Jump Gate Omega (Star Lawyers Book 1) by Tom Shepherd

Author:Tom Shepherd [Shepherd, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-09T18:30:00+00:00

Fifteen

After a flight of thirteen hours at max FTL, the Matthews-Solorio expedition reached the rendezvous point with Chief Paco León, half a light year from Delta Theta 1271-E, a white dwarf hanging in the thinly starred gap between the Perseus and Cygnus arms of the galaxy. Suzie’s long range scanners found one ship orbiting a frozen gas giant about nine AUs from the star. Another quick hop at FTL brought the Sioux City within visual range of the oddest starship Tyler had ever seen.

After telemetry confirmed she was the PH, Tyler ordered a slow approach to the strange vessel. The ship looked like a sleek, ocean-going craft, streamlined for minimum wave resistance, but leaning forward like a parallelogram. Tyler estimated the low-swept, rhomboid design wasted at least twenty percent of available space that could have held cargo or passengers or supplemental instrument packages. Like the Sioux City, she displayed no signs of weaponry beneath that smooth, bronze-colored hull. The sweeping lines of the vessel almost shouted speed, even though hull configuration had nothing to do with velocity in the vacuum of space.

Tyler repeatedly hailed Paco, but so far, no answer. He called J.B. to the flight deck and they discussed their options—run or dock—while Suzie continued hailing the strange ship. Finally, a voice crackled in the flight deck speakers, and a breath-taking face appeared onscreen. A stunning, dark-haired beauty with olive skin, ebony eyes, and a face that could stop Halley’s Comet.

“Please come aboard. Opening boat dock bay. You may proceed to ventral access.”

The Matthews brothers exchanged astonished looks. Tyler spoke into the comm. “I love a pretty face, but who the fuck are you?”

“Expletive deleted.” J.B. killed Tyler’s comm. “Forgive my potty-mouth brother, ma’am. This is J.B. Matthews. Please identify yourself.”

“Lieutenant Arabella Maboob, executive officer. Please proceed to the docking bay. Chief León will brief you when the Sioux City is safely aboard.”

Tyler reactivated his communications panel. “Lieutenant Maboob, this is Tyler Matthews. Let me speak with Chief León.”

“Captain Matthews, the Chief requests that you board first and—”

“No way, baby,” Tyler said. “Get Mr. León on the comm. Now, Lieutenant. That’s an order.”

“Yes, sir. Please stand by.”

J.B. gawked at him. “Did you just call a employee ‘baby’? You’re exposing Matthews Corporation to a sexual harassment lawsuit.”

“We’ll settle later. Dad has money.” Tyler rotated his command chair to the navigational array. “Suzie, plot an escape course,” Tyler said. “Although, it will break my heart to sail away from a mega-hottie called Ma-boob...”

“It’s a common Lebanese surname, you deviate,” Suzie said. “Escape course plotted… baby.”

J.B. snickered. He adjusted the audio to clean up the crackle. “Must be the right ship. We quantum encrypted the coordinates to Paco’s voice pattern.”

“Too many people want to kill us,” Tyler said. “We shouldn’t take any chances out here.”

J.B. nodded. “Agreed.”

A familiar voice came on the speakers. “Hey, sirs. It’s me, Paco. I was working on last minute corrections in the ship’s systems, so Lt. Arabella answered your hail. Come on aboard. And please tell Dorla it ain’t like it looks, and I’ll explain everything.

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