“You’re the captain. What are you asking me for?”
“Right. Let her sleep. Give a ship-wide jump warning-except for Cam’s cabin.”
Jessica pressed a few keys, telling the computer to exclude Cameron’s cabin from the broadcast. “All hands, one minute to jump. Repeat, one minute to jump.”
“Kaylah. Any contacts in the area?”
“No, sir. The scope is clear.”
Nathan leaned back to whisper to Jessica again. “You know, this used to give me the heebie-jeebies. But now that I’m getting used to the idea, I’m starting to kind of like it. It feels really powerful to be able to give the order, and just like that, we’re suddenly light years away.”
Jessica looked at Nathan’s boyish grin. “You’re kind of weird, sir.”
“Ten seconds to jump,” Abby announced. She switched on her headset, which was now pre-programmed to broadcast ship-wide during a jump. She counted down from five to one, and jumped the ship yet again.
Deliza watched the main viewer as it darkened just enough to prevent the sudden explosion of blue-white light from blinding all those looking directly at it. As fast as it had come, it was gone, and the stars shifted again.
“Jump complete,” Abby announced. “In position just outside of the Darvano system, thirty-three point four light hours out from Corinair.”
“Contacts?” Nathan immediately asked.
“No contacts,” Kaylah announced after a moment’s pause. “The scope is clear.”
Abby turned around just enough to see Deliza’s face.
“That was amazing!” she exclaimed.
“Yes, it was,” Abby agreed. She could see the wonder in the child’s eyes. But she could also see the mind of a genius as she calculated the scientific implications that such a device carried. It was the same dancing eyes she had seen on her father when they had accidentally discovered a way to jump vast distances in space during their testing of advanced energy shielding. The accident that had revealed this miracle of science and physics to them had been so discreet that the effect on the test vehicle’s position had almost gone completely unnoticed. In fact, it had for several months. And it would still be a mystery had her father not noticed the discrepancy. And he might still be alive, she thought.
“How often do you guys do that?” Deliza asked.
“Oh, a few times a week, at least,” Nathan bragged.
“You are weird,” Jessica mumbled.
Nathan just sneered at her. “Kaylah, scan everything you can, and compare it to the star charts that were translated from Tug’s fighter. I want to know everything possible about this system before we try to sneak into it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Doctor, how long until we can enter the system?” Nathan asked.
“Four and a half hours to be fully charged,” Abby answered. “But there is more than enough power to jump in now, and still have enough for a short escape jump, if you prefer not to wait.”
“I can wait,” Nathan insisted. “I prefer to enter with as much jump juice left over as possible. We’ll have a pre-jump briefing in four hours. Command staff, the shuttle crew, and Tug and Jalea,” he said as he turned to head back to his ready room. “You have the con, Jess.”
“Aye, sir,” Jessica responded. She slowly turned her head to face Abby, waiting for Nathan to leave the room. “Jump juice?”
Abby just shook her head at the euphemism.
CHAPTER 5
In the four hours since arriving on the outer edges of the Darvano system, Nathan had managed to eat, study the details of the system from Tug’s star charts, and had even gotten up the nerve to visit Medical for his post away-mission checkup. As expected, he had received an earful from Doctor Chen regarding not only his tardiness, but also for the trauma inflicted on the prisoner. Despite his repeated apologies, he doubted she would be forgiving him any time soon.
Fortunately, the prisoner had not been seriously injured. His facial lacerations were already on the mend, as was his fractured nose, no doubt the result of Jessica’s well placed boot heel. He had also had a pretty decent neck injury due to the initial blow that Jalea had delivered. Jessica had later explained to Nathan that Jalea’s first blow to the prisoner’s neck had been intended to kill. Had it not been for the prisoner’s quick reactions, she probably would’ve succeeded.
That knowledge of intent troubled Nathan, as this was quite probably the second time he had witnessed the brutal, warrior side of Jalea’s personality. The woman was usually so cold and dispassionate in day-to-day conversation. Even when they had been under fire on the surface of Haven, she had still remained cold and calculating the entire time. In fact, that episode in the brig was the first time he had seen her snap emotionally. And it made him wonder exactly how much anger was still trapped inside of her.
Nathan wandered down the corridors surrounding the flight decks, looking for the squadron briefing room that Jessica had advised him to use for this pre-jump briefing. With a total of twelve people in attendance, the command briefing room would be too small, yet the main briefing room would be too large. The squadron briefing room was made to accommodate up to thirty-two pilots, and was equipped with all the audio-visual displays they would need. Nathan had been too embarrassed at the time to admit that he didn’t exactly know where this particular briefing room was located. Now, he only hoped that by the time he found it he would only appear fashionably late.
“How many times are you going to pass this corridor before you realize it’s the one you’re looking for?”
Nathan turned and saw Cameron leaning against the bulkhead a few meters down the corridor, her arms crossed and a look of disbelief adorning her face.
“Really, Nathan. You’re the captain of the ship, for Christ’s sake.”
“Ssh,” he said, putting his forefinger to his lips. “Don’t tell anyone,” he pleaded as he turned down the corridor towards her.
“Am I going to have to put study ship’s layout on your to-do list?” she teased as she turned and led him down the corridor and into the squadron briefing room.
“Captain on deck,” she announced as she led him into the room. Vladimir, Jessica, and Enrique-being the only actual crew members in the room-all jumped to attention. The rest, feeling out of place, started to stand as well.
“Don’t even,” Nathan objected, motioning for them to remain seated. He glanced over at Cameron, who appeared quite pleased with herself. “Very funny,” he muttered under his breath. Despite the joke at his expense, he was happy to see the lighter side of Cameron popping up now and then.
“Good afternoon everyone,” Nathan began. Nathan looked about the room. He had been in similar rooms during his small craft flight training back at the academy but this one was considerably nicer. It was darker than most of the spaces on the ship, lending a more serious tone to the room. The seats were all high-backed and overstuffed, and were arranged in four rows of eight, with a center aisle splitting the rows into pairs of four. Each row was slightly more elevated than the one in front of it, ensuring that everyone in attendance had a clear view of both the speaker at the podium as well as the three large display screens along the wall directly behind him. The lighting was subdued but adequate, with tiny spotlights shining down onto each seat from above. Nathan could easily imagine the room full of swaggering fighter jocks, ready to jump into their cockpits and catapult out into the blackness to face the enemy. In fact, at that point, Nathan really wished he had both those fighter pilots and their ships at his disposal, as it would make him feel a whole lot safer. Instead, he had this collection of fresh-faced academy graduates, Karuzari rebels, and a few refugees from Haven. Considering his own lack of qualifications and experience, he didn’t feel fit to command even this ragtag group. Yet here they all sat, ready to perform whatever task he set them on, and without question no less. That was the most amazing thing about command. They were all aware of his lack of experience-at least those in the Fleet were-yet they were still willing to do his bidding. They placed their faith in his ability to make decisions and to protect them from harm as best he could while still carrying
