Hey folks! Between work, beta testing, AO, and the rest of a complete and balanced life, I haven't had much time for writing. But, having been a tad bit sick the last few days and the side-effects of medication including a strange groggy insomnia, I've found the time to put together a few more pages.
By the by, if anyone has any problem with me using your forum names for places and things, just let me know and I'll gladly change it. Well, not gladly, but I will change it without complaining. Much.
James Kagan opened his eyes slowly. For once, there was no sour taste of tobacco and alcohol in his mouth, but rather something a lot like... strawberries. It had been an eventful four weeks. The nav-computer had gone haywire and their last jump, rather than take them towards the relative safety of Fyron's Star, had sent the careening towards Tauran space along some of the highest hyper bands. The strain of an emergency crash jump to normal space had fused the hyperdrive's capacitators, and it had taken him and Alice the better part of three weeks to remove them, and another three days to fit new ones. Another week had been spent drifting aimlessly while they repaired the nav-computer, a task that should have taken a lot longer if not for Alice's intuitive knack for all things electronic. In fact, for someone who claimed to have never served aboard a spacecraft of any kind, she seemed to know a rather shocking amount about their inner workings. When he questioned her about it, she would shrug and tell him that it just made sense. Which was odd, he mused, since she'd re-tuned the hyperdrive by herself, and nothing about hyperdrives 'just made sense.' Still, despite all the interesting happenings, including an exciting trip through an asteroid field with no navigational drive, Kagan had to admit that the most enjoyable events had been those occurring within the last four days.
He ran his fingertip slowly along Alice's bare shoulder, down her forearm, and settled his hand in the curve of her waist. She shifted sleepily and closed her hand around his.
“You awake?” she murmured.
“No,” he replied quietly.
With a small giggle, she pushed herself up and kissed him softly on the forehead. “Big day, today, huh?” she asked as she swung herself out of the bed.
“Big day,” he agreed, dragging himself out of bed to join her in the shower.
“So, you think it'll work?” she asked.
“Should do. If all goes according to plan.”
“And if it all goes wrong?”
“We die.”
“Oh, dear.”
“Well, I was factoring in a reactor breach in it all going wrong,” he said, giving her a reassuring pat.
“So, if it all goes wrong but the reactor doesn't breach?”
“We still die.”
“Oh, dear.”
Up on the bridge, they ran through the pre-jump checks -three times, at Alice's insistence- then strapped themselves into their chairs and held their breaths as Kagan squeezed to leavers together. The whole ship seemed to jerk forward, backward, left and right, all at the same time, for a brief, terribly uncomfortable few seconds then subsided and on the main nav-console, a green light came on with a corresponding bing!
Kagan breathed a sigh of relief and unstrapped himself from his chair before he began entering commands into the nav-computer.
“Are we OK?” a meek voice inquired from behind him.
He looked back to see Alice, still strapped in her chair, sitting bolt upright with a fearsome death-grip on her armrests.
“We're fine,” he replied. “Now relax, I lent my Barclay's Widget to O'Shea.”
Alice didn't budge. “What's Barclay's Widget?” she asked.
“A mythological tool for removing fingernails from permaplast,” Kagan replied dryly.
Alice frowned at him, not understanding until her gaze traveled downwards to her bright white knuckles. Letting out a nervous laugh, she sagged into her chair, then unstrapped herself and joined him at the console.
“So, where we goin?” she inquired.
“The Edward's Gambit system,” he replied. “We're running desperately low on supplies, and Kolis Station is the biggest trading outpost in the Empire. We'll be able to collect everything we need, and more, once we're there. I've got us at the top of the Tigga Band, so we'll be there in three days.”
“Hmm... Any ideas on how to spend our time until then,” Alice asked with a mischievous grin.
Three blissful days later and the Daedalus and her crew of two arrived in Edward's Gambit. The Edwardians being a rather conservative bunch, Kagan had dug an old Merchant Corps. uniform out of storage for Alice. The top fit perfectly, but the bottoms were two sizes too big, and only agreed to stay up with the assistance of a tight belt. But, with her seated safely behind the nav-console, no one would notice.
“Daedalus to Kolis Control,” Kagan said crisply as he opened a communication channel. “Request docking permission.”
