Legacy of Stars: Book 4 in the Backyard Starship Series by J.N. Chaney & Terry Maggert

Author:J.N. Chaney & Terry Maggert [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2022-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

“Welcome to the middle of nowhere,” Netty said.

The movement of the rogue planet was carefully mapped, so it hadn’t been hard for her to twist us here. As soon as she had, I saw why this was such a great place to hide away bad behaviour. There was absolutely nothing here.

Except for the rogue planet itself, UGPS 0722−05. I had to use the tactical overlay to even find it. It didn’t radiate at all in the visible light spectrum, only infrared. To the naked eye, it simply vanished into the blackness of the void.

But it wasn’t all that was here. We’d powered down everything except the twist drive and a few critical systems like life support and inertial dampers. It by no means reduced our chances of detection to zero, but it was better than appearing powered up and hammering away with active scanners. So we just hung motionless where we’d twisted in, casting a wary eye on the station, a central hub surrounded by three toroidal rings stacked one above the other.

“Not as big an operation as I’d expected. That’s, what, only a couple of hundred meters across, maybe?” I said, studying the enhanced image Netty projected on the Fafnir ’s center console. She’d also added an infrared layer to view out the canopy, so we could now see the planet as a dim, ruddy disk.

“How much room do you need to run—what did you call it? A glorified calling center?” Torina asked.

I smiled. “Close enough. So what do you guys think? Just a straight-in run?”

Surprisingly, Netty spoke up. “Van, I have a suggestion. Right now, we’re looking at the orbital plane of the station almost edge-on. If there’s anything else that shares an orbit with it, it could be on the far side of the planet.”

“Okay, so what are you suggesting?”

“That we position ourselves directly above one of the planet’s poles and approach from there, so nothing can take us by surprise. I mean, the other side of that planet is literally the only place out here anything could hide.”

“But they’ll detect us once we start maneuvering, won’t they?” Torina asked.

“Not if we just twist there. It’s going to burn more fuel, but it’s better than being ambushed, I think.”

I nodded. “Netty, you are very wise. Make it so.”

“Make it so?”

“Just something I’m trying out.”

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