The Other Side

Obsidian Arrows

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Time of our Lord Creatos 1539, Sunday the 23rd of Novembar (Nov-em-bar)

The Other Side

Clarish was counting down, “Twelve.. Eleven….Nine.. Eight.. Seven .. Six. Brace for crossing. She commanded then continued the count down Two.. One!”

Everyone held their breath.  There was no sound, no movement.  Nothing. Time itself had stopped.  Then with a start it started again.  The forward shutter started opening and the thrusters were firing.  They were close to something and the thrusters and nave systems were trying to adjust course.

Clarish looked at her monitor, The Collision alarm went off. 

Sweets looked at the forward monitor and jerked the yaw controller starboard.  He rolled the ship to port.  “I can’t see anything yet, give me a vector!”  Looking out the forward ports all you saw was the deflector shields red and yellow hues as they tried to push away solid object that were trying to destroy us.  So many that the entire field of view was obstructed.

Everyone was scanning their monitors for information.  They just didn’t have much yet.

“Cline fire the forward cannons” Clarish commanded.

“At what.” Cline looked at the black that was his monitor.

“I don’t care, shoot it all. Just blow a hole in whatever it is!” Clarish shouted

There was a hit and then hissss.  The ship was struck.  The self-sealing jell in the hull started to fill the hole. Bang!  Another hole. Then another.  Cline just kept his fingers on the fire button, but with the banging, hissing and alarms he wasn’t sure if they were even firing.  

“I’m got something.” Yell Tarinnish.  “Stop the roll and pull up.” 

Clarish was looking at her monitors.  Probe one, which was launch automatically at entry, just went blank.  “I got nothing. Probe one is dead and probe two has nothing.”

“I had a visual between the strikes, it was just a flash, but I saw black to our starboard.

Bang, another strike.

“We won’t have much of a ship at this rate!” yell Sweets, still pulling on the yoke with one hand and firing the nose thrusters with this right hand.” Tarinnish was attempting to diverte the main dorsal thrusters upward so as to swing the aft end of the ship, thus increasing their pitch. 

The forward cannons were making headway on the number of strikes on the shields.  Enough that black spots started appearing and then disappearing.  It was progress, but the shields were still red hot with flecks of yellow, gold, blue and green.  It was a sight to behold. One could say it was beautiful if it weren’t so deadly.

Tarinnish turned down the inertial dampeners.  They would need the energy elsewhere and instantly you felt the weight of their course change.

“Keep turning. I.. Damn! Probe two gone.” Clarish said.

Tarinnish said, “Fire a dorsal probe, we can see black as we turn.

It took a second as Clarish wanted to give the probe permission to transmit as soon as it launched.  This way they could get something as soon as the sheath separated.  Then she launched it.  There was a swooshing sound as it left the ship.  

Cline just kept firing the cannons.  They would overheat soon and then, well they needed to be out of whatever this was. 

Sweets was yelling something incoherent. He was looking at the top of the forward ports.

Tarinnish pulled his attention from his viewer.  The monitor that the probe would be sending information to.  He saw it too.  Clear black.

“We’re almost there.” 

Then Bang!  A big one.  Lots of hissing and the ship stopped rolling.  The black was fading.  Tarinnish looked at his ship’s status monitor.  One main drive was in red.  The other yellow.  The fusion reactors were both in red.

Clarish yelled, “Shutting down one! Restarting in ten.” 

“Sweets, go to thruster.” Tarinnish said as he started enabling all the thruster.  He was just about done when Sweets gasped. 

Before he could say anything 

, Clarish announced, “Reactor two is dying.” Then ordered, ‘Cline stop firing.  We will need what energy we have for the shield. 

Bang, hissssss

Tarinnish saw what Sweets reacted to. The forward view port was cracking. Tarinnish initiated the viewport shield and their space went back.  Now they were only bathed in the illumination of their instruments.  

“I really need a vector.” Sweets said in the calmest voice Tarinnish had ever heard.  

