Empire Claim by Kate Sheeran Swed

Author:Kate Sheeran Swed [Swed, Kate Sheeran]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-09T11:29:58+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Gareth stood a pace to Sloane’s left, intentionally blocking Vin’s access to her while also angling his body so he could easily keep an eye on the door. It wasn’t ideal—Brighton would’ve chosen a better spot—but he didn’t feel particularly threatened. And if that changed, he wanted to be close to Sloane.

Everything President Simelda had said about her being the heart of the resistance? It was all true. She’d gotten some viral attention for her stunts even before the chain-reaction of catastrophes had rocked half the galaxy, and while that might not have made her a household name, she was pretty widely recognized at this point.

Since then, she’d repeatedly appeared at the center of the galaxy’s escalating troubles. At first he’d blamed himself for that, but as the situation progressed, he thought it was more about the way that she regularly bucked both CTF and Fleet rules on a regular basis.

President Simelda meant what he said about the value of his planet’s freedom, too. There was always the chance that he was merely a good actor, but Gareth didn’t think so. In fact, looking at the president’s anguish-worn face—no easy smile, now—he thought he’d stake a great deal on the man’s honesty.

After a breath, which seemed fully designed for Simelda to collect himself and ease the flush out of his cheeks after his outburst, the President nodded. “We caught these two when one of the jaevin mines reported discrepancies and asked us to help investigate,” he explained. “The investigation found that not only had these two skimmed jaevin off the top of their mining endeavors, but that they’d been mis-recording inventory for months, if not years. To the tune of hundreds of pounds of the stuff. All of it gone, like it never existed.”

Jaevin was Torrent’s principal export. Despite the rich depths of the mines on Beck and Domer, the precious metal had been one of the reasons they’d wanted to grasp the Trio Alliance, where smaller deposits had been detected in several areas.

He’d always thought it was a lot of fuss for a pretty bit of metal. Though, as they knew now, jaevin did more than grace expensive earrings and belt buckles.

“It wasn’t easy, but we traced the spies back to the Federation.” Simelda ran his fingers through his hair, sending new crackles of static through the thinning ends. “They won’t say what they need so much jaevin for. Hell, they’ve got Halorin. That’s a much richer System, jaevin or no.”

Sloane looked over her shoulder, meeting Gareth’s eye. “Could it have something to do with the stasis fields? Getting things out of them?”

Stomach twisting, Gareth remembered Chief Escher’s revelations about the connection between the Currents and the fields. “And extracting the fields themselves.”

“What?” It was Alex who interrupted from her spot against the back wall beside Hilda, the word sharp and sudden, as if she couldn’t quite stop herself from uttering it.

“I spoke with Lager just before the junk pile,” Gareth said, half-turning so he could address his answer to Alex as well as to Sloane and the Presidents.

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