Revelations Cycle Boxed Set: Books 1-4 (The Revelations Cycle Book 13) by Chris Kennedy & Mark Wandrey

Author:Chris Kennedy & Mark Wandrey [Kennedy, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seventh Seal Press
Published: 2018-12-21T22:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

Chapter 6

EMS Pegasus

Obiya 199 System

Way Station Abyss

Inner Crapti Rift

Alexis trudged up the ramp to the shuttle, with Paka right behind her. Even in the modest spin gravity of the huge ship, she felt all the hours she’d been awake. The Topul’s Pride shuttle bay crew sealed them in from the outside and evacuated the bay prior to decompression.

“Take me home, Mr. Southard,” she said to the pilot.

“Yes, Captain,” the pilot replied from the little cockpit. The bay depressurized quickly, and the pilot lifted them off the deck. The ship was under spin, so down was out. He hovered for a moment while the doors opened under them, then gave the maneuvering thrusters a few bumps, and they were clear. The pilot steadied their trajectory, aligned their course, and engaged the drive engines. A smooth one-half gravity snugged them into their seats. Clearly, the pilot knew his captain was tired; it meant the flight would take longer, but she didn’t mind.

“Four dead,” she said and shook her head.

“Happens,” Paka replied.

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” Paka shrugged. Watching a big rodent shrug should be disconcerting, she thought, but she’d grown up around more aliens than Humans. Most of the races even vaguely humanoid used a form of shrugging. “Between these losses and those two full pods we lost in Argyle B4V, we’re short a full platoon.”

Paka nodded. “We have a few months before the next contract. We can stop on Earth and hire some veterans to fill out the ranks.”

“No,” Alexis said right away, then glanced at Paka from under hooded eyes, “not Earth.”

“Are you ever going to see your home world?” Paka asked.

Alexis pulled one of the built-in computer monitors on the shuttle’s arm around and tapped on it. A view of the distant but closing Pegasus was centered on it—a gently tapering, almost cigar-shaped ship with retractable gravity decks near the middle. The doors for the central docking bay were near the gravity decks, while missile and weapon ports dotted the hull. The squared end, where her powerful fusion torches rested, were surrounded by a ring of external reaction mass tankage and over-powered maneuvering thrusters. The bore of her immense spinal-mounted particle cannon wasn’t visible in her nose; it was currently concealed behind petal-like doors.

“That’s my home,” she said, almost caressing the image. And it always has been, she thought. “Have navigation plot for Karma. We can find fresh meat there.”

A half hour later, the shuttle flipped over and began decelerating. Another half hour, and the engines cut out, leaving them in free fall. Alexis watched through the monitor as the shuttle floated slowly toward her ship. They were just forward of the bulbous engine housings. Here a large bay door stood open to reveal the hangar deck. As they glided inside she could see the magnetic handling system moving another shuttle on the opposite side of the huge removable transparent shield which divided the bay. It allowed them to operate two shuttles at one time if necessary, which it often was.

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.