“Vector two-two-zero point four-four. By six-six-six.” Clarish said.

“Roger that.” Sweets responded.

“Tarinnish looked at this monitor.  Telemetry was started to come in.  It gave their current heading and the one Clarish just gave them.  They were still more than eight seven degrees off.  They had to complete the roll and then get their mains online to get the hell out of here.  Having their view restricted by the solid shield actually help relieve some of their anxiety in the cockpit as they were no longer seeing all the objects that were trying to destroy them.  Now they watched their monitors and did their jobs.

Bang, this one was not so bad and was not followed by a hiss.  

          Cline spoke up next, “Shield are at eight one percent and declining.”

          Clarish announced, “Reactor two has recovered, start up in six minutes.” 

          Sweets turned to Tarinnish, “I hope we have six minutes.”

          Tarinnish didn’t look back, He kept his attention on the monitor.  They had made thirteen degrees of correction, but the ships direction was not correcting fast enough.  He typed in a few commands and brought up the starboard thrusters, they were turning yellow.  

Sweets saw it on his monitor and started tapping the buttons instead of holding them down.  This started a vibration throughout the ship.

Clarish asked, “How long.” 

Tarinnish responded, “Two, three minutes tops.” 

Cline yelled, “I can use the scouts.” 

“Negative.” Sweets yelled, “Too far aft.”

“Roll the ship.” Clarish said.

Sweets understood what she wanted, “Roger that.” Rolling Port.”

Tarinnish gave a running report, “Ten…. fifteen.”

Clarish looked at Cline, “that was a good idea, it just needed some help.” 

Bang! No hiss

“Get the scouts read for a thruster burn.” She commanded.

Cline did so.

“Twenty five percent.” 

Clarish looked at her monitor and went silent.  There was no getting past that.  It filled the whole monitor.

“Sixty five percent, Start slowing the roll.”

“Negative.” Clarish commanded.  “Cline as soon as we get to eighty, fire those thrusters.” Clairsh turned her attention back to the cockpit, “Keep rolling, don’t stop until we are at eighty-five.”

“Oh SHit!” Tarinnish now saw it.

“Now Cline, 100 percent.  burn it all!” Clarish yelled.

Bang! Hiss, bang, bang.

The bulkhead doors slid shut.  Now all the parts of the ship were isolated from the others.  Sweets and Tarinnish in the cockpit, Cline and Clarish in the commons.

Bang! More hissing.

Tarinnish thought that even if they made it, there wouldn’t be much of a ship left.

A large Bang! And a gash appeared just below his feet.  The self-sealing gel quickly made it smaller then closed the gap.  Tarinnish’s ears popped and popped again as the pressure return to normal. 

Sweets said in a calm voice, “We’re going to die here.”

Tarinnish thought it odd to say such a thing with no emotion.  But he didn’t feel that way.  They would make it through this.  But for what?  Their ship would be almost useless, and the scouts could not be faring much better.

Bang! Hisssss another strike in their compartment and more popping of the ears.  Just how much more this ship could handle was totally unknown.  They were tough, but this was crazy.

Tarinnish yelled, “seventy eight... seventy-nine... Eighty”  He looked at sweets, “Pull her back.” 

Sweets adjusted his hand on the thrusters, he had to arrest the roll, or they would just end up where they started or worse just keep spinning until they were all pinned to the outer hull.

The push from the scouts was barely felt at first, but it was turning the ship.  Tarinnish and Clarish kept their attention of the object in front of them.  It slowly started to move downward.  The scale changed and the object got smaller, however the crosshair was still on the object and was moving very slowly.  

They both saw how the crosshair was picking up speed as the details of the object became clearer. A representation of the details were all done by lines.  Each one representing fifty meters.  This chunk was big, not a planet or even a moon, but something like an asteroid. How big it was, was not the problem, it was way too close and as more telemetry came in it was clear that it was not alone.  Thousands of smaller objects were starting to dot their path.

