Empires in Ruin by Anthony James

Author:Anthony James [James, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“It’s the comms system, sir.” The excitement was no longer contained and Burner talked fast. “I’ve located numerous FTL comms pings from the Hexidine. Not just the Hexidine.”

“Handshakes?” asked Recker.

“No, sir, much more than handshakes. These are like the big data packets sent between warships on the same battle network. The Aeklu started receiving them when you entered your command codes back on Trinus-XN, but I didn’t find out it was happening until now.”

Recker knew at once this was enormously significant. “The other packets are from different Laws of Ancidium?”

“Yes, sir. We’re receiving data from the Gorgadar and the Ixidar as well. I can open the packets but the contents don’t make any sense. I’m confident that with Lieutenant Larson’s help, I can figure out what they contain. And it won’t take weeks.”

“This is all well and good, Lieutenant, but I’ve spotted an obvious problem,” said Recker.

“We’re transmitting our own data packets as well, sir,” Burner confirmed. “If the Hexidine hadn’t already found out we’d captured the Aeklu and Verumol, I imagine our renewed transmissions would have come as a surprise to the Lavorix.”

“Now they know what happened, why not cut the Aeklu off the network?” asked Eastwood.

“They want to find us again,” said Burner. “And they’re likely taking a gamble we won’t discover the existence of their ship-to-ship comms.”

“A gamble they’ve already lost,” said Aston.

“That’s right, Commander.” Burner replied.

“Is an FTL battle network even worth a shit over such enormous distances?” asked Eastwood.

“Any comms is better than no comms,” said Larson. “We don’t even know what kind of amplification the Lavorix have achieved with their transmissions. If they’re ahead of the new tech we’ve been testing in the HPA, then it’s possible the Laws of Ancidium can speak to each other with only a short delay. Besides, we’re talking about warships which can destroy empires. It’s not like they need to call for backup every couple of days. They’re designed to operate independently for months or years, so these comms are enough to keep the other members of the network informed.”

Recker wanted clarification. “Does this mean we can track not only the Hexidine but the last two Laws of Ancidium as well?”

“Potentially, sir.” Burner smiled apologetically. “Assuming these comms packets contain the data I think they contain.”

“I’m checking them now,” said Larson. “Whoa! Coordinates!”

“Coordinates for where?” asked Recker.

“I haven’t found out yet, sir. Since we didn’t manage to hack into the Lavorix star charts, the Aeklu is carrying the HPA and Daklan equivalents on one of our own data arrays and these coordinates don’t tie in with anything we have.”

“So how can you find the Hexidine?”

Larson grinned and tapped the side of her head. “I recognize the format of the coordinates, sir. The Lavorix are using Meklon data – no doubt stolen – to navigate. We have the same Meklon charts on the Vengeance. I’ll link to its data arrays and find out where the Hexidine was going.”

“Will it take long?”

“I realize I made it sound easy, sir. There’s a possibility it won’t be so straightforward – I’ll let you know as soon as I can.

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