“Don't do that!” Jaric shouted. “We've got enough things to think about without you making a stupid noise like that."
Kyle growled to himself as he stared resolutely ahead and regained his composure.
“But, how can you not be afraid? Even a little bit?” Elise asked.
“Can't be. Absolutely no fear,” Jaric repeated, a strangled toughness in his voice. “You can't be afraid when you go into action. The T'kaan would've beaten us ten times over if we'd been afraid.” He looked over at the young woman keeping perfect step with him. “Not even a little bit."
“You've got to push it all away. Be a machine,” Kyle growled. “Go in, do your job. Get out.” He nodded and smiled. “Easy as that. No fear."
Suddenly they noticed a shadow with curved horns on its head. The three turned to find Rok walking behind them.
He smiled at them.
“Actually, a little fear is good for a warrior. Keeps him honest, makes him more careful. Make's him think when it's time to think. And act when it's time to act.” Rok's smile got bigger as he looked from Jaric back to Kyle. “A little fear might just give you that edge you need to stay alive. That extra bit of adrenaline that makes you act a fraction of a second quicker."
The four of them reached the door to the War Room and walked inside.
“Like I said.” Jaric arched his eyebrows. “I'm always a little bit afraid before I go into action."
“You gotta feel it,” Kyle agreed. “But keep it under control."
“Just a tiny bit of fear.” Jaric placed his forefinger to his thumb until there was almost no gap between them as he held it up to Elise. “A tiny, tiny bit of fear. Like right in the pit of your stomach."
“Yeah, right in the gut. And my heart's beating at full speed. I feel it a little then.” Kyle nodded.
“Good,” Rok congratulated them. “But control it."
Elise covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
They found from the duty log that each of them was on the second shift.
Jaric was chosen as part of the backup team on the shield array.
Elise was backup on sensors—helping to monitor the fluctuating gravitational forces that could vary wildly in the narrow confines of a Wormhole. She also realized that she'd have to quickly learn how to recognize the early signatures that indicated a change was imminent—a change that could mean the difference between life and death.
Kyle was assigned to the navigation team. Jysar was assigned to Engineering while Krinia and Inaha were part of two different Damage Control teams.
They each had to learn their job on the journey to the Wormhole. Once they neared the Wormhole, they needed to rest during the next shift because they comprised the emergency backups for the first shift inside the Wormhole. And by the third shift inside the Wormhole, they would be the primary crew at their stations.
Five days went by as the Aurora traveled through hyperspace at her top speed. On board, each duty team trained hard and trained diligently. The primary personnel mentored their backups until they could perform their duties almost as well as the trainers themselves.
As the time approached on the sixth day, Kyle, Jaric and Elise found themselves going over their duty assignments one last time as Rok sat beside them.
“First Captain Rok,” a Kraaqi voice crackled over the speakers in the War Room.
“Speak, Ulrud,” Rok replied.
“The Iraxx ship is preparing to enter the Wormhole."
Rok looked from Jaric, to Kyle and then to Elise.
He nodded resolutely.
“We'll be right there. Sound Battle Alert. All hands to stations."
Throughout the Aurora, red lights pulsated from the bulkheads as the klaxon sounded and called everyone to their assigned stations. In every corridor, Kraaqi warriors ran in orderly fashion.
“Let's rock this Worm.” Jaric chuckled nonchalantly.
“Yeah, let's see what all this fuss is about,” Kyle agreed.
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* * *
Chapter Twenty-Five
IT LOOKED AS if the very fabric of space had been ripped apart like some cheap garment and then hastily sewed back together with the ragged tear still visible.
Jaric and the others looked closer at the view-screen.
At first glance, it was a typical scene—a rich starfield slowly approaching the observers from the main view-screen. But as the group gathered on the Aurora's bridge looked closer, a discernable irregularity of blackness marred the scene. It was like some kind of surreal, hazy—at once visible and yet with a twist of the head it almost disappeared—spot where the normal blackness of outer space seemed to overlap itself.
