Read Online Skirmishes by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Free Book Online Page B

On my order, I want the Ivoire to activate its anacapa and vanish for a least six hours. Then, at the same time, I want you to activate the transport’s cloak.”
    “Their equipment is sophisticated enough to break through our cloak,” she said.
    The woman across from him said, “I don’t believe you.”
    For a moment, Coop wasn’t sure what the woman was referring to. He would have to parse it out when he was done with Anita. So he shrugged again.
    He said to Anita, “I know they can see through our cloak. I want them to. Because, if they are monitoring the Ivoire , and it disappears when the transport disappears, they’ll think the mechanism is the same. They’re not close enough to the Ivoire for their equipment to show any difference.”
    “Got it,” Anita said.
    Beside him, Rossetti chuckled. “I like the way you think, Captain.”
    He permitted himself one small smile before answering the woman in front of him. She had said she didn’t believe he was interested in a place of myth. He made sure he was using his easy-going voice again.
    “You don’t believe that we were interested in a place called on all maps The Room of Lost Souls? Who could avoid such a place?”
    “Anyone with an instinct for self-preservation,” the woman said. As she spoke, the soldiers behind her shifted. Her words seemed to mean more to them than to Coop.
    “You keep threatening that something bad will happen,” Coop said. “Are you going to kill us for visiting here?”
    “No,” the civilian said. He turned toward the woman. “For God’s sake, Commander, we need to talk to these people. There are at least thirty of them and they all have the marker.”
    The woman stepped toward the civilian. “You are here on my sufferance. One more word, and I’ll send your people back to the ship.”
    “Actually,” the civilian said to her, “you’re here because of me, and you have no right to order me around.”
    Such animosity. Apparently the lack of discipline wasn’t the only problem this group of soldiers had.
    “Fun as this all is,” Coop said, “it has nothing to do with me or my people. We had no idea we were trespassing, so we’ll leave. Just give us thirty minutes and we’ll be out of your way.”
    He hoped thirty minutes was enough time to get Dix out of that room. In fact, he hoped Yash had already gotten him out of there, even though no one had notified Coop that she had been successful.
    Then the starbase slipped again. Coop held back a curse. Two of the empire’s soldiers scurried through the door they’d entered from. The others shifted nervously.
    “What the hell?” the civilian said as he extended his arms for balance. “That’s new. You’re doing something, aren’t you?”
    “Now, Anita,” Coop said to Anita on the private channel. “Have the Ivoire and the transport disappear right now .”
    She acknowledged him.
    Then he looked at the woman and the civilian before him and said through his speaker, “What am I doing? I’m talking to you. This place has been moving like that ever since we arrived. We thought it was normal.”
    “It’s not normal,” the civilian said. This time, he successfully shook off the soldier holding him. “Commander, they’re clearly doing something in that room. Something important. You know this place has been changing size. I’ll wager that what we’re feeling is something they did. Maybe they’ve been manipulating the Room all along.”
    The woman’s head moved back slightly. Anyone else would have thought that the civilian’s words bothered her, but Coop knew better. She had just gotten word that the transport had vanished.
    “I think we’re done talking,” she said to Coop. “You’ll all come with us now.”
    “Weapons,” Coop said on the private channel to his soldiers. They responded quickly, pointing their laser rifles at the entire group before him.
    Her people responded with their weapons out. Coop knew that his people would make it out of a