Dead Star (The Triple Stars, Volume 1) by Simon Kewin

Author:Simon Kewin [Kewin, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SciFi, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Publisher: Simon Kewin
Published: 2019-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

Unseen, back outside the mesh, something drifted against the background stars, blotting them out completely, although whether it was small and nearby, or much larger and farther away, there was no one to see.

4. Masks

She followed the sequence of jumps out of Dead Space, reversing the dance steps she'd made on her way in-system. Once again, the alarms clanged in her brain, and once again the Radiant Dragon calmly and apologetically claimed it could do nothing about them.

She emerged into normal space without incident or attack. The Ondo in her mind requested permissions to interface with the ship's systems, use the Dragon's higher order of computational ability to begin an analysis of everything that had been found. She let him get on with it; it wouldn't impinge on her brain function, and it at least meant he was usefully occupied while she commenced the tedious jump/wait/jump sequence of the Refuge approach protocols. She busied herself pursuing her regime of physical fitness. There were still too many times when the muscles in her right leg or hip ached sharply, her natural biology struggling to keep up with her artificial.

They ran the planetoid on an artificial day/night cycle, a rhythm Ondo had adjusted to match Maes Far's to assist with her rehabilitation. It was nominally the middle of the night as she finally docked, but Ondo was waiting for her on the spaceward hangar floor as she emerged from the Dragon. By the look of his crumpled day clothes, he hadn't been asleep anyway.

She looked for a spark of wonder in his eyes, a delight that meant he already knew what she'd discovered, and therefore that she couldn't trust her inner Ondo after all. It wasn't there. She saw, mainly, relief that she had returned unharmed, a simple pleasure at the sight of her. He was either a very good actor, or it was time she started to trust him. It occurred to her that trusting him meant believing in herself, too. Ondo had rebuilt her, reformed her. If she decided he wasn't compromised by Concordance, that meant she wasn't either.

He held out his arms, uncertain of whether to hold her close or shake her hand. “Did you find anything?”

She squeezed him a greeting, his body surprisingly bony beneath his tunic. Sometimes he was so engrossed in his work he forgot to eat. He needed to look after himself more.

“Oh yeah.”

“Tell me.”

Despite the tedium of the approach, she was tired and needed to sleep. She could let her guard down now she was back at the Refuge. “I'll give you full access to your avatar in my skull. He can fill you in.”

“Are you sure? You know that will give me sight of any conversation you've had with him.”

Had she said anything she didn't want the real Ondo to know? Probably not. She wasn't sure she cared too much anymore. “It's fine. Download everything. You need to see it.”

His eyes glazed over for a few moments. He was grabbing the data there and then, dumping it from her flecks into stores in his own head for later analysis.

Download

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