The Span of Empire (Jao Empire Book 3) by Eric Flint & David Carrico

Author:Eric Flint & David Carrico [Flint, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781476781532
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2016-09-06T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 34

“Ship 15497 reports that the framepoint has been placed and tested and is now working properly. They confirm that they have activated the firewall so that no Ekhat can access it.”

Lieutenant Vaughan delivered the report to Fleet Commander Dannet as soon as she entered the command deck. He had to suppress a chuckle, though. “Firewall” was one of the human words that had become almost ubiquitous among the Jao in the fleet, for some reason. The Jao had a perfectly good equivalent term for the security concept, but it was four syllables long, and for some reason the fleet techs had latched onto the human word instead, to the amusement of the humans in the crews.

Dannet, pelt still damp from a good hard swim, spoke to the communications tech on duty. “Tell all ships to add it to their files.”

Flue leaned back in his workstation seat. The last five days since they had crossed the cometary ring and moved into the deepest space outside the Khûr system had been good for the fleet, he thought. Everyone had been so tensed up from the long jumps, and then the combative situation they had jumped into here, that they had all been super keyed up. Even most of the Jao, who could have served as dictionary definitions of ‘phlegmatic,’ had been jumpy.

Getting out of the combat zone and letting the crews stand down had been a good start, he thought. Taking the time to transfer some crew and supplies from the newly arrived ships to the rest of the fleet had also helped lower the stress levels a bit. And just several days of regular activity had been good.

All in all, he decided, things were calmer now than they had been for some time. He almost wished something would happen.

An alert went up on the main viewscreen, echoed on Flue’s workstation panel. I was kidding! he almost yelled as he jerked straight and sent his hands dancing across his control pads. I was kidding!

“Targeted by a laser!” one of the human techs yelled.

“Gamma-ray frequencies,” a Jao tech elaborated.

“Very narrow dispersion,” the first tech continued in a calmer voice, “low amplitude.”

Communications laser, Flue thought.

“Source?” Terra-Captain Uldra snapped.

There was a momentary silence as the techs queried their instruments. “Five degrees above ecliptic,” the human tech responded at last. “Uh…and it’s hitting our shields at a location and angle that places the source outside our orbit.”

“Fleet to alert status,” Dannet ordered. She looked to Flue. “Inform Director Kralik.”

Before Flue could do so, the Jao tech spoke loudly over the increased noise of the command deck, “Signal is modulated.”

Oh, boy.

* * *

Third-Mordent responded to a summons from Ninth-Minor-Sustained, finding her ancestress in the harmony master’s main performance hall, where Third-Mordent had first met her. There were no choirs today; no performances; no dance. There was, however, a male standing near the harmony master. She froze after two steps past the entry, forehand blades beginning to emerge.

“Stand,” Ninth-Minor-Sustained fluted. There was no command in the tone, no imperative.

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