“What the….” Sweets said as he scanned Tarinnish’s screen. “We are going to be dodging shit for alunars.”

“Just get us past that one first.” Tarinnish pointed at the big one in their path. “One point two million kilometers and closing fast.”

“I can see that.” Sweet said returning to his calm voice.

The crosshairs moved much faster now.  

“We need to continue the turn until we are a hundred and eighty degrees from when we started, or at least pointed into clear space.  I want us as far away from that as we can get.” Clarish said into the comm.

“Roger that.  One hundred and eighty degrees from hell.” Sweets said.

Tarinnish also responded, “We will keep the turn as long as we have thrusters.” 

“Reactor one, restart in one minute.”  Clarish said.

Everyone was glad to hear that; it meant more power to shields and the forward cannons could be employed to destroy the pea sized objects that kept getting through the shields. 

Bang! A shutter could be felt throughout the ship.

“What was that?” everyone said at once.

Cline, “Scout one is offline.” 

“Reactor two is losing power.” Clarish announced. “I’m shutting everything down to restart one.” 

There was a long silence as systems started shutting down.  Lights, air, and a host of other equipment started to shut down.  “Restarting one.” Claish announced again.

Bang!

“God damn it! Quit hitting my ship!” Clarish yelled to the universe.

Bang!...Bang..BANG! Then silence.

“Reactor one online!” Clarish yelled.

Equipment started to come back online.  The air started moving again.

Tarinnish’s monitor switched view again, it showed the crosshair at the edge of the object, but the details of the object showed that they were close, a few hundred thousand kilometers, maybe.  Then the telemetry started to fill in, six hundred and seventy-eight thousand kilometers and closing fast. Very fast.

Other objects, much smaller were now registering.  

“Oh. you have got to be kidding me.” Sweets said. As he looked over at Tarinnish’s monitor.  

Tarinnish typed in a few commands and a heads-up display appeared in front of Sweets.  I will do my best to give you coordinate, but you’re just going to have to wing this.”

Now there was sweat on Sweet’s forehead.  He had been so calm all this time, but looking at what they faced, he was starting to lose his swagger.  Then he said, “If we make it out of this, there will be no living with my ego.” 

“If we make it out of this, I’ll pin a medal on your ego.” Tarinnish shot back.

They both laughed.  There was no way out of this, they were going to have to go through and they only had one reactor and scout one was now non-responsive.  

Back in the commons, Clarish and Cline were looking over the damage and trying to re-establish communication with scout one.  It flickered back to life as they tested one port after another.  

“There!” Cline shouted even though his captain was right beside him.  

“I’ll see what I can do with reactor two.”  Clarish typed in a few commands. A schematic to reactor two appeared.  There was so much red she didn’t know where to start.  It had no pressure, no heat.  No pumps.  She stopped looking at what it didn’t have and started looking at what it did have.  Radiation.  Lots and lots of radiation and it was leaking into other compartments.  

“I need to eject reactor two.” She announced to the ship.

Cline responded, “Roger that, start ejection sequence of reactor two.” 

“The whole compartment, not just the reactor.” Clarish corrected.

“Entire compartment. Copy.” Cline said slowly and turned to type in the commands.

“Tarinnish, please type in your command codes.” Clarish said in a very sober voice. “Please copy.” 

“Roger that.” Tarinnish said to his microphone.  He then looked at his monitor and saw the prompt.  He Typed in his code.  They were crippling their ship.  But what choice did they have.  If they kept the reactor it would kill them.  But without the reactor they may never get out of here.  It would take them more than a cycle to get up to point four-five light.  They just wouldn’t have the power. Damn these small ships.

            End of Chapter 12

Next Chapter 13

If you have enjoyed the final chapter and want to start at the beginning of this book, click the link below. This is an unedited book of the Remnant Series. Book 4

Beginning of Obsidian Arrows

Book 3 is call Graham Heights and starts here: "We Gotta Go"  

Enjoy and please leave a comment and follow this blog.   

