![]() The kid was grinning up at him, gap-toothed and relieved. There was only room and time for a single decompression. She went on: "Our mission's to report back." Our instruments to a crisp." An imploring note had crept into her voice. Assuming the G's don't tear us apart or it sizzles Regardless, it's so far we're talking a one-way trip. "We can relocate it once we're clear," Veska said sharply. Sonoda could tell from his tone that Thekford had done the calculations as well. Numerals flickered steadily across his HUD as he reran them twice. Sonoda extruded an antenna from his helmet, set its oscillation rate, and scanned the wedge of starlight that the Nomad's vast sweepingĬurve was slowly devouring off to his right. Had considered himself impervious to forming sentimental attachments. With decades of training and self-discipline at his back, he Sonoda had insisted to be granted final veto power over all crew members. Personnel able to tolerate and function despite these rigors not only had to be trained but bred over generations, then enhanced for everything from metabolic bone density to Most curious about the wonders of the universe firsthand weren't necessarily graced with physiques conducive to prolonged existence in deep space, let alone conditions likely to be encountered on Whether to send a manned expedition at all but in the end it was decided that interstellar relations were too critical to entrust to machines.ĭesigning the Nomad itself took nearly a century. There had been the usual false starts and occasionally fatal growing pains of any expansion. The first step was to survey these distantĮager to enfold the myriad life-forms in its firm embrace of entrepreneurial spirit, the Cassians brooked no expense or technologicalīottlenecks in making space exploration their new priority. Of precious scions be frittered away in corrosive fortune redistributions. The Nomad's launch had been preceded by weeks of the most frenzied celebration in the planet's history.Ĭhampagne parades, pastries of lissome angels, and parties galore.Īfter centuries of internecine strife, unification had come to Cassus. "It's cycling over a billion ergs a second." In preparation to leap aboard into the decompression chamber yawning open beside him. "Show me in ten minutes." He bunched his shoulders Sonoda resisted the urge to look over his shoulder at the looming whorls of nebulae. A cycling radiation bandwidth unlike anything we've For the Nomad's new Science Officer, this was an unusually loquacious utterance. "Captain, stand by," said Science Officer Thekford in Sonoda propelled himself along the rungs set into the hull towards the hatchway. Jellyfish the size of whales that Nomad was thankfully too miniscule to entice. Machine intelligences that piloted worlds like dragsters. Massive dark matter worms that preyed onīlack holes. Granite humanoids of consummate martial prowess. Volcanic eruptions severe enough to dent the ship's hull from orbit. Plasma-based organisms awed that meat-like beings such as humans couldĮxist, let alone master space travel. In that time they'd seen more wonders than they'd dreamt possible in a single lifetime. Again.Īs the Cassian civilization's first space travelers, to have even survived this long was a victory. Tongues of blue flame chugged from the boosters, silhouetting Krint's spindly outline against the brightness as Power back where it belonged before it could fry their power core. He joined the cables strung between his fingers, while simultaneously far below him Krint flipped the switch, diverting the emergency Sonoda had promised to take care of the kid, to whateverĮxtent such terms even applied in deep space. But the repair-drone was on the fritz again and Schade was dead. ![]() Whose father had wept with pride at the Nomad's christening ceremony. "Krint?" He looked down at the tech officer far below him. "Cap?" First Officer Veska sounded as if she were right beside him, scaling the hull of the unpowered starship on the edge of space. Life throughout the unexplored reaches of the galaxy, the Nomad mysteriously disappeared and was never heard from again.įrom the glare filling his helmet, Captain Sonoda figured he had thirteen minutes before the exploding nebula over his shoulder baked himĪnd the four hundred people on the other side of the meter-thick vibranium hull to a crisp. Research vessel Nomad was proudly launched by the newly united Commonwealth civilization of Cassus on a historic, publicly celebrated voyage of discovery.
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