Daring

21

“ That wasn’t what I expected,” Captain Drago said softly as the forward screen filled with four stars.

If a star mariner was a poet, this would be the star system for him or her. Four stars, red, blue, yellow, and white hung in the sky. It took the boffins ten minutes to figure out the dance they did.

The yellow and red ones swung around each other. The white and blue ones did the same. Somehow, the two pairs then did a jig around the center of gravity among the four. Since the blue and white pair greatly outweighed the other two, it must get very interesting.

If they had still been on the course they’d plotted initially for the jaunt, they should have been staring at a single white dwarf, sister to humanity’s home star, Sol.

Clearly, we aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto, Kris thought to herself.

“Talk to me, folks,” the captain said softly. “Tell me about this system.”

One thing Kris had come to count on from Captain Drago was a cool head when all hell broke loose. His voice was calm, but under it was clear agitation. Agitation in a tight grip.

“There are planets around the stars,” Chief Beni said from his station at Sensors. “Some small rocks orbiting each pair.” He paused, then went on. “A couple of more rocky planets orbiting the four of them.”

“Jump points? Do we have any jump points?” Captain Drago demanded.

The white dwarf they were supposed to have jumped to should have had three.

“None that I’ve found so far,” Sulwan Kann said. “There are a couple of large gas giants well away from the stars. They could be concealing a jump point. One or two might be playing hide-and-seek with us down close to the suns. Captain, I’ll need a couple of hours before I can make a definitive statement, but for now, no, sir. There is no visible way out of this system other than the way we came in.”

The captain leaned back in his chair, probably thinking the same thing Kris was. It wasn’t unheard of for there to be only one jump into a system. Earth herself had been at a dead end. Certainly, the wild dance these four suns did would make for a berserk jig for any jump point caught among them . . . even before you added in other star systems to the confusion.

But there was no way this system could have been patched together in just two million years from the simple one-star system on the map Ray Longknife had discovered.

“Sulwan, keep one gee on the ship.” He paused for a moment. That gee would give the crew weight. Still, the navigator needed a course. “ Aim us in the general direction of the nearest gas giant. If we have to turn around and head back, that will help.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” Sulwan said.

“Chief Beni, Professor mFumbo,” Kris said. “It sure would be nice to know something about this system.”

“There is no activity on the radio spectrum,” the chief said immediately.

A bit later, the professor added, “The second planet out from the yellow and red suns appears to have an atmosphere and water. I have no idea how much solar energy it gets during the course of a year, but the water is in liquid form, at present.”

“Is that interesting enough for us to change our course and head in that direction?” the captain asked.

“I don’t know,” the professor said.

“I think I do,” Chief Beni said, looking up from his board. “Your Highness, I’m getting something that I’ve never seen before.”

“Spit it out, Chief.”

“That planet has a high radioactive background. It’s hot all over, but certain spots are a whole lot hotter.”

He paused for a long moment. “Ma’am, this isn’t in any of our training, but if I had to guess what a planet looked like after it was bombarded with nukes, I’d say that it should look a lot like this.”

“Sulwan, change course for that planet.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“How long to make orbit?”

The navigator studied her board, tapped it several times. “Eighteen hours if we go to 1.73 gees, Captain.”

“Make it so,” the captain said.

“All hands, we will be going to 1.73 gees in ten seconds. Prepare for moderate gees,” the navigator announced.

A quick countdown later, the ship put on acceleration. Kris found her weight going up, but not more than she could handle.

“Chief, Professor,” Kris said. “I’d like to know a whole lot more about this system before we make orbit around that hot rock.”

“I can think of at least one thing you might like to know in advance,” the professor announced on net.

“What would that be?” Kris hated it when people played Twenty Questions with her. Didn’t anyone spit anything out?

“We’re concentrating most of our sensors on the hot rock, as you call it. However we are looking at that large gas giant, Your Highness. It is too soon to tell for sure, but the moons around that planet appear to be in unstable orbits. We may have another gas giant that has recently lost a lot of weight.”

“You think so?” was all Kris managed to get out.

“It is too early to be sure, but it’s possible, ma’am. We’ll know more in a few hours.”

Kris shared a glance with Captain Drago. It never rained but it poured.

“Chief, I really need to know,” the captain said with an admirable calm. “Are there any ships in this system?”

“I’m not getting any signatures from any fusion engines. From any reactors of any kind that are in my databases.”

“We may not be looking for any that we’re familiar with, Chief,” Captain Drago said.

“I know that, sir,” Chief Beni said. “I’m as scared as you are, sir, to have a planet that’s hot on the atomic scale. Probably more so. I’m bypassing my filters and taking the raw feed from the sensors. Still, sir, I’m getting a whole lot of nothing. I don’t have anything giving off an electromagnetic signature. Anything making noise like a nuclear or fusion reactor. Trust me, sir. I have no desire to get popped by whatever this bug-eyed monster is that the princess here is chasing. I intend to die in bed.”

“You and me both,” Captain Drago said, and pushed the commlink on his command station.

“All hands, this is the captain speaking. We have an unknown situation developing here. Look smart. I may be ordering you to battle stations with very little notice. Keep that in mind as you go about your duties. Be assured that as soon as I know something, I will pass it along to you. Captain out.”

Finished, he turned to Kris. “Okay, Princess. We’ve been lugging around those boffins for you. Would you please see that they earn their pay today.”

“Yes, sir,” Kris said. “Nelly, have my staff report to my Tac Center. Advise Chief Beni and Professor mFumbo that they may report or stay at their stations, depending on where they think they can be the most productive.”

“Doing it, Kris.”

“Oh, and Nelly, have Cookie bring around some lunch to my Tac Center. I’m past hungry.”

“I already advised him. He said to tell you that he don’t do 1.7 gees all that well. But he’ll have one of the youngsters get your lunch.”

“Thank the cook for me,” Kris said, and heaved herself to her feet. Her knee complained of the extra weight . . . the one that had taken the brunt of that last nearly successful assassination attempt. She walked carefully from the bridge. It wouldn’t do to have herself laid up in sick bay just when things were starting to get interesting.