Book 1 is available in paperback or kindle The Grey Abyss

R.A. Legg

R.A. Legg © 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Go Time

Obsidian Arrows

Time of our Lord Creatos 1539, Sunday the 3rd of Novembar (Nov-em-bar)

Go Time

          The ship was overloaded as they rounded Blue Jupiter.  With the potential of being stuck on the other side for longer than normal, they had to find a place to load six more cycles of food stores on their little ship.  In the end they loaded the front of the two scouts with as much as they could not fit.  Placing it before the heavy bulkheads and adding some temporary shielding to keep it from being irradiated by the main reactor.  Three sensors were placed in the compartment to monitor the conditions and that was the best they could do.  This did create one other issue that their larger ships did not have to contend with. Once on the other side, it would be Cline’s job to spacewalk out and get both scouts disconnected and re-positioned on the starboard and port docking tubes.  The previous procedure was to do it remotely, but with all the extra weight the ships were hauling, it was decided that a human pilot would be best.  And of the humans aboard only two could climb over all the stuff to make it to the cockpit.  Clarish and Cline.  It just seemed odd that with all the Tech, they couldn’t find a safer way to accomplish this maneuver.  But they had no time to test the procedure, so it was up to Cline to crawl out and enter the scouts one at a time and bring them forward.  That was after they cooled off enough.  About a seventh would do.  

Lt Sweets was at the helm and Tarinnish was the second.  They were accelerating at .33 gees as the slingshot from the planet’s gravity was helping them make their final run.  They would be at the gate in two sevenths.  Like a dart trying to hit its target three quarters of an AU away.  They had to be perfect and their speed had to be at .45 light.  Their vector.  Point-zero-zero-one-one-seven-four by two hundred and thirty-seven, point-zero-six-one, had to be perfect.  Clarish was overseeing the gate console and Cline was nervously pacing back and forth in the commons area.  He had done his final checks and was trying to calm himself.  It was one thing to train and prepare, but this was go time.  They were about to make a blind jump.  And no one knew what they were jumping into.  It’s like falling off a thousand-foot cliff into a black pool just a few meters wide.  No doubt he was feeling absolutely useless.  His fate was in other hands right now and he didn’t like how Sweets took so many chances.  He was actually reckless at times and now he was in charge of their fate.  Everyone’s eyes were glued to the monitor that would tell them what their correction factor was and how to get it within tolerance.  But it would be hours before they were far enough from Jupiter to move without its influence.   Outer Space was about patience.  Moves had to be made alunars and even cycles ahead of the objectives.  Acceleration and deceleration were slow, but every move, every adjustment was painstakingly made, and they depended on every adjustment to have the desired outcome.  In some cases, like a jump.  All these factors are rolled into hitting a target that you could not have a visual on.  You had to depend on your ship. The ship showed the gate and your vector, but all of the visual ports and camera are shut down during a jump.  The radiation spectrum in the folding of space was such that it rendered humans blind and, in some cases, insane.  So, no visual record is ever taken during a jump.  You are absolutely blind for the few seconds it takes to make it to the other side.  However, in their case, they will be in the “between” for more than just a few seconds and it will be up to the gravity well of some unknown star that would bring them out.  If it’s big enough they would be a few hundred AUs from the star.  But smaller stars cause the jumpers to “fall out” much closer to the sun.  Once they have “Fallen out” then all their instrumentation and visual ports will automatically open. 

Cline was rounding the couch for the fifteenth time when Clarish turned her attention to him, “Take a damn sleeping pill and shut down for a rotation.”   

Cline looked at her, “I want to be awake when we jump.” 

“That’s almost half an alunar from now.  If you keep that up, you will drive us all crazy in just one seventh.” Clarish was just about to go Captain on him when he walked off to his quarters.  He did not return, so she assumed he did as she suggested.  

