Call to Armor: An Ember War Novel (Terran Expeditionary Corps Book 1) by Richard Fox

Author:Richard Fox [Fox, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

“Engineering, what’s the status on the reactor?” Captain Lon’va asked from the back of the Ajax’s bridge. The Dotari squatted next to a power conduit open on the deck as the ship rocked with the waves. The shoreline visible from the bridge ran over the horizon.

“Low tide’s holding. We’ve got fusion plant two pumped out and ready to refire,” the chief engineer said through the ship’s emergency IR system. “Stand by.”

“Lieutenant Harkins, is the hull sealed yet?” Lon’va asked on another channel.

“Four ventral sections repaired and sealed. Three more to go. Underwater welding is proving to be more difficult than anticipated,” the lieutenant answered. “Maybe another half hour to completion. Some of the manuals are helpful. We haven’t trained for this, but vac suits work underwater and in the void.”

“I will not be the first Dotari captain in five hundred years to have her ship ‘sink,’” Lon’va said.

Amber lights appeared in the open power conduit. A sailor moved away and crossed himself. The lights switched to white and power surged into the bridge.

Something went crump elsewhere in the ship. The lights flickered off, then surged back on.

“At least the lights work,” Lon’va deadpanned.

“Small fire on engineering. We’ve got it contained, but my repair estimate needs to back off another eighty minutes…make that two hours,” the chief engineer sent back.

“I’ll be down there in two minutes,” Lon’va said.

“Captain! We’re being hailed by the Ibarrans,” one of the bridge officers called out.

“Feed it to my command chair.” Lon’va got to her seat and immediately felt the tilt to her ship.

Fleet Admiral Zabala appeared in a holo screen. His attention was to one side where he barked out orders that didn’t come through the channel. He did a double take at Lon’va and seemed genuinely surprised to see her.

“Ajax, this is Iron Dream. We’ve been trying to reach you for several hours,” Zabala said.

“My ship made a hard landing. Systems are coming back online as fast as we can manage,” she said. “You’re Zabala…you led the Morvani Sanction.”

“Glory to the Ibarra Nation,” the admiral said. His head tilted slightly as he regarded her. “Forgive me. I was unaware any Dotari commanded Union ships.”

“The Terran Union is a meritocracy and the Dotari stand shoulder to shoulder with our human allies. They appreciate competence. Such a thing can’t be mass-produced.” She clicked her beak.

A brief—very brief—wry smile crossed Zabala’s face.

“We can measure our Fleet Sim scores later. There’s a situation in this system that the Iron Dream is unable to deal with at the moment. Let me pass you over to Prince Eneko Ibarra.” Zabala swiped a hand across the camera and the holo switched to Eneko.

Eneko whistled and chirped in Dotari.

“I…greet you as well.” One of Lon’va’s eyes narrowed. “Pleasantries aside, will you please shit or get off the pot, as is human custom when time is short.”

“Indeed,” Eneko said. “Something on the ground is disrupting astranite FTL engines. The translation threshold is far beyond the usual range for a planet of this mass and size.

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