“Captain,” Doctor Sorenson interrupted. “It might be safer if I actually had a destination this time.”
“Can you plot a jump that quickly?”
“It’s not really a plot,” she explained. “I have to write an algorithm that will control the entire process so that our jump is for the correct distance. The course will have to be plotted by your navigator.”
“I guess that would still be me,” Cameron volunteered, knowing that there was no one else available.
“Well then, can you write the algorithm that quickly?” Nathan asked the Doctor.
“I can write it, yes. But there will not be enough time to verify its accuracy.”
“I can live with that. Jalea,” Nathan asked. “We need somewhere to go, a place to hide while we make repairs. Somewhere close. Do you know of such a place?”
“I think, yes. Korak,” she told him.
“Korak?”
“KOO-rahk,” she corrected.
“Great! Don’t really care how you say it,” he mumbled. “Show her,” he told Jalea, pointing toward Doctor Sorenson. “Kaylah, can you help them figure it out?”
“It looks like we’re currently in a system that’s part of a five star cluster,” Cameron explained, pointing to a chart displayed on the tactical station in front of her and Nathan. It had taken a few minutes to figure out what Jalea had been describing. But with Kaylah’s help, they were able to put together a rough plot. “It’s pretty small, considering. Only about eight light years in diameter. And if I’m understanding her correctly, there’s gotta be at least a dozen inhabited worlds scattered throughout the entire cluster.”
“I’ve never even heard of such a system,” Nathan commented. “Where the hell are we?”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Cameron admitted. “I know one thing, we sure aren’t in the core.”
Nathan had come to the same conclusion the moment that Jessica had told them about the rebellion. That was surely something that Fleet intelligence would’ve known about. And to their knowledge, the entire core and most of the fringe worlds were controlled by the Jung Dynasty. And they would not have allowed someone like the Takarans to rule over such a system in their own backyard.
“Do we have a destination?” he asked.
“Well, we’re currently in the primary component of a binary system,” she explained, pointing at the display. Over here is the secondary component, Korak, about one point five light years away. It’s small, only one gas giant orbiting a red dwarf. Dozens of moons, one of them inhabited, some sort of mining colony. The system is mostly an asteroid field beyond that, and a pretty dense one so it’s a good place to hide. She says that if we’re lucky we can hide out there for at least a few days. There are one or two Takaran ships in that system, smaller ones, like the ones that are inbound now. But Jalea says that it would take at least a couple of days for word of us to reach them. I guess they have some kind of really fast comm-relay probes that can go like a hundred times light or something. But, at least there won’t be anyone looking for us for a few days. And since the asteroid field is so dense, unless they’re watching for us, they’re not likely to notice when we jump in.”
“Yeah, they wouldn’t be expecting that, would they,” he chuckled. “Then I guess that’s our destination. At the least, it might give us enough time to get maneuvering and propulsion back online.” Nathan turned his attention to Ensign Yosef, monitoring the sensors from her sciences station. “Ensign Yosef. How many rebel ships have landed so far?”
“Only two, sir.”
“Two?” Nathan quickly activated the comm. “Jessica! What’s taking so long down there?”
“These ships are bigger than we thought, Captain. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to fit them all in here!”
“Well, leave one in the airlock and one on the apron, if you have to! Just get them on deck! How long before they can fire on us?” he asked Cameron
“Five minutes, maybe,” Cameron answered. He knew she was guessing. They knew nothing about Takaran weapons and technology.
“Jalea,” he asked, drawing her away from Doctor Sorenson’s side. “We need to get your ships on board more quickly, there’s not enough time.” She looked puzzled. “Not enough time,” he repeated. “Go faster.” Suddenly, she understood what he wanted, and began communicating the problem with Marak. A moment later he heard Marak’s voice giving a rather important sounding command over their communicators. He didn’t understand what he was saying, but from the tone of Marak’s voice he was pretty sure that if he had, he wouldn’t have liked it.
“Nathan,” Cameron called. “Two of the rebel ships have reversed course!”
“What?”
“They’re on an intercept vector for the incoming Takaran ships.”
“What are they doing? They’ll be destroyed!” Nathan spun back around to face Jalea “What did he tell them to do!”
“Need more time,” she explained. “They give.”
“They give? You mean they give their lives?” Nathan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Do they know this?”
“They know,” she answered, with no emotion showing in her voice.
“The rebel ships have fired on the Takarans, and they’re changing course, heading away from us.”
“Did their fire…”
“…No effect,” Cameron reported. Nathan was now standing next to her at the tactical display, watching the engagement. “The Takaran ships are changing course, pursuing.” They watched for less than a minute, until the two Takaran ships caught up to the rebels and obliterated them. “The rebel ships are destroyed,” Cameron reported. “They’re resuming original course. ETA six minutes, weapons range in one.”
“How many people were on those ships?” Nathan asked Jalea coldly.
“Six,” she answered in much the same tone.
Nathan couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. Six people had just sacrificed themselves for nothing. At the most, it might have gained them an extra minute.
“They’re firing!” Cameron reported. “Missiles inbound, tracking four, all nukes! ETA thirty seconds!”
“Bridge! Hangar Bay! The last of the rebel ships are on deck!”
Nathan stood there staring intently into Jalea’s eyes. She didn’t blink, didn’t look away. Where he had once seen strength and compassion, he now saw only a cold ruthlessness that he wasn’t sure he could understand. And he knew he didn’t like it.
“Captain!” Cameron begged.
“Kill the view screen,” he ordered calmly. “Doctor Sorenson, it’s time to go.”
CHAPTER 7
“Transition complete,” Doctor Sorenson reported with just the slightest hint of relief in her voice.
Cameron immediately switched the view screen back on, revealing a sea of asteroids of varying sizes. Nathan couldn’t help but marvel at the view. He had never seen an asteroid field, and by his understanding, this one was far more dense than most. The field of stars before them had an unusual twinkling quality, as the numerous asteroids too distant to see with the naked eye passed in front of stars, causing them to blink off and on. His gaze was fixed on the screen for at least a full minute, so long that Cameron was beginning to wonder what he was staring at.
“Anything on sensors?” he finally asked Ensign Yosef.
“No Sir, just rocks.”
Nathan wasn’t sure he could believe it, not after the previous two jumps. “What? No Jung patrols? No mammoth Takaran warships? No rebel hoards?”
Cameron just gave him a sideways glance, unimpressed by the timing of his sarcasm.
“I’m just checking,” he defended.
Jalea exclaimed something in her native language, astonished at what she had just witnessed.
“How is this possible?” she finally asked in English, her eyes wide.
“I really don’t know,” Nathan admitted. “But lucky for us, it is.”
“Captain, suggest we start a plot of all the nearest asteroids?” Cameron suggested. “Just to be on the safe side.”
“Good idea.” he agreed.
“Just so you are aware, Captain,” Doctor Sorenson interrupted, “the transition system’s energy banks are now down to less than ten percent.”