Unseen by Timothy Ellis

Author:Timothy Ellis [Ellis, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty Eight

“What did Jane want?” asked Trip, as I stepped back through the rift.

“She shot me.”

He and Teal went rigid, and looked at me with shocked expressions. They had trading screens up, and looked like they were trying to figure out where the best places to sell coffee were within the League.

“She did what?” asked Teal.

“She had someone shoot me on stage, in front of a couple of hundred business people. I’ll be on Camel changing, if anyone wants me.”

I didn’t wait for them to say anything, but left the office, walked to my quarters here on Unbound, and then through the rift to my quarters on Camel. There I changed into the ship suit, but didn’t bother with a jacket.

Before leaving Jane, I’d expressed my displeasure at being shot without any warning. She grinned and told me the Imperator had pulled the trigger himself, but if that was supposed to mollify me, it hadn’t. She wanted me to do it again next week with a group of mercenaries and bounty hunters, and I’d told her exactly where she could stick that idea.

As I changed, I seethed, but began to calm down as I walked onto my bridge, and sat in my chair. Sprite shot in the door after me, leapt past me onto the front console, and ended up squashed against the main screen. He picked himself up, pretended he’d done it deliberately, and sat on his mat.

“You’re too early,” I told him, getting a look from him which suggested me saying that was inappropriate.

He did a sort of sniff and nose raise that conveyed that slaves should not be talking to their masters that way, and looked back at the main screen. There was almost nothing to see, but then I saw him looking at the rear view, and that was more interesting.

The system was a binary, with both stars orbiting each other in a stable way, with the planets and asteroid fields in orbit around both. At this distance, now well out into the outer system, both suns were small, but distinct. It highlighted something I hadn’t realized I’d noticed before. The habitable planet was currently in the right place in its orbit for anything in space around it to throw two distinct shadows.

Orbital dynamics had never really been of interest to me, but since it played a part in navigating within systems, I’d paid attention in pilot classes. On the human spine, systems like this one had been rarer, while in the core they were very common. Out here at the arse end of the galaxy, I wasn’t expecting any, but here it was.

The main effect was the habitable planet was further out than was normal for single star systems. And that put it closer to where the usual jump points were. This was a single jump point system though, and the fact the planet was as close to the jump point as it was right now was coincidental, but also useful. It could have taken us twice as long to get there if we’d been unlucky about the dynamics.

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