Read Online Death World (Undying Mercenaries Series Book 5) by B. V. Larson - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: B. V. Larson
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unlikely to be the raider’s base. Odds are we’ll find them at the last star in the line, which is right at the squid border.”
He had my interest now. I shuffled to his desk where he had displayed the local stars. I tapped at the binary system we were supposed to pass by. It had the generic name of L-374. It contained an orange-colored K-class star circled by a smaller M-class companion. The last star in the line, the one we were to visit next, was yet another of the ubiquitous red dwarfs.
“Sir?” I asked. “We’re really going to skip this orange star? Why?”
“Why skip L-374? Because Gold Deck says so. Remember Veteran, I’m not in command of this expedition—and neither are you.”
“But what if we don’t find them in the third system? What will we do then? If we have to backtrack to the K-class, they might have had time to slip away.”
Graves shook his head. “We won’t bother. If I had to guess, I’d say we’ll check the last system and give up. Turov will turn us around and head home again after that.”
“She’d give up? She’d actually be willing to go back to Earth empty-handed?”
He shrugged. “What else would you suggest?”
“I think we should keep searching until we find them,” I boomed. Letting my voice rise more than I’d meant to. “There has to be a fourth star somewhere along this line… Somewhere else to look.”
Graves studied me for a moment before speaking. “If you kept following this course—which we don’t know is the correct one anyway—you’d enter enemy space. After passing through the entirety of the Cephalopod Kingdom, we’d come out on the other side, near the core of the Perseus Arm. There we’d find another star to check.”
“It’s that far, huh?” I asked in disappointment.
He put two fingers on his desktop and brought them slowly together. The map contracted. I could now see the line extended farther out. There was a fourth star, but it was pretty distant.
“McGill,” Graves said. “I want you to give this up if we don’t find them soon. It’s not healthy, and worse, it’s pointless. Use your brain, man. What are the odds the raiders came from so far out? We’re talking about more than a hundred and seventy lights from Earth to get to that fourth star. It doesn’t even make sense that an enemy would know about a freighter heading to Earth from Machine World at that distance.”
Brooding and quiet, I stopped asking questions, and Graves soon dismissed me.
Frustrated and feeling like my greatest fears concerning this expedition were coming to life before my eyes, I left his office. I hadn’t wanted this to turn into a wild goose-chase, but that’s exactly what was happening. I could feel it.
There was only one other place to go, only one other person to talk to who could change things.
With a heavy sigh, I headed for Gold Deck.
-7-
Imperator Turov wasn’t always the easiest officer to talk to. First off, she liked to put barriers in a man’s way. Secondly, she was always busy doing something important or at least something that seemed important. Today was no exception to either of these rules.
There were no less than three adjuncts and a couple of centurions that I had to go through to meet up with Turov. The high and mighty one herself didn’t have time for a lowly noncom, I was told this repeatedly.
Insisting I had something to say that only Turov herself was qualified to listen to got me pretty far—but that was only because they knew I’d had unusual dealings with her in the past. Eventually, I was faced with a final adjunct—a woman named Bachchan. She had an attitude as snotty as the rest of them. I told her my story all over again, concluding that Turov wouldn’t like it if an adjunct turned me back. At last, she led me to a well-appointed office door. It wasn’t the same office where I’d met up with Turov in the past, but I figured maybe she’d moved.
The lock buzzed open even before my fist rapped
He had my interest now. I shuffled to his desk where he had displayed the local stars. I tapped at the binary system we were supposed to pass by. It had the generic name of L-374. It contained an orange-colored K-class star circled by a smaller M-class companion. The last star in the line, the one we were to visit next, was yet another of the ubiquitous red dwarfs.
“Sir?” I asked. “We’re really going to skip this orange star? Why?”
“Why skip L-374? Because Gold Deck says so. Remember Veteran, I’m not in command of this expedition—and neither are you.”
“But what if we don’t find them in the third system? What will we do then? If we have to backtrack to the K-class, they might have had time to slip away.”
Graves shook his head. “We won’t bother. If I had to guess, I’d say we’ll check the last system and give up. Turov will turn us around and head home again after that.”
“She’d give up? She’d actually be willing to go back to Earth empty-handed?”
He shrugged. “What else would you suggest?”
“I think we should keep searching until we find them,” I boomed. Letting my voice rise more than I’d meant to. “There has to be a fourth star somewhere along this line… Somewhere else to look.”
Graves studied me for a moment before speaking. “If you kept following this course—which we don’t know is the correct one anyway—you’d enter enemy space. After passing through the entirety of the Cephalopod Kingdom, we’d come out on the other side, near the core of the Perseus Arm. There we’d find another star to check.”
“It’s that far, huh?” I asked in disappointment.
He put two fingers on his desktop and brought them slowly together. The map contracted. I could now see the line extended farther out. There was a fourth star, but it was pretty distant.
“McGill,” Graves said. “I want you to give this up if we don’t find them soon. It’s not healthy, and worse, it’s pointless. Use your brain, man. What are the odds the raiders came from so far out? We’re talking about more than a hundred and seventy lights from Earth to get to that fourth star. It doesn’t even make sense that an enemy would know about a freighter heading to Earth from Machine World at that distance.”
Brooding and quiet, I stopped asking questions, and Graves soon dismissed me.
Frustrated and feeling like my greatest fears concerning this expedition were coming to life before my eyes, I left his office. I hadn’t wanted this to turn into a wild goose-chase, but that’s exactly what was happening. I could feel it.
There was only one other place to go, only one other person to talk to who could change things.
With a heavy sigh, I headed for Gold Deck.
-7-
Imperator Turov wasn’t always the easiest officer to talk to. First off, she liked to put barriers in a man’s way. Secondly, she was always busy doing something important or at least something that seemed important. Today was no exception to either of these rules.
There were no less than three adjuncts and a couple of centurions that I had to go through to meet up with Turov. The high and mighty one herself didn’t have time for a lowly noncom, I was told this repeatedly.
Insisting I had something to say that only Turov herself was qualified to listen to got me pretty far—but that was only because they knew I’d had unusual dealings with her in the past. Eventually, I was faced with a final adjunct—a woman named Bachchan. She had an attitude as snotty as the rest of them. I told her my story all over again, concluding that Turov wouldn’t like it if an adjunct turned me back. At last, she led me to a well-appointed office door. It wasn’t the same office where I’d met up with Turov in the past, but I figured maybe she’d moved.
The lock buzzed open even before my fist rapped
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