The Line Must Hold: Crimson Worlds V by Jay Allan

Author:Jay Allan [Allan, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: System 7 Publishing
Published: 2013-06-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Bridge – AS Hornet

Sigma 4 System

Nine Transits from Newton

“Oh my God.” Jacobs was speaking to himself, softly under his breath. The bridge was silent…not a sound except the beeping of the alarm. Jacobs and his four bridge officers were transfixed, staring in shock at the main display. The data was clear…Ensign Carp had checked it twice, but it was still hard to accept.

“Cut the reactor. Now!” Jacobs’ eyes didn’t deviate from the main screen as he fired out the command. “Full silent running protocols.” The reactor had barely been operating, producing just enough energy to power Hornet’s basic systems. But Jacobs wanted it stone cold. Immediately.

The data on the screen was divided into sections, lines of text scrolling alongside several diagrams. The picture they told was a nightmare unleashed. There were fleets, presumably First Imperium armadas, everywhere in the system. Two groups of ships were inbound from the Zeta 2 warp gate, and another was on a course that would take it just past Hornet and on to the Omicron 3 system…the one from which Jacob’s ship had just transited. And around the system’s fourth planet, dozens of ships orbited, both individually and clustered around six colossal space stations.

The orbital installations were like nothing Jacobs had ever seen. Unfathomably massive, they were ten or twenty times the size of the Alliance facilities at Earth. He could only imagine the power of those fortresses, the massive arrays of weaponry protecting this previously unknown planet. Jacobs took in a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds. His heart raced, and his stomach was clenched. A cold feeling took him, chilling his soul. There was one terrifying, inescapable conclusion. Hornet had found a world of the First Imperium.

“Ensign Carp, I want a course projection for that approaching force.” The flotilla heading toward the warp gate was thrusting hard, executing a vector change. Jacobs figured they intended to transit, but he wanted to know how close they were going to come.

Carp leaned over his workstation for a few seconds. “I had to make some estimates, sir, but I’m projecting the likeliest course.” The main screen showed a new plot, with a line connecting the First Imperium task force with the warp gate. The line was curved at the start, showing the course change in progress, before continuing straight to the Omicron 3 gate. “If this projection is correct, the closest vessel in the enemy force will pass within 2,374,500 kilometers of Hornet.” He’d turned to face Jacobs, and his voice was soft…an instinctive reaction to the silent running. It was pointless – the enemy couldn’t detect sound through space. Carp could have blown a trumpet and it wouldn’t have mattered. But the reaction was a subconscious one…and very common among spacers in the attack ships. “Of course, I had to estimate the enemy’s velocity, so we have to allow a margin of plus or minus 1,000,000 kilometers to be safe.”

Jacobs could feel the headache forming, like a black cloud seeping into his temples.

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