The Stellar Abyss (Final Dawn, Book 7) by T.W.M. Ashford

Author:T.W.M. Ashford [Ashford, T.W.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

Bustling into the cockpit had been a somewhat anticlimactic affair. If there was an extroplanet out there, Jack couldn’t see it.

“It’s like Max’s ship,” Rogan explained. “So far out from the nearest star, there’s nothing for it to reflect. It’s a surprisingly unique sight, if you can call it that. Even planets on the very edge of solar systems get lit by starlight. And in the case of city-planets like Kapamentis, they don’t need it.”

“But it is there, right?” Jack squinted. “We didn’t input Max’s data wrong, did we?”

“Oh, it’s there,” said Adi. “Let me see what I can do.”

The Adeona layered filter after filter over her windows, utilising every waveform possible to create a visual a fleshy could see. Not that she had any problem, of course. As a ship, all she had to do was perform a scan and up popped a three-dimensional image. It was the most reliable form of sight there was.

A fuzzy green halo slowly emerged around the planet’s silhouette. It was still quite some distance away from them, about the size of a marble from where Jack sat up front.

“Woah.” Klik leaned against the dashboard. “A totally new world. And we discovered it.”

Rogan smirked.

“Technically Max and I discovered it,” she said. “We’re just the first to actually get here.”

“Sure,” Jack replied in deep thought, “but it’s hardly the same, is it? I can discover a sandwich, but it doesn’t really matter if somebody else goes and eats it.”

“Erm, guys?” Tuner spun around in the co-pilot chair. “Don’t forget that the whole point of coming here was to confirm that someone else has made a base here. If we are the first, the trip’s kind of been for nothing.”

They all contemplated the distant orb.

“So we’re adventurous pioneers who just wasted two months of their lives,” Jack said slowly, “or we’re latecomers about to fly into certain danger.”

“And either way, nobody will ever know about it,” said Tuner, raising a triumphant fist. “Because we didn’t tell anyone we were coming.”

Without doing anything, the orb outside the windows managed to look ever so slightly more menacing.

“Shall I take us closer, then?” the ship asked.

“Yes,” Rogan agreed with a resigned nod. “I suppose you must.”

The Adeona took them in. She didn’t jump to subspace again, nor did she rocket towards XO-R15 as quickly as her thrusters technically allowed. Though Adi hadn’t picked up any other ships, stations or satellites in her scans, they couldn’t say for sure that some kind of planetary defence mechanism wasn’t waiting for them.

Ten minutes passed without incident, then fifteen. No forcefield suddenly flickered on around the planet; no fleet of attack ships spewed out from beyond its horizon. As far as activity went, it was just a big piece of lifeless rock.

Nobody spoke until they were less than one hundred thousand kilometres out. Though its hazy outline had grown to fill most of the cockpit windows, they still couldn’t see anything of the planet itself. It could have been a black hole for all Jack knew.

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