Extremis Read Online Free PDF Page B

between dance steps if they decide to rush through. Now,” she said, changing tone as she looked at Commander Samantha Mackintosh, her chief of operations and resident expert on damned near everything, “how in Vishnu’s name does that minesweeper of theirs work, Sam?”
    “Uh, sir, as Paulo—er, as Captain Velasquez pointed out, we just don’t have any technical specs on—”
    “Sam, I know you’ve got blank data screens right now. I’m talking theoretically. How could they manage an immediate discharge—of any thing—right after warp transit? Everything we’ve got—and everything we’ve seen of theirs—spends at least half a second realigning itself after going through a warp point. But that damn thing’s discharge was well-nigh instantaneous.”
    “To be precise, 0.002 seconds after arrival,” supplied Velasquez.
    Samantha did not look up from her screens. “Sir—I’m sorry. I don’t have the faintest idea how they’re doing that. It shouldn’t be possible.”
    “No,” agreed Watanabe, “it shouldn’t be. But we just saw it.”
    “And stood by while it started blasting a path through our mines.” Krishmahnta frowned, set an incisor down on her lower lip, then winced away from the swollen blister that had already arisen there in reaction to her habitual biting. “Next time, we’ll have to lay the mines back farther from the warp point.”
    “Which is just what they want, I imagine.”
    “Then we’ll have to find a way to make them wish they’d never wanted it.” Krishmahnta rubbed her lip. “Sam, how long— exactly how long—does warp-point transit disorient a ship?”
    “Well, sir, it depends.”
    “On what?”
    “On a whole lot of variables. Such as the gravitic signature particular to each warp point, the angle of entry, time elapsed since the warp point was last used for a transit, organic systems versus electronic systems, the size of the—”
    “Wait a minute. Organics versus electronics—can you detail that?”
    “Not much. A little. Back before the Fringe Rebellion, the old Terran Federation did some studies, but they never amounted to much, since you can’t—”
    “The details, Sam.”
    “Uh, yes, sir. There are two rules of thumb. First, organics reorient faster than electronics. Second, simple systems reorient faster than complex ones.”
    “Fastest and slowest rates?”
    “Without researching the data, sir, I’m guessing—”
    “Then guess, Sam—and hurry it up.”
    “The simplest organic object, a unicellular organism, would probably reorient in under one-tenth of a second. Conversely, complex electronics like a third-generation quantum computer would take up to two seconds.”
    Krishmahnta stared at the holotank for a moment. Then: “Lieutenant Lachow, fleet signal direct to Lieutenant Commander Mikopolous, commanding RFNS Balu Bay . Have her advance to three light-seconds’ distance from warp point, offset from its center axis by sixty degrees opposite the direction of the ecliptic’s rotation, and sixty degrees beneath its zero-reference.”
    “Sixty trailing by sixty declination. Aye, sir.”
    “ Balu Bay is to take up that new position at better than best speed. Once on-site, she is to run all sensors active, full gain.”
    Lachow looked up from his console. “Sensors active , sir?”
    “Active, Lieutenant. If we’re going to get a look at one of these things, we’ll have to have our eyes wide open the instant it transits the warp point.”
    Watanabe leaned close to Krishmahnta’s ear. “Admiral, with sensors active—”
    “Your reservations are duly noted, ’Nab—and yes, if the next thing the bastards send through is an SBMHAWK, Balu Bay doesn’t have a chance. She’s too small, too close to the warp point, and will be too bright a target not to take a contact hit.” Which, given the antimatter warheads carried by almost all ship’s missiles, meant a certainty of instant vaporization. “But we’ve got to get a better look at