It seemed to be a small point of unreality in a sea of reality.
“That is the entrance to the Wormhole,” Qirn announced matter-of-factly.
“Looks like a huge scar on the fabric of space,” Kyle observed.
Everyone continued to stare at the view-screen with a growing sense of awe.
“There's the LaQada.” Jerr pointed to a spec of light on the view-screen that moved rapidly toward the Wormhole.
“Magnify,” Rok ordered tersely.
In a flash, the Iraxx starship filled the view-screen while the blackness of space wavered and shimmered all around it—space itself danced before their very eyes.
“Where's the entrance?” Jaric asked with puzzlement in his brown eyes.
“Hidden by the gravity waves escaping this end. Once you reach the edge of the gravitational horizon..."
At just that moment, the LaQada simply disappeared.
“What happened?” Elise and Jaric asked together.
“They are inside the Wormhole,” Rok said simply. He walked to his command chair and sat down. Facing the view-screen and the forward section of the bridge, he spoke with a deep, serious tone.
“Sound Battle Alert!"
Red lights strobed to a steady beat as the battle klaxon cut through the air once again.
“We must enter at exactly a forty-five degree angle to the entrance. It will put the least stress on the ship,” Jysar said with a knowing tone as everyone began to take their positions. “The gravitational forces escaping out this end are quite violent, but we can minimize the impact by this approach."
“Better take our stations,” Kyle said firmly as he made his way to the Kraaqi navigation console near the large view-screen.
Elise walked over to her sensor station and began observing intently the displays along with the Duty Officer. Jaric moved quickly to the opposite side of the bridge from Elise and took his post at the console to monitor their shields.
Everyone stood silent and at the ready.
Slowly, as if in a nightmare, the shimmering blackness approached. Closer and larger it grew until it seemed as if it would devour them.
“Steady,” Rok said. He stared intently at the view-screen, waiting like some hunting beast who knows the prey is almost within striking distance.
“Steady,” Rok repeated with a commanding tone.
And the Worm took them.
The Aurora shuddered violently as if it had hit some invisible wall—the lights on the bridge dimmed for just a moment as stifled gasps echoed across the bridge. The Kraaqi frigate shuddered again and again as the titanic forces emanating from the Wormhole pounded her with unrelenting fury. An especially powerful blow hurled two Kraaqi officers through the air while everyone else strained to hold their positions with white knuckles and straining muscles.
The Aurora groaned under the gargantuan forces.
And again the lights dimmed.
“Shields are down to seventy-four percent!” a Kraaqi officer shouted out across the bridge.
“Hold your course, Helm,” Rok said evenly.
“We've lost power on deck three!” another Kraaqi shouted. “Life Support is off-line too."
“Evacuate that deck,” Rok commanded. “Engineering, direct damage control."
“S
hields down to sixty-six percent!"
“Steady,” Rok repeated.
The Aurora shook and jumped as if it were inside a gigantic maelstrom. Wave after wave of energy escaping the Wormhole hammered the resolute ship and crew.
“Shields down to forty-two percent!” The Kraaqi warrior looked up from his console with concern written across his face. “At this rate, we'll lose our shields in less than two minutes!"
“Give me more speed, engine room,” Rok said with just a hint of strain in his voice. “I want full power on both engines. And more if you can give it to me!"
“Aye, sir!” came the reply from the engine room. “We're going to one hundred and ten percent on both engines. Now!"
The rising roar from the engines vied with the constant hail of hammer blows from the Wormhole against the weakening shields. And each powerful blow was accented by another dimming of the lights across the bridge and several decks of the valiant Aurora. The eerie strobe-light effect gave a dream-like quality to the bridge as everyone worked furiously at his assigned post.
“Captain! We've reached maximum sub-light speed. And we're pushing over the red line now!” a voice shouted through the main speaker.
