Agents of Mars (Starship's Mage: Red Falcon Book 3) by Glynn Stewart

Author:Glynn Stewart [Stewart, Glynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Faolan's Pen Publishing Inc
Published: 2018-09-14T06:00:00+00:00

The loading facility was an entirely separate space station from the main orbitals of Tau Ceti e. It consisted of a large cylinder, with a small section at one end spun to provide gravity for the working crews of Prime Consortium, and the majority of its length a working space filled with massive robotic arms.

“Red Falcon, adjust course by point five meters per second along vector fifty-two by one hundred,” a voice echoed in Kelly’s headset. A momentary burst of thrust from the forward thrusters provided the requested change.

“That’s good, Falcon. Hold this course for another thirty-two seconds from…mark. Then slow to a full stop relative to the station.”

She tapped the commands into the navigation console and watched the metal maw of the loading station consume her ship. They’d lined her up at a very specific angle and a very specific speed, and she could make out the docking cradle Falcon was heading toward.

“And mark,” the voice said, at the same instant as her programmed deceleration kicked in. Their velocity was low enough, it took only two seconds to bring the ship to a complete halt, even at the relatively gentle acceleration they could risk inside the station.

“That’s good,” the control station continued. “Hold position; we are initiating the docking cradle.”

The spiderweb of gantries lifted away from the station “floor,” locking around Red Falcon to hold her in place. Kelly had a momentary feeling of being trapped, but a quick glance at her repeater from Jeeves’s tactical station was reassuring…for her.

The charge status of the ship’s defensive turrets would have been terrifying for Prime Consortium’s traffic control staff even before they realized that Jeeves was drawing up a targeting sequence that would cut Falcon free from the docking cradle—and then use her battle lasers to cut a megafreighter-sized hole through the exterior of the space station.

It was almost certainly unnecessary, but…she understood the paranoia.

“Red Falcon, we are passing you over to cargo control,” the controller told her. “We’ll talk to you again in the morning. Welcome to Prime Consortium’s Allonsi Station.”

“Thank you, control; holding for the transfer,” she replied. As she waited, she muted her mike and looked over Jeeves’s plans.

“Efficient, if horrendously expensive for Prime,” she told him. “A little bit paranoid, though, don’t you think?”

“This is the most locked-down we’ve ever been except for actual major repairs, and we get those done in Navy yards,” her ex-Navy and ex-gunrunner subordinate replied. “I trust the MISS verification on these guys, I do, but even paranoids have real enemies.”

Kelly snorted, then a chime on her headset informed her that she had cargo control on the line.

“This is Officer LaMonte, XO of Red Falcon,” she confirmed in response to a half-heard question. “Our spars are clear and we should be ready to begin loading.”

“Understood,” a woman’s voice told her. “We have a single-container special package to deliver first; where do you want it?”

That, presumably, was the missiles.

“If we drop it at the core of spar A-1, will that cause problems in your loading?” Kelly asked.

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