Read Online Orphan's Alliance (Jason Wander) by Robert Buettner - Free Book Online
Authors: Robert Buettner
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction, adventure, Fiction - Science Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Science Fiction - Adventure, Space warfare, Wander; Jason (Fictitious character)
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jockey,” somebody grunted.
I shook my head. “I think he’s more. He was a junior officer when we arrived, so he had to sell his plan, too. A lot of battlefield geniuses lack that tact. On the other hand, he’s no politician. Long on courage and integrity, short on blarney.”
The State Department guy furrowed his brow. “But could a leader like Planck stabilize the new government?”
I’ve spent enough time in this puzzle palace that I’ve learned to smirk invisibly. But these people in Washington really did think the Easter Bunny brought Cavorite. “Mr. Undersecretary, the Armistice was barely signed when the Ike deorbited Tressel. I don’t know that there is a new government. I don’t know that it needs stabilizing. And I certainly don’t know whether Audace Planck has a role in it. Later news from our Consulates has to make its way through five jumps and layovers. It travels almost as slowly as the Ike and those Kodiaks have to.”
The State Department guy raised his eyebrows, then turned to the chairman, while he pointed at me. “He doesn’t know about the Mousetrap?”
The chairman scowled at Howard. “You didn’t tell him?”
Howard shrugged. “He didn’t need to know.”
The chairman said, “He does now.”
THIRTEEN
I SAT THEREfeeling my face burn. Howard was a professorial geek, but once the Army commissioned him as a Spook, he burrowed into the Intel need-to-know mentality like a beetle into dung. And, as always, the result for me was that I was the slow kid in class.
Howard shrank inside his uniform like a turtle, then cleared his throat. “Jason, we’re discovering new Temporal Fabric Insertion Points all the time, nowadays.”
I nodded. That much everybody knew. “Wormholes” or “black holes” are examples of TFIPs, though most of them lead nowhere, and some of them even drift around. But not all TFIPs are even as detectable as wormholes or black holes. Before a captured Slug ship spit us through the first TFIP, astronomers identified black holes as distant and almost theoretical rarities in the vastness of space. Turns out TFIPs are neither distant nor rare.
Howard said it was like looking at the Pacific Ocean through a telescope from space. If you didn’t know there were ping pong balls floating in the ocean, because you didn’t even know ping pong balls existed, much less what they looked like, you wouldn’t notice them. Now, the astronomers knew what to look for, and they were identifying TFIPs as fast as floating ping pong balls. But if a particular TFIP didn’t lead to a populated outworld, or at least a habitable layover planet, it was as useless to us as a ping pong ball. I said, “I remember that.”
“Well, you probably should forget most of what I’m about to tell you.” Howard popped the table’s holo, and the image of a little metal spider appeared, floating alongside a cruiser for scale. “For the past three years, we’ve been inserting expendable drones like this one across newly identified TFIPs. The drones were programmed to survey their exit points, then return with the data. A TFIP’s a stressful environment. Most of the drones didn’t return. But two years ago, astronomers at the Mount Evans observatory identified a TFIP a week’s normal-space travel from the Solar System. The survey drone we sent across returned. On the other side, it found a cluster of other TFIPs just days’ travel from the first one. I had a hunch, so we funneled every drone we had through that TFIP. Then we sent the drones on ahead, through the other TFIPs beyond the new one.”
“You built drones that can survive two jumps out, and two jumps back?” I whistled.
“It was a little pricy.”
I covered my mouth to stifle a snort. When he was spending tax dollars, Howard thought a thirty dollar coffee was a little pricy. Someday that would come back to haunt him. Howard sawed the air in front of him with his palms. “Jason, at the Mousetrap we found TFIPs that link
I shook my head. “I think he’s more. He was a junior officer when we arrived, so he had to sell his plan, too. A lot of battlefield geniuses lack that tact. On the other hand, he’s no politician. Long on courage and integrity, short on blarney.”
The State Department guy furrowed his brow. “But could a leader like Planck stabilize the new government?”
I’ve spent enough time in this puzzle palace that I’ve learned to smirk invisibly. But these people in Washington really did think the Easter Bunny brought Cavorite. “Mr. Undersecretary, the Armistice was barely signed when the Ike deorbited Tressel. I don’t know that there is a new government. I don’t know that it needs stabilizing. And I certainly don’t know whether Audace Planck has a role in it. Later news from our Consulates has to make its way through five jumps and layovers. It travels almost as slowly as the Ike and those Kodiaks have to.”
The State Department guy raised his eyebrows, then turned to the chairman, while he pointed at me. “He doesn’t know about the Mousetrap?”
The chairman scowled at Howard. “You didn’t tell him?”
Howard shrugged. “He didn’t need to know.”
The chairman said, “He does now.”
THIRTEEN
I SAT THEREfeeling my face burn. Howard was a professorial geek, but once the Army commissioned him as a Spook, he burrowed into the Intel need-to-know mentality like a beetle into dung. And, as always, the result for me was that I was the slow kid in class.
Howard shrank inside his uniform like a turtle, then cleared his throat. “Jason, we’re discovering new Temporal Fabric Insertion Points all the time, nowadays.”
I nodded. That much everybody knew. “Wormholes” or “black holes” are examples of TFIPs, though most of them lead nowhere, and some of them even drift around. But not all TFIPs are even as detectable as wormholes or black holes. Before a captured Slug ship spit us through the first TFIP, astronomers identified black holes as distant and almost theoretical rarities in the vastness of space. Turns out TFIPs are neither distant nor rare.
Howard said it was like looking at the Pacific Ocean through a telescope from space. If you didn’t know there were ping pong balls floating in the ocean, because you didn’t even know ping pong balls existed, much less what they looked like, you wouldn’t notice them. Now, the astronomers knew what to look for, and they were identifying TFIPs as fast as floating ping pong balls. But if a particular TFIP didn’t lead to a populated outworld, or at least a habitable layover planet, it was as useless to us as a ping pong ball. I said, “I remember that.”
“Well, you probably should forget most of what I’m about to tell you.” Howard popped the table’s holo, and the image of a little metal spider appeared, floating alongside a cruiser for scale. “For the past three years, we’ve been inserting expendable drones like this one across newly identified TFIPs. The drones were programmed to survey their exit points, then return with the data. A TFIP’s a stressful environment. Most of the drones didn’t return. But two years ago, astronomers at the Mount Evans observatory identified a TFIP a week’s normal-space travel from the Solar System. The survey drone we sent across returned. On the other side, it found a cluster of other TFIPs just days’ travel from the first one. I had a hunch, so we funneled every drone we had through that TFIP. Then we sent the drones on ahead, through the other TFIPs beyond the new one.”
“You built drones that can survive two jumps out, and two jumps back?” I whistled.
“It was a little pricy.”
I covered my mouth to stifle a snort. When he was spending tax dollars, Howard thought a thirty dollar coffee was a little pricy. Someday that would come back to haunt him. Howard sawed the air in front of him with his palms. “Jason, at the Mousetrap we found TFIPs that link
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