Chapter 6
Date: March 21, 5027
Somewhere in outer space
As we rocketed away from Kulbar towards Earth we worked on the walker. It was a mess; I had never had the chance to get a close look at it. There were hunks of metal lodged in the armor across the front of the walker. One especially large chunk was stuck in between the forward cannons.
“How are we gonna get that out,” I asked.
“With this…”
He was holding a rectangular remote with several buttons and fingerpads.
“What does it do?”
“It controls the cargo mover,” he explained, “We just move it near the walker and latch it onto the piece of durasteel, then pull.”
“What do we use to attach the mover to the durasteel?”
“You’re all questions aren’t you?”
“Pretty much.”
We hooked the mover to the durasteel chunk with a hook through a shred in the steel. It took a lot of pulling and grinding but finally the steel chunk came out.
“That’s a pretty good sized chunk,” Bud commented.
“I’ll say… where is the sealant?”
“It should be in one of the emergency lockers, if they still have it.”
“Where are the lockers?”
“Over by the window.”
Questions, Questions!“I’ll check. What? normal space? Bud…,” I trailed off, “oh man…”
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHH…THOCK!
The whole ship shook under the impact of a large meteor, though the deflectors took most of the punishment.
“Bud! Were in an asteroid field!”
“Get to the helm!”
We ran to the cockpit of the rocket. All we saw through it was asteroids, meteors, and space debris.
“We came out of the Jump too quickly!”
I had set the navigational computer to start a hyperspace jump when we were out of the mass shadow of Kulbar. We came out of it far too early.
“How did we come out so early?” I pondered.
“That could be our problem,” Bud said pointing at the massive ship that loomed before us. It was a Seta- Class Dregnaught, which had a surprising enhancement; it contained Gravity well projectors which mimic mass shadows, therefore forcefully pulling us out of our jump.
I hurriedly sat in the pilot’s seat and took control of the ship.
“Good thing you chose this ship, Bud, I need the maneuverability.”
He had chosen a Frigate that was combat upgraded with enhanced shields and weapons emplacements. It also had advanced maneuverability fins attached behind the Ion Engines.
“Well you just get us to Earth in one piece.”
“I’ll try!”