Chaos Chronicles #04 - Sunborn by Jeffrey A. Carver

Author:Jeffrey A. Carver [Carver, Jeffrey A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Science Fiction - General, American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Space Opera, Fiction - Science Fiction, High Tech, Science, Life on Other Planets, Cosmology, Cataclysmic variable stars
ISBN: 9780312864538
Publisher: New York : Tor, 2008.
Published: 2008-10-27T19:30:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Through the Gap

The center of the grid was growing rapidly. Bandicut had a firm grip on the joystick, waiting for the moment of breakaway.

The condition of the ship was another matter. An invisible battle was raging between the AI and Copernicus. The bridge quaked violently every few minutes, and for one instant, Bandicut felt the joystick turn to liquid in his grip, before firming up again. The rest of the ship appeared in the monitor views like a drunken amoeba, squirming and contorting madly. Li-Jared was still trying to fight his way to the backup controls.

“John Bandicut, we may have a problem,” Napoleon said.

Bandicut blinked sweat out of his eyes. “Do tell.”

“I’m not certain the bridge is still attached to the rest of the ship.”

Bandicut’s breath caught.

“I’m getting ambiguous readings, Cap’n. Some of them suggest we may have come apart. Have you heard from Li-Jared?”

Not in the last few minutes, he tried to say, but couldn’t get out.

“He could tell us better. But here’s what the visual sensors are showing...”

On the far right and left of the viewspace, monitor squares blinked on, displaying views of the ship—interior and exterior, the latter presumably viewed by a camera out on a strut somewhere. Bandicut’s stomach churned. Portions of the ship were billowing out like tattered shirtsleeves. “My God,” he croaked. “Is the AI doing that? Or the n-space fluctuations?”

“Uncertain, Cap’n. However, I don’t see any choice but to keep going.”

Bandicut nodded, swallowing. “Jeaves, are you—?”

“I’m here,” said Jeaves in a subdued voice. “Napoleon’s right. Signals from the rest of the ship are sporadic, and I don’t know if we’ve come apart or not. Copernicus’s battle with the AI has burrowed down to a level I don’t dare interfere with. But I’d say our lives are in your hands and Copernicus’s now. Keep going and pray.”

Bandicut grunted, and tightened his grip on the joystick.

*

The object at the center of the grid began to take form. “Can you magnify that?” Ik asked Napoleon.

“Yes, but you may find it disturbing,” the robot answered.

The image grew, becoming grainier. The object loomed out of the murky shadow like an enormous sea urchin in a deep-space cave, its spines waving treacherously. Bandicut thought he could see a cloud of small objects around it, like floating detritus. /Damn, but I don’t want to go in there./

/// Who would?

But Napoleon says the faster we go in,

the better our chance of

a clean breakaway. ///

/Yah,/ Bandicut whispered. /Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead./

/// Human expression? ///

/An appropriate one,/ Bandicut said, refocusing on the course. He tried to think like a fighter jock from an old war holo, maneuvering his shot-up plane through the stormy sky...

“Cap’n, we’re on our final approach,” said Napoleon. “We can expect our velocity to pick up. It’s about to become challenging.”

“The ship is holding,” Jeaves reported in a distant voice. “By a whisker.”

With that, the floor seemed to drop away. The ship plummeted in a broken zigzag, the fractal shape of the field blossoming outward. The ship,

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