Battlecruiser Alamo: The First Duty by Tongue Richard

Author:Tongue, Richard [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2014-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

 All eyes were on the sensor station as the Brunel eased her way out of hendecaspace, the enemy battlecruiser close behind her. A countdown appeared on the viewscreen, ticking down the estimated time of arrival of the Dauntless; the new system was last on anyone’s minds. Cooper lingered at the back of the bridge, anxiously watching what was happening. There wasn’t anything he could do now except wait and see what happened next.

 “Jump successful,” Marshall said from the helm. “We’re close in on the fourth planet, just as advertised.”

 Romaine, hovering at the back, said, “They’d be out of hendecaspace by now if they were coming. I guess they aren’t following us after all.”

 “Didn’t anyone ever teach you about the speed of light?” Cantrell said from the sensor station. “We decoyed them out to the second planet, twenty million miles away. Besides, dimensional travel can be pretty rough. There can be temporal variations.”

 “Our drives are obviously better than yours,” he replied.

 “That’s enough,” Newton said. “Take us into orbit, Danny. Standard path, normal acceleration, let’s take it easy.”

 “I still don’t see why he’s at the helm,” Romaine said.

 “Because he’s a better pilot than you are,” Cantrell said, bluntly. “We’re getting a full picture of the system now. No changes from our last visit here, nothing to report at all. No sign of the Dauntless, but we’re still seventy seconds away.”

 The planet appeared on the viewscreen, and Cooper shook his head. A cold, white ball of ice, punctuated with deep cracks and gouges. No trace of atmosphere, no sign of any sort of life at all. Just another dead world whose only purpose was as a place to hide. The Brunel closed on the planet, Marshall keeping the acceleration steady.

 “Threat warning!” Cantrell said, and everyone on the bridge turned to look at her. “Dimensional instability, near the second planet. Capital ship emerging.” She looked up, and said, “It’s the Dauntless. Right on schedule.”

 “Any signal from them?” Newton asked.

 “Nothing,” Fuller replied. “It’s as if they haven’t noticed us.”

 “They just don’t have anything to say. Are they changing course, Cantrell?”

 “No. Looks like they’re just maintaining station at the hendecaspace point. My guess is that they are waiting for us to jump again.” The door opened, and the Commandant entered, looking up at the viewscreen. “I don’t know what their fuel capability is.”

 “More than enough to get where they need to go,” the Commandant replied. “We won’t get past them that way. My compliments, though, on giving them the slip for this jump.”

 Newton looked at him for a moment, then turned to Fuller, “I want all communications systems on lockdown. No electronic chatter at all, of any sort. Is that clear?”

 “We’re going to need to talk to the surface…”

 “Any signal at all. We’ll just have to do everything the hard way. Unless it is a real and clear emergency, there is to be no use of communications systems while we’re in the same system as the Dauntless.”

 “Don’t you trust us?” Romaine said, glancing at the Commandant.

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