Imperial Moon by Christopher Bulis

Author:Christopher Bulis [Bulis, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character)
ISBN: 9780563538011
Google: vn4JAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0563538015
Publisher: BBC Pubns
Published: 2000-08-06T07:00:00+00:00

Henry shook his head and for a moment a terrible smile played about his lips. ‘My, but the ship’s gone to hell while Henry’s been away.’

He stared into their confused faces and they flinched away from his burning eyes. ‘What happened?’

‘Well... we’d just finished the platework on the hull when things of every shape and size just poured out of the trees at us.

Like they’d been waiting, gathering in the shadows. A few got into the ship.. God, what a slaughter it was... their slime’s everywhere. We had to butcher them before they stopped moving. We saw ’em off in the end but the rest settled down to wait, like they knew we weren’t going anywhere.’

‘We are going somewhere,’ Henry roared. ‘We’re going straight up!’

‘But they can’t get the engine fixed properly. We ain’t got the power to lift!’

Henry became aware of curious faces appearing round the hatch frame. He pushed past them and headed up the ladder.

He halted just inside the engine-room hatch. The breach in the hull had been repaired but the impeller drive mechanism lay half dismantled, with tubes and coils scattered across the deck.

Maitland and a civilian electrical engineer were huddled over the confusion, with the surviving engine-room ratings looking on anxiously over their shoulders. Maitland lifted a haggard face as Henry entered.

‘Stanton? Where are the others?’

‘Dead!’ Henry snapped, raising his voice. ‘Did everybody hear that, so you don’t have to keep asking the same damn fool question? They’re all dead, I’m alive. Got it?’

They were staring at him uncertainly. One of his shipmates put out a gentle hand. ‘Maybe you’d better have a rest, Henry.

You must be all in.’

Henry shook off the hand. ‘I don’t need to rest! Now, who else have we got left, apart from what’s here?’

‘Well, the cook, a couple of maintainers on lookout and the special navigator.’

‘Enough to run the ship,’ Henry muttered, ‘if we can get her off the ground.’ He turned to Maitland. ‘What’s stopping us lifting?’

‘Stanton, get to your quarters.’

‘Just tell me!’

Maitland was too weary to argue and could only shake his head.

The civilian electrician answered for him. ‘We’re only getting power through half the coils. The ship rocked a bit when we tried them, but not enough to lift. The other coils are dead, but we don’t know why.’

‘Then put more power through what you have got.’

‘We can’t. Any more and they’ll burn out.’

‘But what lift we have got is nearly enough, right?’

The engineer looked doubtful. ‘Maybe. We don’t know for sure.’

‘Right,’ Henry said. ‘We need to lighten the ship. We throw out everything that we don’t need. The exploration gear for a start.’

‘Stanton, I’m in command,’ Maitland said. ‘I’ll say whether we lighten the ship or –’

He stopped because Henry had unslung his rifle and levelled it at him. The silence in the engine room became absolute.

‘We lighten the ship, do you hear me?’ Henry said slowly.

Maitland found his voice again. ‘Don’t be a bloody fool. Put it down or else –’

‘You’ll have me arrested for mutiny? Queer thing but Captain Green wanted to do the same thing out there in the forest.

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