“Hold her steady,” Rok calmly commanded.
“Shields down to twenty-one percent!"
“Hold her steady!” Rok shouted back.
“The shields are going to buckle, sir!"
“Steady!"
Showers of sparks erupted from one of the bridge consoles. Personnel yelled and moved quickly to put out the flames that appeared. Kraaqi warriors stumbled and fell as they fired the gas nozzles repeatedly until the flames began to wither. Everyone else held on tight to their posts or reached out with helping hands to assist their comrades who had slipped or been thrown down.
In the strange half-light of the bridge, it seemed as if chaos had suddenly taken command. But every officer stayed loyally at his post as Rok stared resolutely straight ahead.
All at once, the violent shuddering stopped.
The vast, star-filled universe was gone.
The view-screen now glowed with a pure and unbroken white luminance. As everyone on the bridge shielded their eyes from the blinding glare, it exploded into millions of tiny pinpoint shards of light—as if the view-screen itself had shattered.
A blinding array of colors swirled and flashed and spun down into a vast, raging whirlpool. Almost instantly, the interior of the Wormhole resolved into the picture they would become all too familiar with during the next six hours—a never-ending tunnel of glowing walls interspersed with streaks of various colors that seemed to stretch on and on forever.
“First Officer, direct damage control with Engineering. I want full power back on all decks now!” Rok growled. The Kraaqi captain shook his head, as if waving his horns in defiance of an enemy.
Finally, he sank back into the leather confines of his command chair and looked over his bridge and its officers with an approving expression. The Kraaqi captain, First Leader of the Band of the Stars, took a long, deep breath. He let it out slowly and spoke.
“Helm, keep us down the middle of this Worm. Hold a tight course."
“Aye, sir."
The Kraaqi officer punched the controls of the helm and strained to keep the Aurora on a tight course down the center of the tunnel that stretched before them.
“Sensors, report!” Rok said with a deep voice.
Elise watched as the Kraaqi officer next to her stared at the small screens of rapidly moving lines. She leaned closer, amazed at the pulsating waves that seemed to jump and suddenly disappear. The Kraaqi looked up.
“We're in a relatively quiet section right now. Nothing here to disrupt our course or that would pose a threat to our shields."
“Stay on top of it,” Rok replied sternly. He looked over at his communications officer. “Get me the Iraxx ship."
Static filled the speakers. But from that constant babble a weak voice emerged—words barely discernable above the roaring of static.
Or was the Wormhole shouting at them?
“Clean up the signal,” Rok ordered. “If we can establish a communication channel with them, the Iraxx will be able to warn us as we approach any dangerous sections after them."
“Working on it, sir!"
As the others around the bridge focused on their tasks, Kyle looked up and smiled over at Jaric.
“Well, that wasn't so bad.” Kyle chuckled.
“I dunno, I've had enough excitement for one day,” Elise shot back from her post.
“Yeah...” Jaric's next words were drowned out by a sudden roaring. But this sound was different, almost like the wailing of a thousand dying starships all at once.
“Gravitational vortex building! Prepare for impact!” The Kraaqi officer beside Elise shouted so loudly that it made her jump.
“Direction?” Rok shouted back.
Elise's eyes followed the Kraaqi as they both studied the waves of lines that fluttered and suddenly coalesced into a pattern.
“Starboard! A powerful vortex is building..."
“There's a bend approaching!” came the cry from helm as he steered the starship to match the approaching curve.
The Aurora shook violently, and everyone fell over to the right.
On the view-screen, the left wall of the glowing tunnel grew relentlessly closer even as the helm fought furiously to bring her hard to starboard.
It was if the starship was deliberately being steered into a suicide course.
“Compensate!” Rok shouted to the bridge crew. “Engineering!” he shouted into his comm. “Pull back power on the starboard engine. Bring it back to half-power ... Now!"
