Rebellion of Stars by Wallace Michael

Author:Wallace, Michael [Wallace, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Balsalom Publishing
Published: 2015-08-27T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Drake made the jump into the San Pablo system a week after leaving Hot Barsa. He’d received word from Isabel Vargus that Lindsell’s fleet was racing to intercept her, and that left the jump point undefended. Still, when he raised his groggy, throbbing head after going through, he anxiously scanned the screen for enemy vessels. The nearby space was clear.

Capp eyed him with a worried expression. “That was a hard one, Cap’n. You took it worst of all. I was about to call Doc up here to have a look at you.”

The others on the bridge were already up and about. Oglethorpe blinked and rubbed at his temples. Manx chased down a couple of pills with a glass of water. Smythe was already fumbling at the tech console. Capp was yawning in the way people sometimes did when they were fighting nausea, but she seemed alert. Certainly, more so than Drake himself. He felt almost drugged.

His other ships were a destroyer, a frigate, and two torpedo boats, and they were already moving while Blackbeard was still dead in the water. Such a strange, unsettling phenomena, these jump points. Like every atom in your body had been disassembled and then strung together five light years away.

Smythe put up scans of the near space. A comet was hurtling through the San Pablo system, and flared white across the viewscreen only a few hundred thousand miles away. It seemed to be right on top of them, but that was an illusion caused by the vast distances. It stretched like a long, glowing white fire across the viewscreen until Smythe continued his scans elsewhere.

The computer picked up a flurry of new messages, which Jane sent through, one by one. The first came from Hot Barsa. Tolvern had stirred up a hornet’s nest on Malthorne’s largest estate. Closer to hand, Vargus had already scraped with Lindsell, who’d forced her to withdraw. She had several merchant vessels she needed to protect—the shipment of arms for the forts.

But where was she? Smythe scanned the system for ships and only turned up the usual suspects to be found in San Pablo: miners, scavengers, smugglers, mercenaries, and other unsavory types. Nothing of either Vargus or Lindsell.

“Where in the black void are they?” Drake asked.

“I’ll keep looking,” Smythe said, “but it might take some time if they’re both cloaked.”

“Vargus’s merchant frigates have no cloaking,” he reminded the tech officer.

“Don’t suppose they’ve busted out of here, do you?” Capp said.

Drake raised an eyebrow. “Busted?”

“You know, bug—I mean, left in a hurry. Busted out of here. Jumped to Peruano or something. Might be safer there, if Vargus’s sister’s about, doing whatever business she’s up to.”

“Vargus had better not have busted anywhere. Certainly not to Peruano. By the time we get that ordnance to the forts, Dreadnought will have seized them and reduced Rutherford’s fleet to salvage.”

“Might not have had much choice,” Capp said. “Not if Lindsell slapped her around a bit, if you know what I mean.”

“Found them, sir!” Smythe said.

Now Drake understood.

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