The Risks of Dead Reckoning by Felicia Watson

Author:Felicia Watson [Watson, Felicia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Space Opera, space travel, deep space, spacecraft, exoplanet
Publisher: D X Varos, Ltd
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

***

As soon as Kennedy was up and around, Decker apprised him of her wish to visit the Intabet. After one of the sparring sessions they’d initiated to aid in Con’s recovery, she gave him the broad outline of her idea. Con unquestionably approved; he immediately insisted on leading the mission and suggested they set out as soon as they could do so safely. Deck had already informed him about the attack she’d suffered in the float-ways and about the sample of the worm she’d given Aqila and Bly – who were presently at work on the analysis.

Con said, “If I know those two – and I do – they’ll definitely devise a way for us to detect those worms.”

“Once they do that, the mission is a go for us?”

“As far I’m concerned, yes, but you’re forgetting one thing – we’ll need Lindstrom’s approval, too.”

“You think he’ll give it?”

“Only one way to find out.” Kennedy sent a request for a meeting with his CO and Lindstrom quickly granted them a timeslot for the following day at 1130 hours.

Unfortunately, the morning of the meeting they had lingered over their sparring session a little too long and had to rush to clean up and be there on time. When Decker’s hand-held buzzed with an urgent message, she pulled it out, muttering, “Come on, Lindstrom. We’re not even two-minutes late.” After reading the message, she gasped, “Oh, no!”

Con asked, “What?”

“There’s been a security breach of the shuttle. Unauthorized personnel attempting to access the piloting controls.”

“Did you do the check today?”

“I sent Finnegan. She logged a ‘status satisfactory’ almost thirty-minutes ago.” Decker sighed, saying, “Maybe she set it off accidentally somehow. I’ll comm her.” Moira almost immediately answered the hail; Decker could hear, not one but two alarms blaring in the background. “Finnegan! What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know. I simply sat down and switched on the computer and the shuttle went crazy.”

“Are you in the pilot’s seat?” When she got an affirmative answer, Decker had to take a deep breath to avoid throwing a few choice words at the rattled girl. She wanted to ask why she was sitting in the one place she’d been explicitly warned not to – but first things first. Decker remotely logged into the piloting controls and cleared all of the alarms.

“I’m so sorry,” Moira wailed. “I didn’t mean to—”

The system status was still flashing red so Deck warned, “Get up and out of the pilot’s seat, now, before you reactivate the alarms.” The system immediately turned green, indicating Finnegan had vacated the seat. Naiche snapped, “Why were you sitting there with the system powered up? I warned you several times that it had biometric controls in place – didn’t I?!”

“I don’t know what that means. I wasn’t going to fly it – I merely wanted to show Bingual and Lootan—” Finnegan stopped abruptly and Decker could hear some chirping noises in the background.

“Is there someone there with you? Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“I’m fine. It’s only two Maykure kids I met.

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