looked up through the windows above, and felt her jaw drop.
The Centauri ships were all moving, converging on a single point in space. And she knew their forms well enough to tell that every one of them was pointed
away
from their direction of travel. She could even see the glow of their engines on full burn as they slowly but surely drifted together. The frigates were moving faster than the battle cruiser, but even as she watched its long hull seemed to grow longer.
Then pieces started to break off its stern and fall away with ever-increasing speed. Within seconds the cruiser was torn apart and sucked down into a growing blackness. The closer frigates went next, while the more distant ones fought a losing battle to break free.
On her display all the red symbols were converging and disappearing. But the point of their convergence wasn’t moving farther away from the center—it was slowly getting closer.
Rapier was
being pulled in.
Jack knew it too, and pushed his stick forward to point the nose away from the singularity. The view of the stars ahead shifted, but not by much. The shuddering intensified.
“I can’t break free!” he shouted.
“We have to reduce mass,” Thomas said. He scanned his console, stabbing at the weapons controls.
Katja saw the dazzling flashes of the four morningstar missiles. They burned ahead of
Rapier
for a few seconds and then, from right to left, each was pulled off course and into an ever-increasing dive toward the singularity.
Rapier
inched further up in her decaying orbit, but it wasn’t enough.
Thomas activated the ship-wide broadcast.
“This is the captain,” he said. “Emergency atmosphere dump!” This was normally a tactic for fighting out-of-control fires. But now, the considerable volume of gas that made up
Rapier
’s air was blasted into space, reducing her mass by a noticeable percentage.
She nosed farther toward freedom.
Thomas typed a command into his console. The ship’s projected course extended on the 3-D display. It was a highly curved route, but it slowly cleared the torpedo blast point.
“Steady as she goes, Pilot,” he said. “I think we’re gonna make it.”
The EF ships, well clear of the implosion, were moving at full speed for the jump gate. Katja saw that
Rapier
’s projected path would actually pass wide of the jump gate, and she pointed this out to Thomas.
“I want to make sure we’re clear of this thing’s gravitational pull,” he said. “We can always do an orbit and dive for the jump gate when we’ve better assessed the situation. Hey, Jack, how long does this tenebral implosion last? Are we talking minutes or hours?”
Jack didn’t look back, leaning on his flight stick to keep it on maximum climb.
“I was expecting a few seconds,” he admitted. “And I was expecting the Centauris to still be here!”
Thomas glanced at Katja through his faceplate, concern clouding his features. If he expected her to say something, however, she had no idea what. She was just fighting to keep her jaw shut, and her eyes from looking like saucers.
Then she noticed that the symbol for the jump gate was flashing. She was pretty sure jump gate symbols never flashed.
“Hey Jack, don’t jump gates use dark energy like our torpedo just did?”
He didn’t seem too thrilled by the question. “Uhh, yeah! The gates use dark energy to open up. Why?”
“I’m no expert, but I think our jump gate might be closing down.”
Jack checked his hunt controls.
“What the—? That’s not right!”
His words didn’t fill her with confidence. She noticed that the EF ships were almost at the gate, neither forming into the usual column for gate passage nor slowing down.
Thomas picked up on it immediately. He activated the ship-to-ship command circuit. “
Normandy
, this is
Rapier
! Confirm status of jump gate!”
The response came several moments later, heavy with Doppler distortion.
“This is
Normandy
! The jump gate is becoming unstable! We’re jumping now!”
Seconds later, the first blue symbol—
Normandy
herself—disappeared. The rest of the fleet followed quickly behind—all except for one. A female voice sounded on the warped circuit.
“
Rapier
, this is
Kristiansand.
Estimate forty seconds until jump gate collapse. State your ETA my position.”
Thomas’s fingers flew over his console. The projected course on the 3-D display shifted to intersect the flashing gate symbol.
“Pilot, steer computed course!”
Jack eased his stick to starboard slightly. The projected course wobbled as he struggled to walk the tight rope, fighting between the ship’s vector and the singularity’s pull.
“
Kristiansand, Rapier
. My ETA thirty seconds.”
Katja felt a wave of relief, then realized that at least ten seconds must have passed since
Kristiansand
had sent her signal.
“
Rapier
, if you can’t make it, abort your attempt and I will stay here with you.”
Thomas glanced at Katja as he keyed the circuit.
“
Kristiansand
, this is
Rapier
. Thanks, but I have time to spare. Request you make your jump and clear the path for me.”
“
Rapier
, I assess that you will not make my position before jump gate collapse. Abort your run and regroup with me.”
Jack grunted as he fought the controls. The projected course altered violently, then steadied back on target.
Fifteen seconds.
“This is
Rapier
, negative. Your readings are false due to gravimetric interference. Jump now and clear a path on the other side.” Thomas paused, then added: “Jack Mallory will get me home!”
“Hey,” Jack said, “no pressure!”
Kristiansand
’s charcoal hull was growing visible against the stars, and Katja watched as the destroyer turned away and vanished in a spacetime ripple.
Five seconds.
Jump gates, for all their theoretical majesty and importance to the colonial economy, were actually very hard to spot in real life. Katja grabbed onto her armrests and held her breath. She looked for some kind of marker, some sign that they were about to travel more than four light years in an instant.
She saw a sudden ripple in the starscape.
Then blinding light.
Then nothing.
I
t was only Jack’s second time to
Normandy
’s star lounge, yet it seemed very familiar to him. Probably because of all those hours in his rack he’d spent dreaming about meeting Breeze here.
He smiled to himself at that.
“What’s so funny, Jack?” Katja asked. She was seated ramrod straight in a back brace, facing him in her own comfy chair, a beer cradled in her hands.
