Conflagration: A Military Archaeological Space Adventure (The Zenophobia Saga Book 5) by Craig Martelle & Brad R. Torgersen

Author:Craig Martelle & Brad R. Torgersen [Martelle, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Craig Martelle, Inc
Published: 2022-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Four-Claw came across the black hole swells as breezily as it had done when crossing back to Hinteran space from disc world space. The transit system of the “sled” that was Zero Zero One’s body continued to prove superior to anything Sankar had ever used in Hinteran space. And while he had been tempted to divulge this fact to Maglor during their several days of meetings and the multi-zeno conference which has ensued, Sankar had decided that what Maglor didn’t know wouldn’t make him greedy to sell it on the underworld market. So while the existence of Zero Zero One, and what the computer actually was, had been revealed, the “sled’s” smooth transit performance was kept among the three zenos who currently occupied Four-Claw’s crew cabin.

“Doesn’t seem like we were gone that long,” Bayane said, occupying the copilot’s position while Gwarzo the goroid took up a third officer spot in one of the acceleration chairs behind Bayane. Mostly, Gwarzo was the weapons officer, though he could do many other things as well. Sankar often thought that a goroid of Gwarzo’s talent could have grown rich if he’d gone into the civilian sector, versus winding up where he was now. Probably the most analytical and thoughtful of all the Veracity Corporation crew—even more than Ajerra, who’d been added only reluctantly and grudgingly—Gwarzo was also one of the few who seemed to have as much genuine interest in the Ur-Race as Sankar himself did, purely for the biology of it. Having seen the Ur-Race DNA for himself, after painstaking search and extraction, Gwarzo was eager to see the Urs in the flesh, convinced now as Sankar was that they were not far off from discovering such zenos. Or Earthers. Or whatever it was these beings ultimately called themselves.

“A lot happened in a short time, relatively,” Gwarzo said.

“Indeed it did,” Sankar said. “Now, for business. We can’t say for sure how visible Zero Zero One’s body will be to either Golongan detection or the Direwolf’s zeno-level sensors. Do either of you see any kind of deep-space detection network strung up in our absence?”

After a long moment, both Bayane and Gwarzo reported negative.

“Good,” Sankar said. “Now, do either of you see either the Bilkinmore or the Direwolf on your systems?”

“It’s pretty far out, yet,” Gwarzo said. “I’d wait until we cross inside the big jovian planets before we begin looking for friends or foes.”

“Still,” Sankar said. “Are we clear on the margin?”

Another long moment, then both Bayane and Gwarzo said, “Clear.”

“Clear,” was also uttered by Zero Zero One, as the official unofficial fourth member of the crew. “My deep space detectors are better than the Four-Claw’s own detectors.”

“Anything else about you that’s better that we should know about?” Bayane asked the alien computer.

“I will mention it as it occurs to me,” Zero Zero One said, and just a touch dryly, if Sankar heard it right. He didn’t realize computers could have attitudes, too.

“Why didn’t it occur to you before?” Sankar asked honestly.

“I

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