the metallic card, “You will find a letter authorizing my presence
and mission signed by a member of the House of War and the card contains
further details.”
“Your mission?” Raptor wondered wasn’t
this man retired.
“My work,” Antrar laughed, “old
military habits die hard. I am currently working for Moryett Plasma Company
that manufactured and installed the plasma weapon on this ship. I help them
with testing and simulating the weapon under battle conditions and I am here to
witness and collect data on your live drills with that weapon.”
“Alright, I don’t doubt you Com.
Antrar,” Raptor said, “But just to square with the army regulations, I will
have to run the letter and ID through the computer. Please confine yourself to
the guest quarters till then. I will run the verification right away.”
“Thanks,” Antrar said as their
hovercraft came to a stop in front of the guest section of Starship. It was
guarded by the soldiers of Starship Guards who prevented any guests from
wandering off without permission.
“Our estimated time to destination is
two weeks. This week we are running operations drills,” Raptor said to Antrar
who got off the craft, “Next week we will begin the weapons and battle tactics
drills.”
“Great,” Antrar said and as he was led
by the soldiers to a guest room, Raptor flew his hovercraft back towards the
command room. He dearly hoped that Star Commander had not managed to recruit a
war hero as his spy.
Chapter 12: Whisper
Capitan Jag Manus sent his authorization
codes over to the Whisper Station and after they were verified he docked his
spaceship on its guest bay. As he got out of his spaceship he looked out of the
window at the small black circle in distant space around which light was
skewed. It was the only black hole that existed inside the Nestorian Space.
The Whisper Station was an orbital
structure built and owned by the Nestorian Army that orbited that black hole
from a considerable, safe distance. A single vertical tower in the center
constituted the operational part of the station and a circular disc that hosted
spaceship bays and living quarters surrounded the tower completely in the
center.
Jag walked over to the guarded gate,
presented his credentials and was cleared. He was told to wait for an escort
and a few minutes later a man in black suit and pants and a white shirt with
round, chubby face walked over to him.
“Capitan Manus,” he said extending his
hand, “I am Portus, the tour officer here. You will forgive our overbearingness
but I must accompany you wherever you go.”
“I understand,” Jag said, “But I am
conducting an investigation and I will need some time alone with a computer.”
“That you can have without me looking
over your shoulders,” Portus said, “but you can’t go wandering around here.”
“In that case please direct me to your
signals archive, I am in need of nothing else,” Jag said.
“Follow me please,” Portus said and led
him further inside the station. He walked over to an elevator bank, swiped his
card and allowed his iris to be scanned and the doors of one of the elevators
slid open. Both of them stepped inside and Portus closed the door.
“Which signal do you wish to analyze?”
Portus asked.
“I want to do a search through all the
long range directed signals sent across our frontier space into Starfire
Empire’s Zarrvyk Province, specifically their regional capital planet Bravo,”
Jag replied.
“Hmmm…” Portus scratched his chin, “May
I ask the significance of it.”
“Sorry,” Jag smiled, “Republican Guard
secret. I report directly to the Vice-Chancellor Remus himself.”
“We gathered as much from your
credentials.”
“And he is a very close ally of General
Bakus, the head of all Nestorian army units including this Whisper
C. J. Cherryh
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