Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race (46 page)

Lucius felt a cold hand squeeze his heart.  He looked at the sensors.

They’d altered their couse.  “They’re slowing.”  It took him a moment to plot the new course, he and Dreyfus spoke simultaneously, “They’ll still pass through Point Victory.”

Lucius watched.  He knew that thousands would die to give them this chance.  He looked over at Kandergain, “How close will we emerge to that point?”

She shrugged, “Hard to say.  I’ve never tried to do this before.  Plotting an intercept from shadow space to a moving force in real time… it’s complex.”  She brought up some of her calculations, “We’ll be within twenty thousand kilometers, at least.  Maybe closer.  We could emerge above them or below them or even in front of them, I don’t know.”

Lucius frowned, only those ships that used captured Ghornath tech had weapons that could range twenty thousand kilometers.  His other ships would have to close the range as quickly as possible.  “God I hate not being on a bridge.” Lucius growled.

“Thinking you’d rather be at the helm?”  Admiral Dreyfus asked.

“
Absolutely.”  Lucius gnawed on his lip and stared at the two fleets approaching each other.  The Balor fleet neared their maximum launch range.  “If they launch like last time, we’ll be among them before that flight hits.” Lucius said.  He felt a sense of déjà vu, only this time, it would be people on his side dying rather than an enemy force.

“
Multiple launches.” Reese said, his voice sad.  “Total saturation, I can’t track all the missiles.  There’s almost nine thousand, though.”  He cleared his throat, “We’ll emerge at Point Victory a minute before impact.”

Lucius watched in silence, they had two minutes before they jumped.  He watched the formation alter, Kral pushed his heavier dreadnoughts and the thirty captured shield cruisers to the front of the formation.  “He’s setting up a screen for the Emperor,” Lucius marveled.  He never thought he’d see the day that a Chxor sacrificed himself for the Emperor of Nova Roma.

“At present velocity and deceleration, one minute to jump,” Reese said.

“
All ships, prepare to jump at my mark.” Lucius said over an open link.  “Fight for humanity, fight for your freedom, fight for your lives.  Victory or death!”  He took a deep breath, “All ships, commence jump to Shadow in three, two, one, mark!”

They jumped.

The transition went smoother.  Lucius still felt the nausea, the unsettling body reaction to someplace not quite right.  He felt the ship
turn
as Kandergain had done when they’d made their trip to seek allies.  The gray on gray background altered.  It pulsed... and slowly bars of green sprang into existence.  He stared at the screen as the bars formed a grid of green lines, and the background of the alternate universe became a dull red.

He stared into the screen, for the second it took his mind to recognize the pattern.

Everyone on the bridge turned their heads as Lucius collapsed in laughter.  He wiped at his eyes as laughed almost hysterically.

“
What?” Kandergain asked.

“
I—” Lucius sagged back into his seat, laughing harder.  “We’re—we’ve gone to ludicrous speed!” He couldn’t help it, he lost it again.  “Oh my God, we’ve gone to plaid!”

Dead silence met his exclamation.

He continued to laugh for several seconds, finally wiping tears away, “Good, God, doesn't anyone watch the classics?”  He sighed, but couldn't repress a slight chuckle, “We should emerge in five, four, three, two, one…”

The timer read zero.  The red and green of Shadow still remained.  All the eyes on the flag bridge went to Kandergain.  “I said thirty seconds would pass out there,” she said.  “I didn’t say it would be the same for us.”

Reese stared at her, “How can time be different?  We’re not traveling at high velocities in the real universe, there should be no relativity.”

She sighed, “I didn’t want to go into this again,” she shot a glare at Lucius, “But essentially, time flows… differently in shadow space.  Just like I plotted us a course through different dimensions of space in Shadow, I also plotted us a course taking time into account.”  She took a deep breath, “Pretty much, in order to make objective time as short as possible, I lengthened the distance we’ll travel in shadow, and the subjective time we’ll experience.”

Lucius spoke, “Alright, how long, subjectively, do we spend in the plaid section of shadow?”

She shrugged uncomfortably, “Nine months.”

“Nine
months
!?” Lucius demanded.  He looked over at Admiral Dreyfus, “Do we have supplies for that long?”

The other man grimaced.  “I don’t know.  I know some ships will be in trouble.”  Most ships stocked up rations for thirty days.  Some of the ships in the fleet probably hadn’t resupplied since the last operation, a week ago.

They both looked at Kandergain, “It would be very bad if the Fleet starved to death in thirty seconds.”

She shrugged, “Hey, I’m sorry.  If you want, we can drop out of shadow now and you could come up with another plan.”

Lucius frowned, “Where would we end up?”

She shrugged, “Beats me.  Normal Shadow, you’d emerge in the real universe somewhere.  Out here… well, optimistically we’d end up in the real universe some
when. 
Pessimistically… we could end up in another universe.”

Admiral Dreyfus stared at her contemplatively, “You know, if we run out of food, I recommend we resort to cannibalism to survive.”

“Bring it on, old man.”

***

“
There’s something distinctly odd about this.” Lucius said as he stared at a wall clock that showed the thirty second countdown.  Six hours later, not even a third of a second had passed.  He looked over the gathered officers, “What’s the good news?”

Admiral Dreyfus slid a slim, gray, sealed plastic pillow down the table.  “Hurrah, we’re saved.”

Lucius picked it up, he frowned at the small package, “What is it?”

“
Marine Emergency Field Rations.” Brigadier General Morris said.  “We Marines keep a stockpile of them on hand.  Each bag has enough calories for one person, for a day of strenuous effort. We’ve got enough to keep the Fleet fed for years.”

“
And the Marines save the day again.” Lucius sighed.  “What’s the bad news?”

