Starship Alexander by Jake Elwood

Author:Jake Elwood [Elwood, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BluA
Published: 2016-07-09T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28 – Hammett

"We still can't get through."

The cadet looked frazzled and weary, but Hammett didn't care. "Well, keep trying!" He looked at Cartwright. "What's your status?"

She threw her hands up, then banged a frustrated fist against the console in front of her. "I can't reach any of the forward thrusters. I just lost another aft thruster, too. I can move the tail up, or I can move it to starboard. That's it."

Even if the cadets found a way through the obstacle course of depressurized compartments and fires that separated the bridge from the forward end of the ship, it would take a hopelessly long time to run messages back and forth. A few lucky shots had cut more than half the copper wires that connected the bridge to the rest of the ship.

Never mind what you've lost. Focus on what you have. Focus on what you can do. "Fire that port thruster. Bring us around." The ship would have to swing through almost 250 degrees before the tail would be pointing toward the Gate. Now he just needed to get word to Lieutenant Rani to fire the engines at the right moment to send them fleeing for deep space.

The people on Freedom Station would have to look out for themselves. Hell, they'd probably outlive Hammett and everyone aboard the Alexander.

By a few hours, at least.

A man backed his way into the bridge, a fat coil of wire over each shoulder. Two long wires trailed out behind him. He was a civilian, a stranger, and he clearly didn't care much about military protocol. He stopped in the middle of the bridge, looked around, then headed for the line of telephones along the starboard bulkhead. He dropped one coil, shifted the other coil to his left hand, and said, "Which sets are dead?"

A cadet with an earpiece in one hand and a mouthpiece in the other said, "My station is the only one that's live."

The man nodded, dropped the second coil of wire, and pulled a pair of pliers from his hip pocket. He spent several seconds cutting wire, stripping back insulation, and twisting wire ends together. Then he grabbed a mouthpiece and spoke into it. "Can you hear me?" He listened. "Engine room," he said, and grabbed the second spool of wire. "This one goes to the starboard lounge." He got to work with his pliers.

A couple of cadets hurried over to man the phones, and Hammett barked, "Tell the engine room to get ready. We'll need full speed in just a moment."

He heard a cadet repeat the order into a handset. Then the cadet beside her said, "Are you sure?" She looked at Hammett, her eyes shining with hope, and said, "The Gate just closed, Sir."

Her eyes went out of focus as she listened, and then she said, "There was a great huge ship coming through. Then it just got … cut in half." She shuddered. "The gate failed when they were part way through."

Hammett started to speak, and she held up a finger, silencing him.

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