The Princess & The Travelers by Peter Rhodan

Author:Peter Rhodan [Rhodan, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Pest control

"They have to all be on drugs or something," Gizel observed as the Krestar, and the Presteen curved around toward the Duke of Hormforth. They were moving considerably faster than the battlecruiser, but reaching the flagship was still taking time.

"It's like that, isn't it, Your Highness." the Captain replied. "Once we've cleared the system, I'll have my Marines very carefully go through any wrecks where there might be survivors. Until we've got rid of all their mobile ships, I'm not going to risk boarding the wrecks."

"Wise decision. In fact, I'll mention that to the Admiral." She studied the displays again, but the battle was as good as over if only the Xiongmengda would agree that they were fighting a lost cause and give up. "I'm going to head up to my Flag Bridge. I can put my feet up, up there."

She gave the Captain a grin and left the bridge. Once back on her Flag Bridge, she called up the Admiral.

"So, Admiral, congratulations on the promotion, by the way. You appear to have been stuck cleaning up my mess once again."

The Admiral actually smiled at this. "If it's anything like the last mess, it should work out okay for all of us. I have sealed orders for you from both the Emperor and Admiral Gording, which I am transmitting now."

Gizel's communication console lit up, and she accepted the incoming order packets. She resisted the temptation to dive straight into them and turned back to the Admiral when she had checked the messages were intact.

"Excellent. I'll study them shortly, but I take it from your timely arrival that we intend to stay in this system?"

The Admiral nodded. "Assuming there are no unforeseen difficulties, then yes. Reading between the lines, I think the powers that be see this as an opportunity to give us somewhere to expand that doesn't upset the neighbors."

"And upsetting the Xiongmengda is not going to cause me to lose a lot of sleep; I have to be honest."

What is it with these people?" the Admiral asked.

"We l have no idea. We got as far as three systems from here when we ran into an inhabited planet, not of these people, who were all huddling in the forests and the mountains, hiding their technology so that these people didn't come and bomb them back into the Stone Age. Everywhere they go, they shoot everything up. The derelict Roman ship is like Swiss cheese, full ofholes from old-style gunpowder firearms, as far as we can tell. The large space station we found in the next system is exactly the same. They first ransacked the station of everything valuable or usable that they could carry, and on their way out, they shot it full of holes for whatever reason. They must've expended several hundred thousand rounds, all told. "

"That will be the space station that was designed to build small spaceships, correct?"

"Yes. It was orbiting a moon of a gas giant that was incredibly rich in minerals and everything you could want.

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