Into the Void

Chapter 8

A blaring alarm tore Nate from a deep sleep. It was a warbling tone used on all Alliance ships. A tone dreaded by civilians and military crews alike, it was the call for everyone to report to their stations, arm the ship's weapons and await further orders. After his years in the Void Corps, he was awake, dressed, and running towards the armoury before his brain had shaken off the last vestiges of sleep. He hastily slipped into his exo-suit, bolted up the ramp into the drop ship and ignited the reactor.

Rowan dropped into the co-pilot's seat and brought a text file up on the main display. "Finally something other than a drill. Concord had a ship sent to this system before us, now that we're finally on the edge of the system and in comms range, we're picking up a distress signal."

Nate was glad they had finally reached their destination, it had been a long tedious journey with little to do to pass the time. He'd spent most of his time in flight simulators, learning how to fly the dropship, honing his marksmanship on the firing range and spending time with the crew in the lounge at the top of the ship. He scowled at the machine in the co-pilot's seat. "I think I'd prefer a drill to a distress beacon."

Rowan sighed. "You know what I mean. It's nice to be doing something that finally matters. Obviously I wish the circumstances were better."

Nate turned back to the control panel, the machine did a great job of faking emotions and it was easy to forget that it wasn't a real person. Izzy slipped into the cockpit and strapped into the engineering console behind the pilots seats and tapped furiously at the console's keys, running diagnostics and bringing all the subsystems online.

"How's it look Iz?" he said.

"Board is green and we're good to go as soon as everyone sits down" she said.

"Okay let's go check out this beacon then" he said, easing the throttle forward and sending the ship sailing out of the Dauntless. Taking a deep breath to try to settle his nerves, he set the main display to thermal mode and pushed the throttle forwards, letting the acceleration press him gently back into his seat.

"Could I get the location of that beacon on the main screen?" he asked. In response a solid yellow diamond appeared on the screen. He angled the ship towards it and cruised through the void in eerie silence, slowly drawing closer to the distress beacon. He frowned at the thermal display, even at this distance the ship should have been easy to see. He pushed the throttle forward.

"Izzy? What's our ETA?" he asked.

The engineering console chirped behind him. "If we stay under thrust, about twenty minutes" she said.

"Do you have any info on the ship? I'm not seeing it on thermal, what are the chances people are still alive?"

Izzy tapped at a series of keys and after a long minute the console chirped again, alerting the crew that it had retrieved the information. "The networking gear on this thing is older than I am, remind me to upgrade it when we get back." she said with a short groan of irritation. "The other ship looks like it's a custom job, small crew, minimal support equipment, it's mostly engines and barrier fields, seems like it was built to move way past our FTL speeds and stay at those speeds for a long time. It's a pretty good design for a quick scout ship."

"Why all the barriers then? It can't have been expected to see combat" asked Rowan.

Nate rolled his eyes. "The barriers are for FTL travel, at those speeds running into a single hydrogen molecule is like being slapped with a nuclear bomb. Hell, were you born yesterday? I thought every long-haul spacer knew that."

"I've never flown FTL before, I used to drive shuttle between planets and space stations. And I wasn't born yesterday. I was built in 2347." said Rowan indignantly.