Starplex

Starplex rushed toward the star at an oblique angle.

"Thrusters on full," said Thor. "There's another problem we still have to deal with," said Jag, turning to Keith. "There's a good chance that I can get us to the shortcut, but once there, we'll just plunge through it. We won't have any time to slow down and do a controlled approach at a specific angle, and with our deck-seventy hyperscope array damaged I can't even predict which exit we'll pop out of. It could be anywhere."

The dark-matter fingers were still stretching toward Starplex. "In a few minutes, anywhere will be preferable to this place," said Keith. "Just get us out of here."

The ship began to careen around the star. Half of the bridge hologram showed the green orb, its granular surface detail and dumbbell sunspots visible. Most of the rest of the view was cloudy, with dark-matter tendrils eclipsing the background stars. "Rhombus, do you have a solid lock on the Rum Runner?"

"It's still four hundred kilometers away, and dark matter is starting to intervene, but, yes, I've got it."

Keith breathed a sigh of relief. "Good work. Have you been able to contact Cat's Eye, or any darmat?"

"They're still ignoring our hails," said Rhombus.

"We can't go in as close to the star as I would like,"'said Jag. "There's not enough water left in the ocean deck to make an effective shield, and our force screens are still burned out. There's a thirty-percent chance that the darmats will ensnare us."

Keith felt his heart pounding in his chest. Starplex continued to swing around the star in a parabolic course, the tendrils still stretching toward it. The Rum Runner was indicated in the hole bubble as a tiny square, with an animated yellow tractor beam lancing out to it. The starfield wheeled — Thor was angling the ship as they grazed the star's atmosphere.

Finally, Starplex reached the cusp of the parabola and, picking up enormous velocity from slingshoting around the star, raced toward the shortcut. In the hole bubble, PHANTOM brightened the yellow tractor-beam animation, indicating that additional power was being pumped into it.

Starplex's course, four hundred kilometers closer to the star, was significantly different from the path the Rum Runner would have been following if it had been looping around the orb under its own momentum.

"Two minutes to contact with the shortcut, mark," said Rhombus.

"We've never gone through a shortcut this fast before — no one has," said Jag. "People should secure themselves, or at least hold on to something."

"Lianne, pass on that recommendation to all aboard," said Keith.

"All personnel," said Lianne's voice, reverberating over the speakers, "brace for possible turbulence." Suddenly a large, irregular object eclipsed part of the view. "Gawst's ship," said Lianne. "He's pushed off our hull. Probably thinks we've all gone insane."

"I could grab him with another tractor," said Rhombus.

Keith smiled. "No, let him go. If he thinks his chances are better with the darmats, that's fine by me."

"Eighty seconds, mark," said Rhombus, orange clamps rising up from the invisible floor to hold on to his wheels.

"One-point-four degrees to port, magnet," said Jag. "You're going to miss the shortcut."

"Adjusting course."

"Sixty seconds, mark."

"Everyone hold on," said Lianne. "It's—"

Blackness.

Weightlessness.

"God damn it!" Thor's voice.

Barking — Jag speaking. No translation from PHANTOM.

Flickering lights — the only illumination in the room: Rhombus saying something.

"Power failure!" shouted Thor.

Red emergency lighting came on, as did emergency gravity — a priority because of the Ibs. There were loud splashing sounds from either side of the room: the water in the dolphin workstations had swelled up into great dome shapes under zero gravity, domes that had collapsed, splattering liquid everywhere as weight returned.

No holographic bubble surrounded the bridge; instead its blue-gray plastiform walls were visible. Keith was still in his chair, but Jag was on the floor, obviously having lost his balance during the brief period of zero-g.

The three consoles in the front row — lnOps, Helm, and ExOps — flickered back into life. The back-row stations were less critical, and stayed off, conserving battery power.

"We've lost the Rum Runner," said Rhombus. "It was cut loose when the tractor beam died."

"Abort the shortcut insertion!" snapped Keith.

"Way too late for that," said Thor. "We're going through under momentum."

Keith closed his eyes. "Which way did the Rum Runner go?"

"No way to tell until I get my scanners back on-line," said Rhombus, "but — well, we were hauling her in, meaning she would have been moving pretty much in a line back toward the green star…"

"The number-one generator blew," interjected Lianne, consulting readouts. "Battle damage. I'm switching over to standby generators."

PHANTOM's voice: "Re-in-ish-il-i-zing. Onqine."