Man of War (Rebellion Book 1)
Page 34
He wanted to both laugh at Gabriel's genius and cry at the loss of his own. Instead, he pushed Gabriel gently aside.
"Good man," he said. "I'm smelling what you're cooking."
The ship shuddered.
Theodore worked the controls to the starship, changing their course.
"You had better find me a stream, and you had better do it now, Mr. Mokri," he said.
Reza looked out the forward viewport, and then back at Theodore. "General?" he said softly.
The Earth had rolled into view ahead of them. Theodore continued to angle the starship toward it, pushing the throttle the rest of the way open.
"I said find me a stream, son," Theodore repeated. "Or we're going to make an awful mess on the surface of the planet."
Reza's face paled, and he turned to his station's controls.
"Maggie, prepare the QPG," Theodore said.
"No sequence has been input, General," Maggie replied.
"Nope, and it ain't going to be. Command override three nine seven."
"Command override accepted. Deploying QPG nacelles."
"You can't do this, General," Reza shouted, even as he continued his work. "You can't enter a slipstream inside a planet's atmosphere."
"Why the hell not?"
"You need to get up to join velocity for one," Reza said. "For another, the planet's gravity will make a mess of the stream path and pattern. We have no way to know where we're going to wind up."
"Space is a big place, Mr. Mokri," Theodore said. "As long as it ain't smashed into the ground, I'll take it."
"You don't understand, sir. The gravitational fields accelerate the stream. We could wind up too far from anything to ever get back."
The edges of the Earth vanished to the sides of the viewport. The long bow of the Magellan was pointed straight toward the planet while the Dread ship was on her port side, slowly rolling over to get its weapons aimed and fired once more.
"Stop complaining and start producing," Theodore said.
"Sir-" Reza said again.
"Get me a stream, damn it," Theodore roared.
The Magellan passed into the atmosphere. Theodore checked their velocity. Fifteen thousand kilometers per hour. They were almost there, but the planet's surface was rising in an awful hurry. They had seconds to escape.
"Got it," Reza said, sounding pleased with himself.
"Put them in," Theodore said.
"Yes, sir." Reza tapped his control pad. "Sequence entered and accepted."
They were falling ever faster, passing from the darkness into the great blue below. Seventeen thousand, eighteen thousand. The world was rising to meet them, opening her arms and preparing to take them in.
The ship began shaking violently, the air shoving against the irregular shape of the craft. It was intended that the suppressors would be used in gravity, not the main thrusters. Theodore had no idea if she was sturdy enough to hold together. He thought she was. He prayed she was. He pushed a little harder on the throttle, trying to eke out just a little bit more.
Nineteen thousand. Collision warnings began to sound, and Gabriel had to grab onto the back of the seat to keep from falling over.
"Son, if we don't make it," Theodore said. "I want you to know-"
"We're going to make it," Gabriel replied.
They were out over the ocean, getting so close that Theodore could almost see the outline of the waves below, the Magellan a meteor about to strike.
In that moment, his mind settled on a single instant from the past. The one where he and Juliet stood on a beach in Hawaii, the water up to their ankles as they gave their vows. It wasn't the church wedding she had always wanted, but they had decided they couldn't wait that long.
He closed his eyes, remembering the feel of her hands on his, her lips on his. Whether they lived or died was out of his control now.
He counted his heartbeats.
Thump thump.
Thump thump.
Thump thump.
Thump thump.
The Magellan became translucent, phasing into slipspace, her bow slicing into the water without breaking the surface, sinking like a ghost ship until she vanished entirely.
Theodore opened his eyes.
He was still alive.
All of them were.
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A lost starship...
A dire warning from futures past...
A desperate search for salvation...
Captain Mitchell "Ares" Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard 'Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He's handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he's as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.
After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:
They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.
Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they'll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.
Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they're dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.
They may also be humanity's last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.
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About the Auth
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M.R. Forbes is the creator of a growing catalog of speculative fiction titles, including the science-fiction Rebellion and War Eternal novels, the epic fantasy Tears of Blood series, the contemporary fantasy Divine series, and the world of Ghosts & Magic. He lives in the pacific northwest with his family, including a cat who thinks she's a dog, and a dog who thinks she's a cat. He eats too many donuts, and he's always happy to hear from readers.
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