Transformation Protocol by David M. Kelly

Author:David M. Kelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fast-paced, action packed, near future, sci-fi, science fiction, scifi, scifi action, noir
Publisher: David M. Kelly
Published: 2019-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

After some much needed sleep, I was ready for us to move on. Logan confirmed he had no idea what the ghost ships were, which didn't necessarily mean they weren't from Earth. McDole arranged for more supplies to be shipped over from Geller Station. It took several hours, but when we'd finished, every spare cubic meter was crammed to bursting point. By my calculations, this gave us about three weeks to search at each Jump. Not very long, but the systems with stations would require less time—if the Sacagawea had reached them, they'd almost certainly know about it.

Now we had no reason to linger—we wouldn't find out more by staying. Moriaby was noticeably "unavailable" while the supplies were shipped over but did make a brief appearance to wish us on our way.

I moved the ship away from the Atoll, wondering what would happen to it. If what Moriaby had said was true, and the Atolls had no real interest in expanding outside our solar system, perhaps they weren't the threat we thought they were. Though this idea conflicted with McDole's assertion that timing was the issue.

Our next destination was Procyon, another binary star system with its two stars separated by an average of twenty A.U.—about the same as the distance between the Sun and Uranus. I played around with the Jump programming, not sure how to set the target. If I set the Jump to come out close to Procyon A, we could also be too near to the second star. From the data we had, Procyon was a bust in terms of planets. There were two, in tight orbits, and neither was interesting to anyone but astronomers. Beyond that, there were several debris fields and belts, which were probably planets that had either been torn apart by the gravitational forces or had never got going for the same reason.

The trip was a little over five light-years. Which meant we'd have energy reserves to Jump again if necessary without having to allow time for the Casimir system to recharge. That was what convinced me, and I set the destination to the outskirts of the system, well away from both stars. We weren't near enough to Sirius' gravity well for it to worry us and cleared the station in a few hours. I broadcast a warning to everyone before triggering the Jump. Hernandez didn't bother showing up for this one—the excitement of his first two "dates" so great that he'd promptly thrown away my number.

I still felt the thrill as the countdown ticked away, then there was that momentary disorientation and we were there, floating on the edge of the Procyon system. It looked remarkably similar to Sirius, another bright star accompanied by a much smaller companion. Procyon was larger than Sirius, but cooler and dimmer, its light more yellow than blue-white. I held my breath at the sight. The trip might not have been under ideal circumstances but was ticking plenty of boxes on my space explorer's wish list.

"There's so much desolation out here.

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