do something potentially stupid.” I slid past him, careful not to touch. Loch followed me back to the passenger area, silent as a ghost.
It did not escape my notice that he had not apologized.
Chapter 19
The deeper I dug into Polaris’s systems, the more I fell in love. House Rockhurst had spared no expense. Not only did it have the offensive and defensive prowess of a small corvette-class warship, but it also had exceptional stealth and cloaking ability.
I knew House von Hasenberg had ships that could match it—at least, if you took out the alcubium FTL drive—but I’d never captained one. It would be hard to turn Polaris over and let our scientists dismantle it. During negotiations, I would have to ensure that I received the ship back in perfect working order—or that I received an early prototype to match it. Father would love that.
I catnapped as I waited for the FTL drive to cool down. It was strange how quickly I’d gotten accustomed to fast jumps and how waiting six hours—a very short wait by conventional standards—was agony. It was no wonder House Rockhurst was willing to go to war to corner this market. They’d make enough money to buy the rest of the Houses.
Once the drive was nearly ready, I sent an announcement over the intercom. “We’re getting ready to jump into Rockhurst space. We’re going in cloaked, but things may get rocky. You have fifteen minutes to secure loose objects and yourself. I’ll sound a warning at one minute. Let me know if you need more time.”
I started a countdown on my com and went to check my quarters. Hopefully the ship’s compensators would counteract any maneuvers we had to make, but it wasn’t always guaranteed, especially if we had to fight. Nothing that I’d left out would take damage from falling, but I went ahead and put away my clothes and bag.
By the time I returned to the flight deck, Rhys and Loch were seated in the navigation and tactical stations, respectively. I dropped into the commander’s station and clicked in the harness. The timer went off, and I sounded the one-minute alarm.
“You think we’re going to hit trouble so soon?” Rhys asked.
“I hope not. I’m going to jump us a few hours out from XAD Six to give the FTL time to recharge before we get close enough for them to notice us. But if we run into a patrol it might get tricky. Better to be prepared.”
I plotted our course then brought us into full stealth. The visual cloaking wouldn’t hold through the FTL jump but the lack of external communications would. Full stealth hobbled our own ability to locate foreign ships, but it prevented our ship from sending out enough signals that anyone in the sector could spot us. Once I’d surveyed our exit point, I’d lower the stealth level enough to see who else was out there.
After waiting another minute to be sure no one needed extra time, I pressed the jump confirmation button. The lights flickered and my stomach dropped, just as it would on any conventional FTL jump. Interesting. The alcubium FTL must use a lot less of the ship’s energy in order to be so smooth.
The ship lurched then punched back into normal space with a shudder that was in no way normal. Warnings flashed red across my screen. The FTL was critically overheated, so I put it into emergency shutdown and cooling. I dealt with the fallout from the various connected systems as fast as I could. We skated a hairsbreadth from catastrophic system failure.
My hands shook as the warnings dwindled, then disappeared. We’d made it.
We’d made it.
“What was that?” Rhys asked.
“Conventional jump with the FTL. Even though the system said it was good to go, once we jumped, the drive overheated.” I headed off his next question. “I have no idea why, but I intend to find out.”
“Are we dead in the water?” Loch asked.
I shook my head. “Not totally. The main engine wasn’t damaged and I shut the FTL down before it took damage. But I have no idea how long the FTL drive will need to cool before it’s ready to jump again, even if we add back the alcubium.”
“The what?” Rhys asked.
The jump had shaken me to the point where I wasn’t watching my words. “Alcubium seems to be the element that allows the FTL to jump faster than normal. I suspect Rockhurst is mining it on the planet we’re going to check out.”