Free Starbound by Dave Bara Page B

into the jump space tunnel and let its mass suck it into the Jenarus star,” I said. Serosian shook his head.
    â€œWe would have a power curve issue with that maneuver,” he said.
    Maclintock eyed the Historian. “I understand we went through several weapons upgrades during our stay at Candle. Care to share any of the new technology we’ve added?”
    Serosian looked reluctant to answer. Then: “There is one possibility,” he said. We all waited for him to continue, but his silence said volumes. I knew this meant he didn’t want to share a new weapons technology unless he absolutely had to.
    Maclintock leaned back deep in his chair. “I’m waiting, Historian,” he said quietly. Serosian looked at me.
    â€œI’ll need the commander’s help to deploy this technology, Captain. And I would prefer to wait on discussing its function until it’s ready for use,” he said.
    Maclintock nodded, then looked at me. “Work with him, Commander. Then report back to me when you’re ready to move.”
    â€œAye, sir,” I said. Maclintock stood abruptly and strode out of the room. Dobrina followed him without a word to me.
    â€œI appreciate your help on this, Peter,” said Serosian. I looked at him. Thirty-three marines. This was grim business.
    â€œLet’s just get this done,” I said.

    Twenty minutes later we were ensconced in Serosian’s quarters, which was in actuality part of an entirely separate ship from
Starbound
, the Historian’s yacht. That fact, however, was not known to the vast majority of the crew, and Serosian much preferred to keep it that way. The yacht had served us well during the
Impulse
incident at Levant, functioning as both a rescue vehicle and a diplomatic vessel, and in the end a warship in the fight to save our doomed sister ship. We were a full deck below the public spaces of his quarters, inside the command deck nerve center of the powerful vessel.
    Serosian motioned to a chair at the main console and I joined him as he activated the main viewing display, a full three-dimensional holographic projection that took up the entire forward wall of the yacht’s command deck. On the screen there appeared a set of what looked like 2-D schematics to me, though what technology was being represented I couldn’t be sure. There were some electrical symbols I recognized but others I had never seen before. I wasn’t unfamiliarwith technical drawings, especially of electrical interfaces, but this one baffled me.
    â€œWhat am I looking at?” I blurted out as Serosian swept his hands across the smooth display console, his fingers sinking under the surface as if it were liquid, though he had never pulled back a wet finger from the console that I had ever seen.
    The technical schematics on the screen dissolved and were replaced by a three-dimensional representation of parts in an exploded view. There were perhaps two dozen. Then just as suddenly they swarmed together and formed a completed unit. It looked for all the world like a small, flat, metal box with serrated edges and what I could only describe as a toilet plunger sticking out of one end. After a few more finger swipes by Serosian, the projection of the device started rotating.
    â€œWhat am I looking at here?” I repeated. Serosian leaned back in his couch and looked at me pensively, one hand to his face, as if trying to decide if I was worthy to receive the Knowledge of the Gods or not.
    â€œIn the simplest terms,” he finally said, “it’s a gravity accelerator.”
    â€œA what?”
    He sat up. “A gravity accelerator. As in, a device that increases the gravitic energy within a specified harmonic field. It can be used in a variety of ways. One use would be to slow down or redirect an enemy by increasing the gravity field around a specific moving object, such as a ship. Another would be to use the field to push objects in a specific