The Ultra Long Goodbye by PATRICK SWENSON

Author:PATRICK SWENSON
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Google: RnwY0AEACAAJ
Publisher: Fairwood Press
Published: 2023-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

Forno argued with me, but I didn’t change my mind. I felt more at ease the closer we came to the slot.

“We run both slot engines, but we stay tethered,” I said. “Match speed. We still need to travel to the intermediate station. The Lucky Lawrence has no main engine, but it does have the Memor slot engine.”

“What about my return trip?”

“We’ll be at the intermediary station, and the only way to get to it is with the Memor slot engine. Anyone on the station had to have a ship with that engine to get there. We’ll grab a ship off the lot, so to speak.”

Momentum kept us on a perfect line toward the slot to the intermediary station. Forno and I maintained a close eye on our respective pilot controls and kept up a constant chatter reading the navigation telltales.

The Exeter was a mystery indeed. If it had been meant for me, that was a very different mystery. How could the Ultras know I’d be in that slot, at that time, to find the ship? There was a reason I didn’t know yet, but we might never know. Earlier, a pang of regret had washed through me, but I felt better deciding not to leave it behind.

“Ready.” I engaged the pilot’s bubble. We didn’t need the Lucky Lawrence’s engines. The Memor engine would take over and slot Forno automatically.

I settled into my bubble. Two years ago, I barely knew what a pilot bubble was. A good bit of experience dealing with Ultras had changed that. I did a preflight without too many nervous mistakes.

“Here goes nothing.” Forno said over the comm. He fired the Memor proprietary slot engine. I fired the Exeter’s slot engine. The engine engaged. On Barnard’s, Forno had practiced the 90-degree turn we would’ve needed to break into the sideways slot, but since we’d been dead and drifting before this, we didn’t have to deal with insane amounts of torque that maneuver would’ve forced upon us.

Our tethered positions barely changed on the margin of the slot until we engaged with it. The ships grabbed hold almost simultaneously, and finally, after long delays for both ships, the Lucky Lawrence and the Exeter slotted.

Sideways.

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