Starship Fairfax: Books 1-3 Omnibus - The Kuiper Chronicles: The Lunar Gambit, The Hidden Prophet, The Neptune Contingency by Benjamin Douglas

Author:Benjamin Douglas
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Benjamin Douglas
Published: 2017-11-06T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Ada’s world was a spinning hellscape of fire, metal, and the unforgiving void. She grunted, pulling herself back to the observation deck and locking her mag-boots on. Beneath her, Ceres had erupted into a tiny star, and Cupid had pulled up and away to evade the blast.

Uh oh.

She stomped across the deck as quickly as she could, and searched frantically for some shelter. She found none. The blast hit the station, rocking it violently. The heat came after. But the blast had tilted the open hull of the observation deck up, away from the planetoid, so the searing wave passed by without taking Ada head-on, and her suit held.

She breathed. Still alive.

“Moses?” Silence. “Moses, are you there?” Cautiously, she made her way back to the edge, and peered over. It was difficult to see what was happening from her new vantage point. What had caused the sudden fiery apocalypse below? Volcanism? She frowned. Then she remembered that formation of spacecraft that had been doing runs over the surface.

Bombers.

“Moses? I could use some help, here.”

“Ada, yes, hello. Apologies. The comm was taken out by the blast and subsequent wave, but I’ve boosted the signal with the backup battery. We are circling back to your position.”

She blew out a sigh. “Did Joyce make it onboard?”

“Affirmative. She and the others are alive and well, as well as can be.”

Others? “Um… you mean her and Bone Crusher, right?”

“You’ll see soon enough. Here we are.” Cupid peeled into view, firing front thrusters to slow and hover again. Again, the ship turned and the back hatch opened. Joyce stood in her suit inside the airlock, reaching out as if to catch her. Moses backed it up a little more this time. “How does that look, Ada?”

“Is this closer than before?”

“Affirmative.”

“Could have fooled me.”

“Can you make it over without a wire? We’re closed the gap significantly, to just—”

“Don’t tell me how far.” She took a couple of deep breaths. “Next time I’m wandering around a station spending someone else’s money, remind me to get a suit with thrusters.”

“I can do that.”

“Ok, here goes.” Her mag-boots didn’t allow her to run, per se, but she gained better momentum with them on than off. Her finger hovered over her console, and she swiped them off just as she reached the edge. Left foot on the lip, she bent her knee and kicked as hard as she could, diving into open space.

She wasn’t going to make it, she could tell. If it had been in a controlled vacuum, maybe. But the station was wobbly, and Cupid moved while she hovered, despite Moses’ best attempts to keep her still. Joyce leaned out as far as she could and reached for her. “Come here, you pirate swine,” she said into her comm.

“Trying,” Ada grunted. She reached out and make contact—with her left hand. “Ahhh!” She saw spots and faded out for a second. When she came to, Joyce was cursing prolifically, hanging on to her by the fabric of her suit.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
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.