Read Online Earth Song: Twilight Serenade by Mark Wandrey - Free Book Online
Authors: Mark Wandrey
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Lilith had explained long ago that a big part of the Kaatan’s combat prowess was its ability to strike and move. “They likely used the Ibeen to tow the wreck here for salvage.”
“And then the star went nova,” Minu said. “What’s the chance of that?” Minu thought as the floated down the corridors, dropping deck after deck, remembering the battle on Planet K where they’d broken the Mok-Tok siege and the subsequent space battle that had ended so suddenly with the system’s primary star going supernova.
The group reached the entrance to the CIC, the unlit white circular passageways just as hauntingly familiar as the rest of the ship. Unlike the rest of the ship’s interior doors, the door to the CIC was closed. Lilith held her hand out and a pair of little bots leapt to the wall and disappeared into cracks. A moment later light flickered on in the recesses around the door and it split to slide away into the walls, floor, and ceiling thus revealing the dark interior.
Lilith pushed through, catching the pair of bots as she passed the threshold, the others followed. Their helmet lights and the little blue beams from Lilith’s bots moved around the circular space, as completely void of anything as they’d first found the Kaatan.
Instead of sending a few bots over like before, this time Lilith checked her momentum in the middle of the CIC, sent herself into a graceful pirouette, and let a spray of them go along the arc of her arm’s travel.
Minu used her maneuvering unit to come to a stop, trying to avoid the stream of tiny bots, but a pair landed on her, one on her arm and another on her helmet. She had an incredible close up look of them. They looked like spiders. She resisted the urge to brush it off as the machine took a second to examine where it had landed, realize it wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and leap towards the wall.
One of the Beezer had one land on him as well. More curious than Minu, he grabbed it between a couple fingers and moved it up to his helmet to examine. There was a little flash and he released it with a grunt.
“Please don’t interfere with the bots,” Lilith admonished them. The Beezer tech shook his hand and grumbled an apology.
Like before, the bots disappeared into the walls and a moment later the room’s lights began to flicker to life. But instead of the recessed control and access panels, this time a single holographic panel popped into being with a single line of script. Lilith looked shocked.
“What’s wrong?” Minu asked.
“The combat intelligence is still resident!”
Chapter 8
January 26th, 535 AE
Ghost fleet, Deep Space, Galactic Frontier
They met in the CIC of the hulk Kaatan after returning to their ship and resting. When they returned Lilith brought along one of the large EPC arrays meant to power the salvaged ships.
“What is your intention?” Minu asked as they met up in the cargo bay, the humans and Beezer suiting up when Lilith floated in, EPC in tow. Lacking any of the massive specially made EPCs that ran large starships, Chosen engineers had created a package the same size which held an array of smaller class capacitors. The result, while less than half the nominal amount of power held in a ship’s EPC, was still sufficient for the situation.
“The intelligence that operates the Kaatan is too extensive to easily relocate. Lacking proper power, it has entered a safe mode to protect its data. We will have to repower the entire ship to access it.”
“Is there any risk?”
“To the intelligence? Yes, some. But it is not going to recover itself without outside assistance.”
“No, I meant danger to us.”
Lilith looked down at the EPC and seemed to be considering her answer. “Perhaps.”
Minu held up a hand. “Then we need to be clear on these risks, especially considering we have Beezer on this operation. Do we need Kal’at back from Ibeen Alpha to assist?”
Again Lilith paused to consider. “Having his
“And then the star went nova,” Minu said. “What’s the chance of that?” Minu thought as the floated down the corridors, dropping deck after deck, remembering the battle on Planet K where they’d broken the Mok-Tok siege and the subsequent space battle that had ended so suddenly with the system’s primary star going supernova.
The group reached the entrance to the CIC, the unlit white circular passageways just as hauntingly familiar as the rest of the ship. Unlike the rest of the ship’s interior doors, the door to the CIC was closed. Lilith held her hand out and a pair of little bots leapt to the wall and disappeared into cracks. A moment later light flickered on in the recesses around the door and it split to slide away into the walls, floor, and ceiling thus revealing the dark interior.
Lilith pushed through, catching the pair of bots as she passed the threshold, the others followed. Their helmet lights and the little blue beams from Lilith’s bots moved around the circular space, as completely void of anything as they’d first found the Kaatan.
Instead of sending a few bots over like before, this time Lilith checked her momentum in the middle of the CIC, sent herself into a graceful pirouette, and let a spray of them go along the arc of her arm’s travel.
Minu used her maneuvering unit to come to a stop, trying to avoid the stream of tiny bots, but a pair landed on her, one on her arm and another on her helmet. She had an incredible close up look of them. They looked like spiders. She resisted the urge to brush it off as the machine took a second to examine where it had landed, realize it wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and leap towards the wall.
One of the Beezer had one land on him as well. More curious than Minu, he grabbed it between a couple fingers and moved it up to his helmet to examine. There was a little flash and he released it with a grunt.
“Please don’t interfere with the bots,” Lilith admonished them. The Beezer tech shook his hand and grumbled an apology.
Like before, the bots disappeared into the walls and a moment later the room’s lights began to flicker to life. But instead of the recessed control and access panels, this time a single holographic panel popped into being with a single line of script. Lilith looked shocked.
“What’s wrong?” Minu asked.
“The combat intelligence is still resident!”
Chapter 8
January 26th, 535 AE
Ghost fleet, Deep Space, Galactic Frontier
They met in the CIC of the hulk Kaatan after returning to their ship and resting. When they returned Lilith brought along one of the large EPC arrays meant to power the salvaged ships.
“What is your intention?” Minu asked as they met up in the cargo bay, the humans and Beezer suiting up when Lilith floated in, EPC in tow. Lacking any of the massive specially made EPCs that ran large starships, Chosen engineers had created a package the same size which held an array of smaller class capacitors. The result, while less than half the nominal amount of power held in a ship’s EPC, was still sufficient for the situation.
“The intelligence that operates the Kaatan is too extensive to easily relocate. Lacking proper power, it has entered a safe mode to protect its data. We will have to repower the entire ship to access it.”
“Is there any risk?”
“To the intelligence? Yes, some. But it is not going to recover itself without outside assistance.”
“No, I meant danger to us.”
Lilith looked down at the EPC and seemed to be considering her answer. “Perhaps.”
Minu held up a hand. “Then we need to be clear on these risks, especially considering we have Beezer on this operation. Do we need Kal’at back from Ibeen Alpha to assist?”
Again Lilith paused to consider. “Having his
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