Tarinnish left the cockpit and joined Clarish in the commons.  He would have nothing to do for the next six hours.  They had a minor adjustment scheduled at the edge of the Jupiter’s system of moons then they would be on their own for the next thirteen rotations.  No other ships would be making this jump.  They should be on their own.  Clarish indicated that he looked at the monitor.
          “Wow.” Tarinnish said as he saw so many blips on the screen. “How many.”

“One hundred and forty-two.” She said.

“I bet they’re pissed.” Tarinnish responded.

“They were told.  I think many of them just want to see us off.” Clarish said.

“I doubt that.  They just want to be the first through after we’re done with it.” Tarinnish said as he crossed the commons to sit on one of the couches.  

“There are about a dozen moving towards the gate for tomorrow’s opening.  All but one is in final drift, so we shouldn’t have any issues with gravity trails.” She said to the monitor.  

Tarinnish looked at her.  His wife not the captain.  “Are we doing the right thing?”

“That’s not the right question?” Clarish responded.

“Isn’t it?” Tarinnish did not know where she was going with that statement.

“No.  That decision was already made.” Clarish said and Trent is now my mother’s son.”  She looked at him. “That was what he was meant to be.  Never ours. I did that for my mother.” She turned back to the monitors.  Not like anything was going to change.

“I wish I could turn it off like that.” Tarinnish marveled. 

“Nothing is turned off, just adjusted.”  Clarish admitted.  “I have a whole in my heart that will only be filled when we return.” with that she retired the conversation.

Tarinnish thought about that.  Put it away until they return.  They could have another child, they would still be less than a hundred and there’s plenty of time.  

In the next eight rotations the grav wheel and resistance equipment got a lot of use.  Everyone had a ton of energy to burn as they continued to accelerate. The Hōkūle‘a was sluggish and was just under its targeted speed for this point in the approach.  Captain Clarish called all hands for a 110% burn of the main drive.  It would last seven hours and she planned it at mid-shift.  If all went according to plan, they could shut down four in hours.  But if all was going well so far, they would have had to make this adjustment, so it was all hands to stations and watch every meter and gauge for the slightest issue. This was their last chance to safely hit their mark. They were behind in acceleration and therefore in time as well.  Two hours and six second, give or take a few thousands.  They had to make it up 98 percent of this in one maneuver without getting off course. 

Almost halfway through the burn Captain Clarish started a countdown.  It was to the end of the burn.  This would be down by the ship as it would be a gradual turn down.  It had to be perfect.  Their correction factor was down to three hundred thousand of a percent.  Damn near perfect.  Cline started clamping.  When Clarish looked at him he stopped, but you could see the relief on his face.  Then the correction factor turned red again.  It was climbing.

Clarish looked at the burn monitor, it was at 10% above set point. Clarish yelled out the issue “Main Drive is slow to respond to turn down.” She looked at the correction factor, “We are losing our window.”  

Lt Sweets grabbed the thruster control knob and gave it a sharp tug.  Then another.  He was totally playing it by feel. Nothing was telling him just how much to apply, but the correction factor stopped climbing, “How’s that burn?” he yelled into his microphone?” 

Tarinnish was on his calculator and determine just how much more they needed to adjust. “We have a point zero one-one role starting.” He pushed a series of buttons, “Compensating with the inertial dampeners.”

“Burns down!”  Yelled Clarish.

“Roger that. Burn is at nominal.”  Responded Sweets.  He turned to Tarinnish, “I need a thruster calculation to compensate for the final overburn.”

Tarinnish turned his attention to this issue and waited. 

“I need it now.” Sweets said, a little impatient.

“Captain, please confirm my reading.” Tarinnish said.

“Confirmed.” Responded Clarish, “Go for adjustment.” 

Sweets just looked at Tarinnish.

Tarinnish let him in on the adjustment, “No adjustment needed at this time.” 

Sweets let out a whistle.

