First Fleet #1-4: The Complete Saga by Stephen Case

Author:Stephen Case
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780986115769
Publisher: Retrofit Publishing
Published: 2015-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Four

Cam was uneasy. And because she was uneasy, because she was worried she had begun seeing a form moving against the backdrop of an empty world at sunset, she did something she had told herself she would never do: She integrated Station’s audio processing units into their habitation’s systems.

“Station?” she said, when it was complete. The twins were once again in bed. “Can you see me?”

“I have access to the full range of the habitation’s scanning units, Cam,” it answered. Cam had corrected her earlier alterations to its programming so that it once again recognized her as herself. She had also discovered the message Paul had left before he was taken, which had filled her with a fresh wave of guilt at her deception and betrayal.

“Good,” she said. “That means you should be able to pipe into the sensor arrays outside as well.”

“That is correct, Cam.”

She had scanned the sensor data herself already, but there was only so many ways a human could parse the influx of information.

“Is there anything out there, Station?” she asked.

“I do not understand the question.”

Cam paced in front of the wide windows. She was being unreasonable, and she understood that. But something was happening. Something was itching at the back of her mind, under her skin. The girls had awakened last night screaming about something outside the windows. She had activated all of the exterior floods but had seen nothing. It took her hours to get them calmed down and back to sleep.

And now she was looking for reassurance from a machine.

“Are there any life forms out there, Station?”

“Scanning, Cam.” There was a pause. “I can pick up residual heat signatures along the farthest sensor arrays, but these correlate with the inhabitants of the neighboring habitations.”

“Nothing else?”

“No, Cam.”

She stopped pacing and dropped into one of the two seats at a low table in the habitation’s front room. This was where she and Paul used to talk late into the night after the twins had gone to bed. She wondered where he was right now.

She and the twins were tired. Maybe Agnes and Perry were still picking up something from the Brick. There could not be anything moving around out there on the surface of their world. The atmosphere was still far too tenuous.

“Cam.”

What was it that Paul used to say about the night? That it was only the absence of colors that let you truly see shape and texture. He used to say that about the rocks, but he used to say it about her body as well, whispering to her in the pale starlight that filtered through the skylight above their bed.

“Cam. There is something moving outside.”

She stood and reached for the rail-pistol she had placed on the table beside her. The floodlights outside the habitation showed only naked stone.

“Where?”

Station was silent.

“Where, Station?”

“I’m sorry, Cam. There was momentarily motion on several of the sensor arrays simultaneously. This is indicative of a systematic malfunction, not an actual moving body. I am running the requisite diagnostics.”

“A sensor ghost?” she demanded.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.