Power (The Emberling Book 7) by Daniel Young

Author:Daniel Young [Young, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-12T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Taggart sat down in the pilot’s seat and ran through the controls. “Everything seems to be working right. All the ship’s systems are functional, and the flux is powering the ship the same as always. Weapons, defenses, rangefinders—they’re all working normally.”

“Where are we, then?” Claire asked from behind him.

He shook his head. “The rangefinders show us still in orbit around Iokuri 0J3B. We haven’t moved.”

“That isn’t possible,” she countered. “How could an entire planet just disappear?”

“The whole idea was to set off an explosion that would seem to destroy the Emberling. That was one hell of an explosion. Maybe the whole planet exploded.”

“How did we survive, then?”

He glanced over his shoulder to meet her eyes. “I don’t know how it happened any better than you do. The ship must have done it.”

She snorted. “I’m not liking this ship too much. I prefer a ship that actually needs a pilot to fly it.”

He went back to checking the readings. “We aren’t transmitting the Emberling’s energy signature anymore. It looks like we really did destroy it.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” she asked. “We can’t just stay out here forever.”

“I don’t know about that, but I’m not going anywhere until I check for myself that the diverter is gone.”

Taggart went back to the floor panel that he’d left open when he put the diverter in the flux core. He went into the subfloor and peered into the core, but the diverter wasn’t there. At least, he couldn’t see it.

Whatever the hell the ship had done, it wasn’t reading as carrying the Emberling anymore. That would have to be good enough.

He went back upstairs and replaced the floor panel. He headed to the cockpit and came face to face with his sister.

Claire peered up at him with an anxious, uncertain expression. “What’s down there?”

“Nothing. Nothing’s down there. The diverter is gone. I don’t understand how.”

“So what do we do? Do we just go back to the Siri Sector like none of this ever happened?”

Her voice cracked and she pinched her lips, again holding back emotion. It happened. All of this had happened. There was no way around that awful fact.

“Where else is there left to go but back to the Siri Sector?” he asked. “I don’t really want to be anywhere else. If it means someone holding us responsible for all this…well, it’s worth it to me to face that, as long as I don’t have to keep running. If you think otherwise, tell me now.”

Claire nodded down at the floor. “I don’t want to run anymore, either. I’d rather just face what comes and be done with it.”

He crossed the floor and put his arms around her. “We still have each other. I can face anything else as long as we have that.”

She nodded against his chest. He didn’t need anything else. He was going home. He didn’t give a damn what happened after that. The nightmare was over. Nothing in his life could ever be as bad as the last few weeks.

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