“Lieutenant that was some bullshit maneuvers, but you managed to hit it right on the head.” Tarinnish looked at his calculator.  “It looks like we will have one minor adjustment in about two hours.  I want to let everything settle down before we do anything else.”

“Cline, please check us over for anything that might be loose or flopping around.  I want everything tied down from this point forward.” Clarish commanded.

“Right away captain.” Ensign Cline responded.  He unbuckled himself and started about the ship. Putting things away that had been left out.  He would pass through the galley next and then make his way to the shared quarters.  

The captain then turned her attention to the over burn. “Tarinnish, can you assist?”

Tarinnish released his restraints and pulled himself from the co-pilot's chair.  He returned to the commons and took up a station adjacent to Clarish’s.  She had the files pulled up and was reviewing the burn record.  She couldn’t see anything wrong with the instructions.

Tarinnish was looking over the actual burn logs.  And the PID loops used by the computer to determine how to drive the equipment.  He looked at it again.  Then highlighted a section.  Pulled up the telemetry and watched the number.  Someone had entered a derivative factor. This factor made the Proportional loop squishy. This had to be an error.  He showed Clarish, she pulled up the record.  This was a carefully planned burn and they had checked the calculations three times.  How could this one factor hide like it did.  She pulled up the entry files.  She found hers and Tarinnish’s.  She even pulled up Sweets, but his was not used.  They had deleted it.  It was too aggressive.  

While Clarish was studying the file step by step, Tarinnish went into the input files and looked at all the entry codes.  One by one he went through and looked at the file dates, console numbers and even the stroke rates.  That’s where he found his first clue. The stroke rates were very slow. It was Clarish’s signature, but the stroke rates were way off. Clarish was a master with the keypad and even when she slowed down, she was ten times faster than he was.  The next fastest was Sweets.  Then himself and finally Cline.  Whoever this was, may have altered their strokes for a few reasons.  One, stealth.  They certainly wouldn’t want to make any noise while doing it. And if they knew anything about the coding, they would know that keystroke timing would be a part of the record.  So Tarinish brought up a batch file that he used to analyze the stroke timing.  It would allow him to determine the size of hand they were dealing with.  Especially when it came to reaching strokes.  This was very subtle, but very, very hard to disguise.  When the file analyzed the four files that it was fed, it settled on one name. Sweets. 

Tarinnish showed his captain the results.  

“How definitive?” She asked.

“Eighty two percent.” was all he said.

“Why.” She asked.

“I think he had this whole thing planned.” Tarinnish pondered. 

Clarinsh looked at him as if to say “Explain.”

“He was just too accurate with that thruster maneuver.” Tarinnish was shaking his head, “Just too damn accurate.”

“I thought he just got lucky.” Clarish said.

“At first I thought the same, but then is just nagged me.” Tarinnish admitted.

“What about the role?”  Clarish said softly.  Now that they knew, she was unsure just when to spring it on Sweets.  They would need to discuss this and have a consensus.  This was a dangerous game, if it was a game.

Tarinnish turned his attention back to his terminal.  He secured the results in his personal file and then encrypted it.  He would put a sniffer on the file to watch and see if any one attempted to access it. “I think the roll was unexpected and why he let me correct that.”
          Clarish was already standing.  They didn’t need words for what they both knew was coming next.  Tarinnish went forward and poked his head in the cockpit, “Looks like we're clear for now.  See you in two hours for the final adjust.”  

“Roger that, two hours to final adjust.” He turned his head slightly towards Tarinnish. “I’ll try to stay awake.” 

“You do that.” Tarinnish sarcastically said and turned to leave.  Sweets was on duty for another four hours.  On his way aft, Tarinnish took to the upper level and passed through the galley.  Cline was busy putting things away and securing cabinets.  Tarinnish was confident that the crew was busy and continued aft.  He was to meet Clarish in their quarters.  There they would secure it and discuss how to proceed. 

