“I’ll tell him,” Nathan laughed as he clicked off his mic. “Nice flying, mister,” Nathan said, shaking Josh’s hand.
“Thank you, Captain,” Josh answered, eagerly soaking up the praise.
“You, my friend, can call me Nathan.”
“Josh,” he returned. “And this is my co-pilot, Loki.”
“Pleasure, sir,” the slightly older co-pilot greeted as he shook Nathan’s hand.
“Where’d you guys learn to fly like that?” Nathan asked.
Josh smiled. “VR games. Where else?”
Nathan laughed. “Where else, indeed.” Nathan turned to look toward Tug’s ship, as Josh and Loki headed into the hangar bay. Tug was already down on the deck, hugging his girls, with Jalea standing nearby. Vladimir was catching Jessica as she slid down off the fighter, giving her his customary bear-hug of a greeting. Nathan headed over to them. “You saved our ass,” Nathan told her as he neared.
“Hell, Tug did all the work. I was just along for the ride.”
Nathan wrapped his arms around her, feeling more affection for her at that moment than he expected. “We thought we’d lost you,” he whispered as he hugged her.
“I’m kind of hard to kill,” she bragged.
“Yeah, I’m starting to realize that,” Nathan agreed as he pulled away. “Come on. Let’s go see how much Cam has banged up the ship while we were gone.”
“Oh Bozhe,” Vladimir declared, realizing he probably had a host of new problems to repair after the pounding the ship had just taken. “Please, do not say this.”
Nathan stepped over to Tug, who still had his arms around his daughters. “Thanks, Tug. You saved our butts.”
“Respectfully, Captain,” Tug began as he shook Nathan’s hand. “It was not you I was trying to save,” he added, his gaze returning to his girls.
“Jalea,” Nathan called as they headed toward the hangar bay. “Will you escort Tug and his family to medical?”
“Captain on the bridge!” the marine at the doorway announced as Nathan entered, appearing more confident than ever before.
“Report, Commander?”
“We’re down to eight rail gun turrets, and we had a few more chunks taken out of our hull. But as we took them head on, main propulsion and power are both fully operational, as is the jump drive.”
“I’ll bet our underside isn’t pretty. Nice move, by the way.”
“Thanks.”
“Where are we?”
“Thirty-eight light minutes from Haven, on a course headed out of the system at quarter light. As best we can tell, the enemy ship has not yet detected our new position. Theoretically, it should take at least another twenty minutes before we will appear on their sensors.”
“But we can’t be sure of that,” Nathan pointed out.
“Sir?” Cameron asked, a bit confused.
“We don’t really know their sensor capabilities.”
“But the speed of light is constant, regardless-”
“Yes, of course. But let’s just assume that they have much better detection capabilities. Better to err on the side of caution at this point.”
Cameron was shocked. It was the first time she had ever seen Nathan take the safe route. “Yes, sir.”
“Abby, how soon can we jump again?”
“We’re at ninety percent capacity, Captain. And I already have a jump plotted that would take us back to the point where we originally entered this system. We can jump at any time. Up to nine light years if necessary.”
“Very well.”
“Captain,” Jessica interrupted. “The Ta’Akar are obviously actively pursuing us. If Tug’s right about this Caius guy-”
“Ready room, Jess,” Nathan ordered, pointing toward the back of the bridge. “Cam, join us?”
Jessica immediately realized that although she had been relatively free to disagree with Nathan on Haven, on board, decorum dictated otherwise.
“Who’s Caius?” Cameron asked as she followed Nathan and Jessica into the captain’s ready room. “And who are the Ta’Akar, for that matter?”
“The Takarans,” Nathan told her. “Apparently we were mispronouncing their name.”
“And Caius?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s some kind of leader. A dictator, or a king, maybe?” Jessica explained. “If what Tug was saying is true, then the Ta’Akar will stop at nothing to find us and capture our jump drive.”
“Who is Tug?” Cameron asked, feeling more and more out-of-the-loop with each passing moment.
“The farmer we bought the molo from,” Nathan answered.
“I’m pretty sure he’s more than a farmer,” Jessica added.
“Apparently he was a fighter pilot at some point,” Nathan explained to Cameron as he sat down. “Damaged in battle, drifted, ended up stranded on Haven and became a farmer.”
“Oh, I think there’s more to him than he’s lettin’ on,” Jessica insisted. “I was in his kitchen, just after they captured him and killed his wife.”
“What?” Cameron was getting more lost by the minute. “What the hell happened down there?”
Jessica continued, ignoring Cameron’s remarks. “I heard them talking about how they would be decorated for capturing him alive. ‘By Caius himself,’” she explained. “Now tell me, how would the capture of a simple fighter jock warrant a personal commendation by their exalted leader?"
“You think he’s somebody important?”
“I think he’s at least somebody they want captured or killed, that’s for damned sure. And that leads me to my next question,” she added. “Was there a reason Tug was the guy we ended up doing business with?”
Nathan looked at her. The thought had crossed his mind more than once over the past few hours. But until now it was nothing more than an unsubstantiated suspicion. He reached over and hit his comm-button. “Comm, call medical. Have them send Jalea and Tug up here, ASAP.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And send Abby in as well.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do you need Abby for?” Cameron wondered aloud.
“Tug told us something about a power source that was being developed by the Ta’Akar. Something that could provide limitless power. He said they have nearly finished it.”
Abby entered the ready room a moment later. “You asked to see me, Captain?”
“Yes, Doctor. Once before, you said that the range of the jump drive was only limited by the amount of power we were currently able to put into it. Is that true?”
“Theoretically, yes. If given enough power, as well as the ability to accurately calculate a long distance jump, you could jump between galaxies as easily as you would between stars. It would be a bit more difficult in practice, however. Why do you ask?”
“Theoretically, if we had access to a power source that was say, a hundred times more powerful than what we’re currently using, would that help get us back to Earth any faster?”
“Yes, if it could be properly interfaced and calibrated to work with our systems. It might be of use.”
“How much use?”
“You’re asking me to make a lot of guesses, here, Captain.”
“Indulge me, please.”
“With a hundred times more power, we might be able to get back in a few jumps. Maybe even one.”
“So, home in days or weeks instead of months, correct?”
“If everything went correctly, yes, it is possible.” Abby looked at him for a moment. “Are you saying you have access to such a power source?”
“We have intelligence that suggests there may be something of this nature in existence out here,” he admitted.
“Captain,” Abby urged. “If we could find and utilize this power source, the advantage that the jump drive would provide the Earth would be increased exponentially.”