Evolution's Cost by D. L. Harrison

Author:D. L. Harrison [Harrison, D. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-03-06T05:00:00+00:00

The next few days passed. We got a lucky break, when the transmission came in asking for our purpose in being here, Karl forged us some orders to join the fleet here. We weren’t sure why word hadn’t made it here yet, perhaps Mars being slow on it was an inefficiency thing. Either that, or they were trying to figure out what we were up to and didn’t expect us here at all.

Not many could put it together, but the vice admiral surely would, he’s one of the only people that knew about our detour mission to Eta Cassiopeiae A. I was sure that would set off alarms in his mind, that it was our ship that deserted stretched the credulity of coincidence to the breaking point. I doubted he could piece together our true plans, but he might guess enough of it.

Of course, we were still several hours out on the last part of our deceleration burn, and it could all fall apart on us, a messenger missile could show up at any time and let the cat out of the bag within fifteen minutes. We all hoped our luck would hold for another two hours.

All three of us were on the bridge again, Katy once again joined her original bridge crew and sat at Ops.

Cindy said, “The shuttle needs to launch captain.”

The shuttle would launch and do its own deceleration burn at a slight angle, which would put the shuttle on a slightly curved course to the refinery. We should arrive in both places virtually simultaneously.

The captain said, “Katy, clear the shuttle for launch, and wish them luck. Send a message to the command station that we’re swapping out empty xenon and hydrogen storage tanks for fresh ones.”

Katy replied, “Aye captain.”

The shuttle launched, and time slowly ticked down to just fifty minutes until we would arrive, and the A.I.s would start to brief people.

Everything was going perfectly to plan, until it all blew up in our faces.

Katy said, “Maam, picking up a transmission from a messenger missile. It’s the one we hoped we wouldn’t see. Admiral… here, and she put it on screen without an order to.

Admiral Clemmons stern face filled the screen, “I regret that I bring you all shocking news. The scout ship Drake has deserted and is to be considered rogue. We also have reason to believe they are highly dangerous, and possibly infected with an unknown contagion from a previously quarantined star system. Commander Samantha Kane was a distinguished and faithful officer and captain of that ship, and I can only assume something went very wrong with the crew to result in this development. You are not to make contact with them, and you will destroy them immediately if they show themselves. That is an order.”

His face dropped off the screen.

We waited for a response, we were less than two light seconds away at this point, but there wasn’t one.

Katy said, “Perhaps the fleet A.I.s locked them down, which is probably why there aren’t a bunch of missiles headed our way, or plasma.

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