Starborn by Ron Collins

Author:Ron Collins [Collins, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Scence Fiction
Publisher: Skyfox Publishing
Published: 2022-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 35

Apogee: 37 Gem System

Local Date: C27/D35

Local Time: 2/1015

Early in the night shift Deidra Francis waited in Martin Scalese’s office.

She knew two things after receiving his missive late in the afternoon, a missive that contained a request from Ragnath Gavarian — or rather, a request that came through Ragnath Gavarian — that said Marisa Harthing, a captain in Interstellar Command and a friend of Thomas Kitchell, wanted to come here.

First, she knew she had to talk about this offline.

Too much was happening right now and adding a UG officer into the mix was tempting fates.

Second, Scalese’s group would be responsible for any extraction they made — and, if she understood the request properly, Scalese would also be responsible for getting the captain back into the Solar System.

Now she sat on one of Scalese’s guest chairs, waiting for him, thinking, slumped to one side, one leg crossed over the other, her jaw propped up on one hand.

She didn’t know what to make of Gavarian.

The journalist was more flamboyant than she liked. A bit of an enigma. A dashing figure who was independent in ways that both appealed and put her on edge. He’d been that way since the first days he’d begun to work with Universe Three, and to be fair that flamboyance was as much of an asset as a detriment. Gavarian was like a dog on meat when it came to his work, too. Something inside kept him focused on what he considered to be the truth, and the one truth that mattered was that he’d done real damage to United Government officials in his time.

Deidra had been around long enough, however, to know that dogged pursuit of truth could be a sword that cut both ways.

Still, Gavarian had been trustworthy and adroit. If he’d done nothing but get them the services of Thomas Kitchell, Universe Three would be ahead no matter what she did now.

Almost no matter, anyway.

If this was a ruse or not, either way she would be betting her entire community.

The door opened.

“Martin,” Deidra said, standing.

“Deidra,” he replied as he went to his desk and toggled the display. U3’s dossier on Harthing, which was substantial, came into view. He smiled as he took his chair. “I assume you’d like to get straight to it.”

She nodded, sitting also.

Scalese wore his usual nondescript dark slacks and a gray pullover that bumped over a gently rounded belly. He wore his brown hair trimmed short.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” she said. “Bringing someone like Marisa Harthing into the fold has major upside, but if it blows up…” She blew a breath through her lips.

“Yep,” Scalese said, scratching at his neck. “Harthing wants a meeting, and she’s willing to let us control all the arrangements. That makes it’s hard to pass up.”

“Convince me.”

“If we control the process, we can double-blind the jumps, and we can scan her in process until we’re certain she’s clean. We’ll need to burn another good mole to make sure we don’t screw up and give them something to trace, but what can I say?”

“If it’s real, it’s worth it,” Deidra said.

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