Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera by A.K. DuBoff

Author:A.K. DuBoff [DuBoff, A.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dawnrunner Press
Published: 2021-03-18T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Wil’s growing pile of concerns had made for a poor night of sleep. Nonetheless, he was forging ahead with his investigation. Wil was midway through a review of MPS’ publicly available annual reports when Michael rushed into his office.

“Something is happening,” Michael announced without preamble.

Wil minimized the work on his desktop and turned his full attention to his friend. Though Michael was often straightforward with his communications, he rarely barged in—and never without urgent reason. “What and where?”

“It might be connected to the other business near the Rift,” Michael explained. “Alkeer Station is reporting strange activity in their vicinity.”

“Strange how?”

“Erm, the best way to describe it might be ‘spatial ripples’. See for yourself.” Michael swiped information from his handheld to Wil’s desktop, and it popped up on the holoprojector.

The information was, indeed, odd and difficult to classify—much like everything related to the alien contact through the Rift. There was an array of rolling spatial distortions heading toward the Alkeer Station, one of the more remote TSS outposts. The ‘waves’, as Wil saw fitting to call them, appeared to originate at the Rift and then flow toward Alkeer. There wasn’t any consistency to it, and any given wave didn’t form a continuous line. However, looking at the composite image Michael had displayed, showing all of the information recorded within the past three hours, a defined path was beginning to form between the two locations.

Wil frowned at the holodisplay. “Agreed, there’s definitely something strange going on, and it does seem to be connected to the Rift. The relative distance to Alkeer is far greater than to the site where the Andvari was attacked. So, given that the timing and placement of the spatial distortions exceeds lightspeed transit, it means there’s a transdimensional component to whatever is going on.”

“I haven’t been able to get the image out of my head of that leviathan wrapped around the ship,” Michael said, concern tinging his voice.

Wil studied the composite image of activity, seeing where his friend was going with the observation. When he let his vision go fuzzy, the spatial distortion points were reminiscent of the curves where huge tentacles could be reaching across space from the Rift toward the station. No, the scale of that… He dismissed the thought. “These entities are no doubt large, but this would be absurd! We’re talking dozens of lightyears in span here.”

“It doesn’t have to be one of them. Ants make bridges by linking together. Gophers carve tunnels. This could just be a bridge or super-highway.”

“Not unlike what the Bakzen did with the Rift’s expansion,” Wil realized.

“Obviously, this is different, but…”

Wil took a moment to collect his thoughts. They’d strongly suspected that the event with the Andvari was just the beginning and that the beings would make their presence known again on a larger scale. Based on the limited information at their disposal, they had been working on preparations for that inevitable contact. However, they weren’t nearly as far along in that process as he would have liked. The problem was that they simply had insufficient information to make informed decisions.

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