Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
could feel it in her like it was a roadway she kept watch over. And would take
Alicia’s over his.
Which Alicia knew and didn’t know, not at the heart, not at the soul of her. He
got to his knees and his stomach twisted again, but not from the movement. Kori
had found a jump. A Gate Station from Slicanin's reality, the lines here matched
well enough to try for it.
“And from there?” he asked her.
“I should be able to use the Gate for a second jump without any special notice,
especially a jump into the regular trade routes. This one jump will drain us, we
won’t have power to make a second one on our own.” From the time-line, a
funnel grew to show the start of a Web pattern. It was a change in their signal
that the other ship had to notice.
Alicia was still waiting for him. He palmed the sweat off his face. “By whatever
did or didn’t happen at Istarom, I haven’t forfeited the right to make my own
decisions.”
Another energy burst and black grit showered down around him, sparking to a
rainbow of colors before dying to the natural ocher of the clay. With the shot, a
Net focus crossed their own. The interface flattened then spread into visual image
that couldn't be mistaken regardless of the language or his lack of knowledge.
The jump funnel he recognized from Kori's time-line was duplicated to a point a
few minutes into the future but still well clear of the actual jump time. Then two
possibilities were offered. Stopping the jump or being destroyed.
“Is that separate from our Net?” he shouted at Bolda over the screaming of the
tiles. He couldn’t tell. They might not have secrets anymore.
“Yes and it will stay that way if you’d shut up and let me work.” Then: “Shit!”
The reason for the last came through on a separate lead somehow under the
other. There were two full depth breaks in the tiles, only the exterior hull
shielding was keeping the ship intact and that was fluctuating badly. Then three
separate flares, Alicia had set warding beads of her own, giving extra support to
the ribs of the craft.
Using the same lead, he sent to Ulanda: “Are you getting any of this?”
And got back: “Your ship.”
Two words but the other ship’s Net interface sizzled and died. Kori stripped out
of their Net with an audible hiss of pain.
Through the same route he had used earlier, he sent: “Our hull is broken, we
need to keep the shielding we've got.” Without thinking, he put his own mark
over the message. Strom Noble House.
The ship rocked again and with his right arm, he grabbed onto the hull rib
closest to him. And blanked out a moment from the pain. His left arm, he'd
tensed it. When his vision returned, there was hole he could have put his fist
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca