Ghost Fleet by A C Ellas

Author:A C Ellas [Ellas, A C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adult, Action, BDSM light, Erotic Romance, Gay, GLBT, Science Fiction Soft
ISBN: 9781487402037
Publisher: eXtasy Books
Published: 2015-01-15T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five: Hide and Seek

Cai quickly scanned the system, looking for planets, moons, asteroids, basically anything large enough to hide near. What drew his attention the most was the gas giant, easily ten times the size of Jupiter and ringed like Saturn, on the far side of the system. A planet like that was bound to have dozens of moons, and it was nowhere near their present location. If the Rels’ jumps were mechanical, they should consider what he was thinking of attempting impossible.

It was barely considered possible by Astrogators. It was highly experimental and had never been tried with a real ship. If he succeeded, the Guild would have apoplexy. If he didn’t succeed, it wouldn’t matter what the Guild thought—the Laughing Owl would be gone. As he twisted under the lash of the Rel guns, he pinged Nick on the command channel, marking the communication as official, and incidentally, recorded for the battle log.

“Captain, we have to run. We can’t win this fight.”

“How, Cai? They won’t let us disengage, there’s too many of them. Are you thinking of jumping?”

“Jumping is an option, but I had another idea. It’s called skipping. It’s experimental, but if it works, we can escape this trap and complete our mission.”

“How experimental?”

“There are risks,” Cai admitted. “It’s never been attempted in real space. Only in simulation, under ideal conditions, with an undamaged ship. But anywhere I can jump, they can follow.”

“Odds of success?”

It’s a fair question. Cai ran some calculations, honestly assessing his chances. “Four out of five, Captain.” He couldn’t help but adding, “Odds of survival without imminent action is one out of one hundred.”

“What are the odds on jumping away to safety?”

“One out of ten. As I said, anywhere I can go, they can also and in large numbers.”

“That makes it easy. Skip away.”

Cai announced ship wide, “All hands, prepare for emergency FTL transit.” He called up the jump protocols, slowed his perception of time to a crawl and entered the number storm while keeping a virtual eye on the indicators that would tell him when the medical teams were back in their couches, for of course they had ignored the lockdown to reach the distressed crewmen. He’d passively allowed their action by permitting the clamshells of their acceleration couches to open.

The moment the last medic was secured, Cai reached inward, focusing his power into an arrow then outward through the Laughing Owl’s heart, and he twisted the untwistable partway. He had enough momentum from the previous jump that breaching the subspace barrier was no issue, but with only partial engagement of the reactors and singularity, the Laughing Owl seemed to stall in the boundary, half in normal space, half in subspace, twisting like a contortionist trying to make like a pretzel. It hurt in ways Cai hadn’t realized he could hurt, but it was working.

They had entered the system at an odd angle courtesy of the black hole they’d faced. Now, Cai used that angular momentum to sling them around the system’s outer edges.

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