Family Law 3: Secrets in the Stars Read Online Free Page A
Author: Mackey Chandler
now."
"How did you know that?" Gordon asked Lee after Frost was gone.
"When I lived with my relatives in Michigan for awhile their kids got Athlete's Foot at the community pool and quickly spread it to everybody else at home. I remember my cousin's wife putting bleach in the wash to get rid of it."
"So you did learn some practical things on Earth," Gordon said, amused.
"Just all kinds of skills," Lee assured him, scowling. "I know how to form a jail gang to keep safe. I know how to get back in line quickly to get a second serving in the jail mess, and I know how to slowly eat a candy bar in tiny little nips and make it fill you up if they have you on lock-down and aren't feeding you. I learned how to sit in the sun where there is a breeze to keep the mosquitoes from leaving you a mess of welts. I even know how to suck-up to a bureaucratic negative tax official so you get your case moved forward while the angry combative folks don't get what they need. Doesn't mean I want to live on a planet where I need those sort of skills," she said firmly.
There was a lot Lee still hadn't told him about her time on Earth, Gordon reflected.
* * *
"Everybody synchronized and running sweet?" Gordon asked Brownie toward the middle of their shift.
"Yes, there are no serious problems anywhere. You have a choice. We can up acceleration by about fifteen percent and jump within our normal shift, or we can stay at our present acceleration and extend the shift a half hour."
"And what do we do on the other side?" Gordon asked.
"Well, it only takes ten minutes or so to nose count and we could shift change a bit late," Brownie suggested.
"No, Thor has convinced me that running the A team on jump is the safest way to go," Gordon reminded him. "That to my mind includes keeping us on the bridge on the other side of jump until we have a deep enough radar sweep to know there are no close up problems. Take us all up to one point fifteen G and figure we're going to hold the shift over forty-five minutes after breakout. That gives us fifteen minutes to do a passive scan and then we ping the system hard and wait a half hour for returns. If nothing nasty or weird is within fifteen light minutes then I'll feel comfortable going to my cabin. If something approaches after that it'll be far enough out to let us be awakened and called back to the bridge."
"Aye, sir. Sending that out to the fleet with a five minute warning we are upping boost. I'll change the jump time and attach the data on the notice as soon as the box has a solution."
"Thank you, Brownie."
* * *
Jeremiah Ellis from Engineering called Gordon on a private circuit rather than intrude on the command circuit with an extended conversation.
"Sir, I've been doing some calculations about the Caterpillar's ship. It's interesting. May I tell you about it?"
"Certainly, it's boring up here right now until we jump. I'd love to hear something interesting."
"As near as I can figure the timing from when we saw the Caterpillars jump ahead of us until they reentered the system and crossed our nose, they must be able to accelerate somewhere in excess of thirty G if they altered course and a made two system loop to jump back to this system. If they decelerated hard enough to make a right angle turn, jumped out, and did a dead stop and reversed direction in the other system it's worse. They'd have to do at least a thirty-eight G acceleration to jump to the same safety standards we do."
"They have only been directly observed pulling about ten to fourteen G," Gordon said.
"Yes! And something else worth mentioning, they shot missiles at Captain Frost in the Sharp Claws in System 67 just before he jumped for System 82. Those only accelerated at a bit less than eighty G. Compared to our missiles, theirs are not as proportionately faster as their ships."
It amused Gordon how animated Jeremiah got when he was enthused. "Any ideas on why ?" he asked.
"Nothing concrete, just wild speculation.
"How did you know that?" Gordon asked Lee after Frost was gone.
"When I lived with my relatives in Michigan for awhile their kids got Athlete's Foot at the community pool and quickly spread it to everybody else at home. I remember my cousin's wife putting bleach in the wash to get rid of it."
"So you did learn some practical things on Earth," Gordon said, amused.
"Just all kinds of skills," Lee assured him, scowling. "I know how to form a jail gang to keep safe. I know how to get back in line quickly to get a second serving in the jail mess, and I know how to slowly eat a candy bar in tiny little nips and make it fill you up if they have you on lock-down and aren't feeding you. I learned how to sit in the sun where there is a breeze to keep the mosquitoes from leaving you a mess of welts. I even know how to suck-up to a bureaucratic negative tax official so you get your case moved forward while the angry combative folks don't get what they need. Doesn't mean I want to live on a planet where I need those sort of skills," she said firmly.
There was a lot Lee still hadn't told him about her time on Earth, Gordon reflected.
* * *
"Everybody synchronized and running sweet?" Gordon asked Brownie toward the middle of their shift.
"Yes, there are no serious problems anywhere. You have a choice. We can up acceleration by about fifteen percent and jump within our normal shift, or we can stay at our present acceleration and extend the shift a half hour."
"And what do we do on the other side?" Gordon asked.
"Well, it only takes ten minutes or so to nose count and we could shift change a bit late," Brownie suggested.
"No, Thor has convinced me that running the A team on jump is the safest way to go," Gordon reminded him. "That to my mind includes keeping us on the bridge on the other side of jump until we have a deep enough radar sweep to know there are no close up problems. Take us all up to one point fifteen G and figure we're going to hold the shift over forty-five minutes after breakout. That gives us fifteen minutes to do a passive scan and then we ping the system hard and wait a half hour for returns. If nothing nasty or weird is within fifteen light minutes then I'll feel comfortable going to my cabin. If something approaches after that it'll be far enough out to let us be awakened and called back to the bridge."
"Aye, sir. Sending that out to the fleet with a five minute warning we are upping boost. I'll change the jump time and attach the data on the notice as soon as the box has a solution."
"Thank you, Brownie."
* * *
Jeremiah Ellis from Engineering called Gordon on a private circuit rather than intrude on the command circuit with an extended conversation.
"Sir, I've been doing some calculations about the Caterpillar's ship. It's interesting. May I tell you about it?"
"Certainly, it's boring up here right now until we jump. I'd love to hear something interesting."
"As near as I can figure the timing from when we saw the Caterpillars jump ahead of us until they reentered the system and crossed our nose, they must be able to accelerate somewhere in excess of thirty G if they altered course and a made two system loop to jump back to this system. If they decelerated hard enough to make a right angle turn, jumped out, and did a dead stop and reversed direction in the other system it's worse. They'd have to do at least a thirty-eight G acceleration to jump to the same safety standards we do."
"They have only been directly observed pulling about ten to fourteen G," Gordon said.
"Yes! And something else worth mentioning, they shot missiles at Captain Frost in the Sharp Claws in System 67 just before he jumped for System 82. Those only accelerated at a bit less than eighty G. Compared to our missiles, theirs are not as proportionately faster as their ships."
It amused Gordon how animated Jeremiah got when he was enthused. "Any ideas on why ?" he asked.
"Nothing concrete, just wild speculation.
Readers choose
Sher Dillard
Bernard Beckett
Christine Merrill
Kelly Martin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Douglas Jackson
Regina Sirois
Melanie Schertz
Sean Williams
Don Bendell