Pirate's Nest (Rim Jumper Book 3) by Tim Rangnow

Author:Tim Rangnow [Rangnow, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vagabond Publishing
Published: 2021-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

Both of them were in the cockpit at the end of the final FTL jump. Kole had been in the chair for the last couple of hours, impatient to finally reach their destination and find out what job she would spring on him. Jaeger had wandered in several minutes before they re-entered normal space.

The stars had grown thicker as they traveled deeper into the Core, until the viewscreen was speckled with so many of them between jumps that it would be easier to count the spots where there weren’t any. During FTL, the streaks became a solid white blur. A few dozen jumps back, Kole had turned the viewscreen off because it had become overwhelmingly bright. He flipped it back on a few moments before the final jump ended, raising a hand to shield his eyes against the brilliant light.

Rim Jumper was at the outer edge of the Orion system when the star field resolved into individual points of light. Three of the system’s planets were visible to them, two as larger dots of light deep in the system. Orion VIII, farthest from the yellow sun at the heart of the system, was no larger than a fist on the screen.

“We made it,” Kole said, sitting back in his chair to scan the viewscreen for any sign of the many fleet warships he knew patrolled this system at the heart of the Hegemony government. “What’s the job?”

Jaeger pushed off from the wall she was leaning against, approaching the viewscreen. Her eyes were locked on the white planet, and she pointed at it with a wavering finger. “There is a man we need to get off Orion VIII. As you may know, the Hegemony banishes undesirables and the worst political malcontents to far-flung worlds where they can’t cause any trouble. This is one of those places.”

Kole winced. He’d dealt with prison planets before, and extractions from them were never easy. There were few guards, since the remoteness of the planet served as the best protection, but the Hegemony always had a web of satellites in orbit to monitor for anyone trying to get a ship to the surface. “That’s… not going to be easy.”

“If it was, I wouldn’t need you, would I?” She didn’t look away from the screen. Her hand was now pressing against the image of the icy world. Kole noted that, his gut telling him there was a lot more here than she had let on.

“Who is this man, Jaeger?”

“He’s one of the best terraforming engineers in the galaxy,” she said softly. She sniffed and ran her free arm across her eyes as she kept the other hand on the screen. “Mudamir wants him, and that’s all we need to know, right?”

“No,” Kole said, standing to walk over next to her. He put a hand on her shoulder, turning her as he lifted her face to meet his gaze. “What is he to you?”

Her lips narrowed to a thin slash, and her nose flared. For a moment, he expected her to rage and yell at him for not doing as he was told.

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