Constitution: Book 1 of The Legacy Fleet Trilogy by Nick Webb

Author:Nick Webb [Webb, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: hard science fiction, spaceships starships, military Science fiction, galactic empire, Space opera, fighters, republic, marines
Published: 2015-06-27T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Near Earth’s Moon

Bridge, ISS Constitution

“Proctor! I want some answers! What have you come up with?” Granger twisted around to face the science station near the rear of the bridge. The low rumbling throb had increased in intensity, and he knew what was coming in the next minute or two.

“It’s a forced artificial quantum singularity, sir. No other explanation fits the data we’ve got.”

He glared at her. “Is that even possible?”

“Possible or not, it’s there, and it’s getting bigger. It’s a miniature black hole—its event horizon is just microns in diameter, and somehow when it reaches a certain mass, they’re able to entangle the matter trapped inside with another point some distance away, essentially teleporting it. That’s what we saw when Lunar Base erupted outward—it was the black hole suddenly appearing a kilometer beneath the lunar surface. And when the surrounding billions of tons of matter collapsed into it simultaneously, it rebounded off the center of the singularity, collapsed the black hole, and blasted all the material upward in a sort of miniature supernova that—”

“BUT HOW DO WE STOP IT?” Granger was yelling now, and he didn’t care what his crew might think—they had seconds to figure a way out.

“We can’t, sir.”

Granger bit his lip and swore. Pounding his console and looking down at his dying friend, he said quietly, “Prepare for q-jump to Valhalla Station. Signal the civilian ships—everyone should scatter, each a different direction.”

Proctor eyed him, emotionlessly. She wasn’t challenging his order, but she apparently wanted to make him actually say the unspoken truth.

He said it. “We’re leaving them here.” He eyed the bridge crew, and caught several fearful, scornful glances. His thoughts strayed to the boy he’d met after the decommissioning ceremony. Cornelius Dexter Ahazarius. The third. What would he and all his classmates think when their teacher told them the Constitution had left? He could almost hear their screams as he imagined the Swarm ships closing in on them, unprotected. Dammit, he couldn’t think about that. Not now. “We either die here protecting a few civilians, or die above Earth, protecting humanity.”

Ensign Prince cocked his head to the side. “Sir, calculations complete.”

“Recall the fighters. Get our birds aboard, and the ones remaining from the Qantas.”

“Sir,” began the comm officer, “the Rainbow is signaling us. One of the civilian ships—the one with the school kids. They’re requesting to dock—”

“No,” he said, quickly.

“But, sir, they—”

“I SAID NO, LIEUTENANT,” he barked. He glanced at Proctor. “Estimated time until that thing hits us?”

She shook her head. “Based on the last one we saw, thirty seconds. At most.”

Granger gripped his armrests and swore again. “How many fighters left out there?”

The wing commander liaison checked her console. “Fifteen, sir.”

“Initiate q-jump on my mark.” He glanced at the clock, counting down in his head to ten seconds from Proctor’s time estimate.

Just a few more seconds....

“Sir, look!” Diaz’s voice came from tactical, and he snapped his head toward the viewscreen.

The singularity pulsed, then flashed bright, oversaturating the screen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.