“
We’ve only got fuel for the ships running fusion reactors for twenty seven days, with a transfer of fuel between those ships using hydrogen fuel.” Captain Magnani said, her nasal voice sounding satisfied.  “As I stated before, we’d have been better leaving such primitive—“

“
Thank you, Captain.” Admiral Dreyfus interrupted.  “What have you done to find a stopgap measure?”

“
I’d recommend we evacuate those ships.” She shrugged.  “Nothing else we can do.”

Lucius sighed, opening a link to the
War Shrike
.  “Captain Doko, please put me through to Engineer Harbach.”

“
What?  Who is this?  I was elbow deep on—“

“
James, this is Baron Giovanni.”

“
Oh, what do
you
want?” The old professor whined.

Lucius rolled his eyes, “I have an engineering problem only you can address.”

“Oh?” The old man’s voice showed slight interest.

“
In twenty seven days, all our ships with fusion reactors will be out of fuel.” Lucius said.  “We’ll be in Shadow for nine months.  How do I keep my ships flying?”

“
Hmmm.  That’s a big problem.  I’m not sure a mere commander could handle that.”

“
Excuse me?” Lucius asked.

“
Well, you know,” the old man’s nasal voice whined, “I’m getting on in years.  A nice little grant of land, maybe some money to keep me living well.  Only fair, considering I’ve served so long and never gotten so much as a thanks.”

Lucius clenched his fists beneath the table.  He felt a vein throb at his temple, and he felt his left eyelid quiver.  “Commander Harbach, if you think I’ll let you blackmail this fleet…”

“Pretty spiteful not to give an old man a decent reward for saving a fleet, you know?” Harbach whined.  “So… how about it?”

“
You’ll receive your plot of land and sufficient money for you to live comfortably,” Lucius growled.  “Now what’s your solution?”

The old man chuckled, “Easy enough.  We use some of those parasite frigates to provide just enough power to run the major systems.  Two of them docked and running their plants over cables to the dock circuits will keep everything running fine.  We just have to bypass the breakers so we don’t cause a power failure.  Otherwise—”

“Thank you, James.  How long to do it?”

“
Maybe two, three hours a ship.”

Lucius turned to Captain Magnani, “Coordinate with Commander Harbach.  Get all those ships hooked up as soon as possible.”

She opened her mouth and shot a look over at Admiral Dreyfus.  His glare shut her mouth.  “Yes, sir,” She said sullenly.  She grabbed her notes and pushed away from the table violently.

Lucius waited for her to leave.  “Any other crises?

***

Lucius looked around the palatial Admiral’s Quarters aboard the
Patriot
and whistled.  He heard the hatch open behind him, and turned.  Kandergain leaned against the wall just inside the door, arms crossed.  “Moving up in the world, aren’t we?”

Lucius stared at her and smiled slightly.

“I was wondering if you rank any real food.  I just had one of those MEF packages.  I’m not sure starvation is so bad in the face of those.”

Lucius’s smile widened and he started towards her. 

“Whatcha thinkin’?” Kandergain asked, also smiling.

“
You know,” Lucius said, “Ever since we got back from that trip, we haven’t had more than a few minutes alone, together.”

She cocked her head, “True.”

“And now, we’ve got a nice, long voyage, with nothing in particular going on until the end of it.”

She nodded, “Also, true.”

Lucius walked forward.  He reached an arm past her and flipped the lock on the cabin door behind her.  “If I were a suspicious individual, I might almost think you might have seen that possibility when you calculated the jump.”

“
What, arrange things so they work out for the best
and
I get what I want too?” Kandergain smiled, “Why, Lucius, I’d
never
do something like that!”

“
I didn’t think so.” Lucius said as he kissed her.

***

Lucius stared at the flat gray bar he held in his hand.  “Just the opportunity for real food is going to be reason enough to win this fight.”  He’d never would have said he was overweight, but he’d lost some for certain over the past few months.

“Those things might have everything you need to survive,” Admiral Dreyfus said, “But no wonder no one wants to be a Marine?”

Lucius chuckled at that.  He tucked the bar away, “I’ll go hungry a little longer, I think.” Lucius said.  He looked over at Kandergain, who sat in her chair awkwardly.  “Are you going to be...”

“I’m fine.” She snapped.

Lucius mentally cursed the situation again.  Who could have expected this?  Accidents happened, he knew, but the absurdity of this was too much for him.  “I still think you should be in the infirmary.”

“I still think you should shut up.  I’ll be fine.”  Kandergain didn’t even look up from her console  “Five minutes till we emerge.”

Lucius looked across his boards, now become familiar.  He felt glad he’d shifted over to the
Patriot
, now.  He thought the similarity to the
War Shrike
and the familiar, unchanging surroundings for nine months would have driven him insane by now.

As it was, he knew most, if not all, of the twenty-nine thousand crew of the
Patriot
by name and face.

“
One minute.”

Lucius took a deep breath, and shot Kandergain one more worried look.  Her condition caused him more concern than he knew he could afford to give on the eve of a battle.  He wished the ship’s sickbay had the right equipment, but well-stocked or not, they were not designed for these circumstances.

She wasn’t the only person in the fleet so affected, he knew.

Accidents happened.

“Emergence in five, four, three, two, one, mark!”

The ship shuddered and the plaid universe around them vanished.  An instant later, they lay at rest, the stars of the real universe around them.

“Contacts, multiple contacts!” Reese said, excitedly, “We’re right on!  The Balor are five thousand kilometers ahead of us, just starting to turn!”

The
Patriot
hummed slightly as weapons systems came online, fighters and the parasite frigates launched and the engines kicked it forward.  Lucius felt the tension ease in his chest, “Message to all ships, close with the enemy, envelope them and destroy them... attack pattern Alpha Two.”