Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race Read Free

his face and made him look even older than his already considerable age.  “Well, I might keep the reactors up, for ten more hours or so.  After that… I just don’t know.  We can make shadow space, for now.  But once the containment coils go, and I’m not sure how they’re holding, we won’t go anywhere.”  As always there was a whine to his tone that set Lucius's teeth on edge.
    “Ten hours?  Make your men ready for shadow space.”  Lucius closed off the channel.
    ***
     
    June 2, 2406
    Faraday System
    Unclaimed Space
     
    Alarms wailed as the ship exited shadow space.  More alarmingly, the floor heaved, and the ship itself groaned.  Lucius had not moved from the bridge, “What was that?”
    “Gravitational anomaly, sir, it pulled us off course.  It looks like the system is a lot more active than we thought.”
    “ How much more active?” Lucius asked as he took his seat.
    The navigation technician shook his head, “I’m not sure, sir.  I’ll have to complete my scans.  We based our jump to shadow off of a standard G-class system.  Eight worlds, three or four of them gas giants.”
    “There’s a lot of margin for error programmed into that estimate,” Lucius said, “Mass estimates would have to be off by—“
    “ Two hundred percent at least, sir.  I’m getting the astronomical scan in now.  I’ve—I’ve never seen so much in a star system.”  The navigation tech shook his head, “Lieutenant Divore would have been better at this, but there’s at least a dozen gas giants.”
    “ A dozen?” Lucius asked.  Lucius took a breath of stale air that felt thin and couldn't help but glance at his helmet. “Sensors get me a scan of the system, priority is spectral scans, you know what we’re looking for.”  It's just my mind playing tricks on me, he thought, the War Shrike couldn't bleed air out fast enough for me to notice it yet.
    “ Engineering, how much time have we got?”
    Commander Harbach came on screen, “I need to shut the reactor down as soon as possible.”  He gave a look over his shoulder at a hiss of steam, “We lost a lot of primary coolant earlier.  That means we’re cycling the same coolant through more rapidly, and it’s retaining a lot more heat than I like.  The secondary coolant system isn’t taking it well.”  He shook his head, “I need to shut it down before we lose secondary coolant systems.”
    Lucius nodded, checking the incoming scans.  They held little promise.  “How much time?”
    Harbach grimaced and Lucius could tell the old man wanted to get back to his work, “Two, maybe three hours.”
    “What about environmental?”
    “ Back-ups will be online, but we’ve vented a lot of atmosphere as well.  Our reserves will take us four or five hours.” Harbach jumped slightly at a loud pop behind him.
    “ Thanks for your time, Lieutenant Commander.  I won’t take any more of it.  Let me know if—”
    “ Yes, yes, I will.” Harbach turned away from the screen.
    Lucius sighed, “Damage Control?”
    Commander Doko’s voice came in, “We’ll have the rest of the leaks sealed up in the next twelve hours.  I’d better get back to work, sir.”
    “ Thank you, Tony.  Out, here.”
    “ Flight Operations, what’s your status?”
    “ Uh, Lieutenant Naevius here, sir.”  The Lieutenant answered.  “Both port shuttles, airlocks, and the docking clamps are gone.  One of the starboard shuttles is damaged, but we might get it back up in a day or so.  The other one is fully operational.  The refueler took a couple of light hits, but we’ve patched it up.  It’s fully functional otherwise.  The launch tubes for the fighters took hits.  The fore tube is totally destroyed, and the rear launch tube is damaged.”
    “ Have the refueler crew on standby, if we find someplace, they’re going to be getting us air.”  Lucius felt another surge of relief that they hadn't lost the refueler.  The light craft could skim a planet's