« on: February 11, 2008, 12:49:03 am »
Prologue
The third year of Teranik's reign as Praetor during the proconsulship of Miral tr'Liun.
"Subcommander, we have come out of warp too close to one of the planets," the navigator shouted, near panic.
It was a time for panic, thought Subcommander Decius. There was no way for the warbird to survive such a catastrophe. It was why all warp jumps were precisely calculated. Once a ship was at warp, there was little the crew could do save stop the transit prematurely which was a death sentence itself. A slow horrible death sentence.
Decius looked out the main screen to see a gas giant in front of him. "Use the sublight engines to direct our course toward the inner planets."
"We'll crash into the sun!"
"Dead in a few minutes is preferable to dead now. Do it." The ship sank deeper into the well of the planet before shooting away at high sublight velocity, far higher than their engines could stop in the few minutes it would take for them to reach the system's sun.
"Centurion," ordered the subcommander, "take the praetor's daughter and her maid to the escape shuttle. If there is a habitable planet you must protect them there until the empire comes to rescue them." Amid the chaos the older man was as calm as his captain. He saluted and left the small bridge.
"Science, is there a planet with an atmosphere that can support our life?"
"One sir, the third planet."
"Make our course go by it so we can save at least someone." The ship turned slightly and the blue planet loomed larger and larger on the screen. Decius gave the order to release the shuttle and emergency beacon. At that moment the ship was struck by an asteroid.
