Ryk Brown - Aurora CV-01

“Captain!” Cameron begged.

“Kill the view screen,” he ordered calmly. “Doctor Sorenson, it’s time to go.”

“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.”

“And that’s bad?” he asked. There was still so much he didn’t know about this new system.

“It will take at least a few hours to charge the energy banks enough to execute even a short transition. That’s assuming we’re able to run our reactor at one hundred percent the entire time.”

“Understood, Doctor. When time permits, I think we’re going to need a full briefing on the capabilities and limitations of your, what did you call it?”

“Hyperluminal Transition System.”

Nathan mumbled it to himself, giving up halfway through the name. “You know what? Let’s keep calling it a Jump Drive for now.”

“That’s not exactly accurate,” she protested.

“Maybe not, but it’s a lot easier to say. Besides, that other one will never catch on,” Nathan added as he opened a comm channel to engineering. “Engineering, Bridge.”

“Yes! Go ahead,” Vladimir responded, sounding more than a bit annoyed at being bothered again.

“Can you run the primary reactor for the jump drive at one hundred percent?”

“What is this, jump drive?” he asked, having not heard of it before now.

“Doctor Sorenson’s little project?”

“Of course, I should’ve known.” Nathan could hear the change in the tone of Vladimir’s voice. “Yes, this I can do. But please, for no longer than is necessary.”

“Understood,” Nathan acknowledged, switching off the comm.

“Captain,” Ensign Yosef warned, “if the Takarans come looking for us, that reactor is going to be like big sign pointing out our location, regardless of all these asteroids.”

“How long does it take to shut down an antimatter reactor?” he asked Cameron, embarrassed that he didn’t know.

“Ten to fifteen minutes, I think.”

“Actually,” Doctor Sorenson interjected, “we rewrote the shutdown procedure to satisfy our abort protocols. We can have the reactor off line in about three minutes, and the core would no longer be emanating any discernible energy output within seconds of starting the abort process.”

“Excellent, problem solved then.” He turned to Ensign Yosef, “If you pick-up any signs of a Takaran ship, don’t go through us, just tell Doctor Sorenson and she’ll shutdown the reactor. Okay?” Nathan looked at each of them to make sure everyone understood their part.

“Nathan,” Cameron said in a hushed tone, “I think our jump drive has made quite an impression on the locals.” Cameron looked toward Jalea, who was now standing by the port exit in the back corner of the bridge facing away from them as she excitedly conversed with Marak over her personal communicator. It was obvious that the jump had taken her completely by surprise. Nathan could understand how she felt, as a few short hours ago even he had not known such a thing existed.

“You think this is going to be a problem?” he asked Cameron.

“I don’t know, but I think it certainly has the potential to become one.”

Nathan thought about it, wondering how it would affect their relationship with these people. Would they insist that they share the jump drive technology with them? Would they try to take it by force? How would they use it? If they were engaged in a rebellion against superior numbers, then this would certainly give them a tactical advantage. And how far would they be willing to go to obtain this advantage.

“Maybe we should make sure all of our weapons lockers are properly secured. And make sure the jump drives are still under guard as well.”

Cameron nodded her agreement, then walked over to the ensign handling communications, quietly passing the instructions to be put into motion.

“Captain!” Ensign Yosef called, alarm in her voice. “I found one! An asteroid with a trajectory that shows a ninety-eight percent collision probability.”

“How big?”

“Big enough, Sir.”

“You see? I knew it!” Nathan exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration. “I knew it was too good to be true!”

“How long do we have?” Cameron asked the ensign.

“Estimate impact in forty minutes.”

Cameron turned to Nathan, who was looking like he had reached his limit in crisis-management for the day. “Okay,” she offered, trying to offer support. “Let’s just work the problem.”

Nathan looked back at Cameron. Although she had been as shaken as the rest of them after the encounter with the Takaran warship, she was back to her old self again-cold and calculating.

“You’re right,” he admitted. “Work the problem.” Nathan raised his hands and locked his fingers behind his head, trying to think of a way to avoid the collision. “We can’t jump, and we’ve got no maneuvering or propulsion.” He looked at Ensign Yosef. “I’m assuming it’s too big to blow apart with rail guns, correct?” Ensign Yosef simply nodded, saying nothing. “No matter, they’re not working anyway,” he reminded himself.

“Torpedo? Maybe one of the nuclear ones?” Cameron offered.

“We already shot all four forward tubes, and the auto-loaders aren’t installed yet. I doubt we could get them loaded in time.”

“I don’t think a nuke would make much difference with this one, Sir,” Ensign Yosef reluctantly admitted.

“That big, huh?” Nathan asked rhetorically. He looked back to Cameron. “Got any ideas?”

Cameron simply shrugged. “Maybe you can blow something up again,” she suggested, half-heartedly.

“Don’t tempt me,” he warned. “I haven’t ruled that one out yet.”

“Well, how far do we need to move to avoid the collision?” Cameron asked, making her way back to Ensign Yosef.

“One moment.” Ensign Yosef began running the calculations. After a few moments, she answered. “Not that much. If we could just speed up or slow down by as little as a few hundred meters per second, we’d just miss it. But we would have to do it before we get too close to the asteroid, or it’s gravity will pull us in.”

“Well how do we do that without propulsion?” Nathan asked.