Venturi by SJ MacDonald

Author:SJ MacDonald [MacDonald, SJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781090283122
Published: 2019-04-13T22:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

Three weeks later, they ran into the biggest ridge they would encounter in the whole of the Van Damek. It was actually three ridges, rising in size and intensity.

‘I believe it will take at least three days to get round, Skip,’ Lionard told Eldovan, who’d come to take the conn when the ship came to standby alert. ‘And maybe an hour to get through.’

Eldovan looked at the ridge profile, considering. A ridge was an area of wave space whether either an increased density in matter or higher energy levels created rough conditions. In this case it was a combination of both, a band of energised particles which analysis was showing as the still-spreading blast wave from a long-dead supernova. Long range scans could even detect the further two spreading particle-clouds, with the inner one considerably bigger and more energetic. The supernova, evidently, had popped off a couple of preparatory explosions before going for the big one.

It was right on the edge, a skipper’s decision whether to play it safe and go around or take the rough ride and risk some scratches to the paintwork. But they had more here to consider than their own comfort.

‘Shion,’ Eldovan called her directly. ‘We have a judder-ridge for an hour or a three day diversion. Can you find out for us which her grace would prefer?’

‘I don’t need to, Skip.’ Shion sounded amused. ‘Her grace knows how much joy we have in this kind of thing and would not dream of depriving us of that fulfilment. I’ll advise her that there will be some vibration for an hour or so.’

It would, indeed, have broken Lionard’s heart not to be allowed to cross the most exciting feature they’d encounter on the route. And, as it turned out, would have had Kate howling with frustration too. She had got her experimental mix-cores humming together and she really needed to see how they would respond to turbulence like this.

Anyway, they rode the ridge. It was something nearly all of them enjoyed, other than for a few of the Second’s people up on the interdeck who turned a little green around the gills or were hanging on to furniture as they walked. The juddering was not actually that violent, as starship vibration could get a lot worse than that. But it was unpredictable, with odd moments when the ship felt absolutely still and then would twitch and shudder like a shying horse.

‘Sorr-eee,’ Lionard sang out, grinning all over his face, as a particularly weird twist in the ridge rolled the ship over to starboard and the helm had to fire thrusters to compensate.

He had said that three times before they were clear of it, leading to the feature being dubbed Sorry-Ha-Ha Ridge. But that, of course, was only its informal name. Officially and for as long as the League kept starcharts, this feature would be Lionard’s Ridge, in keeping with the tradition of naming ridges after the navigator who took the first ship through. And there would be

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