Snippet 21

Chapter: A bad Transition


 We emerged from hyperspace with a crash.

 "Sweet Murphy, what was that," said Officer Tremblay as the ship shook.

 "Point Emergence," Screamed the Navigator.

 "I know that," snapped Tremblay, grabbing a hand hold to steady himself as the ship shook from side to side.  "What just happened?  Are we under  attack?"

 "Oh, my gods,"  Yelled one of the Sensor Operators then gave a girlish scream.  On the main screen an image suddenly appeared.  A large blue-green  planet with several large brown patches on its continents dominated the entire screen.

 "That's Tracto VI," cried another sensor operator.

 "I've never seen anything like it.  The Inertial Sump broke, it just broke.  It's gone and I didn't even light the main engine," said a horrified  Helmsman DuPont.

 "This is theoretically impossible," exclaimed the Science officer, sounding both intrigued and alarmed.  "There's supposed to be no way you can point transfer this deep inside a gravity well and survive."

 "Spin us around and get us out of here," roared the First Officer, but the helmsman remained paralyzed at his console, "That means light the engines and get us out of here, you fool," snarled Tremblay, lunging out of the signal section and struggling for the Helm.

 With a sudden, spastic jerk, DuPont snapped back to reality and leaned forward over his console, fingers flying at the controls and the ship gave another sudden lurch.

 The bridge crew was watching the catastrophe playing out on their consoles or, if they didn't have anything important right at the moment, on the main screen.  People who could do something were doing it.  For everyone else, it was like watching a train wreck.

 Everyone who knew anything important was busy trying to save the ship.   Everyone except yours truly.  Because, truth be told, I didn't know anything important, I was in absolute mortal terror, and there was nothing really for me to do.  I tried to remind myself that even in a real fleet the Admiral didn't deal directly with flying the ship, he dealt instead with directing the ship and any other vessels in their formation in the right direction.  Still, I felt  utterly useless.  I was useless.  

 Wait a minute.  What about the other ships.  There were some strapped to the outside of our hull!

 I jumped out of the Throne and almost fell down.  "Modulate our shields so we don't burn up, and someone man the bucking cables," I ordered, grabbing the arm of the Admiral's Throne and pulling myself back inside.  "We still have a pirate cruiser and several cutters full of refugees welded to the hull.  If they fall off and we don't catch them, they're as good as dead!" 

 "We can't pull directly away from the planet," cried the Helmsman, "We're going to have to slingshot around.  We're in too close."

 "Do it, man," growled the First Officer.  "Just get us out of here."

 "I think I have a partial answer," said the Science Officer.  "This system has large deposits of Triullium, the substance used to make the star drive work."

 "Initiating full burn now," said the Helmsman, "we're going in!"

 Engines that normally vibrated when used in deep space, growled as gee forces pressed myself and everyone else on the flag-bridge back in their chairs.

 I growled wordlessly as I strained against the increasing pressure brought about by our acceleration.




The Deposed King