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    © 2004 Andrew Dormeier Red warning lights flashed on the walls as Artemus jogged through the hazy corridors of his ship. The warning siren that played from the wall speakers was beginning to annoy him. Ducking under a broken pipe, he followed the metallic tan passage as it bent left, merged with another hallway, and bent right again. A sudden burst of steam from another ruptured pipe on the top of the right wall sectioned off the path. Ignoring the hot white mist, Artemus ran straight through. He came to a large door and slammed the nearby panel with his sweaty palm. The tan door slid up into the ceiling, revealing a large metallic gray blast door. A circular locking mechanism rotated and clicked, allowing the two halves of the door to slide into the walls. Artemus ran through the opening. The bridge of the Gallant Force was not in good shape. A small cloud of smoke covered the ceiling as the atmos scrubbers tried to deal with all the suspended particles. From Sol's position at the rear, starboard side of the room he could see shattered display panels on the starboard and aft walls. Sparks were coming from a few of these. The pilot's chair situated in the middle of the room seemed to be alright. The dozens of thick black wires running from the ceiling and floor into the seat appeared to be intact. Artemus walked down the two steps placed on either side of the chair to the small platform behind the main display screen. Falinor was sitting at his station on the right side of the screen entering commands into his console. A similar station on the left side of the deck remained unused for the time being. "I read you, sir," sputtered the image on the gauntlet. "Do you want me to commence planetary bombardment near your location?" "I couldn't get the flux enhancers working from the engine room. It looks like the emitters on the hull are too damaged. We can't outrun them," Sol said. "We can't match them either, the ghost drive is overheating from a coolant leak. We're going to have to drop to sublight speeds soon or the engine will go critical." "Fantastic. How soon is 'soon'?" "In approximately 3.4 minutes." "What's the status of the pursuing ships?" "One ship is 0.2 emus behind, three more 1.6 emus behind that one, and another four behind those by a half-emus." "What's the layout of this sector of space?" "There is a system to our port side 10 emus away. Large sun: 10 solar masses. Two gas giants. Nothing on the starboard side for several dozen emus. The edge of a large nebula lies in front of us 4 emus away and 3.2 degrees up." "If we drop below lightspeed how long will it take for the first and second waves of ships to reach us?" |
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