“Control to Daedalus, we acknowledge,” was the prompt response. “What is the purpose and intended duration of your visit?
“Daedalus to Control, we need to resupply. Intended stay is two to three days.”
“Control acknowledges, Daedalus. You are clear to dock in Berth 117A.”
“Daedalus acknowledges Berth 117A,” Kagan replied.
“Acknowledged, Control out.”
“Wowers,” said Alice. “That was sure formal.”
“Yeah, the Edwardians are big fans of the formality,” Kagan agreed. “So, you wanna take her in?”
“'K!” she agreed happily.
Two minutes later, and Kolis Control were back on, sounding anything but formal.
“Daedalus, clear current grid NOW!” the control officer shouted, the speaker distorting his voice from sheer volume. “Incoming crash transit!”
Kagan's military training slowed his perception of time to a crawl as his head whipped towards the nav-console and he began instinctively to rise from his chair. But even through his vastly dilated view of time, Alice's hands still flew over the control panel with amazing speed. He was thrown back in his chair as the ship surged forward, then nearly tossed clear out of it as Alice took the ship through a spiraling evasive maneuver that thew them clear of a massive hyperspace wash by a mere few meters.
“Bloody hell,” Kagan gasped as he pulled himself out of his chair, shaking his head to clear the lingering effects of psychological time dilation. “Where the hell did you learn to do that?”
“Don't know,” Alice replied quietly, her hands now deathly still over the controls. “Don't know.”
“By the Divine, the Navy's top fighter pilots would have had a hard time with that one and you just-” his hand came to rest of her shoulder and found it shaking. He drew her gently to her feet and wrapped his arms around her.
“That was scary,” she whispered.
“Well, when a four megaton freighter pops outta hyperspace right behind you, it's seldom very fun,” Kagan said wryly.
“Not that,” she said. “What I did. I don't know what I did, or how I did it, I just did. It's like the hyperdrive and the nav-comp. I don't know how I know what I know, and it scares me.”
“Hush,” Kagan replied. “It'll be okay. We'll figure this out together.”
He leaned down and kissed her softly, but was interrupted a second later by the insistent beep of an incoming transmission.
“Control to Daedalus, are you guys all right?”
Kagan sat back in his chair and flicked open the comm channel. “We're fine, Control, just a little shaken up. What the hell was that?”
“A freighter carrying refugees from the Turin System,” was the reply. “A lot of them are taking on too many people, then coming here too fast and crash jumping in. It's been like this for the last week.”
“The Turin System?” wondered Kagan. “That place was paradise last time I checked.”
“Then you need to read the news more often,” the controller told him. “Two weeks ago Turin Prime got hit by seven dirty nukes. We still don't know who's responsible, but Turambar and Eru were swamped within days and they've been shuttling everyone through here since.”
“Frak,” Kagan said simply.
“Control acknowledges and agrees fully,” came the wry reply. “Unfortunately, Berth 117A is the only one big enough to accommodate the freighter, so we're moving you to Berth 204C. It's a bit tight, but the best we can do under the circumstances.”
“It'll do fine, Control. Daedalus acknowledges Berth 204C.”
“Acknowledged. Control out.”
Kagan swung his assault cruiser out around to the far side of the station, and managed to dock in the not quite big enough berth without damaging anything terribly important. Minutes later, after clearing customs, they were in the enormous promenade that took up the upper two hundred decks of the Kolis Station. Kagan strode purposefully through the crowd of humans and aliens, traders, refugees, merchants, con-artists, criminals and holy men. Alice gripped his arm tightly as she gazed about in wide-eyed wonderment at all that lay before her.
“I've never seen so many- anythings!” she exclaimed. “You could spend your whole life here and only see a tiny little bit!”
“Some people do,” said Kagan. “But we're not here long so let's-”
He was cut short by a deafening roar that was followed a split second later by a great lurching of the deck that sent the crowd of humans and aliens, traders, refugees, merchants, con-artists, criminals, holy men, Kagan and Alice crashing to the ground. Kagan grabbed Alice and twisted as they fell, putting himself between her and the hard deck surface, although this did cause their landing to be quite unpleasant for him as most of her weight landed in his midsection.
“What,” he gasped as soon as he managed to draw a breath. “The. Hell. Was. That?”
Re: OT: Hell is For Heroes.
Linear Mode
