The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel by Raymond L. Weil Page A

them.”
    “Jeremy’s
correct,” Ariel added. She was standing behind Jeremy with her arms folded
across her chest. “I don’t believe the Simulins will be wasting any resources
here in the nebula. They lost a lot of ships and are probably in the process of
reconsolidating their forces.”
    Commander
Malen nodded and then turned toward the Helm. “Prepare to enter hyperspace, all
ships to maintain standard spacing and form up on the Avenger and the Star
Seeker when we reach the first set of coordinates.”
    A few moments later,
a blue-white spatial vortex formed in front of the battleship and it quickly accelerated
into its center. Around it, other similar vortexes were being entered by the
rest of the ships of the fleet.
    -
    Grayseth watched
the main viewscreen in the Command Center of his flagship, the Warrior’s
Pride . He had ten Carethian battlecruisers with him as well as twenty of
the small Carethian medium cruisers. There were also twelve of the massive
fifteen-hundred-meter AI spheres serving as escorts.
    “All ships
except us have entered hyperspace,” reported Ganlon, Grayseth’s second in
command.
    “Take us in,”
Grayseth ordered as he folded his powerful arms across his chest. “We must
ensure our clan brother remains safe.” Grayseth placed the safety of Jeremy and
the Avenger as his top priority.
    The Warrior’s
Pride entered the vortex and made the transition. Grayseth merely grunted
as he felt the momentary disorientation associated with entering hyperspace.
    -
    Ten jumps
later, the Avenger burst out of its spatial vortex less than a light
year away from what was once the dark matter nebula. Almost immediately, alarms
began sounding and concerned voices began swearing over the ship-to-ship
minicomm.
    “Radiation
warning,” Ariel reported as she hurriedly forced the ship’s powerful energy shield
to snap into being. Giving it precedence over everything else.
    The Avenger shook violently and even the lights flickered.
    “What happened?”
demanded Jeremy, turning toward Ariel who was standing slightly behind him on
his left side with a look of deep concern on her youthful face.
    “We jumped
into a region of intense radiation,” the beautiful black-haired AI answered.
“This should have been a clear area. Something’s wrong.”
    Commander
Malen turned toward Jeremy. “Energy shield is at maximum and all systems are
working at optimum levels. Radiation has dropped to an acceptable level.”
    “Jeremy, the
viewscreens,” said Kevin, his eyes widening. “Where are we?”
    Shifting his
attention to the viewscreens all Jeremy could see was a sea of white light.
    “I don’t like
this,” muttered Kevin worriedly. “What’s going on?”
    “Ariel?”
Jeremy asked as he tried to understand what he was seeing.
    “It’s
radiation and ionized hydrogen,” Ariel reported as she quickly checked the
ship’s sensors. She was surprised to see the radiation was already having an effect
on the ship’s energy screen. “We can’t stay here too long before our energy
shield begins to fail.”
    Jeremy took a
deep breath before asking the next question. “Our other ships?”
    “Okay,” she
answered. “Some of the crews may need to be treated for radiation exposure, but
the energy shields are protecting us now.”
    Jeremy shook
his head and looked over at Kelsey. He couldn’t imagine her making such a
navigation error as to put the fleet in the middle of a radiation field. “Kelsey,
why did we emerge in the middle of this radiation?”
    Kelsey looked
confused. “We shouldn’t have. This should have been a clear area.”
    “Are we at the
right coordinates?”
    “Yes,” she
answered promptly. “I’ve already checked the calculations, and we’re exactly
where we’re supposed to be.”
    “Well,
something’s not right.”
    “I have Andram
on the comm,” reported Lieutenant Lantz. “He’s suggesting we make a short jump
of one-half of a light-year farther out from the location of the