CabeX by Jones Pauline Baird

Author:Jones, Pauline Baird [Jones, Pauline Baird]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B09XC27Q96
Goodreads: 60796205
Publisher: Pauline Baird Jones
Published: 2022-05-19T07:00:00+00:00

Savlf was aware of being hungry, but she couldn’t leave the bridge, with its overtones of a vigil. It felt, she decided with a wry tug of her lips, as if her supervision was required for a successful contact.

That was absurd, of course.

But it felt real. So she sat and waited, hardly daring to take her gaze off the screen where the contact alert could be seen.

She’d check the time several times, but had failed to process it and finally quit looking.

And then a voice comm broke the tense silence.

“I am in contact with Central Outpost.” The voice was flatly robotic.

Was that the unit speaking? Savlf frowned.

“Relaying message received and have sent your message.”

Savlf didn’t have access to the message, but she heard the sharp intake of breath from CabeX. The robots must have been able to digest its contents in an instant. They didn’t speak however, possibly waiting on the captain.

“They have contact with the Vega. Boom is well.” He stopped speaking.

Savlf had a feeling it was because he could not speak. Az took up the reporting.

“As we suspected, they interacted with a cosmic event that prevented them from returning the way they came. They are inbound for the Delta Outpost. Fuller report to follow.”

“If,” Mic said, “they use their Garradian starburst drive, they could get there ahead of us.”

“We don’t have a starburst drive,” CabeX said, “but we can proceed with more dispatch now that we don’t have to keep stopping to reactivate outpost comms.”

“If this information is correct, we are closer. They seemed to feel they had to clear the quadrant before they could use the drive,” Tals said.

They’d lost contact with this last unit, too, Savlf knew. For some reason, she felt a stronger pang for this one. A bleak place with not even a place to see sky or sun. She knew how that felt.

Following an impulse she didn’t fully understand, she send the unit a short thank you note with a “take care” on the end.

Just as they were about to enter jump, a message showed only on her screen.

You are welcome. I will take care.

She looked up, but no one else had noticed. Or they hadn’t received the message.

She felt the pull as they entered jump and lost contact with the unit’s video feed.

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