The Vanished Seas (Major Bhaajan series Book 3) by Catherine Asaro

Author:Catherine Asaro [Asaro, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, Science Fiction, space opera, Military, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9781982124717
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2020-07-07T06:00:00+00:00

I rode the lift to my penthouse, feeling like a barbarian among all the elegance. Gold and black panels tiled the lower half of the car and mirrors graced the upper half. My reflection looked back at me, a woman in black trousers and a worn muscle shirt with no sleeves. A trace of dust covered my clothes. My gun sat snug in its holster and I carried my leather jacket over one arm. Tendrils of hair curled around my face, pulled out of the braid that fell down my back. I smirked, enjoying the dissonant image.

“Max,” I said. “Find me everything you can on Bessel, the assistant to Lukas Quida.”

“Will do. Also, Jak wants to talk with you.”

I tapped my gauntlet comm. “Jak?”

“Bez got another message.” Jak used the Cries dialect. We switched back and forth when we spoke to each other, depending on our subject matter, to the point where I often didn’t notice which dialect he and I were speaking. “Bez was supposed to tell Daan Bialo to go to a meeting,” he continued. “Except Daan never showed up, so Bez couldn’t give him the message.”

I tensed. “What meeting? Where?”

“You aren’t going to believe this.”

“Try me.”

“The starship ruins on the shore of the Vanished Sea.”

Ho! Why the hell would they meet at the ships? “They can’t go there.” The lift doors opened, creating an archway. I walked into my living room. “It’s off limits to everyone except the army and a few scientists they let study the ships.”

“Yah. But that’s where Bialo is supposed to meet them. Tonight, in about thirty-five hours.”

Not good. The army controlled access to the ships, and the Majdas controlled the army. If the High Mesh met there, that meant either the Majdas let it happen or else the Mesh was violating military security big time. “Let me know if Bez hears anything more, yah?”

“I will.” Jak’s voice darkened. “And don’t do it, Bhaaj.”

“Do what?” I knew what he meant, but I couldn’t give him the assurances he wanted.

“Those ships are off-limits to you, too.”

“Don’t worry.”

“I mean it, Bhaaj. Be careful.”

“I will. I promise.”

After we signed off, Max said, “He’s right. You can’t go out there.” Then he added, “Not that such trivialities have ever stopped you.”

“If you mean my job is dangerous, then yah. That’s why I get paid so much.” If I still had a job. “Can you bring up your record of the security mesh at the Majda palace?”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“Actually, I’m not. Look at the image they used for their security mesh.”

After a pause, he said, “The image is the web of a reptisect called a sand-weaver.”

“A repti-what?”

“Reptisect. It’s a term for animals with traits similar to both reptiles and insects.”

Huh. All the decades I’d lived on this planet, and I didn’t know the animals were called that. “They’re beautiful in a terrifying sort of way, like little shimmerfly dragons. They build webs out of the sand and some glue their bodies produce.”

“Why do you bring them up?”

“A few years ago I read an article about how they weave their webs on the starships.

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