Impact Event_A Science Fiction Techno-Thriller by David N. Frank

Author:David N. Frank [Frank, David N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-08T22:00:00+00:00

***

They were halfway to the perimeter hours later when the situation dramatically changed. Pearce was back on the bridge, dozing in the chair he had come to call his own. He’d instituted a rotating sleeping schedule once the main comm system had been repaired and the 3D printer had started spewing out parts for the QCOM. He awoke instantly to a shrill alarm, cobwebs obliterated from his mind as if by flamethrower.

“New contact just flashed-in!” the young Dewey shouted excitedly. “Arrival corridor Alpha. She’s squawking a transponder…CNS-626 Tropicana.”

The Captain exchanged a glance with Pearce. “I thought she wasn’t due for another three days?”

“She’s not,” Pearce replied, moving over to stand near Dewey. “Bring her up on the main optical scope. What’s the time lag here?”

“Almost four hours,” Dewey replied.

Pearce rubbed at two days’ worth of beard stubble on his chin as he thought about the time frames in question, his VIA automatically performing the calculations. “So they arrived in system four hours ago, at a distance of four light hours, and we’ve been running dark for just over eight hours, which means they arrived just after the point in time where they could have seen us carry out that burn.”

Dewey nodded. “Yes, we should be relatively safe if they don’t pick us up on other sensors or an optical scan. Especially with all this wreckage expanding throughout the system.”

Time lag was a complicated aspect of any spacefaring Navy, and Pearce wasn’t used to thinking with such scales as a ground-pounder. When dealing with solar-system spanning distances you had to tactically understand that what you were “seeing” had happened at some point in the past, until you reached relatively close ranges.

“Should we hail them and send over the FLASH traffic, Captain?” Pilot Pilosni inquired. Pearce had helped the crew create a standard ConFed FLASH priority message with a military-style update of the developments at New Shanghai, including data files with all of the sensor readings and the comically short video showing the Scorpio’s destruction. They had instructions to deliver it in any way they possibly could. They even had a copy loaded into one of the Emergency Escape Vehicles triggered to jettison at a moment’s notice if they came under a similar attack. A similar but less verbose message was loaded into the autonav if they needed to utilize Jula’s methodology.

The Nightingale’s Captain looked at Pearce with deference.

“Not quite yet, Miss Pilosni,” Pearce replied. “Let’s see what she does.”

“What she does, Sir? It’s a Confederation Navy ship,” the pilot responded incredulously.

“A ship that arrived days earlier than expected, and right after a massive attack wiped out every ship in the system. Trust, but verify. We’re not going anywhere for another eight hours, so let’s keep our emissions silent for a few more minutes.”

“Got her on the scope now. We’re way past effective range and it’s a little jumpy though,” Dewey announced as the main viewscreen switched from displaying a tactical map to a view of the Tropicana. The image of the ship was dark, grainy, and tiny on the picture, and appeared to be jumping all over the place.

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