Read Online Shadows of the Gods: Crimson Worlds Refugees II by Jay Allan - Free Book Online Page B

involuntary nod agreeing with her. He was a scientist as she was, trained to analyze facts, not feelings. Yet he felt the same thing, a haunting sense that these chunks of metal had not been part of any robotic warrior. Indeed, though he couldn’t offer any real evidence yet, he had the overwhelming sense that they were looking at chunks of battle armor and weapons…equipment that had been used by living soldiers.
    “We need more artifacts…and we need to figure out what happened here.” Cutter spoke softly. His mind was focused. He and the other researchers in the fleet had struggled to understand the history of the First Imperium. The primary hypothesis was that some disaster had befallen its people…and that some of their robotic servants had continued to function, even through the long ages, continuing to defend the imperial domains. But there was no place in that narrative for ancient battles between machines and living beings.
    Could they have been invaded? Was the First Imperium destroyed by another alien race and not some blight or plague? And if that is what happened…where are those beings now?
     
    *    *    *
     
    “All fleet units report ready, Admiral.”
    Compton sat in his chair, looking out over the flag bridge. Around Midway , he knew, one hundred forty-two other ships of the fleet were in formation, awaiting his orders to engage their engines, and leave the landing parties on their own. Only one vessel would remain in the system, one of John Duke’s fast attack ships. It would hide in the system’s asteroid belt for a week, its systems powered down to minimal life support. Then it would return to the second planet to pick up Max Harmon…and bring him back to the fleet.
    “Very well, Captain.” Compton knew the ships of the fleet had the programmed course locked into their navcoms, the thrust plan that would take them through the warp gate into the system the fleet’s hastily-created nomenclature designated X50. But that’s not where they were going.
    “Commander Cortez, advise all units that we are transmitting a revised flight plan. All vessels are to lock the new course into their navigational AIs.”
    Cortez turned and looked across the bridge toward Compton. “A revised plan, sir?”
    “Yes, Commander. A revised plan. Is anything unclear about that?” Compton felt a little sorry for the tactical officer. He’d been planning the alternate course all along, but he’d told no one. No one save Max Harmon, who would need the information to find the fleet…and who would tell no one. Compton felt a twinge of guilt at the coldness of his logic, at the part of him that could imagine a scenario where his landing parties were attacked, where any knowledge they possessed might be discovered. No, he couldn’t take the chance. If the enemy discovered the expeditions, Compton knew he would have to leave them to their destruction. All of them. Even Sophie.
    “Ah…yes, sir.” A pause. “But what revised plan?” Cortez turned back to his workstation, but it was clear he was still confused.
    “The plan I am sending you now, Commander. I calculated it myself. All vessels are to download it immediately and be prepared to embark in ten minutes.”
    “Yes, Admiral,” Cortez replied, struggling mightily to sound confident.
    Compton sat quietly while the tactical officer relayed the command. He had pursued the same methodology in selecting warp gates for the fleet since X2, in all instances opting for the one likeliest to lead away from Occupied Space. The methodology of predicting warp gate termini was primitive at best, but it was possible to estimate the distance of each jump through a series of calculations. And the math said that the gate to X50 would lead farther from the worlds of Occupied Space, from Earth.
    Compton had been troubled recently, wondering if he was taking a predictable route. If anything, the First Imperium had superior methods for such calculations. He’d wondered if