Fall of the Terran Empire - Traci Ganner series book 1

Fall of the Terran Empire - Ch 2

The temperature in the briefing room was slightly warmer than the deep space outside the ship. Ganner’s senior officers sat around the long oval table, more than one face slightly pale as the task facing them began to sink in.

“Odin’s ghost, ma’am,” Debra Hoffman said. “They say we’re nowhere near our own galaxy anymore. Where are we?”

“Let’s start with what facts we know, Debbie.” Traci focused on the ship’s surgeon with eyes that twinkled, conveying that she already knew the solution to the problem, but wanted to get everyone’s input before telling them. It also served to convey that the captain of the ship always knows more than everyone else. She turned and looked at Swanson, and he cleared his throat.

“We pursued a pirate raider after a very brazen attack on a merchant vessel, the third one this month. Once we lit up our engines, he picked us up on scanners and ran for deep space. Most pirates don’t take unnecessary risks unless they’re very stupid or crazy, or they have a plan to get to safe harbor after an attack. He pursued a specific course and then disappeared off of our scanners before we could cripple and board. Soon afterward, he appeared somewhere--we aren’t sure where yet--and fired on us,” he said. “Apparently he also had a friend.”

“But the pirates may have stumbled into some spatial anomaly and simply found themselves in a bad position just trying to defend themselves,” Harry Leung, the ship’s bosun, began slowly. Ganner shook her head sharply.

“No, he was not terribly surprised at all to see us when we arrived. He had four snap launchers and two internal missile racks ready for us when we appeared. He may not have known precisely when or where we would show up, but he was close and pointed in the right direction. If he had destroyed us, his secret hideout would still be a secret. In fact, it may still be safe, if his friend is able to get us into a position where he can finish the job. He may be leading us into additional danger, so let’s all stay on our toes. Charlie,” the helmsman’s head looked up from his data pad, “what do we know about the precise coordinates of both the pirate disappearance and our own?”

“We were approximately two light minutes out from the Antares observatory when he disappeared from our sensors. I have the coordinates here on the monitor,” Charlie answered. The overhead monitor showed two blinking dots relative to the Antares star system. “And here were our last known coordinates before navcomp lost tracking.” He overlaid an image of both the pirate vessel and the Corsair on the overhead plot. “The distance was only fifteen thousand kilometers.”

“Can you plot the position of the two pirate vessels when we first appeared here?” Swanson asked, looking intently at the plot as if trying to find an elusive pattern. He also knew that the Commander Ganner had already figured it out, but he wanted to get there as fast as he could, for his own peace of mind if nothing else. Within a few moments, the new positions appeared on the left side of the plot, leaving the right side to show the previous data. As the light began to dawn on what they were seeing, Commander Ganner spoke.

“It appears we have found a rift in space,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Based on the relative position and velocity of the pirate when we emerged here, he entered the anomaly first and answered to all stop. He then came about and waited for us to emerge.” She paused, and her eyes scanned her officers. Swanson straightened in his own chair, gazing at her anxiously as appreciation dawned. Her other officers were a little slower to put the pieces together, but one by one, they saw it too.

“But interspatial rifts are only theoretical,” Science Officer Taggert murmured. “We’ve never found one before.”

“Congratulations,” said Ganner. “You can be the one to name it. The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is, can we get back?”