Cascade Night Owls 3: A Moon Colony Sci-fi Adventure (Night Owls: A Moon Colony Sci-fi Adventure) by Stephen Gay

Author:Stephen Gay [Gay, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

14

MINA

Ishift my video connection to the left side of the display and throw on the live LBC news feed. A flashing Breaking Alert banner sits atop the screen, and just below it stands Suji in the middle of NIC’s lobby. A pale blue LBC vest looks like it was thrown over her interview outfit. There’s no special commotion behind her; in fact, the lobby looks emptier than usual. It doesn’t look like most people know what’s happened yet.

“This just in: the Martian freighter Mina, which was on route to Luna, has been destroyed,” Suji starts. Her voice is low. “Details are still coming in, but this was one of the last freighters needed to finalize the Helium-3 fusion cell facility. For more, let’s go to Erin Earhardt at LBC.”

The LBC feed breaks into halves to include the lead anchor. “Suji, this is shocking. How does this impact the timeline for the Helium-3 center?”

A beat passes before Suji responds. “We have reached out to Nadar Corp for an official response to the tragic development. But every shipment on route is critical to the success of the project. We don’t know the content of each freighter or if the content is replaceable in the immediate future.”

I look to the left, but Aysha is busy typing, muttering, “Frak, frak, frak” underneath her breath. She looks offscreen for a moment, and I hear her tell someone, “Conference room in ten.”

“Do we know if this was an accident or an attack?” Erin asks on the right.

“Based on the information we have, it was an attack.” Suji brushes a stray lock of pink hair away from her face and refocuses. “A Martian Navy gun ship was escorting the Mina, and we believe there was a battle between them and an unknown ship. We have footage from a brave crew member on the freighter. They managed to transmit the video that corroborates this information.”

“We warn our viewers that the content could be disturbing,” says Erin. “Let’s watch the footage.”

Before my stomach can digest her warning, torpedoes light up the screen—two are blinding through space toward the Martian gun ship. On the top of the screen sits an unknown ship, blasting their rail gun. The Martian ship counters, somehow evading the two torpedoes, but the onslaught is too much. Rounds from the rail gun strike either side, and a third and final torpedo finishes them off. The gun ship explodes into pieces before our eyes, and the camera shakes. Screams and sobs echo in the background just before the recording goes black.

Aysha’s eyes are full of tears. “This is a PR nightmare!”

“Reports are at least six Luna casualties and a dozen Martian casualties from both ships,” Suji says. “By all accounts, the attacking ship is believed to be from the Luna Independence Front.”

The desperation in my gut solidifies. “That . . . that looked like the Cateran.”

Aysha looks just as desperate as I feel. “We don’t know for sure, but once we get more data from the Mina’s blackbox, we can reference off the footage from Desi.

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