Deirdre sprint-stomps toward the bridge – the force of the decomp will push us away from Burns’ ship, but we need /much/ more distance.
Deirdre sprint-stomps toward the bridge – the force of the decomp will push us away from Burns’ ship, but we need /much/ more distance.
Frozen blood crystals fill the space between our ships, fountaining from the leg caught in/under Burns’ hatch. We need MUCH more distance.
Bin’s engines spin up; I get heavier – the ship’s gravity kicks up to normal once we’re on live power – and we tumble away from the Drift.
Seeing bulk of the Drift slowly falling behind us is a relief. The intercom squawks – Deirdre says a text communication just came through.
One line of text.
“We still have Mak.”
The ship engines – a bone-deep subliminal hum that goes unnoticed until absent – fade to idle. Jon asks for orders. He saw the message.
I tap in two messages, sent in opposite directions. The first reads, “I am coming.” The second: “I am coming back.” I tell De to jump.
[Part One: The End]
The ship is quiet during jumps. Ambient energy absorption mutes the engine thrum and muffles speech. Not that anyone is speaking. To me.
I start some engine work. Deirdre comms – says it’s affecting the jump. Open a terminal; Jon has them offline. I’m evicted from my own ship.
I’m in no mood for the silent treatment from my own crew, but I’m even less likely to sit down for a heart to heart. I’ll be in my bunk.
After checking Deidre’s course (perfect) and Jon’s system repair (three months early), I give up and drop into my bunk. Been awhile since -
- mw. mmph. hnh. ngggh. whzzt? gnnghhhh! wha? what What WHAT! Why… noise. Tired. Why… Alarm. Dammit. Tired. Ship alarm…
SHIP alarm. Crap. We’re probably still in a jump, so… fire? Nothing else it could be – nothing intersects the ship during a jump.
The only object that exists in both jump-space and regular space is a moon in the Remnants, but there’s no way I slept that long. I think.
Turns out, I was wrong twice: I /did/ sleep that long, and that remnant moon isn’t the only physical thing that intrudes into jumpspace.
From the bridge, we watch an Impossible Thing. Then again, the moon that exists in both -spaces is also impossible. Welcome to the Remnants.
It’s a space station. A Solar Republic station, which means it looks like holy thing… and is currently breaking several ‘immutable laws’.
The duo-dimensional republic-era station is interesting, but irrelevant; I tell Deirdre to continue to our destination. She uses The Look.
I’m used to The Look, but I’m not ready for it in this context. It usually indicates that I’m asking her to do something she already — oh.
So, the impossibly ancient, impossibly not-being-torn-to-atoms station is the origin-point of the ship at the Drift’s core. Our destination.
A smarter man would be working out what Kaetlyn wanted here. I’m just trying to figure out how to /dock/ with the shunting thing.
The problem is that the only thing holding the Binturong in jump-space is a running jump engine; to remain here, we have to keep /moving/.
The ancient station doesn’t seem to have that problem, which doesn’t suprise or help m — The comms beep. The station is hailing us.