Worlds Apart by S A Pavli

Author:S A Pavli [Pavli, S A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

“I cannot understand what your leaders hoped to achieve with the attempted hijack,” said Lana. They were in the lounge area, seated around the long central table. Santak, Despass and Doctor Semlak were still wearing their Space suits and breathing through their masks. Sergeant Hedrak had been deprived of his weapon and was lying unconscious in the sealed room assigned to the Emoen..

“I believe that they wanted to study your ship,” said Santak. “They believed that you would not reveal technological secrets and decided to appropriate them. I am sorry, it was against my advice.”

“Captain, I am observing a number of craft converging on our location. They appear to have been hiding in orbit, on the other side of the planet.” Lana exchanged startled looks with the other members of her crew before turning to Santak.

“Do you have any idea what is going on?” She asked. Santak paused for a few moments before answering.

“Some members of the Inners Council were advocating that a military force should be held in readiness. But I thought that I had persuaded them that it was not necessary.”

“Any detail on the nature of these ships Proteus?” Asked Lana.

“No, they are too distant. But they are using high powered rockets and accelerating at great speed. We cannot accelerate the Vaktpost at such velocities. Our only option is to go to Warp.”

“What is our readiness for Warp?” Asked Lana.

“The charge is at eighty five percent. We need another ten minutes to achieve full charge.”

“Do we have ten minutes?”

“They will be between ten and twenty kilometres from our location in ten minutes,” replied Proteus.

“Santak, what is your best guess of their intentions?” Asked Jamie hastily.

“I cannot say Captain. But it may be safer if you assumed that their intentions may be hostile,” he replied.

“That’s my guess also,” said Jamie. “Are ships normally equipped with

missiles?”

“Yes, both long and short range missiles. The guidance systems are either heat sensitive or radar tracking Computers.”

“Heat sensitive is no good, they will have to lock on using radar and track us with Computers. What range do you think they have?” asked Jamie.

“I am not sure, it is not my speciality,” replied Santak. “But I cannot believe that they will destroy your ship. There would be no point,” he added.

“Nevertheless, we should put the ship on maximum acceleration to gain as much time as possible,” said Jamie.

“Agreed, Proteus calculate a vector that puts the maximum distance between us and the alien ships and apply in ten seconds. Strap in everybody. Santak, inform your colleagues that they should strap in.” There was a bustle of activity as they all found chairs and strapped themselves in. Santak spoke into his intercom to warn the other members of his team. The manoeuvring rockets came on first, as Proteus aligned the ship in the direction he had calculated to put maximum distance between them and the oncoming Emoen ships.

“Firing main rockets, maximum thrust.” Announced Proteus calmly, his tone unaffected by the imminent crisis. Maximum thrust for the

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