well, then we might encounter a problem. Differing energy fields might interact and create problems like we once encountered with the malfunctioning anacapas, or the fields might repel each other.
Plus we don’t know what the force field will do to our skip or to the Two herself. Or to our diving equipment.
And then there’s the matter of the ships inside the force field. They might still have active anacapa drives as well.
Yash and I have gone through countless possibilities, and I know she’s gone through even more than I have, because at a certain point, my brain just turned to mush.
I figure we need to know what we’re facing, and then we deal with it.
It’s Yash’s job to get enough details so that we will know whether or not we can move forward.
“Well, Yash,” I say. “Can we do this?”
“You can count all you want,” she says to Mikk, or maybe she’s speaking to me. She thinks I’m asking about figuring out how many ships are inside the Boneyard. I was referring to the Boneyard herself.
I let Yash continue.
She’s looking at Mikk as she gives the rest of the instructions. “Just don’t use sensors on that force field. Take images from the outside, then have the computers count or something. I think it would be better, though, if you can actually verify how big this damn Boneyard is.”
She sounds distracted. She doesn’t care what we all do, as long as we leave her alone to finish her job.
I’m not sure how far along she is on this job.
“How many people do you need to work on the force field?” I ask quietly.
She glances at me. “I’m going to do it alone to start. I’ve brought a good team. They’ll back me up.”
I nod. I know better than to ask her how long this will take. Her answer would sound like an answer I would give the crew: It’ll take how long it takes.
Even though Coop wants answers yesterday, and even though we need more ships for our upcoming fight with the Empire, I’m trying to run this trip the way I would have run a dive in the old days: We’ll be here until we’re done.
I find that exciting. And liberating. And frightening.
Because I haven’t lived like a diver in nearly a decade. I’m out of practice.
And I know I have to get my head on straight before I can lead a team inside that Boneyard. I have to think like a diver, not like a corporate executive or a woman who’s worried about a war with a much larger power.
I have to think like the old Boss, and I haven’t been her for a long, long time.
THE FIRST SKIRMISH
ABOUT FOUR YEARS EARLIER
FOUR
STARBASE KAPPA SLIPPED. Coop knew no other way to describe the feeling. The entire base had shifted just a little.
He put out a gloved hand and braced himself. He stood inside what once had been the control room, although on starbases, the Fleet called these rooms headquarters, probably because back in the dark, dark ages, long before Coop was born, the Fleet allowed strangers to stay in the bases.
Not any longer. Well, that was obvious. But in Coop’s memory, the Fleet hadn’t allowed strangers on starbases.
He turned toward Yash.
She stood near one of the control panels, a pile of tools scattered on a small built-in table to her side. She had managed to turn on the gravity the moment the team arrived, but she hadn’t been able to get the atmosphere to work. The team needed environmental suits to explore the interior. Hers clung to her like a second skin. The visor half-hid her face.
“You feel that?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said, and she didn’t sound happy.
They both understood why. That slipping feeling was unique: it generally happened on a ship when an anacapa drive kicked in. Only they weren’t on a ship. They were on an old abandoned starbase, one that had caused problems in this sector for hundreds of years, if the stories Coop had heard could be believed.
The base had its own anacapa . All of the Fleet’s bases had had one. If the base
Plus we don’t know what the force field will do to our skip or to the Two herself. Or to our diving equipment.
And then there’s the matter of the ships inside the force field. They might still have active anacapa drives as well.
Yash and I have gone through countless possibilities, and I know she’s gone through even more than I have, because at a certain point, my brain just turned to mush.
I figure we need to know what we’re facing, and then we deal with it.
It’s Yash’s job to get enough details so that we will know whether or not we can move forward.
“Well, Yash,” I say. “Can we do this?”
“You can count all you want,” she says to Mikk, or maybe she’s speaking to me. She thinks I’m asking about figuring out how many ships are inside the Boneyard. I was referring to the Boneyard herself.
I let Yash continue.
She’s looking at Mikk as she gives the rest of the instructions. “Just don’t use sensors on that force field. Take images from the outside, then have the computers count or something. I think it would be better, though, if you can actually verify how big this damn Boneyard is.”
She sounds distracted. She doesn’t care what we all do, as long as we leave her alone to finish her job.
I’m not sure how far along she is on this job.
“How many people do you need to work on the force field?” I ask quietly.
She glances at me. “I’m going to do it alone to start. I’ve brought a good team. They’ll back me up.”
I nod. I know better than to ask her how long this will take. Her answer would sound like an answer I would give the crew: It’ll take how long it takes.
Even though Coop wants answers yesterday, and even though we need more ships for our upcoming fight with the Empire, I’m trying to run this trip the way I would have run a dive in the old days: We’ll be here until we’re done.
I find that exciting. And liberating. And frightening.
Because I haven’t lived like a diver in nearly a decade. I’m out of practice.
And I know I have to get my head on straight before I can lead a team inside that Boneyard. I have to think like a diver, not like a corporate executive or a woman who’s worried about a war with a much larger power.
I have to think like the old Boss, and I haven’t been her for a long, long time.
THE FIRST SKIRMISH
ABOUT FOUR YEARS EARLIER
FOUR
STARBASE KAPPA SLIPPED. Coop knew no other way to describe the feeling. The entire base had shifted just a little.
He put out a gloved hand and braced himself. He stood inside what once had been the control room, although on starbases, the Fleet called these rooms headquarters, probably because back in the dark, dark ages, long before Coop was born, the Fleet allowed strangers to stay in the bases.
Not any longer. Well, that was obvious. But in Coop’s memory, the Fleet hadn’t allowed strangers on starbases.
He turned toward Yash.
She stood near one of the control panels, a pile of tools scattered on a small built-in table to her side. She had managed to turn on the gravity the moment the team arrived, but she hadn’t been able to get the atmosphere to work. The team needed environmental suits to explore the interior. Hers clung to her like a second skin. The visor half-hid her face.
“You feel that?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said, and she didn’t sound happy.
They both understood why. That slipping feeling was unique: it generally happened on a ship when an anacapa drive kicked in. Only they weren’t on a ship. They were on an old abandoned starbase, one that had caused problems in this sector for hundreds of years, if the stories Coop had heard could be believed.
The base had its own anacapa . All of the Fleet’s bases had had one. If the base
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