Doom: Start with a tech panel

Chapter 223

"We're still alive," Nakti argued. "I asked every crew member who was familiar with the math of the jump space to look at these two key formulas, and they each repeated what Ulamandi said. How did we not see this before."

"Even myself, someone who notoriously missed the two branches I jumped over, couldn't believe it was so obvious," Lencourt said with a laugh.

Got the nod.So many formulas, from Taijin creation to circuit design to energy flow, are so simple, so strikingly obvious once they see it, it's almost humiliating.

The adjustment of the jump drive was so basic and simple that Taltek, a jump drive technician with decades of experience, screamed angrily for nearly-minutes.He yelled at the idiot instructors who said such a formula was wrong, and yelled at him for wasting years of his life on jump spaces.Since then, not only has he stopped protesting the modifications to the Jump Drive hardware and software, but he has actively helped Fido with them.

"So we can go home?" Ulamandi asked, looking down at her broken leg. "I would very much like to visit a medical center."

Nachti shook his head. "That thing might still be there. Fido doesn't think his friend Daxin will be able to stop that monster. That means it's still there."

"But you can't follow a cumming startle, then put your head down and prick your ears up in embarrassment.

"In jump space," Lektar finished. "I agree with the captain. We can't go back," he smiled. "Fido said he was going to take us to his house and meet people like that Daxin. They said they could help.

"We need help. I need help," Runkut said. "My med pod is made up of things that Fido can help me assemble and things I can collect from various med kits that I have survived battles.

"We're sure. Cumming was taken aback, then looked down again. "If he was going to kill us, he'd have done it days ago.

'Exactly.We really don't have a choice," Nachti said.

"Honestly, I'm worried," Cumming said, looking up.He tapped the artificial skin graft with his catching hand. "What are Fido's people like? How do we know they're going to help us? Look at what we've seen from this 'Dah Sing' ship. We can barely see the fight, we can't track his missiles, we almost impossible to control him. if he was
what does that mean to us? We are weaker than them.

"He didn't just come to help us, however," Lyktar said softly.He reached out and petted the kitten, moving one finger up and down the place it called Tumi Tumi. "The Dauphin sent four of his friends to help us escape a no-win battle."

"One of the fundamental virtues of a civilized selflessness and charity," Runkut said. "I said let's do it.

Voting began, and to Nakti's surprise, it passed without a single objection.

Not even on the catcher.

That's it," Nakti. "Let Fedor know we want to leave as soon as possible.
Two mid-cycles, ten Fido's "days", stale body odor on board, stressed alloys, strangely fresh cut green stuff, side effect of Fido's so-called "high jump" it tastes sweet from normal Jump speeds to ridiculous speeds.They couldn't use the "jump stream" because the ship's structure acquired chilling harmonics within an hour of hitting the high-energy space stream that the Joint Science Committee had always maintained would explode the ship.

Fido sat on the bridge, his strong legs locked in the bulkhead, Kitty Kitty hidden in his robot body.When Fido realizes that Nachti plans to descend from jump space to real space without everyone wearing vacuum suits, he complains.

Remember last time, she ordered everyone to wear their armored versions and overruled any objection by vocalizing loud enough to hurt ears.

The bridge looks like they are going to war.The weapons on board were ready, but not loaded or charged, just - ready to go into battle at a moment's notice.In addition to shard shields,
They're running low on shields left, and they're ready to snap up shields to replace jump shields as soon as they're in realspace.

For the crew, it was like stepping into the combat station of a war.

Surprisingly, it made them less anxious.

Gone are the swirling colors, replaced by distorted cracks in real space.Nachti again noticed the difference in the drop calculated using Fido.To her, this only proves that Fido has
Calculations that her own people didn't have, could account for energy or movement or things that the Nakti didn't even know.

The main screen came back to life, showing not only the star, but a flaming yellow star in the distance.

"Let it pass. Let omnitranslator handle anything," Nachti said. "Let's see if Fido's linguistics package and dictionary are any good.
"Come here now," Cumming said softly.

"Can you see the announcer?" Nakti asked.Vikan shook his head.

"Just a jumping space buoy," Vikan said.

The screen flickered for a moment, then they were all on the same page, the image clear and sharp, as if the announcer was within reach and it tasted sweet rather than an unknown distance.

It was a large room with a table in the middle and three chairs on either side, all of which swiveled so that the person sitting on the chair could face the tape recorder.There is a chair at the other end of the table, and the tape recorders are positioned in such a way that it feels like they are sitting at one end of the table.

It's the numbers on the chairs that grab everyone's attention.

Primates.Stocky, some with hair on top of their heads, some without.Primate sexual dimorphism was exhibited, with two of seven primate species being distinctly female.Nachti noticed that everyone was careful to keep their faces blank, their hands flat on the table.The man in the distance looked down at the hidden terminal for a while, obviously looking at the message from Cumming

Customs Dictionary.

According to Fido's dictionary, a simple statement can ease the tension when dealing with Terrans.

"Can we go in?" Nakti asked.

The six primates on the side all looked at each other, then nodded to the one on the other side of the table.

"You can go in now. Come in, friends," said the primate.He glanced again at the dictionary, apparently using it to guide him on first contact.

Tnvaru is very casual in communication.Courtesy is reserved for business transactions, military officers and personal relationships.Formality worries Tnvaru people, makes them worry about a simple meeting
Military or commercial issues may be involved.

"Well, now, it looks like you had a run-in with someone who wasn't friendly," said the man in the distance. "Welcome to the Terran Alliance space.

He paused for a moment.

"Do you need help?
Fido let out three sharp barks.The primate on the middle right looked down, then up to the one at the end.

"They were rescued by an old dog," she said.

"Yes, please help us," Nakti said. "It literally killed us."
Recipient: Customer.

(End of this chapter)