Free Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2) by Jeffrey Burger

“That's a really long evasive way of not answering the question...” He waved his hand expressively, “With ships they're generally referred to as phantoms or wraiths and although I've never heard of them taking over a ship, I suppose it's not impossible - they can prove to be quite a nuisance. Although, I wonder where they originated...?”
    “They didn't come from the ship,” said Jack mechanically, remembering what Voorlak had said, “They had something to do with what she was carrying...” The ore..? But how could that be?
    Admiral Kelarez scratched his forehead in thought. “Ore?” He shrugged, “I don't see how...” he shook his head, “never mind, we'll come back to this later, let's see that video footage.”
    Already seen by the senior pilots, Steele and his command staff numerous times, Admiral Kelarez and Captain Gantarro watched with fresh eyes as the digital recording played back on the briefing room's big screen. When it was over, the room stayed quiet for a moment. “Play it again,” ordered the Admiral. They watched intently as the two pirate destroyers turned to port in unison, one positioned higher than the other, offering a broadside view of both to the approaching fighters. Neither fired, though gun turret motions could be seen on both ships. A nebulous, translucent sphere of color grew about mid stern, first on one ship then the other. Lacy tendrils reached out from the shifting spheres, enveloping each ship, creating a spider web of color that looked almost liquid, swelling to obscure the view of the ship and collapsing. When it collapsed, the ship was gone - both ships disappeared in about thirty seconds, almost in unison.
    Jack arose from his seat, turned and stood facing the group. “Admiral, before I had a chance to see the video, by description I thought perhaps we were dealing with some kind of optical camouflage... scientists on Earth have developed what they call nanouflage, the ability to hide things using photo-reactive nano-plates. So I was relatively sure, being more advanced than we are, you would certainly have something like that available to you...”
    “That era has come and gone Captain,” replied the Admiral, “with the advance of sensors and instruments, we don't need to see a ship, to actually see a ship...”
    Jack folded his arms, “Then someone has built some form of shipboard jump system.” 
    The Admiral pulled on his lower lip in contemplation. “Strictly off the record...”
    Jack nodded, “Understood.”
    The Admiral stood and borrowed the remote control from Jack, bringing the video back up and pausing the playback as the translucent sphere began to appear on the first ship. “The developers have been calling it a GOD drive. The unit on this ship is mounted right where you're seeing the anomaly start,” the Admiral pointed to the screen, his finger circling the event epicenter. “It has to be precisely calculated for the dimensions of the ship it's mounted to and the ship needs to be in motion for the unit to initiate a jump...”
    “ Wait,” interrupted Jack, “a GOD drive?”
    “ Gate On Demand,” replied the Admiral.
    “ Holy shit,” groaned Paul Smiley, “this is bad.”
    “ It's certainly not good Commander” continued the Admiral, “but it does have some limitations...”
    “ Where can it jump to? How far?” Asked Jack.
    “ Any gate within reach, or any location in normal space where you have the exact coordinates, but it still has to be within the unit's reach.”
    “ What's the reach?”
    “ I don't have that information, Mr. Steele... the prototype unit was lost during testing...”
    “ Wait,” said Jack, interrupting, “lost as in we've misplaced it and we can't find it, or lost as in someone stole it from us and we can't get it back?”
    “ The second one. The company developing the system was doing test runs with their research cutter when it disappeared in...”
    “ Research cutter?” Jack cut in, “It was an