Free Broken Glass (Glass Complex Book 1) by John Hindmarsh

bridge where he sat with the bridge officers while they aligned the carrier for its transit of the nexus. A set of forward screens displayed a virtual image of their target, a point in space that slowly grew closer as Walrus accelerated.
    The nexus was located outside Homeworld’s gravity well and it provided safe transit for inter-system star ships. The nexus linked two fixed points in space-time; one point was on the edge of the Homeworld system and the other point was in Alliance-controlled space, adjacent to the system known as Zeta Three. From Zeta Three a link connected to Zeta Four, and the Zeta Four nexae linked directly to another three systems in Alliance space. The ore carrier was scheduled to offload two ore cylinders at Zeta Three and the remainder of its load at Zeta Four for an Alliance star ship construction complex.
    Walrus received clearance from Homeworld Way Station control and it increased its rate of acceleration towards the target nexus. It reached and entered the nexus point. The carrier seemed to ripple and then steady, as though flowing through an invisible transition. Viewscreens now displayed a virtual tunnel with a centered exit circle representing Zeta Three.
    Progress from entry to exit points seemed to be painstakingly slow; however, the carrier exited Zeta Three nexus at almost the same real time that it had entered the Homeworld nexus. The paradox was well known as a feature of nexus point transitions and its cause remained unsolved.
    The ore carrier immediately began to slow in order for tugs to approach and detach the two barges destined for their Zeta Three purchasers. Once the barges were detached the carrier would accelerate back outsystem for its next transition. Steg would remain on board Walrus until tugs at Zeta Four detached the last ore barges; his journey had only just begun.
    ******

Chapter 8
     
    The terminal exit doors hissed their farewell salute as they closed behind Steg. After three standard months of being cooped up in star freighters, some modern and fast, many ancient and slow, with interminable delays in innumerable transit stations and only the occasional luxury of a fast passenger liner, he was overjoyed to finally reach Althere. Homeworld contacts and trade links had eased the problem of distancing himself from the planet where Imperial forces held sway; he hoped fervently that he was out of their clutches.
    He lifted his duffel bag onto one shoulder and looped his swordbelt over the other. By some small miracle of organization his travel kit, newly purchased clothes and even Ebony had all been carefully stowed in his small cabin on Well Drinker . He adjusted the two burdens and stepped out onto the street.
    He paused, almost tempted to retreat back to the sanctuary of the space terminal. The wind was cold and gusts buffeted him, tugging at his thin cloak and swinging him momentarily off balance. The hurrying people were careless of his presence and added to his buffeting. He ducked out of the way of a phalanx of pedestrians and pressed himself against the wall of the terminal building. The sky was gray and threatening rain or possibly snow, the air was heavy with pollution and the street was littered with discarded rubbish. His first impressions of Althere increased his longing for Homeworld. His thoughts interrupted, he looked down. A small alien was tugging at the bottom of his duffel bag.
    “Most honorable human,” it wheezed. “Permit me your heavy load to carry.”
    Steg kept more than a firm hold on his only possessions as he examined the small alien. It waved eyestalks at him and tugged at his duffel bag with a claw-like hand. Steg had no idea at all of the creature’s possible origin and thought in some way it reminded him of the small lobsters caught on Homeworld, except the fishermen would be alarmed both at the size of this waist-high specimen and at the vivid violet color of its carapace.
    His first inclination was to reject the offer of assistance