"You all know that it is the Kearny-Fuchida drive that allows us to travel so rapidly between stars. And you know, too, that the K-F drive can translocate us up to thirty light years from our current location. Those drives require an incredible amount of power to rip a hole in the fabric of space, and then project the ship through to its destination."
Janos typed another command into the computer linked to the keyboard, and the image shifted. A chart appeared and slowly rotated so that everyone at the table could read it easily. "As Dan has pointed out—doubtless because he had to memorize such material while at the New Avalon Military Academy—A2341CA is a K Class star. Were we positioned at the optimum charging point, it would take us just over 195 hours to power the drives. Adding two hours to deploy and three to recover the solar collector, we would be here more than eight days."
Dan shook his head. Eight days if we were in the right position, which we're not.He swallowed but said nothing aloud. I haven't had such a feeling of doom since Morgan Kell broke up the regiment eleven years ago. Hell, the Defection was a simulator battle compared to this mess.
Janos smiled uneasily. "The reason it takes so long to charge a Kearny-Fuchida drive is not because of the amount of energy needed to fuel the equipment." His fingers flew across the keys and a series of equations flashed up. "We could actually do it in sixteen hours."
Fitzpatrick laughed. "Now we're cooking with magnetic induction."
Janos shook his head. "Not exactly, Seamus. The K-F drive is a delicate instrument. The charge must be fed into it slowly. 'Hot-loading' an engine causes damage on the molecular level, or so some whiz kids at the New Avalon Institute of Science believe."
Dan frowned. "They don't know?"
Janos shook his head quickly. "No. A couple of people have reported successfully 'hot-loading' their engines, but no one can prove it. Other attempts have, apparently, been utter failures."
Salome shivered. "What happened to the ships?"
"We don't know," Janos said with a shrug.
Patrick Kell leaned forward. "We do know, however, that it's possible to use our in-system engine to power up the K-F drive."
Cat smiled slyly. "So we'll jump-start our K-F drive and leave here before it is 'theoretically' possible for us to be gone. The Draconians will be left assuming we died in a misjump."
Patrick nodded slowly. "There it is."
Dan shook his head. "I don't like it. If we try this, we arelikely to die in a misjump." He turned to Janos. "What happens if the K-F drive just quits? Can we fix it?"
"I doubt it." The Captain sat down. "The Cucamulusis more than 300 years old, and has worked—if the translations of the early Kurita logs are correct—like a charm since its maiden voyage. All the while this ship has been hopping between stars, no one has rediscovered what makes the K-F drive tick. If it goes, we stay here."
Fitzpatrick leaned back. "Until Kurita comes for us."
Patrick nodded. "Right again. What I want is for all of you to put your people to work. Seamus, your Techs and aerojocks are to make sure our fighters are ready to deploy at a moment's notice. If a Kurita ship arrives—and if they've got Janos's knowledge of non-standard jump points—we'll need them ready to go. Salome, I want all 'Mechs fully operational, and as many of those captured Panthersworking as possible. I want anyone without a jump-capable 'Mech checked out on a Panther."
Patrick turned to the jump troop commander. "Rick, I need your troops looking sharp. Have them check out all their equipment, especially anything they need to go outside a ship."
Dan narrowed his eyes. "It sounds as though you expect trouble."
Patrick pursed his lips. "First of all, Dan, I don't want a bunch of people running around thinking they're going to die when we jump out of here. No one is to know about our plan to leave quickly. Granted, few folks know enough about the K-F drives to be worried, but I don't want an undercurrent of fatalism sapping morale. Giving everyone something to do will keep them too busy to speculate about our plans. All they'll know is that we're getting out of here."
Salome cleared her voice. "I don't think that was Dan's question, Patrick. Have you and Janos decided where we're going, and do you expect trouble when we get there?"
Kell nodded. He looked toward Janos, but the Captain shook his head and pointed at a blue light flashing on his keyboard. "I must report to the bridge. I'll let you know what is happening."
"Very well." Patrick waited for the hatch to slide shut behind Vandermeer before he continued. "We're going to appear in a system that is little more than an asteroid belt. It was home to a mining company until the firm collapsed a year ago. Wayland Smith, whom some of you may remember from his time with us before the ... Well, he conned a great deal of money from the Kurita authorities using this played-out system as collateral. Since then, certain people have moved in ..."
Dan smiled. "From the way you say 'certain people,' I hear echoes of the word Heimdall." Dan shook his head as the other officers nodded or smiled. Because he'd grown up in the Federated Suns, and because of his father's work as a Rat-catcher, he had never understood this romantic attachment that the others felt for this outlaw group. He shook his head. "I should have known."
"We'll make a good Lyran out of you yet, Dan," Salome said with a laugh.
"Janos says that one of his 'pirate points' is near the main base, which will put us at one gravity hour out from the base. I expect no trouble, but I want everyone ready."
The officers nodded in unison. "How long do we have to recharge?" O'Cieran's question focused everyone's attention on Patrick.
"Janos said we'd run a 28 percent failure risk if we took twenty-five hours to power, and we've already got three under our belts." He winced and opened his hands. "The odds get better if we wait longer. Worse, if we don't."
The image of Janos's head and torso replaced the holographic image of formulae and tables. "Patrick."
Kell punched the button on a small commlink at his position on the table. "Go ahead."
"A Kurita ship has arrived at the nadir point. She's released one InvaderClass DropShip, and it's coming fast."
"ETA?"
"Twenty-one hours."
Kell nodded sagely. "That gives us nineteen hours to power the K-F drive. What does that make our odds?" Janos grimaced. "Worse, Patrick. Much worse."
* * *
Lieutenant Austin Brand disengaged his hands from Meg Lang's as they both snapped to attention and saluted. "Afternoon, Captain."
Dan's head came up, and his vision cleared. They'd been sitting beneath an apple tree on the Cucamulus'sstarboard agrodome. Locked deep in thought, Dan had not noticed Meg and Brand as he approached. He smiled now to see them together, then his brows furrowed. "Why aren't you down on the Nuadagetting your 'Mechs ready?"
Meg smiled. "My Waspis perfectly checked out, and Austin's Commandois on the Lugh."
Dan frowned at Austin Brand. "Lieutenant, I thought I ordered you checked out on one of the Panthers."
Brand nodded. "Done, Dan. Jackson gave me the PantherI walked into the Nuada,and so I needed only a fraction of the time others took to 'imprint.' Don't forget, the Pantheris a simpler machine than my Commando,even with the jump jets. My 'Mech is nestled in the Nuada'sdrop bays between your Valand Meg's Wasp."
Dan nodded distractedly. "All twelve bays are filled?"