Read Online Refusing Excalibur by Zachary Jones - Free Book Online Page A

out. Inside was a brightly lit room, a command center by Victor’s guess.
    He stepped inside. What he saw took away his breath. Like walking into a large domed stadium made of polished rock. The largest holomap of the Milky Way galaxy that Victor had ever seen hovered in the air above him, filling the volume of the dome.
    He noticed a long slash of red stars in one part of the galaxy. For a moment, he thought they represented red dwarves, but that didn’t make any sense. Red dwarves were the most common type of a main sequence star in the universe, evenly distributed across the galaxy, not concentrated in one area. So it must be an empire then; that made some sense. On a whim, he studied the whole galaxy and found highlighted, within the red, a particular star system.
    Sol, the birthplace of humanity. The long-lost homeworld of all intelligent life. Everyone knew where that solar system was; its place was marked on every starmap Victor had ever seen. Directly on the opposite side of the galaxy from the Savannah system. Far from his reach.
    Savannah had been cut off from the solar system ever since the gates ceased to work. If anyone had reached the solar system using conventional jump drives, Victor had never heard of it.
    “Enjoying the view, I see,” someone said, their voice coming from behind Victor.
    He wheeled around and saw an old dark-skinned man, with a fringe of white curly hair. Short and slight, dressed in a loose, almost robelike coat that reached down to his knees. Victor’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
    “You can call me the old man,” the stranger said.
    “Not much of a name,” Victor said.
    “It’s the only one I need.” The old man glanced up at the projections. “Impressive, isn’t it?”
    Victor grimaced with annoyance at the change in subject but turned his attention to the galaxy rotating overhead. “It’s quite a decoration.”
    “Oh, that’s no decoration, despite its beauty.” The old man pointed a shriveled finger at the display. “That is the most detailed map of the galaxy you’re ever likely to find. What you’re seeing is every object ever catalogued by the First Civilization’s cartographers.”
    “Hardly unique. Plenty of First Civilization maps are around,” Victor said. The Republic Naval Academy had one.
    “Ah, true. But all those are one thousand years out of date. The one floating here is current.”
    Victor gave the old man an incredulous look. “Current?”
    The old man smiled. “Yes, current. Well, as current as my deep scouts can keep it. It takes years for some of them to return. But none of the information projected is more than a couple decades old.”
    “Deep scouts? Those are some kind of probes, I assume,” Victor said.
    “Yes, though much more sophisticated than the probes you’re familiar with.”
    Victor glanced at the map and then back to the old man. “They’d have to be, if what you’re saying about that map is true. Which begs the question, how did you come into possession of such advanced tech?”
    The old man shrugged. “I knew where to look.”
    Victor’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
    “I assume you’ve heard stories of First Civilization supply caches hidden around the galaxy?”
    “Yes,” Victor said. He had always considered them fairy tales.
    The old man pointed a finger straight up and circled it around. “This place, the Stone, is one of the larger examples of those caches.”
    “And that’s where you found the deep scouts?”
    “No, actually somewhere else. A factory really. I can’t update the map if I have access to only a finite number of deep scouts. This place is a combination command center and drydock. The only one of its kind.”
    “A drydock for what?” Victor asked.
    “Follow me and find out.” He walked by, close to Victor.
    On a whim, Victor reached to grab the old man, but Victor’s hand passed through the old man as if he weren’t here. “ Hrmmph . I should’ve figured you