Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Exploration Command by Dandridge Doug

Author:Dandridge, Doug [Dandridge, Doug]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Published: 2014-12-18T16:00:00+00:00

They Don’t Care

“Still no signals, ma’am,” said Lieutenant JG Daffodil Clarke from her com station.

Not another one, thought Captain Naomi Chin, commanding officer of the Exploration Command battle cruiser HIMS Beagle. That’s the third one so far. One is a tragedy, two a possible coincidence. But three? No way. Someone out here is killing these civilizations.

“What’s the take from Polo?” she asked the officer, referring to the light cruiser that had discovered the first of the ravaged worlds.

As per standard operating procedure, the light cruiser was closer in to the system, basically serving as bait to any defenses that might decide to open up on them before communications were established.

“Same thing, ma’am. No signal, no graviton emissions.”

The last part didn’t always mean all that much. There were lots of space faring civilizations that didn’t use gravity based drives. They were much more efficient and powerful than the old fashioned fusion or ion drives, and the control of gravity was a necessity for traveling in either sub or hyperspace. But it was almost a sure thing that any space faring civilization would go through those technologies first.

Of course, the last system never got beyond bronze age, and they were just as gone as any nuclear armed civilization, even if it was not possible that they ended themselves. But this one had electromagnetic communications. We picked them up ourselves from sixty light years. Sociology had predicted from the signals that whoever produced them was in their early electronics age, and were probably in or near their nascent space age by now.

“Putting surface scans up on the holo,” called out the Tactical Officer, and the central tank displayed the night side of the one habitable planet in the system, as it had been two hours before.

Or maybe once habitable, thought the Captain, seeing a surface shrouded in clouds of dust, backlit by large glowing spots underneath. Those are impact craters, all the way through to the magma. Whatever was alive on that world is now dead.

Chin had been trained as a biologist, and in fact had a doctorate in the discipline. Exploration Command attracted the most educated officers in the fleet, people who wanted to look into the unknown and see what was hidden there. To her there was no greater crime than the complete destruction of a world’s biosphere. The genetic uniqueness of a world wiped out forever.

“Order Polo to investigate that world. Least time profile. We’ll wait out here until they complete their survey, then translate on a course for the next likely system. They can catch us when they can.”

“Aye, ma’am,” said Clarke, turning back to her board to send the orders.

“Are you sure you want to separate your command like that, Captain?” came the call from Commander Colby Komorov, the Exec.

“I would prefer not to,” said the Captain, her eyes still locked on the planet. “But whoever is doing this is still out here, which means more worlds are at risk.”

“Are you sure it’s the same people? I mean,

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