Phoenix Starship Andromeda—Keid-B Space
Without warning, alarms sounded throughout the vast expanse of Andromeda. The sound was penetrating, pulsing, warbling—impossible to ignore. Thorpe stepped through a portal onto the Bridge.
“Mother, what’s the problem?”
“Andromeda is under attack from all directions! Something is eroding the outside surface of the central disk and trying to attack the dome surfaces. It behaves like an acid dissolving the surface.”
“Nullspace loop right now!” Thorpe ordered.
The Bridge holoscreen went blank.
“The external activity has stopped,” Mother reported.
Kenred, who had come to the Bridge when he heard the alarms, asked, “What’s a nullspace loop?”
Daphne stepped up to him, speaking quietly. “You understand the concept of the MERT Drive, right? Two MERT
