Space Corps: A Military Sci-Fi Series by Ian Schwartz

Author:Ian Schwartz [Schwartz, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2022-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Tumbling in The Void

“Friedman, report,” Blake said.

Even as the words tumbled from his mouth, Blake couldn’t believe he was speaking them.

“FPP operating within safe parameters,” Friedman said, shrugging. He was evidently still unable to believe that the Octos had managed to copy his ship down to the last bolt and transistor. “EMRCS looks good. EMCF is nominal. Oxygen’s at optimal levels.”

All those acronyms again, Blake thought. Must be back aboard a spaceship.

FPP meant Fusion Power Plant. EMRCS referred to the Electromagnetic Reactor Control System—their maneuvering thrusters, in other words. EMCF meant Exotic Matter Containment Field.

“Washington,” Blake said. “Speed and position.”

“We’re doing twenty-eight thousand KPH,” Washington said, eyeing the stars outside the forward windows. “Looks like we aren’t far from Earth. Constellations are all back where they belong.”

“Valencia, see if you can pick anything up on radio,” Blake said.

“Got it,” she answered.

He was about to tell Li to have a look around, but the ship’s weapon system operator had already pressed her face against the periscope and was swinging it back and forth and flicking through different camera angles with her thumb. Under Iris’s control, the ship’s LaWS—or Laser Weapon System—could automatically target and fire far more rapidly than any person. But because the system had barely ever been used, the Hermes’ designers had decided to put a human in charge.

“Got something,” Li said. “Looks like a planet. A blue one.”

“Position?” Blake said.

“A little to the left.”

“Manual course adjustment,” Blake said to Washington. “Ex minus fifteen degrees.”

“Righty-o.”

Blake looked at him. “‘Righty-o?’”

Washington nodded. “Righty-o.”

The stars shifted outside the forward windows. Blake spotted a bright blue light and pointed to it.

“There,” he said. “That’s where Rick wants us to go.”

Washington nodded and adjusted the EMRCS. Little bursts of energy pushed against the hull.

“Set main EmDrives to maximum,” Blake said.

“Okee dokee.”

Washington pushed the throttle forward as far as it would go. In a few minutes, they’d be moving so quickly that time would begin to slow—by only a few seconds—relative to the rest of the universe.

Good to be back, Blake thought.

“I’m receiving radio transmissions on a bunch of different frequencies,” Valencia said. “They’re definitely artificial, but I can’t understand them.”

“Keep at it,” Blake said, narrowing his eyes at the blue star as it grew larger.

“Feel like we’ve been here before,” Li said, her face still pressed to the periscope.

Blake looked at her. “What do you—”

“It’s Oceania,” she said. “It’s even got the same giant floating city thing circling it.”

“Fantastic,” Friedman said. “One ship against an entire advanced technological society. We do this sort of thing for breakfast, lunch, and—”

“Let’s try to maintain some kind of discipline here, alright?” Blake said, though he regretted the words as soon as he’d spoken them.

“Hypocrisy, thy name is Blake,” Friedman said.

“Particle shield at maximum,” Blake said to Li while pretending to ignore Friedman. “Angle toward the planet. Keep the periscope just over the shield and charge the LaWS.”

Li nodded. “Finally.”

The particle shield should have obscured most of the light reflecting off the Hermes’ hull from reaching Oceania, as well as the gamma flux and the infrared radiation from the EmDrives.

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