Countdown by John Walker (feel good fiction books txt) 📗

“And do they know how long before we can go into hyperspace again?”

“Negative,” Daisy replied. “There’s some kind of problem with the sensors connected to the hyperdrive. They are conducting repairs as we speak. That shouldn’t take more than a few minutes considering how good we are at swapping those out around here. I swear, circuit boards have short lifespans on this boat.”

You’re telling me, Sasha thought as he strapped himself in. Christ, this ship needs another overhaul. If it wasn’t so damn stubborn, I’d say it should be decommissioned. Of course, that would mean losing a command. There were only so many battleships in the Gold Empire navy… and with a war brewing, there may well be fewer still.

The ship rumbled along, moving swiftly away from their point of entry. Time seemed to drag while they waited for Engineering to give them accurate information. Five minutes passed… then ten. Sasha let out a sigh. He understood poor estimates, but they were in a state of battle readiness.

They should know they need to hurry.

“Get me an update,” Sasha ordered. “Where are we at… on everything?”

“Okay,” Daisy said. “The forward bow took some damage. They thought they could enter that section without protective gear and were wrong. Heat was too intense apparently, which may be the device that’s stuck to the ship. They’re not sure. We’ll find out momentarily. As for the hyperdrive, the circuit boards are taking longer than expected.”

“They should be experts on that now,” Sasha replied. “Find out specifically what’s keeping them then offer a stern reminder of what we’re doing right now. Light a fire, Daisy.” He shook his head.

Sometimes, the Engineering staff seemed to miss the point of their ship. They forgot about the battle part in the title. When things were shooting at them, that was different, but during perceived downtime operation, they weren’t nearly as intense as they should’ve been. I’ll be drilling that out of them when this is over.

The device worried him. During the battle, it was more than possible that such a thing could’ve happened without catching on. He understood that. How did it get by sensors letting them know about a foreign object? It must’ve been masking them. If Daisy couldn’t detect the thing without help, it had odd properties.

Too bad we won’t be in a position to study this thing. Whatever it was, they needed to remove it. How many charges did it have? I have to err on the side of more than one. And more importantly, we have to pray we won’t end up with some kind of hull damage that prevents a jump to hyperspace.

“Oh boy.” Daisy sighed. “Sir, we’ve got hyperspace signatures behind us. Back where we first arrived in this area.”

“How big?”

“No more than two ships based on the previous power reading we received.”

That could be a lot worse. Two ships, he felt confident he could escape. It wouldn’t be a fight per se, but evasion… that was more than possible. Depending on how aggressive their opponents came at them, he felt like they were in a good position to escape. Of course, I have no idea how long this thing’s going to take to remove… or recharge our drive.

“I need those numbers,” Sasha said. “Now.”

“Yes, sir. I’m pushing them but…”

“I know,” Sasha interrupted. “It’s not helping them work faster.” If they really feel the urgency. Which I hope they do now.

Two ervas ships emerged from hyperspace. They initially remained stationary; likely catching their bearings. Once the two started moving, the race would be on. Sasha turned to Marston. “Give us more power. I want to be as far from those two ships as we can be. Combat is a last resort in this case. Daisy, scan them. I want details on their condition.”

The ship picked up speed, fast enough to press Sasha back in his seat with some small amount of force. He hadn’t felt that in a while, even when they were fleeing the enemy at their previous position. That’s not a good sign. Something must’ve been wrong with the artificial gravity.

“Daisy?” Sasha turned to her.

“I know, sir. I’m looking into that right now. I can check those systems from here without interrupting the work they’re doing in the Engineering section.”

The two ervas vessels began to advance, moving on an obvious intercept course. Marston put a meter up on the screen showing that the Broken Light had a thirty-minute head start. Ervas ships are notoriously fast. Sasha couldn’t count on keeping their distance. They needed to bail out as quickly as possible.

Which may or may not happen. Two ships had already been sacrificed to give them a chance to escape. I can’t turn and fight. Unless one of the two of them is messed up enough to make it viable. They’d never faced off against multiple battleships before. Not alone at least. With one additional craft, he’d do it.

“Information?” Sasha asked. “What do we have on those ships?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Daisy replied. “No odd energy signatures, no… wait! Wait!”

“Okay…” Sasha shrugged. “Waiting…”

“The one that I’ve marked seems to have thruster damage! Of the three, one is putting out significantly less power. Look! It’s lagging behind the other one.”

“He took some damage during the fight then.” Sasha rubbed his temple with his left hand, massaging at a mounting headache he wanted to fend off. “Pipe that information over to my terminal.” He squinted at his screen as the silhouette came up. Green lines covered the image, indicating scannable power flow.

Yellow indicated some type of interruption that slowed or hampered the energy. Red was a flat-out blockage where energy had once been but no longer passed through. The thruster in question flicked to the worst, meaning it would be completely offline soon. As that vessel’s companion left it behind, the separation provided