Imperium Restored by Walter Jon Williams
Author:Walter Jon Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-09-20T00:00:00+00:00
She woke in weightlessness. Viswan floated over her, holding her gloved hand, and Ricci was also there, one hand hanging onto Sulaâs acceleration cage, the other holding a hand comm from which he was reading. They swam in and out of focus.
Sula tried to speak, failed, then licked her lips and tried harder. âWhat . . . happened?â she managed.
âYou were unconscious,â Viswan said. Her large brown eyes gazed at Sula with concern. âDr. Gunaydin and a stretcher party are on their way.â
âBlood pressureâs low, but within normal parameters.â Ricci read from his hand comm, and Sula saw that it was cabled to the biomonitor on her suit. He turned to her. âYou bounced back, my lady.â
Sula slowly processed what had happened, and then she gave a start that sent her careening around within her webbing.
âWeâre not accelerating!â she said. âThe engines have tripped!â
Viswan looked at her. Her voice was all concern. âWeâll restart the engines once we get you to sick bay.â
Crew suffering a stroke, cardiac arrest, or other life-threatening condition could trigger an engine shutdown. During combat the shutdown would be triggered only by a threat to senior officers, with ordinary crew left to live or die on their own.
âNo!â Sula cried. âWeâre a sitting target nowâwe canât maneuver! Get back to your stations, and tell Gunaydin and the stretcher party to prepare for high gee!â
âMy ladyââ said Viswan.
âNow! Iâm fine! Get moving! Missiles are on their way!â
âThose missiles were destroyed,â Ricci said.
âThere are more missiles where those came from! Get to your seats!â
Ricci looked at his hand comm again and gave Viswan a hopeless look. âVital signs are nominal,â he conceded.
Viswan sighed and pushed off for her acceleration cage. Ricci disconnected his hand comm from Sulaâs biomonitor, swung around Sulaâs acceleration cage, and pushed off toward his station.
Sula had already forgotten him and was absorbed in her displays. Splendid was currently drifting through a large, expanding, cooling bubble of radio noise, the remains of fireballs from destroyed incoming missiles. Sensors revealed the rest of Division Nine accelerating away, firing missiles that curled around Splendid before arrowing toward their targets.
Splendid was also firing, aiming into a patch of radio murk that was blazing hot, doubtless where the enemy force was lurking.
The door opened and Dr. Gunaydin floated in, saw Sula, then kicked out toward her. He caught her cage, and she and the cage swung as it absorbed his momentum.
âDoctor,â Sula said. âGet to a couch. Weâre about to start acceleration again.â
Gunaydinâs face was stern. âMy lady,â he said. âThatâs impossible.â
âItâs very possible,â Sula said. âIâm fine, and I need to get this ship out of danger.â
âMy lady,â said Gunaydin. âYour heart stopped. Your blood pressure crashed, and you were unconscious for . . .â
âTwenty seconds to engine start,â reported Ricci.
âIâm conscious now,â Sula said, and pointed toward the acceleration couch where the tactical officer would normally sit. âIf you donât want to be flattened like a pancake, youâd better take that chair. You can monitor me from there.
Download
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.
Coloring Books for Grown-Ups | Humor |
Movies | Performing Arts |
Pop Culture | Puzzles & Games |
Radio | Sheet Music & Scores |
Television | Trivia & Fun Facts |
Spare by Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex(4177)
Paper Towns by Green John(4152)
Never by Ken Follett(2840)
Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2021 by Harrison Ferrone(2776)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Illustrated edition by J.K. Rowling & Newt Scamander(2407)
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman(2273)
0041152001443424520 .pdf by Unknown(2201)
How The Mind Works by Steven Pinker(2198)
Machine Learning at Scale with H2O by Gregory Keys | David Whiting(2185)
Fairy Tale by Stephen King(2035)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J. K. Rowling(1994)
Will by Will Smith(1989)
Reminders of Him: A Novel by Colleen Hoover(1843)
The God delusion by Richard Dawkins(1832)
Borders by unknow(1772)
Rationality by Steven Pinker(1747)
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron(1550)
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber & David Wengrow(1538)
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr(1413)