The Aurora's tritanium hull groaned.
The view-screen revealed that their slow, inexorable slide to the port wall slowed.
But still the left wall of the Wormhole drew closer.
“Bring starboard engine back to one quarter speed and fire all port thrusters on my mark.” Rok stared grimly at the impending doom displayed on the main view-screen. Long, tense seconds passed as his eyes remained fixed. A single drop of sweat spilled down his forehead from his black feather-hair.
Slowly, he raised his right hand.
“Mark!"
The side thrusters, normally used in docking maneuvers, fired a burst simultaneously. At the same time, the starboard engine cut back again.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the Aurora fought against the mighty forces that threatened to push her into oblivion.
“Again! Port thrusters!” Rok shouted. “And bring starboard engine to zero power. On my mark!"
This time, barely two seconds passed.
“Mark!"
This time the effect was instantaneous.
The port thrusters fired in unison. The Aurora strained against the gravitational wave with full power on her port engine alone and the helm hard over to starboard.
On the view-screen, the left wall of the Wormhole moved slowly away and the bright center came back into full view.
“Sensors, report!” Rok shouted.
“Gravitational wave has peaked.” The Kraaqi pushed his face so close to the screen it seemed as if he were going to breathe the data. “It's dropping! We're passing it!"
Cheers erupted across the bridge.
“Silence!” Rok shouted with a stern, commanding tone.
Dead silence returned.
Rok moved quickly over to the station and stared over his shoulder at the readings. He glanced up at the view-screen and quickly double-checked the readings on the console. With a flash of movement, he stood beside his command chair, forefinger on the comm button.
“Engine room. Give me one-quarter power on starboard engine. Now."
All eyes watched the view-screen.
But the Aurora held her course.
Long seconds passed again, but it became obvious the worst was over.
“Engine room. Give me half power on both engines—mark ten seconds."
“Ay
e, Captain."
Rok looked over at the expression of shock and awe on Kyle's face.
“A Wormhole builds up dangerous pockets and vortexes of gravity inside its interior as it cuts across space-time. This first one caught even me by surprise—too close to the entrance. I had not even pulled back on the engines."
“Why would you do that?” Kyle asked, puzzled.
“It is the nature of a Worm, my human friend.” Rok smiled knowingly.
“What's that?"
“Not much room to maneuver. And you have to do it fast when you hit a vortex."
“I guess so!"
Rok walked over to where Elise and the officer in charge of sensors stood. He looked at both of them carefully.
“Go over that data carefully. I need a few more seconds’ warning next time.” He pressed Elise's shoulder reassuringly and smiled. “Learn from Ulrud, here. He is the best I have on Sensors. I'm sure you'll discover some tell-tale signature that will give us that extra warning before we're on top of the next gravity vortex."
Ulrud smiled reassuringly at Elise.
Rok started to turn. And then he spoke in a soft, but serious tone.
“Those few extra seconds might be the difference between life and death next time."
Rok walked over to his chair and sat down.
“Oh great, no pressure,” Elise whispered so that only Ulrud could hear.
“Yes, only the entire ship and crew depend upon our skills. That's all.” Ulrud chuckled.
Elise peered along with Ulrud as he replayed the dangerous vortex on the secondary screen.
“And now, let's see what we can find,” Ulrud said with confidence.
Kyle and Jaric walked over to Elise and Ulrud's bridge station.
“Well, I guess our lives are in Elise's hands now,” Kyle said in a low tone so his voice wouldn't carry over the entire bridge.
“I know,” Jaric replied with a smile. “When her shift is on, we can fly with total confidence."
“That's right,” Kyle said with a wink. “With Elise on the watch, everyone will be safe."
“Would you two shut up!” Elise's voice was a muffled shout as she spoke without looking up from the data she and Ulrud intently studied.
Kyle held his hands up defensively. “Hey, just make sure you study that data really, really good."
Borne On Wings of Steel Page 31