Hammer and Crucible Cameron Cooper (web ebook reader TXT) 📖

against his chest, massaging it. “At least, that’s what Lyth tells me. Also, when they’re cradled by the ship, as they are now, they can act as backup bridges, if something should happen to this one.”

“A nice redundancy,” I murmured. “Status on the carrier?” I added, lifting my voice a little to address the AI.

“Lyth, you can speak with Danny,” Dalton added.

“It won’t catch us,” Lyth replied, sounding amused.

“Its mauler cannon might,” I pointed out.

“Not in five seconds, it won’t.” This time the amusement was more than apparent in its voice.

The gate filled the entire view from top to bottom. Soon, it would be larger than the windows. We would have to lean forward to see all of it.

Juliyana came up to my side. “This is too easy,” she murmured.

I had to agree with her. “Later,” I murmured back. “Once we’re in the hole, you can hold him down and I’ll dig out answers, ‘kay?”

“Deal,” she breathed.

Dalton tried to look amused. The pain lines around his mouth ruined the effect. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat and said, “Capacitor ready, Lyth?”

“Of course,” Lyth replied. “Transitioning into a wormhole is a bit difficult without one.”

Juliyana laughed and smothered it. “I like its attitude.”

“Relax, people,” Lyth added. “I got this.”

For a ship at maximum speed, the vibrations coming through the deck and the low rumble of the reaction engines was mild, yet the gate loomed large. Now I could see the complex details around the thick circle of bio-mechanical technology. It glinted dark blue and black, silver and gray in the light from Devonire, as all gates did.

As we watched, the space inside the gate turned aqua blue and opaque. The wormhole had been formed. At the same time, the capacitor whined, building up for the high-energy jump through the gate.

AIs always coordinated the jumps through gates. It required precise timing. The completed formation of the wormhole and the full charge of the capacitor needed to occur to the same moment, with only a split second leeway in either direction.

The aqua surface shimmered.

I saw the probes and the fine noses of the drop ships push through the surface and disappear a fractional beat of time before the blue washed over us and the ship shivered, as all ships did.

We were in the hole.

All of us took a deep breath and let it out. Even the AI gusted out a noisy exhalation.

I turned to Dalton. “What the fuck are you doing way out here, Dalton? And where the hell did you get this ship?”

He snorted and turned away from the windows. They were showing nothing now. The view would be blank until we emerged from the hole once more. Looking at the nothingness of a hole for too long was unnerving, and some people actually got nauseous if they stared at it for too long. Most ships turned their big screens to other views once they’ve made the jump. These were window screens, though.

“You might want to install blinds or something over those windows,” I told Dalton. “Save us from getting dizzy.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said absently. “Lyth, could you take care of that?”

“Absolutely,” Lyth said, his tone accommodating.

The windows turned opaque.

“Nanobots in the Glasseen,” Lyth announced, sounding proud of himself.

I would have to deal with the AI-with-an-attitude problem later. I stared at Dalton. “Why were you on Devonire?” I demanded. A question at a time, if necessary, to get it out of him. It was deeply disturbing to me that he just happened to show up where we did. Did he know we had been looking for him?

Juliyana did not seem to be in a hurry to tell him that, either. She moved over to the navigator’s table and parked one hip on it. It was her right knee hanging over the end of the table, which put her hand within inches of the blade she had in her boot.

Dalton moved over to the shell facing the window. A pilot’s chair, if ever human, manual helm control was needed. He leaned his shoulder against it, crossing his arms. He made it look casual, although I wondered how much propping up he needed. Gee force pressure could have lingering affects.

“I found the ship,” Dalton told us.

“Found it?’ Juliyana repeated.

“He stole it,” I interpreted.

Dalton shook his head. “No. I really didn’t. It invited me aboard.”

“Invited…” I rolled my eyes. “What, it sang out to you as you happened to be passing, and you thought, why shouldn’t I step on board a strange ship? It surely can’t belong to anyone else. Ships float abandoned all over the empire, after all.”

“That’s pretty much what did happen,” Dalton replied, his jaw flexing. The blue eyes seemed to grow a bit harder and brighter. He was irritated.

Well, that made two of us.

I glanced at Juliyana and her folded arms and steady stare.

Make that three of us.

Dalton said, “First, it wasn’t floating anywhere. It was parked in a junk park in the bowels of Badelt City. Second, I was led down there by…shit…” He stood up. “You’ll believe this as much as you’ll believe I had no idea you were arriving on Devonire just now, but…” He paused, measuring me. “I was moving fast,” he began.

“Running away,” Juliyana amended.

“There was a sudden flux of Rangers onto the station. Combat battalions—I know too many of them, so I…moved,” he told her, his irritation growing enough to show in his voice. “I turned randomly, trying to get lost. The city is a maze, anyway. As I ran, doors started opening, and lights would flash to get my attention. The first time I dived through a door that opened, it shut right behind me. I figured if whatever the fuck was going on was going to be that helpful, I’d go wherever it wanted me to go.”

“Which was down to the junk park?” I guessed.

“That’s where I ended up,” Dalton replied. “Then the ship waved at me—”

Juliyana gave a hard laugh of disbelief.

Dalton’s jaw tightened. His eyes