Dean Dean finds himself adrift in deep space after an unfortunate collision on the fold space highway. A chance discovery of an unusual artifact brings him to the attention of the feared Dedan Empire.
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Grath and Bob sent their ship links to Miss Yadnee's Scepter class fighter, at her request, and prepared for entering The Fold. Each of them slowed their thrusters and shifted into position. Bob switched on his shields and focussed all of those still operational to front-centre for the most protection if the black hole caught him.
"Weapons ready boys. This has the potential to get frosty," Miss Yadnee said, flicking her own shields on and aiming the canons forward.
"How long are we expecting to stay in The Fold?"
"No more than five standard minutes."
"So, we barely have any time to spot our exit and analyse what will be there?" Grath said, opting for raising rear thrusters to force away from the fold tear when they hit the target. "MAI do what you can to keep this ship going."
[Of course.]
Dean felt helpless, he had no control over the ship and couldn't even offer anything to calm Miss Yadnee down. Her frantic pacing before slinging all three ships into The Fold wasn't reassuring.
"Hold on," she said, turning to Dean after checking the coordinates for the final time. "Are your ships fully linked to mine?"
After one hissed yes and a dull monotone response from Grath she set the thrusters into motion and slammed her ship into The Fold highway entrance.
Regardless of the number of times he'd experienced it, the weightless feeling built up bile or whatever other regurgitative substances his body created in his stomach and made Dean feel like retching out a lung.
Thirty standard seconds rolled by and Miss Yadnee looked toward him. The look told him to hang on.
"That isn't five minutes," Dean said as the thrusters drove him back deep into his seat.
"I know, but Grath wouldn't be happy regardless. Our exit is on the left."
Seeing Miss Yadnee's ship begin firing thrusters and rotating slightly, Grath reached for his comms button to ask what was happening. Before he could speak, the thrusters on his own ship fired and he felt the Vorpal-3 rotating.
"MAI, what the hell is happening?"
[It would appear the Vazin either greatly underestimated the time we would be in the fold or decided against telling us. Nevertheless, it seems we will be exiting shortly, and at some speed.]
All three ships burst through the fold wall and almost made it into the new atmosphere without a hitch until Dean caught sight of Bob's ship in a warp spiral.
"Bob, can you read me? Can you regain control?"
No response.
"We need to stop his thrusters, it's the only way to stabilize his ship," Grath said, finally reaching the comms button. "Thanks for the heads up as well, Vazin."
