Read Online Morgan's Choice by Greta van Der Rol - Free Book Online Page A

much briefer, you in
the detention cell. That in itself was enough. Your friend Jones
merely confirmed it.”
    Jones. Fucking Jones. Why couldn’t he keep
his mouth shut? “I reported directly to an admiral—a Daryadan .” At
least, that’s what she’d guess. Makasa wasn’t as senior as the man
opposite her.
    “ So. Now you will report to a Daryabod . An
increase in status.”
    Oh, goody. Don’t say it, Morgan,
keep your mouth shut. She smiled at his rank insignia, instead.
    “ Let me show the evidence we have of
the Yogina. ”
    He turned to the view screen and found a
report. A planet appeared on the screen, the usual blue-green and
white world with oceans and continents, a sparkling jewel against
the black of space.
    There seemed to be more white under the
clouds than Morgan was used to seeing. If that was snow, it was a
pretty cold place.
    “This is a view of Dilmar in happier times,”
Ravindra said. “We visited the planet a few days ago. It has been
colonized for twenty years, fifty thousand inhabitants clustered
around three settlements on a fertile piece of land on the largest
continent. Why anybody would bother to hit a planet like that is
beyond my comprehension. But hit it somebody had.”
    The picture changed. For a moment she thought
she was being shown a gas giant, covered in roiling brown cloud.
But no. This was the same planet. From there, it became a
kaleidoscope of horror. What once were grass plains lay black and
empty. The charred skeletons of trees stretched stark limbs to a
sullen sky. Alongside the cultivated land a forest still smoldered,
a surreal sculpture of grey and black and white, distorted pillars
on an ashen base. Far away, the fire galloped up a mountainside, an
evil, leaping demon trailing a cloak of swirling smoke; somebody’s
hopes and dreams, all turned to ash. Her stomach heaved when she
saw the bodies. Troopers were piling them up, men, women, children.
All soft and floppy, their limbs loose as broken dolls. The stink
would have to be unbearable.
    They’d found one survivor who had watched
the massacre from the doubtful safety of the forest. He described
the attack, hundreds of fighters such as those Morgan had seen
from Curlew . Then
tiny warriors, no bigger than children, had been landed. They
stalked through the settlement, killing as they went. When he’d
finished his story he broke down, his body wracked with
sobs.
    Morgan rubbed her fist over her mouth. The
lone survivor’s story had shaken her more than she could say. So
easy to visualize hundreds of those little fighters she’d seen in
the isolation bay streaming down from the skies, the tiny, ugly
warriors killing anyone that moved.
    Ravindra turned off the view screen.
    “ He confirmed that the attacking ships
were Yogin fighters.
Before this incident we had come across a number of cases where
manesan freighters had disappeared in transit. We had come to
believe that something was preying on them but we didn’t know what.
After we found the ship you have seen in the isolation bay, we
began to fear we had seen the culprits. And now, as you have seen,
after having started as pirates destroying freighters the Yogina have begun to turn their
attention to planets. We have evidence of a mother ship but no
one—at least, no one alive—has seen it. We do not know when or
where they will strike again, where they come from, who they are,
why… And all of that worries me more than Bunyada ever could.”
    He looked at her . “As you found yourself, these Yogina do not communicate. They
destroy ships and if attacked, they fight to the death. Something
about you or your ship stopped them from taking that action. You
see the issue then? These little warriors appear to be implacable
killers. And yet these same beings spared you, spared your ship. I
want to know why.”
    All so very true. She’d even thought
these Yogina had tried
to protect Curlew from the
manesan fighters. Disturbing and strange. Indiscriminate