Tanis Richards: Kill Shot (Aeon 14 - Origins of Destiny) by M. D. Cooper

Author:M. D. Cooper [Cooper, M. D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Wooden Pen Press
Published: 2018-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

THE JONES

STELLAR DATE: 03.15.4085 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: TSS Kirby Jones, Matria Station

REGION: Luna, Terran Hegemony, InnerSol

Connie watched with her mouth hanging open in horror, as the shuttle carrying Tanis and Marian slammed into the lunar surface. She tried to speak, but she had no idea what to say, there was nothing she could think of to do.

Jeannie slowly turned her head and met Smythe’s gaze, the two lieutenants staring at one another with unblinking eyes.

Symthe was the first to speak, turning in his seat to face Connie. “Chief…what do we…what should we…?”

“They could have survived,” she whispered. “The readings had the shuttle at just a hair over four hundred kilometers per hour. There’s a lot of dust in that part of the mare they hit. If the foam deployed.”

<There’s no reason it wouldn’t have,> Lovell said in a soothing voice, but Connie could tell the AI was worried as well, given what he failed to say.

The Kirby Jones was still unmoored from Matria Station, moving slowly to its new berth for the scheduled servicing Tanis had set up. Of course there was no actual servicing to be done, it was just a ruse; no one was expecting the ship to arrive anywhere in particular.

Connie numbly spared a moment to ensure that they were still on their assigned vector, as Smythe asked, “How the hell does that even happen? Two cargo drones slamming into a shuttle like that? No way the STC fucked up that badly.”

“You think it was an attack on the Commander?” Jeannie asked, looking from Smythe to Connie. “Seriously? Just right out in the open?”

“Sure,” Smythe nodded vigorously. “If they covered their tracks well enough, the drone’s owners have the costs covered by their insurance, there’s some gnashing of teeth on the feeds, and then the whole thing goes away.”

“That’s the commander and Corporal Marian you’re talking about,” Jeannie exclaimed. “They’re not just—”

Her voice cut out as the ship’s scan suite registered an explosion on the moon’s surface at the point of impact. It wasn’t huge, but it was easily large enough to destroy something like the shuttle.

“Shit…” Connie collapsed into her seat. “That would be the engines…probably had a plasma containment failure…stupid things should have shut down before they hit.”

“What do we do?” Jeannie asked in a quiet voice.

“We wait,” Smythe said, his voice laden with grim determination. “Commander Richards has pulled out of some pretty crazy situations. I’m not counting her out till the twenty-one-gun salute.”

Connie felt a glimmer of hope flutter in her breast. Though he often behaved like the most junior officer on the ship, every now and then, Smythe actually acted like the XO.

“Jeannie, file a polar parking orbit for us,” he ordered. “I want to get away from Matria, just in case we need to do something drastic.”

“Any idea what that might be?” Connie asked.

“Not yet. Right now, all we can do is wait.”

Connie nodded and sat back in her chair, while Jeannie and Smythe busied themselves with getting the ship into the new orbit.

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