Chapter 88: Emergence and the Final Drive

Ten minutes before we were due to emerge I carefully sat down in my command chair. I immediately began turning on my displays.

The bridge was almost totally empty. Terrence Ripa was sitting at the helm control. Blaine was leaning against the bulkhead to his left. The senior helmsman nodded at me.

“All the officers are sleeping I hope,” he said to me.

“You have a few more minutes before we start,” I pointed out.

“I’ll take over just before we emerge, but I couldn’t sleep anymore. I wanted to talk to Terrence to hear how the ship is handling,” Blaine said.

Jessica and Kelsey walked in just as I looked over at Terrence. “How is the ship handling?” I asked.

“Hard to say when you are in whatever we call this jumpspace,” Terrence replied. “But we’ve tuned the controls as much as possible. She’ll respond quickly to the helm.”

“We might need that,” I said as Ensign Munfree rushed in. She looked around and gasped. “You mean we didn’t have an officer on the bridge. I should have been here.”

“There was nothing you could have done,” I said firmly. “We had little to do during the jump. Now we’ll need you. Are you as ready as possible to handle communications?”

Ensign Munfree nodded. I could see fear in her eyes as she slid into her station and pulled out a headset. “I’ll do my best.”

“Tracking up,” Jessica said. “It looks like missile two and missile four are already online.”

“Weapons up,” Kelsey added. “Port railgun station is active, but not fully manned.”

“Engineering?” I asked.

“One moment,” Ensign Munfree said.

“I’ll take the helm,” Blaine said. “Get to your medical pod and get it ready. We’re going to take casualties.”

“Breakout in five,” Terrence said as he stood up.

There was a buzz in my ear. “This is Engineering. “I’m still waiting for my last two crew, but we’re ready for the breakout.”

“Missile four is up. Starboard rail gun has come online,” Kelsey called out.

“Comms?” I asked.

“I have arranged for some clear connections once we breakout. We should be able to hold an open line with Ipanema,” Chaz said.

“You’re going to be key there. We can’t have any miscommunication,” I said firmly.

“Three minutes to breakout,” Blaine said. “I’ve checked the readings, we should be right at the edge of the asteroid field.”

“Is that safe?” Jessica asked.

“The field seems to have been created when a planet that would have been barely larger than earth failed to form. The asteroids take up less than one percent of the volume of space we call an asteroid field,” I said.

“One percent?” Kelsey said. “Try moving that number to the right by at least three decimal places. The asteroids can be hundreds of miles apart.”

“But the movies?” Jessica asked.

“Are movies,” I said firmly. “I’m sure there are fields that dense, but this field is not one of those. There are asteroids big enough to hide behind, but they are spread out.”

“And we won’t have time to hide behind any,” Blaine said. “Breakout in one minute.”

I pressed a button on the command chair. “Everyone, we breakout in one minute. I hope there are no Sa’arm waiting for us, but expect to be fighting almost immediately. Everyone should be at their battle stations.”

“Engineering here, all crew are at their stations,” Ensign Daniels said. “It all looks good.”

“All missile crews are at their stations. Stations are sealing for battle,” Ensign Thornton said.

“Railguns are ready,” Ensign White said.

“Both medical pods are ready,” Ensign Munfree said.

“Give us the countdown,” I said to Blaine.

“Ten,” he obediently called back. The count seemed to take forever as he counted down towards one.

“Three ... two ... one ... breakout!” he continued.

The viewscreens all flashed and then displayed an expanse of space. I had called up a smaller display to show nearby ships and asteroids. It immediately showed that Zulu and Ipanema were in formation. Only three of the four Castle class ships had emerged nearby.

“Tracking which ship is missing?” I called out. “Comms, get me Zulu and Ipanema.”

“Working on it,” Ensign Thornton said. “Should I launch any sensor drones?”

“No, leave that to Zulu, we’ll use the comm system and collect data from their drones. Comms?” I called out.

“Zulu’s comm system shorted out. They are repairing. I have Captain Prescott,” Ensign Munfree replied.

“Put him through. Helm, match speed and vector with Zulu, hopefully they’ll get their system back up quickly,” I said.

“Captain Parker,” I heard Captain Prescott call out. “We’ve emerged, but I’m down a missile launcher.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“One of my new teams,” Captain Prescott said with a sigh. “They are at their station, but suffering from combat paralysis. I can’t count on them.”

“Always a risk,” I said. “We’re good here, although we have no communication from Zulu. Ensign Munfree said that their system went down.”

“Damn,” Captain Prescott said. “We’ll keep this line open.”

“Have your comm officer keep contact with Ensign Munfree. I need to be able to concentrate on...” I said.

“Captain, we have Admiral Redmill demanding all ships respond. He’s made it clear he expects to hear from the captain of each ship,” Ensign Munfree said.

Captain Prescott snorted. “I just heard that Admiral Redmill is demanding all ships give him status. I’ll let you talk to him.”

“Good hunting,” I replied. “Chaz, send a call out to the Admiral. Which ship is he on?”

“He’s on Cabra Castle,” Ensign Munfree responded. “The missing ship is Kanturk Castle. Donegal and Carlow have already responded.”

“Admiral Redmill?” I called out. “Corsica Actual responding.”

“What’s your status?” the Admiral growled back.

“All systems are up and all stations respond to commands,” I said. “We have connected with Ipanema. Zulu’s communications failed, so for now we’ll just hold formation with her,” I said.

“No problems?” Admiral Redmill asked. I could hear the disbelief in his voice.

“Everyone on the ship is a veteran of our last visit to this system,” I said. “We’re ready.”

“Captain! I’ve found Kanturk Castle!” Ensign Thornton called out. “They’re in trouble!”

“Where?” I asked.

“They emerged late. They are about fifteen light seconds ahead of us. If we turn twenty degrees to port they’d be directly ahead,” Ensign Thornton replied. “I see three Sa’arm ships bracketing her.

“Damn,” I said. “Any other Sa’arm ships nearby?”

“Nothing directly ahead,” Ensign Thornton replied. “We appear to have found a gap in the asteroid field. My sensors do detect several more ships in the field.”

“Which direction?” I asked.

“To port,” she replied. “I see nothing to starboard.”

“Any movement from the other ships near us?” I asked.