Tarinnish picked up two boxes of juice and headed out the aft entrance of the galley and out the primary bulkhead.  The very same that he found Clarish in his dream.  He shook it off and continued.  The hatch closed behind him.  He proceeded aft until he was at their quarters.  Clarish was waiting.  She was at the console in their room.  

Tarinnish secured the door and place the room in class “A” mode.  

Clarish turned around, “It’s in the Scout as well.”  

“So, he does this on purpose.” Tarinnish shot back.

“Apparently.” Clarish said.

“He needs drama?” Tarinnish half asked.

“Why didn’t this show up in his profile?” Clarish was a little discussed

“He’s only had one phyc eval and wasn’t even finished with his classes.” Tarinnish reminded her.

“Green.” 

“No, Dangerous.” Tarinnish countered.

“Do you think it’s part of his rhythm.” Clarish asked.

“What.  Putting us all in danger so he can act the hero.” Tarinnish didn’t want to accept it as his rhythm as that would put them in a precarious position.

“Well.. yes.” Clarish said.

“I don’t care.  I’m going to take first chair and he can sit this out.” Tarinnish said.

“Is that an order.” Clarish started to stand.

“With your permission captain.” Tarinnish said. Turn his head slightly as to capitulate to his captain.

Clarish giggled. “No.”

“What!” Tarinnish was surprised.

“He’s the better pilot and you are, by far, the better navigator.”  She stood in front of him.  “I’ll watch the calculations and loops.  You keep an eye on him and make sure you keep up the telemetry.  I will have Cline watching your moves.  With all the overlap, he won’t be able to pull a stunt like he did a mid-shift.”  Clarish took his hand.  “He did the thruster pulses by hand.  I don’t care if he knew he was going to do it, he still did it manually and he was right on the mark.” 

She had a point.  And if they were wise to him and prevented any other antics then Sweets would be better at the helm and he would be watching.  Clarish would watch for any computer anomalies and Cline would be backing them both up.  If this was a part of his rhythm, then they were going to establish a new one.  His little antics will be eliminated. 

With the plan hashed out, Tarinnish wanted to get back to his station early.  He was going to watch Sweets to make sure he was not accessing navigation and Clarish will monitor him from the commons.  It was a shame these little ships did not have a bridge.  Just a cockpit with only space for two to sit and one to stand.  So, the Captain, in this case, captains from the commons. 

The next “adjustment” went off without incident.  They were well within tolerance and had made up their lost time. The Hōkūle‘a would be at zero g thrust right on que and drifting at a speed of .45 light.  They were about to make history one way or the other.  Tarinnish just hoped that it wouldn’t be more than a footnote, “they died so that man could expand.” He’ld heard the words a few times as they eulogies those that were lost out there, somewhere. “Stop it.” Tarinnish said to himself, forgetting that he was with Sweets.

“Stop what.” Sweets asked, “Was I snoring?”

          “No Lieutenant. I was letting my imagination get the best of me.” Tarinnish admitted.

          “That’s the worst part about being out here.” Sweets admitted. “The damn boredom.” 

          “Is that why to take so many chances?” Tarinnish asked.

          “Na.” Sweets said.

          “That’s not an explanation.” Tarinnish shot back.

          “There not chances when you know they’re coming.” Sweet was letting him know that he knew, they know.

          “So, we won’t be seeing much of that anymore.” Tarinnish didn’t want to say much more.  It’s better unsaid. He knew that the captain was listening.

          “What’s the point.” was all Sweets said.

End of Chapter 11

Next Chapter 12

If you have enjoyed the final chapter and want to start at the beginning of this book, click the link below. This is an unedited book of the Remnant Series. Book 4

Beginning of Obsidian Arrows

Book 3 is call Graham Heights and starts here: "We Gotta Go"  

Enjoy and please leave a comment and follow this blog.   

Book 1 is available in paperback or kindle The Grey Abyss

R.A. Legg

R.A. Legg © 2016. All Rights Reserved.