Revelation

Moving in a new way
The new drive came to life, what looked like plasma swirled and moved. It sped up, and streaked across the display port. The travellers exchanged looks - this was different to a normal jump drive. There was no explosive release of hydrogen, no feeling that the ship was cocooned. It felt like the ship was moving.

Some time passed. Goff alternated between watching the drive and the diagnostics on his computer pad. He seemed calm, but it was difficult to tell for sure. From time to time, and it took a while to notice, there was an almost imperceptible movement as if the ship were making microscopic adjustments.

Unsure how to take this or what to expect, the travellers sat on the bridge watching the holographic controls. Nobody moved. On a normal jump everybody would be dispersing to the lounge, galley, library, staterooms or somewhere else, with others or alone. Not this time.

Suddenly, after an hour, the outside world jumped back to a normal star-field view, surprising everyone. The drive had stopped.

Abrupt halt
Everyone seemed fine. The drive had not blown up or failed - or so it seemed - so why had it stopped? Was it a misjump? Were they in normal space still? Were they still even in their same time or had they travelled far into the past or the future? They had heard of all these things happening if a jump went wrong, but this wasn't a jump drive so who knew?

The computer indicated that they had arrived. The astrogation box indicated that they had arrived. A scan over many hours of the stars around them indicated they had arrived. But that made no sense. If everything was correct they had travelled one parsec in an hour. It was unimaginable.

Deciding that it was possible but unproved Slayed ordered that they plot a course back to the space station. He reasoned that if they arrived and had only been gone a few hours then the subjective time would be reliable.

Back to base
The astrogation calculations back to the space station were made with extreme deliberation, and double- and triple-checked. The power plant and prototype drive - which was dubbed the Womp-drive due to the noise it quietly made during operation - were checked. And when Slayed was satisfied everything that could be done had been done he hit the button to operate the drive.

Again plasma formed over the windows and the sensation of movement, with infrequent and imperceptible micro adjustments, was felt by all. After an hour they emerged into real space again and detected the space station some distance away. From this distance the damage looked extreme - which it was - and shards of metal span wildly, the debris of the recent battle.

They hailed the station who were very surprised to see them again so soon. The travellers decided that the story would be that things had not worked and they needed to make more adjustments to the ship. All on board were sworn to secrecy.

New Plans
The very low morale of the crew - it had only been a couple of days since the battle with Admiral Darokyn - combined with the realisation that the imperial navy could return at any moment to find a station that was very damaged - suggested a change in plan was in order.

The decision was made to assign all crew to one of the ships that were at the station. If the navy, or anyone else, attacked and the word was given then all crew had a means of escape.

Next a priority list of station components that would be the most useful to create a new station somewhere else was drawn up. The most useful things that could relatively easily be taken out of the station were to be put in the megafreighter, then the next most important, and so on until the freighter was full or there was nothing else useful to take.

The list was prioritised from the point of view of the manufacturing process, so the mining drones were first as they would provide raw materials. Then the smelter and refinery, followed by the manufacturing plant. The shiyard was next - and would be an enormous task as it would need to be removed as a complete block - some 1200 tons.

The crew were set to work disassembling the station and the captains, and Goff, put in charge.

Pondering outcomes
Slayed decided that it would be a good trial of the new womp-drive to go to Wildeman. He proposed a single eleven parsec trip. Nitrane suggested 2 parsecs was a better trial. So Slayed reluctantly agreed to a 3 parsec womp. Because Goff and the captains were busy overseeing the disassembly work another master engineer was selected to travel on the ship.

The course was plotted on the astrogation computer that visited only empty hexes. They initiated the drive for a three parsec trip and after an hour they emerged into real space again. Checking the computer they had travelled only one parsec, but the computer was asking if they wanted to engage the drive for the second trip. It seemed that the drive would only work one parsec at a time even if a longer journey were plotted.

They completed the three parsec trip, then carefully plotted another, and another until they reached Wildeman about 24 hours after they left. The engineer was in awe and kept rambling on, excited and amazed, about how he couldn't wait to tell his friends. The travellers pondered their mistake of bringing a normal crewman with them. He would talk - and they needed to keep this drive a secret.

Wildeman
The womp-drive turned off near the gas giant and proceeded to towards the hidden base as stealthily as they could muster. They scanned passively when they got close enough and noticed as they crept forward that the massive doors to the station were missing. Not open, actually gone. Closer still and there were signs of combat, as well as debris that could be from the doors.

No signs of activity could be detected, but that wasn't surprising. The base was well insulated against stray emissions, and there were no ships nearby that they could detect.

It seemed that the base had been discovered, and was abandoned.

To be continued...