Thieves by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Author:Kristine Kathryn Rusch [Rusch, Kristine Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WMG Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Boneyard

Now

Twenty

Mikk and I are the only two on board the Fleet runabout that we’ve taken from the Madxaf. I didn’t ask Pao’s permission to take it. No one knows that we have, in fact. We’ve decided to conduct most of this mission as if it were top secret.

I’m not entirely sure why we’re going to such lengths to maintain secrecy, but part of me feels it’s necessary.

I’m beginning to trust these hunches.

We’re not talking much because we’re on a Fleet vessel. It was Mikk’s idea to use a Fleet vessel for the first part of our plan. The rest of this plan is all mine.

I have finally figured out how we are going to use the non-Fleet probes, and maybe even the seven non-Fleet ships that Ilona sent me. I haven’t shared the full plan with anyone, but I have spoken to Mikk about some of it.

We have decided to try another duplicitous move, at least as far as the starfield-barrier is concerned. We haven’t told anyone in the team about that either.

The runabout we’ve chosen is refurbished, which surprises me. I really have no idea what Lost Souls has been doing, but I’m impressed by it now. It looks like everything on the Madxaf, from the small ships to the quarters, have been rebuilt, better and stronger than they ever were.

The Madxaf is a gem, and if that’s what Lost Souls is doing with the DV-Class vessels we’re finding, then we should bring more to Lost Souls. And, the follow-on thought is, that I should give up this crazy quest to figure out what’s behind that starfield-barrier.

But I can’t. What if those warships are unmanned? What if the defenses are automated?

What if they can be shut off?

Suddenly we have a squadron of warships. We can take them and defend the Nine Planets. We can mine their tech. We can…leave them here and study them, which is my bent.

And if Coop ever returns from his new sector base mission, then he will have a ready-made squadron to do whatever he wants with them.

This runabout that Mikk and I have commandeered has more power than any runabout I’ve ever piloted. It also has some minor weaponry—the kind that could take out a ship of similar size, if used properly.

I don’t plan to use the weaponry or the defensive capabilities. I want this trip to look like we’re exploring a slightly different region of the Boneyard.

I’m doing all of this as a test, not just of me and Mikk and the non-Fleet probes, but of the Boneyard itself. I want to know what it monitors, what it doesn’t monitor, and whether or not it will “think” about what we’re doing.

We are going to make some complicated maneuvers, and if a simple program runs the defenses of the starfield-barrier, then the results should be pretty predictable. But if an active intelligence runs the defenses of the starfield-barrier, then we won’t be able to predict the outcome.

The runabout is one of the smaller models, which is another reason Mikk and I picked it.

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