Fallacy: A Military Space Adventure (Starship Lost Book 5) by Craig Martelle

Author:Craig Martelle [Martelle, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2024-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Do the easy things first and the hard things will be easier.

Jaq surveyed the bulkhead work on the deck below the bridge. Getting the emergency overrides installed had been a priority. It was also for an emergency she hoped they wouldn’t have.

Hope for the best while preparing for the worst. It made operating a combat ship easier when the crew had already thought through the worst-case scenario.

“Good work,” she told the team. “When’s the last time you slept?”

“What day is it?” the elder Phillips asked.

Days in space were a moving target. They manually adjusted the lights according to a twenty-four-hour cycle to give some semblance of a circadian rhythm. It made it easier planning work shifts with a set schedule.

“Secure your gear and take a break. We don’t have long before we start the hard decel. It’ll be best if you get your sleep before then. Once we arrive in orbit over Sairvor, we could be mixed up in a fight. We’ll need you to be ready.” Jaq waved an arm to take in all three crew. “We need all of you at your best.”

“We wanted to get one more,” the junior engineer said.

“Laudable, but no. I need you rested far more than I need a bypass on the next emergency bulkhead. Go on now. Stow your trash.”

They gave the captain a hearty, “Aye, aye.”

She took the ladder up to the command deck, where she strolled the short distance to the bridge. The bustle of activity was refreshing. Targeting, weapons, navigation, and thrust control. Comms worked the channels.

Jaq helped herself to the sensor pod where Slade was poring over incoming data.

“Are you active?” Jaq asked. Were the radars radiating actively? She used the shorthand they’d grown accustomed to.

“Both,” Slade replied without looking up.

Dolly was in her seat, hunched over her terminal. Donal was farther back. He rocked and smiled to music that only he could hear.

Jaq worked her way back to him. The shepherd stood in anticipation of Jaq’s visit. She hadn’t intended to talk with him but changed her mind. “Be there in a sec, Shepherd.”

She tapped Donal on the shoulder.

He jerked as if waking from a nap. “Captain. Fancy you joining me at this workstation of mine. What can I do you out of?”

“I’m sorry…” Jaq reviewed the words she’d heard but couldn’t make any sense of them. “What?”

“You visited me, lass.”

The originals weren’t constrained by anything, least of all a captain that was at least thirty years their junior.

“Did you fix the acceleration gauge?”

“Right as rain, Skipper,” Donal replied with a salute.

“What about targeting?”

“Updated. Just waiting on a target to blast out of space. We’ll adjust based on flight profiles. We’re dialing it in. Margin of error on the shots is under point-three percent.”

“That sounds good. Is it good?”

“It’s nearly a percentage point in gravity-affected shots. We’re close to zeroing in. There will always be error because of gravitic waves and other spatial distortions that we can’t see, but for what we can see, we can calculate better targeting solutions.

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.