Alien Wars by Vaughn Heppner

Author:Vaughn Heppner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 1477828680
Publisher: 47north
Published: 2015-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

22

Cyrus stood in the control room of the Battle Fang. Skar leaned against the cushioned captain’s board where Mingal Cham the 3012th would have lounged.

Kresh didn’t sit like humans. They stood, leaned, or lay down on their sides.

Several crewmembers from the Attack Talon sat at the various stations. Everyone studied the main screen. It showed the moon Jassac. Around it were parked nearly one hundred warships: darters, Battle Fangs, Attack Talons, and the mighty hammer-ships. The last vessels to arrive at Jassac showed up brightly on the screen. Their engines burned hot as they decelerated into near orbit. The rest of the Pulsar gravitational system was devoid of spaceships except for theirs.

“I’ve done everything I can think of to shield us from detection,” Skar told Cyrus. “We’re on minimum life support. I’ve shut off the engines so we’re traveling on accumulated velocity. Spacewalkers went outside and sprayed black construction foam around the Battle Fang. The hardened foam presently dims any heat and radar signatures. I do not know about Bo Taw psi-sweeps.”

“We’re too far from Jassac for that,” Cyrus said.

“Do not underestimate a FIRST,” Skar said. “They are cunning beyond reason. Besides, couldn’t Bo Taw still be in High Station 3?”

“You’re right about that. Would they think to psi-scan from there, though?”

“I would,” Skar said.

“What about Heenhiss?” Cyrus asked. “What’s the situation there, as far as you can tell?”

“We’ve used long-range scopes to study the situation. The Chirr have swept the Heenhiss spaceways clean of Kresh habitats. The main bug fleet presently heads for Glegan. The computer estimates their arrival in five days.”

“That’s fast,” Cyrus said, thinking of solar system travel times. “Have the Chirr living underground on Glegan launched their own space fleet?”

“Not yet,” Skar said.

“The Kresh at Glegan are still keeping their warships there?”

“So far.”

“Excuse me for interrupting,” Niens said, “but isn’t shielding our Battle Fang the first priority?”

Cyrus and Skar glanced at the tall mentalist.

“Skar has done what he can,” Niens said, “but I doubt it will be enough. Once Dagon Dar spots our ship . . .”

Nodding, Cyrus composed himself. “I learned a trick from the dying Sa-Austra.”

“That is the Eich?” Niens asked.

“No,” Cyrus said. “The Sa-Austra is an old memory. It belonged to the Eich, but it was also separate. I’m not sure how that’s possible. I’ve begun to wonder, though, if the Eich taught the seekers on Jassac how to mind transfer.”

“Why would the psi-parasite do that?” Niens asked.

“That’s a great question,” Cyrus said. “If we learn the answer, I think we’re closer to understanding just what the psi-parasite is and why it’s been hiding in the tubes all this time.”

Niens grew thoughtful. “You say you slew the Sa-Austra, a memory in the Eich. Did the psi-parasite lose that memory once you slew it?”

“I would think so,” Cyrus said.

Niens stroked his chin before asking, “Do you feel up to making a null?”

“You ask me that now?” Cyrus asked.

The mentalist actually looked abashed.

Cyrus took a calming breath. “Before we reached this star system, the Kresh

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