Read Frontiers 07 - The Expanse for Free Online

hoped, everyone on the bridge was busy attending to their respective duties as the Aurora prepared for departure. Satisfied that no one was paying him undue attention, he leaned to his right and spoke in a hushed tone. “Are you nervous?”
    “What?” Josh replied with more volume than Loki would have liked.
    Loki looked about again. “Are you nervous?”
    “What is there to be nervous about? It’s not like we haven’t flown this ship before.”
    “But we’re about to fly it to the other side of the galaxy.”
    “It’s only a thousand light years, Loki,” Josh reminded his friend, “and it’ll take us less time to get there than it originally took you to get to Haven.”
    “Maybe, but still, we’re leaving everything and everyone we know behind.”
    “Good riddance, I say.”
    “Easy enough for you; Marcus is coming, too. But I may never see my family again. And they don’t even know I’m leaving.”
    “You sent them word, didn’t you?”
    “Yeah, through Tug, or Prince Casimir, or whatever we’re supposed to call him these days. The captain assured me that Tug would get word to them.” Loki scanned his displays once more, sighing at the thought of never seeing his parents and his sister again. “I just wish I could have told them myself, I guess.”
    “Don’t sweat it,” Josh told him. “Considering the state of the cluster right now, you may be back before they even get the message.”
    “That’s not helping.”
    “You know what your problem is, Loki? You think too much.”
    “I think too much? How does one think too much?”
    “You’re always thinking about all the little, related things. You need to be more like me.”
    “You mean charging through life at a million kilometers per second without any forethought?”
    Josh grinned. “It is less complicated.”
    “No thanks. I’d rather think too much.”
    “Suit yourself,” Josh said, “but all that thinking can get in the way. Trust me.”
    “How would you even know?” Loki wondered.
    “I used to be just like you when I first started flying. Believe it or not, it was Marcus who set me straight. He taught me to use my instincts instead of trying to analyze the life out of everything.”
    “Is that what you think I do?”
    “Pretty much.”
    “Well, one of us has to,” Loki said, “or else you’d surely get us killed.”
    “Why do you think I fly with you?” Josh added with a wink.

    * * *
    “I see we’re not taking a direct route out of the Pentaurus cluster,” Nathan commented as he examined the departure course displayed on the wall-mounted display above the couch in his ready room.
    “There are still quite a few inhabited systems between Darvano and the edge of the sector,” Cameron said. “I thought it best to avoid contact with anyone else on our way out.”
    “Not a bad idea, Commander. How many jumps will that add?”
    “Only four, sir.”
    “We’re still sticking to jumps of ten light years?”
    “For now,” Cameron said. “Abby still isn’t ready to try increasing our range. She expects she’ll be ready by the time we clear the Pentaurus sector. However, the good news is that the upgrades installed by the Takarans have cut our recharge time in half. So the four extra jumps will only cost us twenty hours instead of forty.”
    “I’ve got no problem giving up a day to avoid extra complications,” Nathan said. “I’ve had enough of those to last me a lifetime.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Then we’re all set to depart?”
    “We’re still waiting on engineering. Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy wanted to make one last check of the backup fusion reactors that the Takarans installed.”
    “He still doesn’t trust them, does he?”
    “The Takarans?”
    “No, their fusion reactors,” Nathan said.
    “I think he just doesn’t completely understand them yet; that’s all. Until he does, I don’t think he can trust them.”
    “According to Vlad, the Takarans’ knowledge of controlled fusion is