Chapter 183: (Nemta - The War) (2/2)
”Everyone but those of us who must be out are in their chambers,” she said.
Nemta nodded. The mantids, when designing the ship, had made it so that each of the chambers and living spaces were able to double as life pods. Heavily armored life pods more akin to warships than a refugee ship built off of wishes and guesses and prayers.
”We can drop now,” Nemta said. He tapped the timer. We'll have to drop in the next hour.”
”Is Friend Terry going to be returned to us?” Mother asked.
Nemta shook his head. ”We don't know how long it will take for us to get further in-system or get rescued. Without Friend Terry we will have less than twelve hours of atmosphere. Even if we had engines that weren't damaged, top of the line engines, it could take fifteen to thirty hours to reach a habitable planet.”
”Oh,” Mother said. She looked at the mantid, Friend 821. ”How is he?”
--dream a dream-- 821 flashed. --maintenance dreams--
”Oh. Is he in pain?” Mother asked. 821 flashed negative icons. ”Are they good dreams?” 821 flashed icons for positive. Mother nodded, moving her fingers on the end of her cane. ”Good. Good.”
The elderly Hamaroosa got up to her feet, leaning on the cane. ”I will leave you to it,” she said slowly. She tapped her way out, leaving 821 and Nemta alone.
”Give me a count down when she straps herself in,” Nemta said.
--roger roger-- Quite a few minutes passed before 821 flashed icons. --ready steady--
Nemta readied his controls, feeling tension go through him.
The ship still trembled, still shook, the harmonics from the damaged drives and core still making the whole ship shudder and shake. Hitting a few studs he locked down all the rooms, put them on their own internal systems, maglocked the doors.
Nemta turned on the intercom.
”Returning to normal space,” Nemta said. ”In five... four... three... two... one...”
Nemta dropped the ship into realspace.
Half the panels that still remained blew out. Something exploded deeper in the ship, then something else blew up. 821 was launched across the bridge as the computer console he was on exploded. The ship's gravity stutters, flipped twice, and cut out. Nemta had the distinct feeling of his skeleton and bone marrow leaping out from his body as the inertial compensator almost failed. The hull rang with the energy flare that blasted out from the ship as the port engine exploded, the angled strut keeping the ship safe from the energy that consumed the engine.
He screamed as the electricity from his destroyed panels arced through him, down his legs, out the bottom of his feet, through his boots to the deck plating.
He could feel the ship tumbling on all three axis. The artificial gravity wasn't quite offline, it still gave him a sense of down, but it was off to the side and either it was spinning or the ship was spinning relative to it.
He managed to keep the nutripaste he'd been living off of in his stomach rather than spew it all over what was left of his console, but his eyes were still blurry from the vibration and the jumpshock.
It took him three tries to shut off the artificial gravity generator.
The feeling of tumbling and twisting stopped.
One by one the systems went down, leaving him in the darkness.
After a bit he realized it wasn't silent in the dark.
He could still hear the fans circulating atmosphere.
He smiled, and was still smiling, when he went limp in his harness and passed out.
--------------------
The sound woke him up. A steady pinging noise.
He raised his head, looking around.
One of the monitors was still on.
He got up and almost fell. His whole left side was numb. It took him three tries to get to the panel and he gave up trying to get his numb hands to work on the display so he just tapped the icon with his nose.
”LUCKY STRIKE THIS IS TELKAN REGISTERED SYSTEM SAR SHIP GENTLE MERCY,” rang out from the damaged speaker next to the display. ”IF YOU CAN PLEASE SIGNAL.”
Nemta stared at the panel and tapped his nose against the transmit.
”Gentle Mercy, this is Lucky Strike, we need assistance,” Nemta said.
The voice lowered. ”Lucky Strike, your transmission is garbled. We are moving on intercept. If you need assistance please attempt to transmit, wait to the count of five, attempt to transmit again.”
Nemta followed instructions.
”Lucky Strike, we're on our way. ETA is fifteen minutes. We'll have SAR and medical personnel standing by,” the speaker said.
Nemta sighed and laid his head on the panel, breathing heavily.
-------------------
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Did you guys see this?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TERRASOL
Yeah. Pretty impressive, kid.
/////////
MANTID FREE WORLDS
What?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TERRASOL
Your story, kid, you tell it.
/////////
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
A Telkan Navy ship, the TNS Gentle Mercy, on a training mission, being watched by a Terran Space Force Medical Frigate, detected a jumpspace flare and the flare of an inertial compensator blowout. They began a search pattern and discovered the Lucky Strike which was in need of assistance. The Gentle Mercy arrived in time to rescue a group of refugees who had assembled a ship and reach the Telkan System.
On board was a Terran Assault Infantry Marine, two Terran Dropship Engineers, a Unified Military Fleet pilot, one-hundred and sixty two adult refugees and two hundred nine children and infants.
The UMF pilot and the Terran Marine are in critical condition but expected to survive.
--Galactic Press Associates
How was that?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Wait, they built their own ships? Damn.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
SKY NEBULA ALIGNMENT
Now that's impressive.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLAKLAKLAKLAKLAKLAKL
Glda yeht edma ti.
--N---THIOGNFO LWLS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
We're taking care of them. The UMF guy kept repeating that he was defecting.
Am I doing the right thing granting him defector status and the others refugee status?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TERRASOL
It's your call, kid.
/////////
MANTID FREE WORLDS
That's the scary thing about freedom, sweetie. You never know if you're doing the right thing.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---