Free Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike by Doug Dandridge Page A

ordered the
supervisor, the best man they had for this job, called up as soon as the
emergency struck.  “We need to get this girl under control.”
    Lucille looked up at another schematic, this
one against the wall over the entrance to her office.  It showed the circular
form of the station, and the black hole in the center, and two other circles. 
One was the optimal orbit of the station, the other the point of no return, the
point at which the station could no longer recover from a destabilization.  And
due to the push of the massive explosion, they were drifting that way.
    *    
*     *
    Cornelius really had no hope of making it back
to the station.  He was drifting toward the hole, not at the acceleration of
the bomb, which had the efforts of its antigrav units pulling it toward the
gravity well.  But he was picking up speed.
    The big objects coming out of space,
silhouetted against the bulk of the Donut , looked like angels in his
eyes.  The two Marines grabbed him, one on each arm, and started to boost back
to the station.  A couple of seconds into the boost the heavy battle armor
suits closed in around him, cutting off his view of the station.
    What the hell , he thought, as a bright light shone
around the edges of the suits.  The one we didn’t get, he thought,
thankful for the protection of the heavy armor and their electromag fields.  A
couple of objects flew by at high velocity, really just streaks, and one of the
suits jerked as something slammed into it.  Nothing too bad, as both suits kept
boosting back to the station.  And if it had hit me, I would definitely be
dead by now.
    It took several minutes, well within
Walborski’s time frame for continued oxygenation from his nanobubbles.  Still,
he was feeling the effects of the vacuum on the rest of his body.  But I’m
going to make it, Devera, honey , he thought, seeing the approaching station
as the suited Marines turned until they were again beside him.
    The airlock door closed behind him as he and
the Marines settled to the floor, and air hissed into the small chamber. 
Cornelius pulled in a deep breath, and almost vomited as the pain shot through
his lungs.
    “Take is slow, Ranger,” said one of the Marines
over his suit speaker.  “The alveoli of your lungs have been damaged some by
the exposure to vacuum.  You’ll need to replenish the liquid layer in your
lungs in order to exchange gases again.”
    Cornelius simply nodded, unable to speak, while
the inner door opened.  The Marines helped him in, while a Naval Medic ran up
and started to inject him with meds, nanites and nutrients.  They helped him to
a seated position on the floor, and the Medic handed him a vaporizer bottle and
told him to start inhaling the vaporized water.
    “I thought we had lost you, LT,” said
Satrusalya, coming up and sitting next to him, a vaporizer in his hand as well.
    “I have a confession to make,” said Cornelius
in a hacking voice.  “I’m still a cadet lieutenant at the Academy.”
    “Well, you’re an officer to this Spacehead,
Ranger,” said Satrusalya, giving Cornelius his hand.  “I would serve with you
any day.”
    “And the Emperor will sure be glad to see you
made it as well, Walborski,” said Jimmy Chung, walking up to the pair.
    “You know the Emperor?” asked the now wide eyed
Commando.
    “The Emperor pinned two Imperial Medals of
Heroism on this man himself,” said Chung.  “He may just get a third one for
this one.  As might you, Satrusalya.”
    “I’ll put in the word myself,” said Cornelius. 
“What you did in that room took balls.”
    “Says mister big testicles to me,” said
Satrusalya, with a laugh.  “But I’ll take it.”
    *    
*     *
    The blast of the one device, bigger than anything
ever seen in Imperial space not of natural origin, vaporized the cable along a
one kilometer length, as well as the outer hull for five kilometers in each
direction.  Five kilometers further on large