Penance (RN: Book 2) by David Gunner Read Free Book Online Page A

“Unconfirmed at this distance, commander. But with the inherent energy of this signature, I’d say it’s easily capable of causing the splash damage as witnessed in the other residual gate event.” Cummings peeked at Denz over her console as she finished talking.
    Denz noticed her flustered look and turned away. “That’ll do me,” he said gripping the arms of his chair and sitting back. “Navigation! Time to new target?”
    “Time to target, twenty four minutes, commander,” the navigator responded.
    “Take us there. Maximum sub-light,” Canthouse said.
    Even though intersecting fields of the stability dampers enveloped the entire ship, rendering all inertia based movement undetectable, Denz could swear he felt the slight surge as the ship powered forward. Apparently, he was not the only one as he witnessed Canthouse gripping the ops console to steady himself, but it was all just a sensory illusion based on perceived reactions to what his memory told him an accelerating ship felt like.
    Twenty minutes later a beep came from the operations console. “Sir, I believe I can get you a visual,” the Cummings said.
    The view flickered from the belted rust of the nebulae to an identical view of the belted rust of nebulae, with this one containing a dark spot that transformed into a dense algae mist as the ship approached. Denz observed the navigator slowing the ship as they neared, and again swore he felt the slight lurch of a decelerating vehicle, so he concentrated on the screen to keep from becoming distracted.
    As they approached the bloom expanded to become a boiling marine green thunderhead that had exceeded the view screen’s capacity to zoom out and now filled the display.
    “Distance?” asked Denz.
    “Six thousand kilometres,” the navigator responded.
    “Ops!” Denz glanced at Cummings who worked as if possessed with the light of her flickering display illuminating a face that had returned to its intense professionalism.
    “Computers chewing on it, sir,” Cummings responded. After a few seconds a dual tone twitter game from the operations console. “Sir, the computer reports that the cloud is composed of a mixture of heavy ferrites with no distinct point of origin, and though it’s clearly in a fluidic state, it’s registering as solid. It’s essentially an enormous cloud of rust.”
    “Size?”
    “I’m unsure, commander, as everything but the e-band sensors are being reflected back, and they can’t penetrate more than a few hundred meters. But it’s expanding at a rate of three thousand cubic kilometres per second and increasing.”
    “Is it a danger to the ship?” asked Canthouse with command concern.
    “I don’t think so, sir, as it’s a volumetric increase. If its expansion remains consis –“
    “What was that?” The slim red haired navigator said jumping forward in his seat to point at the screen.
    “What was what?” asked Denz staring at the boiling green cloud that filled the display.
    “I saw it too!” Weps said.
    “Saw what? Speak up man!” Denz snapped looking between the pale skinned navigator and dark skinned weapons specialist.
    The weapons officer pointed to the left of the screen, “Something moved just beneath the sur –“
    “There!“ cried the helmsman half-standing and an excited finger stabbing toward the screen.
    A dual tone twitter came from the ops console at the exact moment Denz witnessed the object partially break the surface of the mist. He found himself awed and stood slowly, using the rear of the two seats in front of the command podium to support himself as he leaned forward to watch the back of some great scaled creature broke the surface of the marine green cloud, and cut along like a reptile through stagnant water. He couldn’t recognise any features, but whatever it maybe it was at least three times the size of the Bristol, possibly larger. The bridge was tomb silent as the crew watched the creature glide along the surface until it