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.
“Captain?” Jalea interrupted. “You need to move ship?”
“Uh, yes. Why?”
“We can do this, I think.”
“How?” Cameron inquired.
“With our ships. This we do, many times. When we capture ships. Or to bring broken ships home.”
“A tow?” Nathan wondered aloud. “But your ships are not that big.”
“But they are very strong,” she assured him. “Marak agrees, this can be done.”
“Have you ever towed a ship this big before?”
“No,” she admitted. “But a first time, there must be for everything.”
“I don’t know about this, Nathan,” Cameron warned.
“Would you rather I blow up the stern docking thruster pods?”
Within minutes of receiving their orders from Marak, the four rebel ships had made their way out of the hangar bay and back into space. The Aurora, like any other ship in the fleet, had numerous hard points located on her hull. Normally used for mooring purposes, these points had direct attachment to the underlying frame of the ship, and would be more than strong enough for the tow operation.
The rebel ships were equipped with powerful grappling claws designed to grab a ship and punch through her hull if necessary. In this case, the rebel ships simply grabbed hold of a mooring point, and then started standing off from the ship, reeling out their tow lines as they moved away.
Nathan stood behind his previous station at the helm, gazing out the view screen that surrounded the front third of the bridge. By now, they could see the approaching asteroid. It had started out as no more than a speck against the blackness, but within minutes had grown to fill half the screen. Three of the rebel ships were in position with their tow lines running from their top side down to the ship. Each ship was at least a few hundred meters away, angling out at about forty-five degrees from the Aurora, and were keeping their tow lines taught with weak but steady thrust while they waited for the last ship to get into position.
“The last ship is moving into position now, sir,” Ensign Yosef reported.
“How much time,” he asked.
“We’ve got five minutes to get up to speed before we’re too close to escape its gravity well, sir.”
Nathan turned to Jalea. “You know, they all have to burn in unison for this to work.”
“Controls for one ship, will control all ships,” she explained.
Nathan understood what she meant. Fleet tugs used a similar method, slaving the flight controls for all tugs into the bridge of the ship being pulled, thereby using the tugs like they were external propulsion pods. It had been one of the simulations he had been required to pass during his flight training, and it had been a difficult one to master. Luckily, in this case, someone else would be doing the piloting.
“Prepare yourself,” Jalea warned as the voice on her communicator completed what sounded like a countdown, albeit in another language. Nathan could hear the voices of the rebel pilots as they chattered back and forth over Jalea’s communicator. The countdown ended with the last word being spoken louder and more urgently than the ones proceeding it.
On the view screen, The main engines of the two visible rebel ships began to glow a faint amber. As he heard the voice of the lead rebel pilot over Jalea’s communicator, he could tell that he was announcing his increases in thrust. They watched as the rebel engines thrust ports faded from amber to yellow as their levels increased. As the thrust levels increased, so did the stress level in the lead pilot’s voice.
“Three minutes,” Ensign Yosef announced.
The main thrust ports on the rebel ships again changed, going from yellow to a brilliant bluish white. The lead pilot’s voice was now yelling.
“They are at full power,” Jalea announced.
“Jesus,” Cameron exclaimed. “She wasn’t kidding about those little buggers being strong. Look at the amount of thrust they’re putting out.”
“Two minutes to impact,” Ensign Yosef updated.
The asteroid was now filling more than half the upper side of the main view screen, its horizon sinking farther and farther down the screen on its way to the floor. The lead pilot’s voice yelled another announcement, and the rebels engines became pure white, expanding their radius somewhat and taking on a blinding brilliance.
“What are they doing?” Nathan yelled.
“Their engines are burning much more than normal,” Jalea exclaimed. There was more yelling over the communicator, but this time from some of the other pilots.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Engines very hot now,” Jalea explained.
“They can’t keep that burn rate up for long,” Cameron warned.
