Mission: Nemesis (Survival Wars Book 7) by Anthony James

Author:Anthony James [James, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“How could the Teskinir fail to see that?” asked Breeze. “I suppose they could have been on the far side of the planet.” He shrugged.

“We would have been easily detected by anyone looking,” said Chainer.

“I am a little more confident,” Duggan replied.

“What do you know that we don’t?” asked McGlashan.

“I don’t know anything. However, it’s logical to imagine the crew of the Teskinir – having approached their mortal enemy after several hundred years apart – might want to take a few precautions of their own during whatever negotiations they were involved in.”

McGlashan crinkled her nose in thought. “You think they’ve stayed low out of sight?”

“It would make sense,” said Duggan. “The Teskinir is a giant amongst the human and Ghast navies. Amongst the Estral, perhaps not so much. If there was little trust between the two parties, the toxic storm on Gygar would be the perfect place to ensure a more level field of battle.”

“By ensuring both sides have it bad,” said Breeze.

“It’s a chance.” Duggan fixed his eyes on Chainer. “You need to find them, Lieutenant and you need to find them quickly. After that, we need to keep our fingers crossed that our communication software performs better than it has up till now.”

“Finally, we need to hope the fleeing Estral battleship has a long way to go and that we’re significantly faster at lightspeed,” McGlashan finished for him.

Duggan smiled. He was feeling the exhilaration of the hunt. “I’m glad we understand the situation, Commander.”

“The Teskinir will have detected all of these recent comings and goings by the fission signatures,” said Breeze.

“They’ll be on edge. They’re unlikely to have a formal alliance in place yet – if it ever happens. They won’t necessarily expect the Estral to keep them informed about their movements.”

“I can handle them being on edge. It’s better than them being elsewhere.”

“I can help out on the sensors, if that’s okay?” McGlashan asked.

“Please,” said Duggan. “Be ready to jump back on weapons.”

Combat with the Estral cruiser had taken them further away from Gygar than Duggan realised. The planet was a distant sphere on the sensor feeds, mottled and blotched with greys, whites and muddy browns. The raw speed of Valpian was enough to bring them close within a short time and Duggan levelled off into orbit twenty thousand kilometres above.

“We need to find that battleship soon,” he repeated.

“If they’re as low as they were before, we might be out of luck,” said Chainer, his words distant as though his brain was too much engaged in the search to properly control his voice.

“They’ll need to come up to have a look every once in a while,” said McGlashan. “They can’t go completely blind.”

Duggan was reminded of old submarines, from a time before undersea-launched missiles became redundant. The vessels would stay deep and silent when they needed to avoid detection, but every so often they’d need to surface. He crossed his fingers and hoped the crew of the Teskinir would have enough curiosity to peer through the veils obscuring the planet’s surface.

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