Supernova by C.A. Higgins

Author:C.A. Higgins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2016-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

OXYGEN BURNING

OR: INSTABILITY STRIP

SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL OF EARTH

Anji’s call came in right on schedule, and Constance was waiting for it.

“Alive, well, and as planned,” said Anji’s voice, harsh-edged from the journey the signal had taken to reach Constance all the way here on Luna. “Christoph’s alive and well, too.”

Alone in her room on the Annwn, where there was no one to see her, Constance let her shoulders fall in slow relief.

“The people here are real glad to help us out,” Anji added. “Everything’s going like you said, Con. Out.” The transmission ended.

For a moment, Constance let herself sit in stillness and silence and Anji’s faded words: her friends were alive, and her revolution was happening as it was supposed to.

She didn’t let herself linger on it long and took up the broadcast equipment to reply, “This is the Mallt-y-Nos. I am well; Ivan and Mattie are well. We’ve made contact and will start the handover shortly.” She hesitated, her finger still holding down the button to record.

“I’ll send another message in confirmation of our success,” she said at last. She played the recording back to see if she could hear that hesitation, but she heard nothing in her own voice but certainty.

Good enough. Constance encrypted it and tied it up with the howling of hounds and then sent the message on its way.

The men were waiting for her in the den. As soon as she stepped out of her room, she could hear them talking, their words incomprehensible. Constance wondered what they were talking about without her there.

It was a stupid wonder to have; Ivan and Mattie had many things that they could talk about when she was not there. They had a whole relationship that did not include her. But it didn’t matter: Mattie would never know Ivan as long or as truly as he had known Constance, and Ivan would never look at Mattie the way he looked at her.

Just as she reached the den, Ivan said, “Run through it with me again.”

Mattie was already dressed like a System mechanic in a baggy gray jumpsuit and a hat that served to hide his distinctly nonregulation hair. He nodded to Constance when she entered, then went back to humoring Ivan.

“I get on the refueling ship Julian pointed out to us,” Mattie said. “The Hertzsprung. The bombs are already all loaded on board. The crew of the Hertzsprung is all Julian’s people, or else they’re used to smuggling and don’t know anything about the cargo. The Hertzsprung takes off from the moon and waits between the Earth and Luna, just as the System tells it to do. The Hertzsprung is a refueling ship, so when Julian’s ship and three other ships working with him run out of fuel in the Hertzsprung’s range, the Hertzsprung will go to refuel them and I will make sure that our special cargo ends up on the right ships with the right people. Meanwhile, you two will be at the dispatch center, making sure that the Hertzsprung gets dispatched to refuel the right ships.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.