“Good enough.” Ashley opened a comm channel. “Oz, we’re emerging from the wormhole in a few seconds. There shouldn’t be any bumps, but pass the word.”
“Problem?”
“No biggie, we’re almost home.”
“All right.”
Ashley worked the controls and rechecked the wormhole emitters every few seconds. She knew how the wormhole systems were supposed to work, but normally had a field specialist who managed that system backing her up.
“We could just compensate, there’s enough power in the system.” Larry offered.
“There could be damage we’re not seeing, a burnout waiting to happen. I’m just happy the emitters work at all.”
“All right, I’ll focus the emitters so we have a better exit point.”
Before Ashley’s eyes the integrity of the wormhole dropped near collapse then recovered. The entire ship shook, and the holographic diagram of the Triton flashed red for several seconds, alerting her to an impending structural failure along the dorsal section of the ship. “Okay, set for dispersion, we’re getting out now.”
Neither of them spoke as they worked at the controls, and in seconds the energy of the wormhole surrounding them peeled away like a blossoming flower. Ashley watched the diagram of the Triton nervously as stress warnings spread across the upper hull like angry red spider webs. To her relief, most of them faded away, leaving damage notifications mostly around the upper mooring. She breathed a sigh of relief as she brought up the navnet display. The local network connected right away and began to fill the holographic system with markers.
“Nice work. I’ve never seen someone disperse a wormhole before,” David remarked.
“ Triton has a lot of power, and her emitter system has backups built in. I’m just lucky they were working properly, otherwise we would have come out tumbling or I could have blown the whole array.”
Ashley’s eye was drawn to the smaller diagram of the Enforcer’s exterior, where escape pods were jettisoning by the dozen. “Oz, do you see this? It looks like the rats are leaving the ship.”
“Looks like I owe Jason a fifty. He said the Enforcer crew were probably using life support power to disrupt the wormhole so they could try and escape. There’s nothing we can do, don’t worry about it.”
“All right, just wonderin’. Navnet’s loading up nicely, it looks like we’re going to be okay.”
Seven Carthan carriers, each of them three and a half kilometres long and two across came up on navnet, and behind them were more gunships and mid sized cruisers than she could count. The port instructions came up in large red letters that said HOLD POSITION. A battle scarred command ship loomed in the distance, featuring three thick parallel hulls that were set in increasing length from top to bottom. The slanted main body of the ship, set behind the secondary sections of hull was a flat oval. The Triton’s computer immediately began marking its systems, numerous docking bays and measuring her total pressurized volume, raw tonnage, and overall firepower. It was a sleek hulled beast of a vessel, measuring six kilometres at her most broad point, three kilometres tall, and twelve point three kilometres long measuring from the greatest section of secondary hull to the rearmost of the oval primary hull. The thousands of lit portholes seemed as numerous as the stars, and as it began to propel itself the space around it distorted, as though fields with incredible energy were curving around the vessel. Navnet finally finished loading its registry information, and Ashley would never forget the name; The Oracle.
Behind it was what Ashley would later describe as several battle groups, and a non-orbital ship yard that was so large it looked closer than the Oracle itself. The boundaries set on that segment of the holodisplay couldn’t contain it. “Oz, tell me you’re seeing some of this,” she muttered.
“We’re looking at it here. I haven’t seen anything like it since Freeground. That ship, the Oracle, there’s something familiar about it.”
“It’s Expansion Age. It must have been adrift for over two hundred years.” Larry added.
“Well, it looks like someone dusted it off. The entire Carthan fleet has made itself at home too. I’m guessing this is no where near the rendezvous coordinates.” Oz assumed.
“You’re right, we came out early and we’re off by about half a million kilometres. We’re on the wrong side of Kambis, the moon where we’re supposed to rendezvous with the rest of the crew is still on the night side.”
“It could have been a lot worse. We could have come out of the wormhole on the extreme angle of its curve,” Larry said as he watched armed shuttles, gunships and cruisers begin moving towards the Triton.
The communications system lit up with a priority message and Ashley stared at the virtual panel on the table. “Something’s up. Oz, do you see this emergency channel?”
“Yup, link me up.”
“All right, mind if I listen in? They’re not issuing instructions through navnet and I need to know what’s going on.”
“No problem.”
Ashley linked the incoming communication with Oz’s communicator and sat back.
“Welcome to Carthan space and the Rega Gain solar system. By treaty I must give you or any passengers that may be United Core World Confederation military the opportunity to retreat peacefully.”
“This is Commander Ozark McPatrick of the Free Ship Triton. We’d like to request safe harbour, rescue services and I’m declaring the ship moored to our dorsal side as a vessel as a war time capture. I hope you take prisoners, because I’d like to remand the entire crew of the Enforcer 1109 into your custody. Do whatever you want to ‘em, and if there’s a reward, we’re interested.”
“We’re dispatching security and rescue ships right now. We were expecting you. My orders are to safely conduct the crew of the Triton and any passengers to the Tamber moon.”
“We’re safe aboard the Triton, in fact we have repair crews aboard who can begin work right away.”
“My orders stand, Commander. Please ready your crew and passengers for transport. You have ten minutes.”
“Stand by while I consult my command team,” Oz said with a note of finality before ending the communication.
Ashley tried not to look dismayed, David and Nerine did a good enough job at looking shocked for everyone. They look so tired, she kept thinking. Zoe had quieted down a little, but was still content to swing from her hands, her feet reaching up to touch the seat of the nearest chair. “What do we do Oz?” Ashley asked quietly.
“I’m going to talk to Jason before making a decision. Be ready to move.”
Oz watched from the flight control deck beneath the main bridge as one of the large armed Carthan troop transports docked with the emergency port. They had just finished clean up, and several crew members were performing repairs on the consoles. “Another ambush, is it Tuesday already?” Oz said quietly.
“No, this sounds political,” Jason replied over their encrypted connection. “I knew this was a possibility, especially in a military port. If Jake’s been declared a war criminal…”
“Then this ship is a legitimate capture, even if he’s on the same side as the Carthans. Minh didn’t say anything about any of the other ships getting taken. Wouldn’t they be captured under the same terms?”
“They weren’t taken from a Sol System military base. They can seize this ship under rights given by a whole different law book.”
“So, what you’re saying is we don’t have a legal leg to stand on.”
“Not at the moment. How are our military options looking?”
“We don’t have any. We’re in range of enough firepower to slag half a moon, and I can see at least one long range interdiction array from where I’m standing.”
“We’ve got the Enforcer all to ourselves though. We just have to claim it under the right privateering licence. Minh’s dispatch said our licence was under Ayan. The Enforcer needs major electrical work, they burned out the controls and her operating software has been wiped. Oh, and her reactors would have to be completely rebuilt.”
“What you’re saying is we’ve got an over sized pressurized box.”
“Exactly. It’s an intact box though, without much structural damage.”
“Life support?”
“Emergency systems have a couple days left in them, but I don’t know much beyond that. I’m bringing Frost into this conversation.”
“We turning tail?” Frost said as soon as he knew he could be heard.
Agameg came into the lower bridge and surveyed the room with a sweeping glance. Technicians who were
