Edge of Solace (A Star Too Far) by Casey Calouette

Author:Casey Calouette [Calouette, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-19T07:00:00+00:00

*

“Meestur Gratham! Meestur Gratham!” Faris shouted as he ran into the elevator complex. His fat arms flapped wildly above his head.

A crowd of soldiers, Marines and sailors stood near the command post of the elevator complex. The controls and feeds were blank behind them.

“Shit,” Yamaguchi said. Half of his armor was peeled off. He stunk like an animal.

William stood upwind and watched as the fat Maronite slid up to the Ambassador.

“Mr. Faris,” Ambassador Gratham said. The Ambassador faced the large man and smiled a smile only a politician could.

The plump Lebanese huffed and strained to catch his breath. He took a huge breath and exhaled. Both hands were on his chest as if to restrain his breathing.

“Kassub came in!” he said between heaves. “He left a mighty trail.”

“Who is Kassub?” William asked. His ribs still burned intensely.

Faris went to speak but was stopped by Ambassador Gratham.

“One of Mr. Faris’s asteroid miners.”

William stepped closer to Faris. “I’m Lieutenant William Grace, any word of the Malta?”

He’d been hard pressed to stop thinking of the ship above. The blow the Malta took wasn’t necessarily fatal, but most definitely critical.

“Eh? No, they just said they hit the Sa’Ami,” Faris said with a strained voice. He looked to Ambassador Gratham. “I shall send an invoice for the fuel and ore.”

Gratham looked back in surprise. “What? We’ll see what your rock did, then the UC might repay a portion.”

“Wait—what? Start over. What happened?” William asked. His heartbeat was rising.

“We sent a message telling them to divert. Kassub, he was coming in to offload his ore.” Faris looked around and beamed. All eyes were on him and he seemed to be loving it. “So they burned as hard as they could and did a, uh, what’s that word? You use it to move little rocks?”

William squinted his eyes and had an urge to slap the man. “Keep going.”

Faris waved his plump hand and nodded. “On the backside of Canaan they empty all the ore, all that beautiful ore.” He paused a moment and took another deep breath. “So when they come by the ore is all around and whammo!” He slapped his palms together. “They hit.”

“Hit what?”

Faris shrugged. “Everything.”

“Can you talk to them? Do you have comms?” William shuffled closer to Faris.

“Well, yes! Now about that payment, the Kassub has been out for quite some time.”

“Give me the damn commset,” William growled.

Faris turned and faced William. He raised an eyebrow and nodded. His hand slipped into his shirt and pulled out a transparent panel. “One moment.”

William looked to Yamaguchi. “Sweep clear, LT?”

Yamaguchi nodded. “Almost.”

“We have reports of striders in the pines,” Gratham said.

“We’ll pick ‘em out later,” Yamaguchi said. He ran his hand over his oily hair.

Faris poked at the transparent screen. Sounds crackled and he shouted at his hand. “Shlamalukh? Shlamalukh?” His fingers poked and he shouted before the tinny sounds of a voice replied back. “Oh hey!”

The voice on the other end spoke rapidly and in a language William didn’t recognize.

Faris questioned the screen. His hands danced and gesticulated as he spoke.

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