Unleashed (The Confederation Sequence Book 2) by C.P. James

Author:C.P. James [James, C.P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Modern warships possess advanced surveillance systems. Systems capable of stripping away the vast distances between them and their target, revealing them in stark relief while they themselves were barely aware of the warship’s presence. If they were aware of it at all. I could explain the technique, but I fear it would not mean much to you. Hyperspacial surveillance systems are relatively new. They primarily rely on detecting the hyperspacial shadow of an object, rather than directly observing the object itself. In a similar way to the notion that an object with mass bends space around it. We can see the bend, not the mass. However that was enough to determine what we were looking at. Over the centuries the technique has been refined, so that now we can predict with a high degree of accuracy the specific nature of our target. Down to surface features, and the material the target is constructed from. All of this in real time and over vast distances.

This target was a planetesimal. A large moon or small planet. A chunk of rock and dust over three thousand kilometres in diameter. Roughly spherical, or at least it had been prior to launching itself across the system. It now had a massive crater cored out of one hemisphere. Legacy of the antimatter detonations that had taken place there. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself. Why would anyone, human or machine, sustain that kind of damage simply to launch themselves across the system? They must want to talk to us very badly indeed.

This time we had situated ourselves in the CIC, the Combat Information Centre, just off the bridge itself. It was a wide open space, ringed with intelligence gathering and command stations. The centre was a holoscreen on which the Xon planetesimal was displayed. Its surface was rippled by structures of all kinds. Towers, rings, blocks. Its subsurface riddled with passages and spaces. Some many kilometres across. We were standing away from it, at about ten light seconds’ distance. Not far in cosmic terms, but far enough. I doubted they knew we were here. As big as we were we were far too small in the enormity of space, and besides, we weren’t emitting any light or electromagnetic radiation of any kind. It was pretty dark out here, this far from the sun.

“It appears to be the Dophant,” Sooch said. The second faction we had originally been interested in. The only faction, other than Sunrise, that had not immediately attacked us upon entering the system.

“Allies of Sunrise?” I suggested.

“Unknown,” Sooch said. “Although I’d point out Sunrise did not wish to talk to us.”

No, they hadn’t. With the destruction of the Sunrise installation – OK, the destruction of the planet – we’d lost a source of intelligence. Cena’s infiltration units were no longer able to transmit any data back to us. They, along with the city, no longer existed.

“Have we identified the comms laser they used to contact us?”

“I believe so,” Sooch gestured to the image, lighting up an area on its surface.

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