Kill Orbit by Joel Dane

Author:Joel Dane [Dane, Joel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781984802576
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

We eat, we sleep, we chafe with impatience. We’re speeding at incomprehensible velocity toward Iro-khan station on a mission of vital importance, yet it feels like we’re standing still. We’re not doing anything, because the plan is:

1) arrive at destination

2) load the cargo

3) depart

What the hell is that? We’re not a consignment hauling crew, we’re Anvil Squad. Our battlecry is “The harder you hit us, the hotter we burn,” not “The farther we travel, the less we charge.”

My frame spins. The geometrical panes of light behind my eyelids shift into a kaleidoscope of phosphenes. I’m outside the terrafixing for the first time in my life, millions of miles from Earth, but the terrafixing is still inside me, coursing through every vein and cell and synapse. My mind deepens into flow. My pulse slows, my tension ebbs. The LYDIAD cables stroke my singlesuit and info grids stream around me—including the stubbornly reappearing research screens.

I blank the audit-and-authentication stats for the fourth time, leaving only the control panel and navigation feeds. I’m in the 3-branch pod now instead of the provost frame, because Map insists upon cross-training the squad. Which doesn’t make sense. The LYDIAD is a monster of cloaking but still crap for maneuverability: training isn’t going to help much.

Still, Jag is acting provost at the moment, and running ad hoc exercises. Despite my flow, I feel her discontent. The ship isn’t capable of furious pivots or slashing attacks. This isn’t a hair-trigger murderous CAV.

“Responds slow,” I say on channel.

Cali grumbles, “Like driving a trirail.”

“Trirails don’t have drivers,” Shakrabarti says.

“Exacta-fucking-lutely.”

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