Of A Darker Void: Asterion Noir Book 2 by G. S. Jennsen

Author:G. S. Jennsen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Hypernova Publishing
Published: 2018-12-02T22:00:00+00:00

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WAYFARER

ASTERION DOMINION SPACE

THEY STUDIED THE PROJECTION of the Gennisi galaxy filling the cabin’s free space. Pairs of dots connected by short lines created a jagged path that ascended in fits and starts up and across the right half of the galaxy. Two single dots bounded the path—one near the Synra stellar system, the other orphaned on the outskirts of the galaxy’s upper left quadrant.

The records of the Tabiji’s repetitive travels stacked atop one another with no deviation. A couple of squiggly lines beneath the first pair of dots accounted for trips to Zaidam, the secret space station and not much else.

Nika fisted a hand at her chin, eyes narrowing. “The Tabiji has been traveling to the opposite corner of the galaxy and back every few months for the last eight years, and traveling there fast. Which means these gaps between the location markers must be d-gate traversals, right?”

“It’s a logical conclusion, but it begs the question of who placed them and when. The first recorded trip used them, so we have to assume it wasn’t the Tabiji.”

“Unless someone erased the records of the original journey. But why would they? No one was ever supposed to see this map.”

“They didn’t account for you.” He flashed her a brief smile.

“No, they did not. How long would it take to make the trip to the final location marker if there were no d-gates?”

Dashiel ran a couple of calculations in his head. “If you went directly there, no stops along the way? With our best superluminal engine, about three weeks. But the gaps aren’t in a straight line. They veer all over this half of the galaxy, as if the original purpose of the d-gates was not to provide a shortcut to whatever resides at the endpoint.”

Her head tilted curiously…then she laughed. “Because it wasn’t. These d-gates? You built them.”

He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t follow.”

“This is the route the Shorai took.”

“Are you sure?”

She reached out and splayed the fingers of her left hand to overlay the map. Annotations popped up beside each of the paired dots. “These are the locations of points of interest the Shorai encountered, according to the press releases.”

He stared at her in puzzlement until she shrugged sheepishly. “After experiencing your memory and hearing how intrigued my former self was by the mission, I was intrigued as well. I did a bit of research.”

He couldn’t help but smile, if somewhat wryly. She hid it well, or perhaps their current circumstances demanded its suppression, but the dreamer side of her personality had survived the psyche-wipe mostly intact. And he was glad for it, even if his more practical nature meant it had often been a source of friction between them over the centuries.

“The starting point is one of the anchor d-gates near Synra, which were built specifically for use by the research teams tasked with following up on the Shorai’s discoveries, and all the d-gate pairs line up with those discoveries—except the last stop.

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