stood up and walked away from the screen, and a Beta 4 woman took the chair. She seemed to be only a little more in control of herself than David had been.
"Mickey, my name is Janad. I'm sorry to meet you under such circumstances, and sorry," her voice broke and then she contained herself, "to have to tell you . . . We just got a message from the station. They intercepted a coded transmission. A Reliance task force was sent after RJ's ship, and they are saying that they destroyed it. That there were no survivors."
"Marge, she should have known, surely she would have intercepted . . . So it can't be true." Except that I ordered Marge to shut down all unnecessary functions and focus only on our immediate problem . "Marge, find RJ's ship, contact RJ's ship," Mickey ordered.
"I told you, I cannot find the ship," Marge said.
"What do you mean?" Mickey asked, slamming his fist down on the console in frustration. "What do you mean you can't find the ship?"
"It doesn't exist."
"No!" Mickey screamed, his own tears starting to fall like rain. "This can't be happening. They can't be dead."
"Intercepting an encoded message from Reliance battle carrier, Rotania," Marge droned.
"Well decode it, you stupid computer!" Mickey screamed.
There was only a few seconds pause, but it might as well have been a million years.
"Rotania log. Our ships the Boxton, Hepler, Delmark, and the carrier Rotania found the rebel leader RJ's stolen ship and followed it at a distance beyond her detection equipment in hyperspace to a point where she was too far from any gate to make a successful jump. We then closed in and opened fire. She put up a fight and the Boxton took minor damage as did the Delmark, but I'm pleased to say that in the end we were victorious and the ship was hit in its reactor which caused a chain reaction which vaporized the ship. No one could have survived the explosion, and no escape pods or ships were lunched prior to the explosion. Shortly after we dispatched the rebels' ship a fully loaded Argy battle fleet attacked us . . ." It went on to make an exact list of all their damages.
Mickey hadn't heard anything past "she put up a fight." He knew what was coming after that, and didn't need to hear it yet again. They were gone. They were all gone. Topaz, Levits, Poley and RJ.
He and David were now the only members of the original inner circle left. The battle was left to them to fight alone, and now they could never retreat.
RJ looked at Poley across the bridge. "How long?" she asked.
Poley shrugged. "Two months, three if we cut all life support in the ship, keep the solar sails fully opened and the scoops fully pulling. If we don't go to warp one."
It was a death sentence, and she was doubly glad that she'd decided to talk to her brother about it when both Topaz and Levits were asleep.
Firing the armaments had depleted their fuel cells, and they weren't picking up enough radiation with the scoops to make a real difference.
"What if we jettison everything? Every chair, every pot, every pan?" RJ asked.
"You'd waste more energy opening and closing the airlocks and re-pressurizing than you'd save losing the weight," Poley informed.
RJ nodded. She had thought as much.
"Of course there is all that radioactive gold," Poley said.
"What!"
"The safe full of radioactive gold," Poley said with a shrug.
RJ jumped out of her chair, ran over, and hugged and kissed the robot. Then she started pacing back and forth.
"I must be just completely freaking losing it! Here we are wondering where we're going to get fuel for our fusion reactor, and we've got one thousand five hundred and sixty three pounds of radioactive gold," RJ said in disbelief. "If we used it for fuel, how long would it last?"
"With the gravity fields and the life supports shut down, fifteen years, maybe more. It depends on the efficiency of the solar
"Mickey, my name is Janad. I'm sorry to meet you under such circumstances, and sorry," her voice broke and then she contained herself, "to have to tell you . . . We just got a message from the station. They intercepted a coded transmission. A Reliance task force was sent after RJ's ship, and they are saying that they destroyed it. That there were no survivors."
"Marge, she should have known, surely she would have intercepted . . . So it can't be true." Except that I ordered Marge to shut down all unnecessary functions and focus only on our immediate problem . "Marge, find RJ's ship, contact RJ's ship," Mickey ordered.
"I told you, I cannot find the ship," Marge said.
"What do you mean?" Mickey asked, slamming his fist down on the console in frustration. "What do you mean you can't find the ship?"
"It doesn't exist."
"No!" Mickey screamed, his own tears starting to fall like rain. "This can't be happening. They can't be dead."
"Intercepting an encoded message from Reliance battle carrier, Rotania," Marge droned.
"Well decode it, you stupid computer!" Mickey screamed.
There was only a few seconds pause, but it might as well have been a million years.
"Rotania log. Our ships the Boxton, Hepler, Delmark, and the carrier Rotania found the rebel leader RJ's stolen ship and followed it at a distance beyond her detection equipment in hyperspace to a point where she was too far from any gate to make a successful jump. We then closed in and opened fire. She put up a fight and the Boxton took minor damage as did the Delmark, but I'm pleased to say that in the end we were victorious and the ship was hit in its reactor which caused a chain reaction which vaporized the ship. No one could have survived the explosion, and no escape pods or ships were lunched prior to the explosion. Shortly after we dispatched the rebels' ship a fully loaded Argy battle fleet attacked us . . ." It went on to make an exact list of all their damages.
Mickey hadn't heard anything past "she put up a fight." He knew what was coming after that, and didn't need to hear it yet again. They were gone. They were all gone. Topaz, Levits, Poley and RJ.
He and David were now the only members of the original inner circle left. The battle was left to them to fight alone, and now they could never retreat.
RJ looked at Poley across the bridge. "How long?" she asked.
Poley shrugged. "Two months, three if we cut all life support in the ship, keep the solar sails fully opened and the scoops fully pulling. If we don't go to warp one."
It was a death sentence, and she was doubly glad that she'd decided to talk to her brother about it when both Topaz and Levits were asleep.
Firing the armaments had depleted their fuel cells, and they weren't picking up enough radiation with the scoops to make a real difference.
"What if we jettison everything? Every chair, every pot, every pan?" RJ asked.
"You'd waste more energy opening and closing the airlocks and re-pressurizing than you'd save losing the weight," Poley informed.
RJ nodded. She had thought as much.
"Of course there is all that radioactive gold," Poley said.
"What!"
"The safe full of radioactive gold," Poley said with a shrug.
RJ jumped out of her chair, ran over, and hugged and kissed the robot. Then she started pacing back and forth.
"I must be just completely freaking losing it! Here we are wondering where we're going to get fuel for our fusion reactor, and we've got one thousand five hundred and sixty three pounds of radioactive gold," RJ said in disbelief. "If we used it for fuel, how long would it last?"
"With the gravity fields and the life supports shut down, fifteen years, maybe more. It depends on the efficiency of the solar
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