CHAPTER 1: BAD NEIGHBORS
“They’re closing fast, Captain. They’ll be in weapons range in sixty seconds.”
While he appreciated the updates from his pilot, Noah had already done the mental math on his own. He looked again at the main viewer at the front of the bridge. The pair of Combine attack ships were pushing at full burn toward Psycho Killer. Given they had refused all hails since emerging from behind the asteroid, he did not doubt their intentions.
What he really needed was an update from his astrogator.
“Dre—talk to me.”
“Working on it,” came the monotone, almost dreamy reply.
Andrea sat with her head bowed and eyes unfocused, her mind finalizing the Alcubierre calculations via direct cyberlink with the flight computer. The detached calm seemed out of place for such a critical task. If she didn’t get everything right, they would tear the ship apart as soon as they made the fold jump.
“ETA?” he pressed.
Fitz answered. “Forty-five seconds.”
“I was talking to Andrea.”
“Believe me, my countdown is important too.”
A new panel on the main viewer was showing information about their pursuers. The Combine vessels were both corvettes and were designed solely to patrol a singular star system. They wouldn’t be able to follow Psycho Killer after the fold jump. But their particle beams could still slice through hostile targets at the speed of light, and they were getting awfully close to the effective range of those weapons.
“Dre?” Noah said.
No response.
Fitz cleared his throat. “Maybe we could just talk to these guys.”
“And say what?”
“That killing the grakken was a matter of life or death.”
“You want to tell Ercolano we didn’t deliver his prisoners because of self-defense.”
“He’s a military man. He’d understand that, right?”
Noah tried to picture that conversation in his head. The Combine admiral would probably be all smiles, listening to their excuses while his soldiers jammed electrodes into sensitive areas.
“Yeah, I don’t think he’d care.”
“I mean, it’s not like they were going to talk,” Fitz pointed out. “They were grakken.”
“Pretty sure the admiral just cared about the delivery.”
“Maybe you’re right.” The pilot glanced at the viewer. “By the way, twenty seconds to weapons range. Been nice knowing ya.”
A dreamy voice spoke to the right. “I have the plot.”
The bridge displays changed to a three-dimensional map showing multiple nearby star systems. An orange line connected their current position to a white dot just a few lightyears away. Noah felt a surge of adrenaline cause him to tighten his grip on his armrests.
“Can we jump?” he asked.
“The drives are not synchronized yet.” Her detached calmness sounded misplaced given the urgency of the situation.
“Ten seconds,” Fitz said.
Noah didn’t need more explanation. Psycho Killer had a pair of fold drive rings, one near the bow, one at the stern. They had to work together to construct a warp bubble large enough to encircle the ship. But if their fields were not coordinated properly, the potential misalignment could shear the ship in half and leave a trail of debris scattered across many, many light years.
He already had his comm routed to the engine room because he’d been checking with his new chief engineer almost constantly. “Chloe—we need sync. Now.”
“Almost there, Captain.”
“How almost? I need a number.”
“I’m ...” Her voice sounded uncertain, rushed. “Hang on ...”
Merrick would have had the drives squared away from the beginning. He was dead, along with two of the grakken prisoners they had been transporting for the Combine. Now Merrick’s widow—young, brilliant, but inexperienced—held their fate in her hands.
She could do it.
She had to do it.
“Chloe?”
Fitz called out what would probably be his final warning. “Five seconds, Captain.”
The mental countdown was already running in Noah’s head.
Four.
Three.
Two.
He didn’t have a choice. “Andrea—execute now.”
CHAPTER 2: FLAT TIRE
Everyone stared at the main monitor. The star pattern had changed, indicating they had completed the fold.
“Well, we didn’t explode,” Fitz said. “That’s good.”
Noah realized he was holding his breath. “Yes, that is indeed good. Thank you for clearing that up.”
He unbuckled from his chair and stood up. Fold jumps always made him anxious, even without the threat of hostile spacecraft bearing down on his ship. Walking around helped settle his nerves. Plus, Andrea was just coming out of her trance, and he wanted to tell her she did a good job.
He didn’t get a chance because Chloe stormed onto the bridge. “What the hell, Captain?”
Thoughts of interstellar navigation evaporated immediately. Noah raised an eyebrow. “Care to elaborate on that?”
“My synchronization wasn't complete. I thought you were going to wait until I gave you the go-ahead?"
“I had two gunships about to open fire, Chloe—”
“It’s a miracle we’re here even talking about this.” Her nostrils flared as spoke. “We were lucky—so lucky. I’d tell you never, ever to do that again, but we just took care of that problem with your little jump.”
“What does that mean?”
“The power regulator is destroyed. You know, that little inconsequential thing that actually makes the drive rings talk to each other? It took the brunt of the misalignment. And good thing it did, because otherwise you and me would be a bunch of loose atoms in space right now.”
“Okay. Can we repair it?”
“No.”
“Have you—”
“If you don’t believe me, go look for yourself.”
“I believe you, Chloe, I’m just asking—”
“We need a replacement.”
Noah stopped talking and just waited.
Chloe glared.
It was hard not to pull rank. Chief engineer or not, this was next-level insubordination, not to mention just plain rude. Merrick had always spoken so highly of Chloe’s technical aptitude—almost a savant if he believed some of the superlatives—but Jesus, he needed people who could keep their cool in stressful situations, not ones who wanted to argue a court case on his bridge.
Merrick.
The thought stopped him. He had seen firsthand what was left of the man’s body after the grakken attack. What Chloe had to be going through right now, even before the pressure of becoming chief engineer ... well, it would be a lot for anyone to take.
He kept his words calm. “Put back together what you can and get the breakers back online. We’ll see what kind of salvage we can find in this sector. ...
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