Bivrost Nine by Andrew Tanner

Author:Andrew Tanner [Tanner, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Broken Wagon Publishing
Published: 2021-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

“Gimme details, people!” Nysse barked, standing and ripping the railing on the platform overlooking the staff pits in Operations and wondering why everything had to be so damned difficult. “Whoever these twits are, they just blew up what was turning out to be an extremely productive diplomatic negotiation! What the holy fugg is happening out there?”

“This simply cannot be a coincidence,” Winston said darkly, standing with his arms crossed next to Nysse. “There’s just no way. A bombing during the reception, now a pirate attack during the first negotiation? The treaty talks are doomed – the ambassadors will never meet again after an attack of this magnitude.”

“I am certain the negotiations can be salvaged,” Ishlaa said, her unflappable calmness weird given the anxious mood on the Command Deck. “As I had hoped, they were beginning to talk themselves into seeing the benefits of success. They will see them again once this crisis is resolved.”

“Right now,” Nysse growled, running her long fingers through her thick dark hair and pulling at the roots with a clenched fist, “I couldn’t care less if they had promised to make us the capitol of the galaxy! None of it matters a damn if we can’t protect the place. But pirates, here? That’s nutso – there hasn’t been a pirate attack on this scale in the Bivrost Channel in decades. Unless we’re dealing with a government attack – but the profiles the sensors sent before getting knocked out showed the ships were Human designs. Last I checked, Earth is still on our side.”

“Turing is done with the initial analysis,” Aiko called up from the staff pit, “and I agree with him – this is a major pirate raid, and one of the engine signatures matches that of the ship that escaped the day you and Sam arrived. Looking now like that was a scout for a full-on task force. And wouldn’t you know – most of it is making straight for the resource exploration ops on Bivrost Eight.”

“Gods damn it,” Nysse said, an utterly ignominious end to her tenure on Bivrost Nine flashing before her eyes, “is it just good timing, or are they working for one of the powers? Good grief, this situation just went from bad to much, much worse! And what were you saying about most – where are the other ships headed? Turing, switch on the conference table display.”

The holographic projection that appeared did nothing to improve Nysse’s mood. Satellites scattered across the Bivrost system and orbiting its single rocky planet, Bivrost One, were scouring for any signs of unusual electromagnetic activity. Those signals Turing determined to be connected to sizable moving objects appeared as tiny floating shapes moving between the large orbs representing the planets and moons of the small system. She recognized immediately the vessel that had sent the teams that boarded Haditha, along with at least three others of similar size. There was also another, far larger vessel, with a configuration she knew well, though she hadn’t seen one like it in many years.

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