Cody's War: Flight Of The Hope by Todd McCaffrey

Author:Todd McCaffrey [McCaffrey, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Foxxe Frey Books
Published: 2024-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Cody slept in late and was woken by a splash of water on his face. Ellaz called grumpily to him, “Come on! Get up!”

Cody scowled at her and went to the restroom to clean himself up. He ate quickly, sitting in his cot beside Ellaz and then they rushed off to the Simulations Lab.

“Today, we’re going to start with Warp Nine,” Edie said.

“Okay, and then?” Ellaz asked.

Edie grinned. “And then things will go wrong.”

“We don’t even know if the ships will work and you want to practice disasters?” Ellaz growled.

Edie smiled at her and nodded. “Helmets!”

Warp Nine was a strain, even with the monitor program to help. When they were done — and they’d only been “gone” for two hours — both Cody and Ellaz were exhausted.

“Five minutes,” Edie told them, as she passed a drink to Ellaz. Jasmine had one for Cody. “Now, while you’re getting ready, what’s the first thing to do in an emergency?”

“Fly the ship,” Cody said.

“Wrong, check life support,” Ellaz replied. “If you can’t breathe, you die.”

“That’s part of fly the ship,” Cody said.

“It’s the first part,” Ellaz said.

“Hull integrity, power, nav, propulsion, comms,” Cody said, reciting the standard list for a shuttle.

“Warp ring?” Ellaz said. “Where does that fit in?”

“Propulsion,” Cody said.

“Time,” Edie said sternly.

“We’ve got fifty seconds —” Ellaz griped.

“Helmets on!” Edie said.

And they were in the simulation again.

Sorry, Cody thought as he felt a virtual hand touch his.

Fine, Ellaz thought back, giving his hand a squeeze.

“Prepare for Warp Nine,” Edie’s voice came to them. “And… enter!”

They entered. They flew. And then…

What’s that? Cody thought as their monitor beeped in warning. He and Ellaz examined the artificial world around them, spotted the problem — a chunk of something darker, thicker in front of them coming fast and —

“Good job!” Edie called as they dodged around the chunk of thick space-time. “Now, get back on course!”

That took more finesse than they’d used before but they got back on course. And then another chunk of thickness came at them.. They dodged it. And another. And another. Two more were just ahead and —

“Boom!” Edie cried. “You didn’t dodge fast enough! And your warp core shredded.”

Shredded? Cody thought.

“You died,” Jasmine explained.

So what do we do? Ellaz thought.

“Whenever you find yourself in a warp stream like that, the smart course is to offset your course and stick to it. It means you’ll have to recompute your astrogation, of course.”

I thought the routes were safe, Cody replied.

“They’re safe at Warp Five,” Edie explained. “Everything comes faster — and thicker — at Warp Nine.”

Why aren’t there routes for Warp Nine? Ellaz wondered.

“If there are, only the military has them,” Edie said. “Regular freighters don’t need them and mapping such routes… it’s expensive.”

In time or in ships? Cody wondered.

“Both,” Edie told them. “Okay. Again. Warp Nine.”

They did two more runs before Edie pulled them out. She and Jasmine passed them drinks.

“You are getting it,” Edie assured them.

Cody and Ellaz exchanged looks. “Excuse me,” Ellaz said, “but as near as I can tell, all we’re getting is dead.

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