----------------------------------------------------------- - The Ta’ainvel - – By Khan – ----------------------------------------------------------- 9. Going back inside, Jante threw a glance at the other starship before getting into his command station. Turning around in his chair, he called up the necessary information on a screen. ”The Jainar? Commander, wasn’t this one of the first ships to fall to the other Ta’ainvel?” ”Yes, it was. They managed to overthrow the traitors and free their commander. They are flying with a skeleton crew, only one thousand, and we have had word from the Galontha that they are seriously overcrowded for a starvoyage. We are waiting here to transfer the excess people on the Galontha to the Jainar.” ”Only three?” ”Only three, Jante,” Ayshala replied. ”Three out of ten is pretty good considering the attacks that the Mars Colony put on.” ”Make that four. Starship inbound and its not the Galontha.” The commander ordered the Handrillian about to face where the Shift would take place. Soon a flash blinded everyone on the bridge except the two pilots and the commander, wearing dimmed display visors. ”Its the Duinell, commander,” Ayshala said as soon as she saw the ship clearly. The large brand on the hatch beneath the window of the bridge always told the name of the ship. ”Not for long, I’m afraid,” Jante cut in, ”they are ejecting escape pods.” ”Ready ship to recover those pods,” the commander ordered and soon ten squadrons of fighters flew past the window to intercept the pods. The Duinell was slowly disintegrating, explosions tearing the hull to pieces and a last transmission came from the bridge. ”Honours to the Handrillian. Say hello to home for us,” the Duinell commander said. ”Honours to you and Duinell. We will,” Jante replied. Seconds later the bridge was enveloped in a cloud of fire and soon the entire ship had broken into small pieces heading for the surface of Pluto. ”How many pods did we retrieve?” asked the commander. ”The force commander reports sixty seven pods. That’s a maximum of thirteen hundred and forty people. Too few,” Ayshala replied. ”Too few,” Jante echoed. ”Have them flown to the Jainar.” ”They must have been holding on with their teeth to keep that ship together during the time it took to fly here,” Ayshala commented. No one answered her. Readying the ship for Gravity Fold Drive, Jante ordered reports from Engine every ten minutes on how the start-up proceeded. Soon the Galontha arrived in another flash of light and roughly ten thousand people started shuttling over to the Jainar. The two other starships reported nominal values on the start-up of their GFDs and would soon be ready to depart as well. The three starships would have to travel close to each other to take the best advantage of the Gravity Fold Drive, so they decided to hard-dock. The procedure was designed for three ships, but could easily be adapted to any number up to ten, and Jante had studied the data on how to perform the dock. He had never, however, actually done one. The trick was to align them so that the undersides of each ship became one inner side of a triangle, all ships facing the same direction. The advantage with this technique, however, wasn’t one that the original designers had imagined. The ships would then extend one of their GFDs on a long shaft, letting them meet near the centre of the triangle. The result of that configuration would increase the effect of the field at least tenfold, dividing the time of travel by at least a fifth. Or so the theory claimed. The GFDs remaining on the ships would also engage, to further affect the gravity field, making a fold within a fold again increasing the effect at least tenfold. This meant a total minimum of a hundred times the normal effect and a twenty-fifth of the time to travel. Jante was well aware of the risks of this manoeuvre and acutely aware of the theoretical risks of folding folded gravity. Even so, he performed the docking. The six pilots brought the three ships into alignment and the docking shafts extended to meet halfway between the ships. Making contact, they locked together with huge magnetic grippers that could hold a planet suspended over a black hole. If the ship could escape the black hole, that is. Then the shafts retracted simultaneously, pulling the ships together tightly. The shafts would also be used to travel between the ships as they flew through space. Realising that the dock had succeeded, Jante eased his white-knuckled grip on the thruster control stick. ”Good job Jante,” Ayshala said and began to sink into the floor in her chair. Jante pressed a button and his chair also began to sink into the docking bay beneath them. The commander soon joined them and they headed towards one of the parked crafts. The force field that kept the docking bay from being emptied of air as soon as the hatches opened engaged and a green outline shone around the bay doors. Climbing into one vehicle, they heard a loud clang ring through the hull as the long shaft holding the GFD started to extend out of the bottom of the ship. They exited the bay and flew in underneath the Handrillian, between the imposing hulls of the three ships. The shafts were nearly extended and would soon meet. Six carriers hovered near the GFDs and as soon as the shafts were fully extended they flew in close to each space between the shafts and technicians exited the crafts, starting to connect the GFDs to each other. Soon a metallic ring ran through the three large spheres holding the drives and the six carriers returned, two to each starship. The commander and her two pilots returned to the docking bay and soon their chairs thudded into place in the command bridge. ”Make ready for Gravity Fold Drive,” the commander ordered. ”Engine, report,” Jante said immediately. ”All GFDs online, including the extended one. All power at maximum.” ”This is the Handrillian and First pilot Jante e’Darin. A good day to try this thing.” ”Indeed e’Darin. First pilot Cyle e’Guir of the Jainar. Ship is ready and standing by for GFD Shift.” ”This is the Galontha, First pilot Inaina b’Lar. Ship ready and standing by.” ”Want to pull straws on who gets the honour?” Jante said. ”As I know it, we have to engage at the same time for this thing to even start, e’Darin,” said Inaina, and he practically heard her grinning. ”Quite true b’Lar,” he replied laughing. ”On my mark,” the Jainarian commander interrupted, and all three replied ”Yes sir.” Jante pressed the initiation button and it would be three seconds until the GFDs were fully loaded. ”Three, two…” Jante could hear the low hum building up in the GFDs, and gripped the handle to the left and above his head. ”…One, mark!” Jante turned the handle on ’one’ and pushed it up on ’mark’ and soon heard the hum decrease. He wondered if the operation had been aborted. Then he didn’t have to wonder. The stars in front of him suddenly melted into each other, and started to rapidly streak by the window. The drive worked. ”Galontha reporting all well.” ”Handrillian, all well here.” ”Jainar, all systems still going strong.” Cheers and applause spotted the otherwise silent command bridge and Jante leaned back in his seat. ”It ain’t over yet. Handrillian, Second pilot Ayshala b’Fairn here. Prepare to engage internal GFDs,” Ayshala said. ”Ready, b’Fairn,” the other two Second pilots replied. They had decided to split up the piloting of the two systems between the two ranks of pilot, easing up on the responsibility, and thus the blame. ”Engage on my mark,” she said pushing the initiation button, then grinned. ”Slam it home in two, one, mark!” She turned and pushed the handle in and soon the window in front of them just became a blur of streaming light and darkness. The monitors reported that all four fields were working perfectly and the effect had been multiplied one hundred and twenty times. Jante revoked the red alert and the lights in the floor went off. ”The computer reports calculated time of arrival to Arathur is eight years and four months,” Jante said. ”That is a decrease of over two hundred and forty years on the time!” Ayshala sat in her chair with tears streaking her cheeks and the commander sat silently studying the light streaking by the window.