Read Ep.#9 - "Resistance" for Free Online

it, then, Commander.”
    “Thank you, Captain.”
    “Is there anything else?”
    “The cheng reports the jump shuttle is finally operational again. However, he is requesting a few test jumps before it goes back into regular service.”
    “Not a moment too soon,” Nathan said. “Tell Vlad he gets one test jump, then we have missions for that shuttle. After that, have him divide up the men that had been working on the jump shuttle, half to the Falcon’s repair team and half to Lieutenant Montgomery’s improved jump shuttle project.”
    “He’s already planning on doing just that, sir.”
    “Very well,” Nathan said. “Make sure our last jump is at least three light years shy of 72 Herculis. That place was a hornet’s nest last time we were here, and Josh and Loki stirred it up a bit. We’ll send the jump shuttle to the outer edge of the system and let them collect old light data for a few hours before we send Loki and the major to Tanna.”
    “Yes, sir. Is there anything else, sir?”
    “No, Commander. You’re dismissed.”
    Cameron turned to exit.
    “Commander,” Nathan said before she reached the hatch, “join me in the captain’s mess at nineteen hundred. You can tell me about your long-term strategies then.” A small smile crept back onto his face.
    “You may regret that invitation,” she said as she turned to exit.
    * * *
    “Ensign Delaveaga,” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic greeted.
    “Evening, sir,” Luis answered as he made his way to the tactical station on the Celestia’s bridge. Although they had no weapons, the tactical station had been configured by the two civilian technicians stranded on board to display most of the critical systems on the bridge.
    “Actually, it’s early morning, at least by Earth Mean Time.”
    “Guess I’ve lost track of the time of day, what with all the shift swapping going on.” With only six members of the fleet on the Celestia’s command deck, they had to work in pairs to man the bridge twenty-four hours a day.
    “Ensign Goba should be back on his feet in a few days. Until then, we’ll just have to keep juggling things around.”
    “Couldn’t we just have one guy monitoring this station and the other guy sleeping in the ready room?” Luis said.
    “Isn’t that what you guys are doing already?”
    “Not me, sir,” Luis said, feigning innocence.
    “Of course not,” the lieutenant commander said. “What was I thinking?”
    “Anything new happen while I was gone?”
    “Jupiter keeps getting bigger on the screen,” the lieutenant commander said, pointing at the image of the big, orange gas-giant on the tactical display screen. “Other than that, nada.” The lieutenant commander stepped out of Luis’s way. “We are going to miss it, right?”
    “I run the numbers every shift at the beginning, middle, and end, sir. They’re always the same. We’re just going to cruise on by. The planet’s gravity will slow us slightly and change our course a full degree, but we’ll miss her for sure.”
    “Just checking,” the lieutenant commander said as he patted Luis on the back. “I know you’re pulling back-to-backs, so I’ll be in to relieve you in four.”
    “That won’t be necessary, sir. I’ll be fine. We’ve still got plenty of coffee, and I still have more than half the flight manual left to read.”
    “As you wish, Ensign.”
    Luis settled into his seat behind the tactical console as the lieutenant commander departed. “How’s your back doing, Gus?” he called out to Ensign Schenker at the sensor station.
    “Still hurts.”
    “Anything interesting on sensors?”
    “Nothing but swirls of gas on Jupiter.”
    “Still can’t see anything around Earth?”
    “Nope. I can’t pick up squat on the short-range passive array, at least not at this distance. You’d think they would have installed the long-range stuff, knowing they were going to send us on a one-way trip into deep space and all.”
    “You’d think,” Luis said. After