He shrugged and slouched back, dropping his feet on the low table between them and gazing out through the huge window.
“Nothing.”
“Jack thinks air is funny,” Thomas said from his chair between them, facing directly at the window. “It doesn’t take much to get him to smile.”
“I guess smiling’s pretty easy these days. Gravity abounds, beer is plentiful, and I don’t actually have a job to do. Oh, and not being at war anymore sort of lifts my spirits.”
“Well, enjoy it while it lasts—it’s just a cease-fire.”
He looked at Thomas and smiled. “Well, if that cease-fire doesn’t hold,” he said in his most heroic voice, “don’t you worry, because Jack Mallory will get you home!”
Katja snickered behind her beer.
“All right, all right,” Thomas said. “Let it go, you guys. I had to say something to get
Kristiansand
out of our way. Avernell thinks you’re the best ever.”
Jack shrugged modestly, gazing out the window again. “Meh.”
His eyes were drawn to the massive form of Astral Base Five looming several kilometers off
Normandy
’s beam—the guardian of the jump gates and Terra’s in-your-face presence at this, the nexus of interstellar travel. Although that might be changing, now that the jump gate to Centauria had collapsed and the network of secret Centauri gates had been revealed in all the major systems.
Looking out at the blast marks scarring the base’s kilometer-long hull and the wreckage of Terran ships still littering the area, Jack had a feeling an awful lot was about to change.
The Centauri fleet that had besieged Astral Base Five—and held hostage its thousands of people as insurance against a full Terran counterattack—had fled, scattering through the other jump gates to colonies sympathetic to the cause. It seemed that the colonies had been colluding for some time, and had just been waiting for an excuse to lash out at Terra.
But now Terra had a new weapon with which to keep the peace, and the media was already calling it the Dark Bomb. Images of Centauri ships being sucked down and torn apart had been broadcast to all the worlds, presented as if this bomb was a natural product of advanced Terran technology. Its specs had been labeled “ultra-top secret” and spirited away to Astral Intelligence.
Jack doubted he would ever see them again.
His companions looked out over the scene, lost in their own thoughts. None of them had actually spoken about just how close they came to getting smeared across the fourth dimension, but they’d all seen the visuals of the blinding flash, and of
Rapier
breaking apart as she tumbled out of the jump gate dragging a ripple of dark matter behind her.
Thank God they’d all been in spacesuits. The entire EF had mobilized to recover them. Personally, Jack believed that their incredible speed had been what had given them the necessary mass to keep the gate open long enough to squeeze through. But he had no equations to support that hypothesis, and felt no need to conduct further trials.
He took a long pull of his beer and switched his mind to other subjects.
“So do you think we’ll go home before they redeploy us?”
“Probably,” Thomas said. “Expeditionary Force 15 is going to have to be disbanded, and every ship needs a refit. It’ll take time to sort out where to send everybody, so I expect some shore leave all round.”
“I’ll have my leave request to you today.”
Thomas sipped at his own beer. “I suppose you should, before somebody figures out that the ship I command doesn’t actually exist anymore.” Thomas no longer wore the star of lieutenant commander above his two gold bars—a personal choice on his part.
“The timing couldn’t be better for me,” Katja said. “My father’s birthday is coming up, and I’d hate to miss the annual pilgrimage.” She seemed remarkably serene about it. Jack had heard her speak of her family several times since their return to Terra, and each time she had sounded less tense. Not yet enthusiastic, but something more than merely resigned.
Just serene.
“I have to find out if Soma’s coming to Earth, or if I’m expected to present myself on Ganymede,” Thomas said. “Either way, I’m sure I’m in for quite a parade around the families.”
Jack didn’t know what he was going to do if they sent him home. Go visit his folks, he supposed. Maybe find a nice girl like Thomas had.
“I need to see a good plastic surgeon,” he said without thinking. Thomas and Katja both glanced at him, then quickly averted their eyes. He instantly regretted the comment. He looked around the star lounge for a distraction.
“Hey,” he said, “looks like the brass are having a party.”
His companions followed his gaze toward the bar and saw a cluster of senior officers gathering to collect from the glasses of wine being poured. There must have been two dozen of them, as well as some civilians. There was general mingling, but he noticed that one officer was standing apart, facing two of the civilians.
“Looks like the commodore has found the media,” Thomas said.
“Guess who won’t be far behind,” Katja offered.
Sure enough, moments later a familiar figure with long, curly black hair separated herself from the crowd and hovered near Chandler. Very quickly the newsmen noticed her and invited her to join the interview. Jack watched in sick fascination as Breeze smiled and chatted for the cameras.
He noticed also the look of cool dismissal Chandler immediately threw at her, and her subtle but quick withdrawal. Jack reveled in an unusual moment of delicious
schadenfreude
. Apparently it
was
possible to resist Charity Brisebois’s charms.
He was so engrossed that he almost missed another very familiar female commander walking up to their cluster of comfy chairs.
“I think I see the officers of
Rapier
,” she called out, “but maybe gravimetric interference is clouding my judgment.”
Thomas leapt to his feet and Jack quickly followed suit. Katja couldn’t move so fast, and merely looked up.
“Commander Avernell,” Thomas said, shaking her hand warmly. “Thank you again for covering our retreat. And for offering to stay behind with us.”
“Think nothing of it, Mr. Kane. I figured our two ships have been through enough together, we could survive being stranded in the heart of the enemy.” She smiled. “Plus I know you fast-attack types. You were going for broke no matter what I said. Good thing I gave you my best young pilot.”
Thomas stepped aside and gestured grandly to Jack. “The hero of the hour, ma’am.”