* * *
The gravimetric turbulence caught the ship almost immediately. Green Scorpion’s stabilizers kept the ship from shaking apart, but its shields were glowing so brightly that its cameras were virtually blinded.
“Wave approaching at six zeld four, three zero.”
“Lateral thrust down to eighty-three.”
“Shields holding.”
“Another one at two eight one …”
“Brace ventral shield coil mark delta nine…”
The traversal through the graviton field would have been stressful enough for Ned without the ambiguous communications of the pricom crew, but as it was he felt he was about to go mad. The distance to the space bubble was not great, but they were forced to double back on themselves so many times that it had been over sixteen minutes and still they were less than a fourth of the way through. As far as Ned could tell, the ship was holding together, but everyone seemed so tense; Ned got the impression that no one had made any mistakes yet, because if they had then this journey would have been terminated ahead of schedule.
“Watch that wave!” The ship shuddered as the shields and stabilizers struggled to hold it together. The waves were becoming more frequent and more powerful as they progressed. Apparently that was due in part to the difficulty in arranging a spherical graviton shell in a way that masked the gravity of everything within it to anyone watching from outside the nebula while not affecting the gravity inside the bubble; someone had gone to a lot of work to make this nebula inhabitable. Ned wished that as much work had gone into making the graviton field passable.
“Captain!” someone shouted, and Smardwurst turned around. “We’ve lost number four thruster! Down to seventy-ril percent drive power!”
“How much farther?” Smardwurst asked.
“Another few minutes. We can make it, but…”
“Sir!”
A massive graviton wake struck Green Scorpion’s shields, the red-pink ribbon tossing the ship away like a bear would a paper cup. For a moment everyone was rushing around frantically to assess and fix the damage as the ship shuddered violently, but then abruptly the shuddering stopped.
“Sir! We’ve been thrown clear of the graviton field!”
Without the gravimetric stress on the shields they could see clearly again. They were within the bubble of empty space. The far side was just a dim glow, the light from the star effectively drowning it out. They could not yet see the planet, but the sensors showed that it was not far away.
“Can we go to warp?” Smardwurst asked.
Someone’s control panel beeped. “Sir, that last hit damaged our secondary power generator and the thrust particle containment unit. We can fix it here, but by the time we do we won’t have enough shield power left to get back out. We can go to warp, but the power drain will prevent us from leaving, as well. We have enough shield power to get out, and we could probably repair the ship on the other side to get us out of the nebula and send a distress signal. Then we might be able to travel at low warp for a day or two. If we stay here much longer, though, we’ll just have to wait for someone to come and find us.”
Smardwurst thought about it for a moment. “I don’t like the thought of staying here. There’s no telling what we’ll find once we reach that planet, and even if it’s what we’re looking for, it could be weeks or even months before the General can send us any help. He won’t even know we’re in trouble. I take it we’re still too close to the graviton field to send a communication?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll go alone.” Ned said suddenly. Everyone had all but forgotten he was there. “I could take a shuttlecraft to the planet, and you could take Green Scorpion back and call for help. You can’t risk yourselves here, and I can’t give up on the mission.”
Smardwurst nodded. “You’re right. I’ll come with you.”
“Um, sir,” one of the pricom officers said. “The damage is quite extensive. I’m sure we can fix it alone, but it might be better …”
Smardwurst frowned. His crew was experienced with repairing the ship, but not nearly as experienced as he was. He had piloted Green Scorpion by himself long before he had joined the Alliance, long before any of his present crew had joined. And more importantly, Smardwurst was by far the most experienced fighter on the ship; if they were attacked his skills would be essential. As much as he wanted to accompany Ned, Smardwurst knew his first obligation was to his crew. “I’ll send someone else,” he said simply.
Ned shook his head. “I’ll go alone.”
“What?” the idea seemed ridiculous to Smardwurst.
“We’re fairly certain that I’ll be pretty safe, no matter what’s down there. You can’t say that about anyone else. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone getting killed over this stupid rock. I can pilot the shuttle myself. I should go alone.”
“Sir, we need to get back through the graviton field right away.”
“I think you should take as many people with you as you can,” Smardwurst said.
Ned shook his head. “If Koral’s down there, then anyone else who goes will just end up standing around. If he’s not, then there’s not much use in my being here at all, and it doesn’t really matter what happens. In any case, there’s nothing anyone can do to help me except Koral Ralok.” No one seemed shocked at Ned’s mention of Koral, which he decided was necessary at this point. Either they already knew the purpose of the mission, they didn’t care, or they were very good at hiding their surprise or confusion.
Smardwurst did not like the idea at all, but something told him that Ned was right. “Go,” he said, and Ned was out the door and into the lift pod before anyone could say anything more.
To be honest, Ned wasn’t sure he liked the idea of going, either. It just might have been better to have someone along who knew beans about the galaxy, which Ned did not. Still, he was not about to have others risk themselves for no reason, and it seemed very unlikely that having someone else along would make any significant difference. The lift pod stopped, and Ned stepped into the shuttle launch bay. It was much smaller than the one on Galactron, and it took only a moment for him to board a shuttlecraft and key in the departure sequence. The doors slid open, and Ned took the shuttlecraft into space. The intercom beeped, Ned flicked it on, and Smardwurst’s face appeared on the com screen. “Good luck, Nedward. I’ll see you as soon as Marnax sends us something with stronger shields.”
Ned managed a smile. “See you later, Smardwurst. And thanks.”
The shuttlecraft was not equipped with warp drive, so it took Ned several hours to reach the planet. There was still a small amount of gravimetric spatial distortion at first, but Ned did not know the first thing about it and decided to ignore it. Nothing seemed to be wrong. He slept for a while, since it was something like nighttime, and when he woke up he could see the blue bulk of the planet looming up ahead. It reminded him of Earth, only this planet had far less ocean. He tried hailing the planet, but the interference was still too strong to allow communication.
Soon Ned was entering the planet’s atmosphere. He raised shields and began scanning for anything that looked like a civilization. He was continuously broadcasting a greeting signal, just in case anyone was listening. That was when the port thruster exploded. Ned jumped at the sound and began frantically scanning the diagnostic instruments. Fortunately the other thruster was keeping him in the air, for a moment at least. Ned couldn’t guess what had triggered the explosion; maybe the shuttle was somehow damaged by the gravimetric storm. He certainly hadn’t spent much time inspecting it. In any case, Ned knew that he would have to land soon. He scanned the surrounding terrain and picked out a wide valley with a river running through it and headed down. He was still a long way up, and he was beginning to feel nervous. He glanced down at his internal sensor readings and gulped. The shuttle’s dihydric field coil had been damaged in the explosion, and it was quickly losing stability. In another few minutes it would rupture, the remaining thruster and the sh
ields would fail, and the shuttle would go plummeting to the ground. Ned strapped himself into the seat and hit the eject controls. The cockpit sealed itself off and fired out from the main body of the shuttlecraft moments before the coil went. The shuttle’s artificial gravity plate was enough to soften the acceleration shock, and in any case the blue stone in his pocked protected him from whatever bruises he might have otherwise suffered from the jolt. The cockpit’s parachute opened, and he started drifting slowly to the ground. Somewhere behind him he heard the shuttlecraft explode. This, Ned thought to himself as he sat there, strapped to his seat, anxiety pumping through his veins instead of blood, was not a good way to start a day.
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