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Chapters (44)
  1. The Crimson Worlds Series
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  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Epilogue

“She’s damned near critical as it is, sir…” There was a pause, and then her tone changed. “But I think I understand what you want now, sir.”

“Can you do it?”

“Yes, Captain. I can do it.”

“In six minutes…because that’s all we’ve got.”

There was a momentary silence. Then: “Yes, sir. Six minutes.”

Barron stared at the display, at the symbol representing the enemy ship.

You won’t be easily fooled…

“Fritzie, I’m going to need you to shut down both reactors when you blow out the bay.” Barron paused again. “And then I’m going to need crash restarts of both of them.”

“You’re asking for miracles, Captain.”

“It’s a good thing I’ve got a miracle worker down there, then…isn’t it? Can you manage it?”

Fritz sighed hard, but then she said, “Probably…but you’re taking a hell of a risk, sir. A hundred things could go wrong.”

“It’s a terrible risk just being here, Fritzie. Get ready…you’ve only got a little over five and a half minutes left…”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Seven

CFS Dauntless

Krillus Asteroid Belt

40, 500,000 kilometers from Santis, Krillus IV

307 AC

“Let’s go. Move it!” Fritz was standing next to a heavy bulkhead, waving to Sam Carson and Walt billings. The two engineers were running down the corridor, carrying heavy sacks of tools.

“Drop the kits…just run!”

Carson let go of the sack, and it hit the ground with a loud crash. He pushed harder, trying to move his legs faster, his eyes on the tiny hatch ahead. He and Billings were the last of the team to evacuate the bay. They’d set the thing to blow, hopefully a controlled explosion that would look a hell of a lot worse outside than it was inside. But they’d only had a couple minutes, not nearly enough to do the job right. Any number of thinks could go wrong. The blast could fail to occur…or it could rip through the containment they’d set up, bring massive damage to Dauntless’s other sections, doing the enemy’s job for them.

Either way, we’ll know in twenty seconds…

He pushed even harder. He didn’t think Captain Barron would blow the bay with his engineers still in there, but he knew Commander Fritz would slam the hatch shut and do just that if the captain ordered it. He suspected she’d hate herself for it…but she’d do it.