Read Online Battle for Earth by Keith Mansfield - Free Book Online

Can you see to write?” Johnny asked.
    His sister looked up, smiling a little manically. “Never better,” she replied. “Are we there? Shall I fold us across?”
    â€œWe have to take a shuttle,” said Johnny, unnerved by the way Clara was looking. “You know Alf hates not being able to get through the fold.”
    â€œOK—I’ll drop these back in my room and see you over there.”
    â€œNo, I think it’s better if we all go together.” Johnny left before his sister could argue. He collected Kovac and went down to the shuttle bay, waiting in the pilot’s seat of the
Piccadilly
for a couple of minutes, trying to ignore the computer’s persistent chatter. Alf joined him with Bentley, both of them clambering on board and taking their places on the lower deck, before Clara unfolded directly onto the back seat.

    The
Calida Lucia
was vast and flawless, a sparkling ribbon of light stretching for tens of kilometers, looking nearly as magnificent as Saturn’s spectacular rings. There were no airlocks on the Imperial Starcruiser so Johnny guided his shuttlecraft to the appointed place where the walls, themselves made from powerful force fields, opened to allow the London bus inside. Through a succession of these fields, the
Piccadilly
was led into the gigantic central chamber that ran the length of the Emperor’s ship.
    Once before, Johnny had been here and seen it nearly empty, save for the
Spirit of London
standing alone against one wall. Now there would not have been room for his beautiful craft—the central hold teemed with life and ships. He handed over control to the mind of the
Calida Lucia
herself, who guided the shuttle between giant battleships and medical transports, steering clear of flying maintenance crews and floating platforms carrying the fearsome Imperial Guard. As they went they passed
Cheybora
, the warship he knew best. Johnny thought about the ship’s captain, his friend Valdour, who died trying to save him from the Regent’s firing squad. It was still hard to believe that the first and best space captain he’d ever met was no longer alive—that his battle-scarred face would never again fill Sol’s viewscreen.
    The
Piccadilly
settled in the only available space, close to a stack of what looked like hugely magnified dandelion seeds, but which Johnny knew to be the Emperor’s own shuttlecraft. Bram stood, his face more lined and wrinkled than Johnny had ever seen it, waiting beside the bus doors, his arms wide apart, a pulsing white sphere the size of a beach ball hovering above each open palm.
    â€œA gift for the people of Earth,” said the Emperor as everyone trooped out. His sparkling eyes lingered over Clara, but he made no comment on the blackness within hers. Johnny came last, carrying Kovac.
    â€œShield generators?” Johnny asked, remembering when the
Spirit of London
’s had needed replacing.
    â€œVery good,” said Bram. “Your planet is too close to Alpha Centauri to withstand the gamma-ray bombardment from the Star Blaze.” The Emperor was talking about the recent supernova. “Humanity needs protecting.”
    â€œBut that’s not for years yet,” said Johnny.
    â€œThree and a half years is but a twinkling of some cosmiceyes,” Bram replied. The spheres drifted through the open door and settled softly in the
Piccadilly
’s luggage rack. “You will come to understand why it must be done now. The generators are to be placed at gravitational wells within the Earth-Moon system, from where they will not drift.”
    â€œL4 and L5 if I am not mistaken, which I very rarely am,” came the voice from the end of Johnny’s arm. Kovac’s casing glowed in time to the words. “The stable Lagrangian points.”
    â€œAh, this must be Kovac,” said the Emperor. “Welcome to the
Calida Lucia
.”
    â€œIt is an honor to be aboard, Your