Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) by Michael G. Thomas

alarms were triggered, but it was nothing like
when the engines themselves had been detonated. Even so, it
appeared the vessel had sustained yet another setback. Captain
Raikes shook his head, fearful of even contemplating what might
have happened.
    “What was that?” he called out.
    “ Blast on
L evel Four at the secondary lifeboat
station. Internal fire fighting system is in action.”
    One of the marines from the corridor
entered the CIC.
    “Captain, it’s our marines. We just
lost contact with a squad at the lifeboat station. Lieutenant
Davies isn’t responding.”
    The Chief Engineer altered the main
display to bring up the status indicators of each of the ship’s
sections. He pointed to the damaged lifeboat station.
    “ Here, Sir. Looks
like there was a blast. It took out one of the manoeuvring
thrusters and a backup generator. Nothing we can manage without, so
it seems we were lucky.
    “ Sir, I have
Sergeant Travis from ANS Dragon on comms. He says his team has
boarded the lower levels and are inside the damaged
section.”
    Captain Raikes
nodded, but deep down he didn’t want to know what had
happened.
    “Put him on loud speaker.”
    “ There are bodies
everywhere. L ooks like there was a blast
down here...” the audio cracked for a moment before returning,
“bodies of marines...bloody hell, the Captain is here. Sent medevac
now. There’s blood everywhere!”
    Captain Raikes knew
deep down that he’d just suffered major casualties, but the only
good news was that the engineering appeared sound. There would be
time to mourn their losses later, for now he had one thing to worry
about, getting that rift open.
    “ Understood,
Sergeant.” He indicated with his right hand for the standby teams
to be sent. “Teams are on the way.”
    He then turned to the helmsman who was
working closely with the two frigates that had been manoeuvring
them into position.
    “How are we doing on the
positioning?”
    The man looked back to him with a hint
of a smile.
    “Sir, we’re there. Only a few metres
for optimum range.”
    Thank
the Gods! N ow, will this
thing work? He thought
nervously.
    The Chief Engineer
already had the primary displays showing the Rift and the status of
all the main components of ANS Beagle. Every item that was required
to create the connection had been double and triple checked to
ensure the activation would go to plan. He turned to the Captain
and nodded.
    “ Sir, everything is
ready. Distance is correct, and we have enough power to start the
capacitors.”
    Captain Raikes
rubbed his forehead nervously. He had a terrible feeling that once
the system was started, they would hit another problem. With the
massive levels of energy being created, an attack of some kind
could have terrible consequences for both the Rift and ANS Beagle.
He reached out and grabbed the intercom microphone.
    “ Commodore Lewis,
w e are in position and ready to start the
sequence. Are your frigates at a safe distance?”
    “ Good work, Captain.
Yes, they are in formation with my flagship. Proceed with haste.
Good luck.”
    He tapped a button on the console and
switched the system to a ship-wide transmission.
    “ This is the
Captain. We are starting the rift generation sequence. If this
works, we will have created the first stable Spacebridge that can
reach out this far. Double-check your stations, and if any of you
are believers, pray now!”
    He replaced the
handset, and for a second contemplated the odd idea of praying to a
deity in this day and age. It always amazed him how people found
God under the most dire of circumstances. Not that he did, but at
that very moment, he wished he did. He took a final deep breath and
nodded to the Chief Engineer.
    “Okay, it’s now or never. Activate the
bridge.”
    With no more than a
nod, the man started up the rift generator sequence. It was the
first time the equipment had been used to do this, and it would
require almost all the stored energy of the vessel to create