Farlost: Arrival

Part 11

CHAPTER 13

"Officer Okoro," Lou called out, "mate your nav console with Doctor Beacham's terminal and plot a course."

"No!" Vice President Burkov boomed, struggling to free an arm from the webbing of his seat.

"Chief Montagne," a voice whispered. "Don't do this."

Lou looked up to Third Officer Villanueva floating toward her, illuminated by reflected, red and blue overrides on her screen. Two more loud micrometeorites gonged of HHL-6's skin as he floated closer.

"I know. It's bad," He continued near her ear . "But you don't really believe Beacham can make us go faster than light without flaming out, do you?"

VP Burkov had crawled arduously along the wall railings towards her as well. "Listen to him, dammit!" the Veep pleaded angrily. "Stewart has never tested his plans. We need...we need machine trials, and then years of animal trials before human testing."

"Return to your seat, Mr. Burkov," Lou said cooly, her eyes narrowed at his in warning. "Or I will have Taggart put you in your seat."

"Yes, Ma'am," Taggart echoed, his voice betraying happiness at the prospect.

Burkov's face grew ugly, but he shut up and backed up to his seat again.

"Years, Alexei?" Beacham snorted. "We won't last hours if we stay here." His fingers kept sliding on glass, examining the navigation data sent to his screen by Okoro.

Villanueva leaned in even closer. "Every egghead that's ever attempted FTL said they got the math right. No one ship has ever survived!"

Lou looked back down to the monitor where a security prompt hovered over the FTL arming screen. Apparently even Beacham couldn't override the security on that system. Yet.

She stared at the prompt requesting Dwyer's password.

Until she and another ranking officer notified the computer Dwyer was dead.

As another barrage of micrometeorites pounded the side of the craft, Lou stared back up at Villanueva, her expression fierce. "Hear that? We're being shotgunned to death, and if that doesn't get us?" She leaned in close. "Pablo, if you have another option to beat the rocks, the radiation or becoming spacesickles, don't keep it to yourself! Tell me!"

Villanueva's jaw clamped like steel beneath his skin. He shook his head, eyes roving, reflecting the search for alternatives going on inside his skull. Then he looked across to Beacham. "I thought your force field could stop radiation?" he challenged. "Why the jump?"

"Morons!" Beacham moaned. "Yeah, my force field can block radiation-until the reserve power is all gone! You should be glad I've been keeping the FTL pods charged up, despite your whining about the regs, and the dangers of charged particles in an enclosed environment. That juice is all that we've got, unless you've got a secret power line back to the reactor! So, can you guys hurry up and have your pissing match already? We gotta go!"

From behind Lou came Taggart's deep voice. "Lucky you, Doc. Get to skip all the way to testing with us live guinea pigs, huh?"

Beacham offered the security officer his index finger as he swiped through diagrams on his monitor with his other hand. His eyes scanned the images and numbers on the screen and he started nodding vigorously. Then he clapped his hands together, bowing his head for just a moment.

"Golden math!" Beacham roared, and tapped the screen again.

Lou felt a momentary hum in her bones, then it was gone. The background drum beat of rocks hitting the skin of the ship disappeared, too.