Auberon (The Jessica Keller Chronicles Book 1) by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward [Ward, Blaze]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: pirates, space opera, exploration, starship, military, empire, artificial intelligence
Publisher: Knotted Road Press
Published: 2015-05-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter XXIV

Date of the Republic February 4, 393 Edge of the C’Xindo system

Time to get to work.

Jessica smiled as the scanner board came live and everyone on the Flag Bridge engaged.

Auberon’s Pilot, Nada Zupan, had dropped them exactly on target, two light hours out from the Imperial Sector Capital and well above the plane of the ecliptic. CR–264 and Rajput dropped into space right behind them.

Even here, the area was crowded. Several signals indicated sensor buoys lighting up as the squadron were located. The squadron would be identified in fairly short order, but Jessica’s plan involved them only staying here for exactly six minutes, just long enough to get a good image of the planet, and they would outrun the news of their arrival.

The Flag Bridge was smaller than the main bridge, down a deck and tucked in closer to the ship’s core. There was a big holographic projector in the middle of a conference table, plus space for the squadron’s various commanders to be projected if they weren’t physically present. Most weren’t.

Right now, Jež’s electronic image sat across from her, between Command Centurion Alber’ d’Maine on the bridge of Rajput and Command Centurion Tomas Kigali aboard CR–264.

Her Science Officer, Daniel Giroux, was also present via image, tucked into his corner of the bridge. Right now, he was furiously pushing buttons and dialing gauges as he worked to absorb all the information the sensors were bringing in.

The only other person physically present at the table with Jessica was her Flag Centurion, although a few other crewmembers sat at duty stations around the outside of the room, ready to step in or answer questions as necessary.

Jessica studied the image before her, watching fuzzy edges refine quickly as data came into real–time from rough calculations.

C’Xindo was a normal world. It was half green and half blue, reflecting a mix of continents and oceans, but otherwise unremarkable. It had been colonized thousands of years ago, during the Concord Era, but largely lost during the Crash.

In the thousand–odd years since humans had rediscovered starflight and expanded outward, it had been functionally recolonized, growing enough to make it a sector capital when the Fribourg Empire pushed its boundaries this far.

Useful, habitable stars were thin out here, but neither Fribourg nor Aquitaine had put in much effort. C’Xindo had a population of around forty million, mostly farmers, with only a few cities, none of them large, or impressive, or interesting.

It did have a nice space station in orbit that served as the Governor’s Official Residence and Palace. Between that and being the sector capital, it was better protected than 2218 Svati Prime had been.

That was one of the reasons Jessica had avoided making it the first target. It was more fun letting the fringe worlds panic and demand protection that might normally have to come from here. Maybe, just maybe, someone had made a mistake and stripped the local cupboard bare.

One could hope.

She turned to her Science Officer as a large signal in orbit near the Palace appeared in the image.

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