Chapter 4

Another alarm sounded, and Jude’s console lit up with a warning: Engines Exceeding Capacity. It had to be dire if the system felt the need to warn the prospector as well as the navigator. A tendril of fear reached from his belly to this throat, making it difficult to swallow.

“I know, I know,” Cal told the computer, which continued to blare in protest.

Jude wondered if he should’ve made up that will, after all.

After an endless minute Cal announced, “That’s escape velocity. We’re going to clear it.”

Good. Jude didn’t want to die before he’d even made it to thirty, and he especially didn’t want to die out here getting crushed by the gravitational force of dark matter.

Finally Cal said, “We’re free from the dark matter. Engines are dying, though.”

“They lasted long enough to save our asses, so we can’t complain too much.”