The Imperative Chronicles, Books One and Two: The Mars Imperative & The Tesserene Imperative
Page 67
I turned to Karsh. “I hate to ask, but is there any way to get Galla to speed up again?”
“Galla is seriously injured. She risks permanent damage if she overexerts herself.”
“I understand. I wouldn’t ask unless we had no other choice. Either we pass the next intersection before the ship that’s on an intercept course does, or we’re dead. It’s as simple as that.”
“Very well. I shall try.”
I sensed a renewed effort on the part of Galla, but she simply didn’t have the strength after this marathon run to put on a sustained burst of speed. Her speed quickly flagged, and I “saw” the intercepting ship draw closer to the intersection. He was going to reach it mere seconds before we would. If that weren’t bad enough, two large chunks of cavern ceiling broke loose in the next seismic shock and fell past us. The next one could injure Galla further or block the exit.
I couldn’t believe it would all end like this. We were unarmed, injured, trapped underground hundreds of feet beneath the sea in a chamber that might collapse on us at any moment, pursued by five ships bent on destroying us, and we’d just reached a dead end. In seconds, we’d run into a ship ready to fire at point-blank range. We couldn’t turn back, because the other ship was behind us and only seconds from rounding the final bend and getting a clear shot himself. There was nowhere to hide in this narrow lava tube; this was it—the end of the line.
All my friends in the entire universe were on this ship with me, and my wife of less than a day. There had to be a way out. It couldn’t end like this—it just couldn’t. Maybe the intercept ship would fly past the intersection without slowing, or wouldn’t see us coming. Yeah, and maybe I’d grow a cannon out of my forehead in the next few seconds and blast our way to freedom.
I desperately tried to come up with a way out of this mess, but I couldn’t think of anything. It would all be over in a few seconds. My mind’s eye followed the track of the other ship. Five seconds to intercept.
Come on, baby, keep going. Four. Don’t stop, don’t slow down, eyes forward. Three. Nothing to see. Keep going. Two. Blink, sneeze, anything. Don’t see us. One. Keep going!
The ship appeared directly in front of us. It slowed and stopped. It turned to face us and readied its pulse weapons. In a moment it would fire and we’d be dead. The captain waited another second to make sure he couldn’t miss before giving the order. It was whites-of-their-eyes time.
It couldn’t end like this. We’d fought too long and too hard. Galla had suffered too much. The rebellion needed Karsh and Keldor and Galla, and Allara was too young to die. It…just…couldn’t…happen like this!
The captain had savored the moment long enough. Now it was time to end the chase and return to base. He commanded the weapons officers to fire. The ship was too close for me to try to deflect the gunner’s aim.
It couldn’t end like this, damn it. No, no, NO!
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[1] The two-phase study was released in book form in 2003 as The Space Elevator: A Revolutionary Earth-to-Space Transportation System by Bradley C. Edwards and Eric A. Westling.