Earthborn Rising (The Bivrost Nine Saga Book 3) by Andrew Tanner

Author:Andrew Tanner [Tanner, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Broken Wagon Publishing
Published: 2024-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Despite his fears about what Wuxian had gotten into, Sam was happy for the opportunity to see more of local space. While the challenges Bivrost Nine threw at him on a daily basis were intellectually satisfying, a great part of the appeal of taking the job was the opportunity to explore strange new worlds.

Just a few jumps away from the Bivrost system were dozens of inhabited worlds, many with indigenous societies living blissfully unaware of anything happening beyond their immediate skies. A few were not space-capable themselves but knew about and traded with the rest of the galaxy through intermediaries; a few even welcomed settlers.

A polyglot waystation like Bivrost Nine was endlessly fascinating in its own right, but Sam felt that there was nothing quite like seeing a people in their home country. The journey to Embryon would have given Sam a chance to visit several fascinating places had there been time, and as the frigate Chosin jumped into each solar system he felt a pang of regret at being unable to properly explore the worlds surrounding these unfamiliar stars.

Six hours after departing the Epsh system, the last before Embryon, a warning from the ship’s digital alerted the crew to their imminent exit from void space. Sam, Aiko, Nicole, and the rest of the crew tightened their seat restraints; the frigate might have to make radical maneuvers as soon as it entered normal space.

“Everyone better be set!” warned Yu Li, captain of the vessel. “We’re breaching void space in three… two… one…”

Sam held his breath as a brilliant white pinpoint expanded to swallow them up, leaving the vessel at the center of a raging rainbow. When the plasma sheath melted away, stars appeared in the parts of the sky not dominated by the burning red orb of Embryon’s star.

“Sensors are operating normally again,” Chosin’s Digital reported, the hologram standing by Yu Li’s side. “Not showing anything untoward so far. System configuration is as last registered with the Merchants Guild: remote gate outpost with no security presence, one Gresch trading station. It specializes in low-grade fusion fuels sourced from the outermost planet of the system.”

“What could Wuxian want from a backwater like this?” Sam muttered. “Someone abusing a Rebuild on the trade station, maybe? That would be strange for Gresch, considering that they treat their androids as family.”

“There is something familiar about this system,” Aiko muttered. “Why can’t I recall?”

“Seems pretty generic to me,” Nicole said. “This system doesn’t get nearly enough traffic to sustain a slavery ring, but is much too close to a system with a Merchants Guild presence to operate as a pirate haven. Not a bad place for a remote outpost, though, now that I see it firsthand.”

“Now I remember!” Aiko snapped her fingers. “About ten years ago Earth Forces set up an austere depot in the middle of a swamp on the second world, opposite from the side the Gresch station is parked over. Part of an abortive effort by Earth to lay the groundwork

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