The Callisto Gambit by Felix R. Savage

Author:Felix R. Savage [Savage, Felix R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy, Space Opera, High Tech, science fiction space opera thriller adventure
ISBN: 2940153175232
Amazon: B01FAYDB1U
Barnesnoble: B01FAYDB1U
Goodreads: 30139127
Publisher: Knights Hill Publishing
Published: 2016-05-05T23:00:00+00:00

xix.

The Belter pirates hadn’t dared to assault Ceres—or, if they had, they’d ended up as orbital debris, swept out of the sky by the dwarf planet’s fleet of laser brooms.

For that reason, Ceres had become the destination of choice for Belters fleeing the disorder in the asteroid belt, which had now spread even to the Galilean moons.

Ships and orbitals swarmed the dwarf planet’s sphere of influence so thickly, it graphed like an atom with a ridiculously high atomic number.

Kiyoshi skimmed the list of ship profiles the Unsaved Changes’s radar had picked up. Lots of haulers. Smaller cargo ships. Shuttles. A few Starcruisers—identical in configuration if not offensive capability to the Star Force Heavycruiser. But not a single actual Star Force ship.

Ceres, too, had been abandoned by the UN.

Its people were looking out for themselves.

Molly looked up from the comms desk. “I’ve been forwarded to something called Customs and Resources; sounds ominous.”

“It’s fine,” Michael said, from the astrogation desk. “The resources industry used to hate Customs. But now they’ve joined forces to keep the pirates out.”

“So what should I tell them?”

Kiyoshi smiled down at the flight controls. He was piloting, taking it easy. “How about the truth?”

Molly raised her eyebrows. She said into her headset, “This is Molly Kent, owner-operator of the Unsaved Changes, from Callisto.”

“You’ve had a long trip, Unsaved Changes.”

That was an understatement. Ceres was on the other side of the sun from Callisto this year, and the Unsaved Changes was just a Steelmule … a rock-jumper with a wimpy thrust-to-mass ratio. They’d done a very brief burn and then coasted all the way. Ninety-three days. Should’ve been more than long enough for this ill-assorted crew to start getting on each other’s nerves. It still amazed Kiyoshi that they hadn’t.

“We sure have had a long trip,” Molly said, “and we’d like to request a landing slot at Occator Spaceport, if that’s at all possible.”

“Processing your request now,” said Customs & Resources. Forty seconds later: “OK, you’re good to land. See you at Occator.”

“That was easy,” Molly said, with a puzzled frown. She’d spent her life on Callisto, where nothing was easy.

“That delay was them scanning us,” Kiyoshi said. “They saw we weren’t a threat, and cleared us to land.”

“Even an unarmed beater is a threat, if you turn it around and point its drive at a target. I just would have expected them to be more cautious … especially since we’re coming from Callisto, pirate capital of the outer solar system.”

Michael broke in, “Ceres welcomes everybody. That’s who we are. That’s why we’ve got a population of two hundred and thirty million—as much as the whole rest of the Belt put together!—and that’s why Ceres hasn’t been taken over by pirates.”

Kiyoshi smiled at the boy’s tone of pride. The closer they got to Ceres, the more Michael’s spirits had risen. Seated at the astrogation workstation, feet dangling, he hardly looked like the same boy Kiyoshi had nursed back to health during the first weeks of their voyage. His eyes

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