Free This Corner of the Universe by Britt Ringel Page B

her in time, Mark?”
    “I’ll
calculate, sir,” he nervously replied.  After a minute that seemed to drag on
forever, the navigator said, “It’s going to be close, sir.  We might be a
little late.  They’ll be able to generate a tunnel effect in forty-two minutes. 
At .3 c , we’ll reach them in forty-seven minutes.”
    Heskan
activated a communications link to Engineering.  A voice responded, “Engineman Second
Class Ross, sir.”
    “PO
Ross, I need Lieutenant Jackamore in Engineering right away.”
    “He
just walked in, sir.  I paged him when we got the max speed order.”
    Smart
man , thought
Heskan.  “Good call, Ross.  Lieutenant Jackamore, if you look at your plot you
can see we’re chasing a freighter.”
    A
few seconds later, he answered, “Looking at it now, sir.  It looks like we’ll
come up short.  Let me guess…”
    Heskan
nodded even though there was no way for the engineering officer to see it. 
“Can you give me point three-two-C, Brandon?”
    The lieutenant
answered immediately, “I think so, sir.  Ana can’t dash that fast forever but
we’ll see how long she can hold it.”  The incredible amounts of power needed to
achieve the speed would diminish once Anelace reached it but the power
requirements to maintain Anelace’s structural integrity and suppress
inertia actually increased over time and speed due to the Hoss-Boland effect. 
    Lieutenant
Vernay and Ensigns Truesworth and Selvaggio entered the bridge out of breath. 
They quickly nodded to Heskan as they took the primary seats of their
respective stations.  The second shift navigator, gunner and sensorman stood by
their section heads.
    Selvaggio’s
soprano voice called out, “Updated time to intercept is now forty-two minutes,
six seconds.  Vagabond will enter the tunnel point effect zone in forty-one minutes.”
    “If
they maintain their speed,” Riedel commented. 
    Heskan
looked knowingly at him.  “Fat chance in that but we have to try.”  Heskan rose
from his chair and took the three steps necessary to move next to Lieutenant
Vernay.  “Go ahead and call the ship to action stations, Stacy.  I doubt we’ll
get Vagabond into our weapons envelope for some warning shots but I want to be
ready in case we do.”
    The action
stations alarm sounded throughout the ship.  The second shift crew who were standing
next to their officers exited the bridge to head toward their assigned action stations. 
    Heskan
reseated himself and watched as his chair arm console displayed Anelace’s status.  Each of her sections would turn green as they readied up.  Right now, all
crewmembers were running to their assigned stations.  Down in Auxiliary Control,
the second command team was forming up, ready to assume command in case the
bridge was destroyed.  In the bow of the ship, the Kruger Mk 237 mass driver was
spinning up and being loaded with a 0.762 meter wide kinetic projectile.  Each
of the four general-purpose lasers was cycling through its warm-up procedures
and training out toward the freighter.  Chief Brown’s operations crew was
staging at strategically placed damage control rooms throughout the ship, ready
to act as corpsmen and damage control parties.  Ensign Truesworth’s sensors crew
of three was split; two in the main sensor room, continuously monitoring the
data Anelace’s sensors were accumulating and one in the AIPS control
room operating the corvette’s defensive screen.  His section would also be
responsible for estimating the battle damage that Anelace might inflict
upon her foe.  Ensign Selvaggio’s three crewmembers were in the main navigation
room located on the lower deck, coordinating Anelace’s movements with
Engineering.  Far aft of the bridge, Lieutenant Brandon Jackamore had his
entire twenty-man engineering department working hard to monitor not only the
ship’s power plant and drives but also all the other vital systems running
throughout the ship.  Engineering’s other