Darkspace (Stars Aflame Book 3) by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-17T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Scott sat at the head of the conference table, watching his officers file into the room once more. All of them had seen the reports brought back by Commander Novak’s scouting expedition, all of them now had a concrete idea of just what they were potentially up against if they chose to continue with the mission as planned. Scott looked down at the readouts on the desk before him, still hardly able to comprehend the magnitude of the technological level they were going up against, developments that seemed fanciful, all but impossible to grasp, raw power that could wipe Earth from the face of creation with barely a thought.

And somehow, they had to beat it. Had to, if humanity was to survive.

Taking a deep breath, he began, “We all know why we’re here, so I’ll spare the preamble. Commander Novak, I hope you are recovered sufficiently from your transit to provide an engineering report. Can our fleet safely transit the wormhole, make it through in one piece?”

“Leonidas can, sir, but I’m not sure about the other ships. I’m afraid the Scout Destroyers would struggle with the structural loads, and Herodotus just doesn’t have the maneuverability. We’re going to have to go it alone, I’m afraid, sir.”

“We’re willing to make the attempt, Admiral,” Commander Ivanov replied. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we don’t want to be left out of this mission.”

“Wants and desires don’t have anything to do with it, I’m afraid,” Scott said, “though I certainly appreciate your enthusiasm for the mission. We’re going to split the fleet. Commander Cortez and Commander Sullivan will remain here at the wormhole to monitor the situation in this system. If you see anything you can’t handle, run for home on the double. Consider that a direct order. There’s no point dying for nothing. Commander Sullivan will head home immediately with Themistocles to report back what we’ve found so far.”

“Admiral, that’s a waste of time,” Sullivan protested. “By the time we get back to our space, the wormhole will no longer be usable.” Looking around, she said, “My people have been working on some engineering modifications…”

“Commander, don’t think you’re being given the easy option, because you certainly are not. It’s going to be a long, dangerous voyage and you will be without the protection you had for the flight out. I have faith and confidence in your ability to pull your mission off, but it’s not going to be straightforward, and there is considerable danger involved.”

“Sir,” Chen said, looking uncomfortable, “I’m forced at this point to suggest that we shouldn’t transit the wormhole. Maybe we’d be better heading home as a fleet, and preparing for some sort of survival mission. Another Omega Fleet, to replace the one that was destroyed.” Tapping a control, he brought up the projected images from the shuttle, and said, “Megastructures, black hole factories, terawatts of energy being thrown from star to star without a thought. A civilization so far advanced from ours that we can barely conceive what it could do.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.