Guild Series Omnibus: The Complete Series by Tim Rangnow

Author:Tim Rangnow [Rangnow, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vagabond Publishing
Published: 2021-06-13T22:00:00+00:00

Ten

Mags entered the command deck and stiffened as much as possible in the zero gravity. Her eyes were drawn to the place on the deck where she had seen the body of her protégé. She felt she could still see the blood staining the ground. It had to be her imagination, since the bridge had been spotlessly cleaned after the massacre that had occurred.

“Reporting as ordered, sir.”

Captain Andrews turned and waved for her to relax. His right arm was still in a sling. The man refused nanobot repairs for the muscles and tendons shredded by the flechette round fired near his shoulder. Instead, he endured painful regrowth stimulants in daily visits the medical bay, asking the doctor to save the nanobots for more urgent needs. “At ease, Mags. Thanks for coming up.”

“No problem at all, captain. It’s good to see you at the rail again.”

He smiled faintly, reaching out to pat the railing with his good hand before grabbing it to keep from floating away. “It feels like coming home. I wanted to get your report on the engine room repairs.”

“Progress is slower than I’d like, but we’re getting close. The teams on the hull got the ion thruster nozzles replaced in the overnight shift. If all goes well with the final repairs, we should have rudimentary engine controls within thirty-six hours.”

“Excellent. I know I speak for everyone when I say that I’m ready to feel the deck under my feet again. The admiral, especially, is finding it hard to operate without gravity.”

Mags chuckled, her eyes darting around to make sure the superior officer didn’t witness it. “Where is the admiral, sir?”

“He’s been working with the communications techs. The system wasn’t tampered with as far as we can tell, but for some reason we’re not getting any responses to messages we send out to Geneva.”

“Very odd. I’ll have a couple of people from Engineering head down to assist as soon as the engines are working.”

“Thanks, Mags. So, how did you enjoy your brief stint in command of a frigate?” Andrews grinned at her as he spoke.

“Frankly, sir, I was glad when it was over. That was a terrible time to get a first taste of command.”

“Indeed.” The captain turned to look down at the bridge below. The enemy soldiers had killed so many of his best, but the crew and officers from other shifts were hard at work on training replacements pulled from other departments across the ship. By the time they were able to get back to Earth and rejoin the fleet, those new people would be proficient at the stations. “Mags, we lost a lot of our senior staff during that assault. My first and second officers were killed, as you know.”

“Yes, sir.” She closed her eyes, dreading what was coming.

“I know the loss of the Chief has been a big blow to Engineering, but the loss suffered on the bridge was greater. We need someone to step in and help take up the slack. There’s no one I’d trust to do that more than you, Mags.

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