The Aurora (Aurora Saga, Book 1) by Adrian Fulcher

all flashed through his mind.
    From within the seatra and using his mind, James watched the Aurora enter the photosphere. All was calm for a second, then the turbulence hit. Kalrea desperately tried to keep the rotating Aurora on course. Tremendous vibrations rippled around the ship.
    Forty seconds , Kalrea’s voice calmly said.
    An immense heat radiated throughout the ship. The hull made a creaking and cracking noise.
    Thirty seconds.
    James nervously listened and watched Kalrea at work.
    Suddenly, an alarm sounded.
    ‘WARNING: PORT REACTOR UNSTABLE.’
    A segment of the equilibrium field coil had collapsed in the port plasma reactor, making it unstable. Immediately, four large ducts above the reactor disengaged and retracted from the casing. The floor around the base of the reactor started to glow before the displaced plasma was directed out into space.
    ‘PORT REACTOR OFFLINE.’
    ‘VENTING PLASMA.’
    ‘RE-ROUTING TO FRONT REACTOR.’
    The status of the ship’s systems flashed instructions into James head faster than he could understand them.
    Twenty seconds.
    Another alarm sounded.
    ‘WARNING: INNER EVENT HORIZON DRIVES OVERHEATING.’
    There was a deafening bang, caused by an implosion within the starboard inner drive chamber. The explosion rocked the Aurora. The drive cone let out a burst of bright orange light.
    What the hell was that? James thought.
    He viewed the empty drive chamber. The black hole had collapsed within the chamber.
    ‘DRIVE PROTECTION ENGAGED.’
    ‘INNER EVENT HORIZON DRIVES OFFLINE.’
    ‘ENGAGING OUTER EVENT HORIZON DRIVES.’
    Ten sec— Kalrea’s voice stopped abruptly.
    A second later the outer drives started.
    Kalrea, he shouted in his mind, but there was no reply. Kalrea, the ship’s starting to spin , he thought urgently. James felt vulnerable for the first time in his life; he had to focus or death was a real possibility.
    The Aurora rolled and started to deviate from its intended course.
    Panic coursed through this mind. Everything seemed to be important at the same time, and he moved franticly from one problem to another, achieving nothing.
    This is useless. I can’t do this, Kalrea! Please answer me.
    There was no reply.
    Kalrea, don’t do this. Please, I need you. She’s not there. What’s that alarm? Too many alarms! I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die alone! Overwhelmed by fear, his mind just seemed to stop, like he couldn’t think of anything. Then, for a brief moment he thought of Carol and Lex. Mum, I’m going to die.
    His attention was briefly focused outside the ship. Normia seemed to disappear for a moment and was replaced by an orange and yellow mist, and then without warning, the star appeared once more.
    What the… he thought.
    The ship suddenly vibrated violently .
    ‘WARNING: EVENT HORIZON DRIVES OVERHEATING.’
    Pull yourself together. You didn’t come all this way to give up now! You can’t deal with everything at the same time, so don’t. He concentrated hard. One problem at a time. First, direction. Must get the ship on course. James steered the Aurora back onto the path Kalrea had calculated. Good. Right, now speed. The ship is travelling too fast; I must slow down. Drive temperature seems to be rising too quickly.
    He now focused. One by one, the problems started to disappear. The navigation system flashed into his mind.
    ‘FIVE SECONDS.’
    Concentrate. Nearly there… Wait, what’s that?
    ‘EVENT HORIZON DRIVE PROTECTION ENGAGED.’
    I can’t lose the drives , James thought. We’re almost out. Must override!
    ‘WARNING: EVENT HORIZON DRIVE CRITICAL. IMPLOSION IMMINENT.’
    ‘THREE SECONDS.’
    Oh no, the ship’s going to explode! The Aurora burst free from the photosphere. James instantly took the drives offline and the ship, highlighted by a halo of white heat, coasted silently away from Normia. While the ship was cooling rapidly, swirling vortexes of heat radiated from its edges and a cloud of plasma was venting from the