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

nova. He
believes that will put us outside the radiation field.”
    “Calculate it,
Kelsey, and then transmit the new coordinates to all of the ships.” Jeremy
looked at the viewscreens with a deep frown. “I don’t want to stay here any
longer than we need to.”
    -
    Moments later,
the fleet jumped once more. This time when the ships exited hyperspace they
were in normal space. The radiation alarms stayed silent.
    -
    “Jump complete
and all ships are moving into their support positions,” reported Commander
Malen. “The Warrior’s Pride is off our starboard bow.”
    Jeremy smiled.
He knew Grayseth would be close by. The large Bear took his responsibility of
keeping the Avenger and the fleet safe very seriously.
    “Radiation is
normal for this area,” Ariel added.
    “No unknown
contacts,” reported Kevin. “Sensors are clear.”
    Jeremy turned
toward Communications. “Lieutenant Lantz, get Andram on the comm. I want to
know what the hell we jumped into back there.”
    “Yes,
Admiral,” Shayla responded.
    Looking at the
viewscreens, Jeremy saw they were now showing normal views of space, if being
inside a nebula with over two hundred blue-giants could be called normal.
    “Admiral,”
Lieutenant Lantz said. “Andram and Shilum want to come over to the Avenger and speak with you personally.”
    “Well, that’s
not good news,” muttered Kevin. He knew only something of significance would
bring the two Altons to the Avenger .
    Jeremy glanced
over at Kevin but didn’t reply. Instead, he addressed Lieutenant Lantz. “Inform
Andram I’ll be waiting for them.” He then looked over at Ariel. “Any idea about
what might be going on?”
    “No,” Ariel
replied, her dark eyes looking slightly confused. “However, I’m certain it
relates to the radiation field we found ourselves in earlier.”
    Jeremy gazed
at one of the viewscreens on the front wall. It was showing a nearby blue-giant
star. The screen had been adjusted to show the colors and the star seemed so
majestic just sitting there on the screen. He had a bad feeling he wasn’t going
to like what he was about to hear from Andram.
    -
    Jeremy,
Commander Malen, and Ariel were in the briefing room along with Andram and
Shilum.
    “I am sorry to
call this meeting,” began Andram, running his right hand through his thick
white hair. “But I fear we may have made a huge mistake in destroying the Dyson
Sphere.”
    “What?” said Jeremy,
aghast at hearing Andram say those words. “Why?” Destroying the Dyson Sphere
had helped secure the safety of the home galaxy as well as seriously weakened
the Simulin presence in this one.
    “It’s the
radiation field we jumped into earlier,” explained Shilum. Shilum was an expert
in the field of hyperspace. “That region of space should have been nearly
radiation free. Instead, we found ourselves in such a powerful area of radiation
it would have overwhelmed our energy shields if we had stayed there much
longer.”
    “What does the
radiation field have to do with the Dyson Sphere?” Jeremy still didn’t
understand what the two Altons were trying to say. The radiation field they had
encountered was too far away from the nova to be associated with it.
    “It’s because
the radiation is from the nova the Distant Horizon created,” Andram said
with worry in his eyes. “The radiation front from the nova is moving through
space at nearly three times the speed of light.”
    “That’s
impossible,” said Commander Malen, looking confused. “Nothing can move faster
than the speed of light in normal space; that’s why we use hyperspace to
achieve speeds which allow interstellar travel.”
    Shilum shook
her head. “I wish that were true in this case. The problem is the dark matter
that surrounded the Dyson Sphere as well as the material the megastructure was
composed of. From the readings we were able to take of the radiation field, the
area of hyperspace in the vicinity of the Dyson Sphere has been