Free Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) by Michael G. Thomas

the clock.
    Fifty-one minutes left, this is going
to be close.
    “ Captain, I’m
detecting several fluctuations in the power levels of the
habitation a ssembly,” said one of the
technicians just a short distance from him.
    Captain Raikes had
only a limited number of crew on the ship, and it was essential
that he prioritised them for the connection.
    “Is it serious?” he asked
impatiently.
    “ It is within
tolerable limits but will have to be resolved in the next
forty-eight hours.”
    The Captain nodded
quickly and moved back to his display.
    “ Understood, it can
join the list of a hundred other things to do when this is sorted
out. Let me know if it changes in the meantime.”
    On his main screen
the percentage of active systems increased yet again, and for the
briefest of moments, he thought it might actually work. They had
less than an hour to go before the designated time. A beeping sound
caught his attention. It was coming from the desk where the Chief
Engineer sat. The man turned to look at him.
    “ Good news, Sir.
I’ve stopped work on all non-essential systems, and the rift
generator gear is now ready to start activation,” he explained, his
face slightly red from the stresses of getting the system
ready.
    Captain Raikes
glanced at his display and noted the system status of all the major
components of the station. Every single one showed up in green, and
even he found it difficult to disguise the look of surprise on his
face.
    “Excellent work, I didn’t doubt you for
a second!”
    The Chief Engineer
did his best to smile but was well aware the doubts the Captain had
about getting the damaged system up and running. More importantly,
he was surprised they’d got so far. Captain Raikes checked the
diagnostic summaries himself before speaking again. He was normally
a calm and collected individual, but the worries of this mission
had revealed his deeply hidden insecurities of failure. In the
past, he had managed an almost completely perfect career with just
a single black mark on his file. It was his rush to create the
first one-way rift over a decade ago that had left a crippled
station and a lost ship. Only the data from Hyperion had put his
career back on track. Even so, the loss of so many people, and his
fly by the seat of his pants nature, had won him both friends and
enemies in the scientific and naval community. He lifted his eyes
from the system and back to the Chief Engineer.
    ” We don’t have a
moment to waste. Start up the main systems, and let’s get the
preliminary work on the connection to Prometheus active ASAP,” he
said happily. “We need to be ready the minute the Rift
opens.”
    It had been almost
half a day since they’d arrived, and not a minute went by with him
pondering the chance that they could end up trapped in the Orion
Nebula over a thousand light years from home. The automated drone
was only a short distance from the moon now, but even that seemed
low priority to him right now. They would have days, weeks,
probably years to chase around the planets, but not if the Rift
failed to work correctly.
    The activation
sequence was already well underway, and
he watched with pride as his expert team rerouted the power from
their powerplants to capacitors in readiness to establish the link.
It would use nearly three-quarters of their reserves to activate
the Spacebridge, but once running, it would use a fraction of the
power to maintain the link. This assumed that the same was taking
place on the other side, of course.
    Let’s just hope they are ready to
complete the link!
    “How long do we have until the sequence
starts?” he asked.
    “ Forty-three
minutes, Sir,” c ame back a quick reply
from the engineer monitoring the computing system for the
bridge.
    Captain Raikes was
looking at his screen when an odd feeling of nausea ran through his
head. A loud crunching sound hammered through the metal plating,
and he found himself drifting out of his chair as if the vessel had
just