Warriors For The Working Day
Chapter Fourteen
By
(UCSBdad)
Disclaimer: Stolen about equally from the Henson Co., David Drake and a bit from George MacDonald Fraser. Shakespeare is in the public domain, I hope. In any case, no money changes hands here. Rating: T due to language. Time: Some twenty-five plus years after Peacekeeper Wars.
How the bloody hell can a planet be closed?" Eddie asked of the hologram in the middle of the CIC aboard Donegal.
The captain of the Scipio Africanus may have shrugged. Then again, the quality of the holo transmission was poor due to the distance involved. "I don't know, sir. We got here for our regular run and found this being broadcast on a loop,"
The image of the captain was replaced by that of a palace functionary from the Royal Planet. "By order of Her Most Serene Highness, Empress Novia, all communications between our beloved planet and the outside universe is ended."
"Are you picking up anything from the planet that explains this?" Eddie asked.
This time the holo clearly shook his head. "They've limited their comm traffic to short range stuff so folks like us won't eavesdrop, but they don't realize how good our gear is, so we're picking up a lot of complaints from the merchants who've been using our services. Regrettably, the only answer they get from the palace is that the Empress' policy is that there'll be no communications with the rest of the universe, so deal with it."
"No communications ever?" That was Aida.
"I can't say for sure, but it sounds like they intend to be shut in for a long time, ma'am."
Eddie looked around at his staff, assembled there in the CIC. "Any ideas, people? Rudy, this is your area of expertise."
Rudy sadly shook his head. "I have no firm evidence, but…." He stopped in mid-sentence.
"Rudy, quit being dramatic." Kathleen filled the sudden silence. "You're the center of attention now."
"I was merely gathering my thoughts." He replied, and then quickly went on. "The Empress Novia has always felt squeezed between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrens. It has apparently made her tend towards a policy of isolation. However, in the old days, the Peacekeepers and Scarrens tended to cancel each other out. Now, the peace has led to renegade Charrids, renegade Peacekeepers and even unemployed Luxan warlords raiding around her territory. She well could have decided to withdraw inside her defenses and let everyone else go to hell."
"Are her defenses that good?" Eddie directed that question to Admiral de Coucy.
"They are very good, sir. The solar system is ringed with automated orbital defense stations. There are enough of them so that they can swarm any ship or squadron we send in there without weakening their defenses elsewhere. We might be able to punch through with the whole fleet, but I'd hate to try it."
Eddie sat and stared straight ahead, lost in thought. "Rudy, can she cut off her interstellar commerce entirely like that?"
Rudy nodded. "Oh, yes. Even a single solar system has enormous resources. It would certainly cause some short term economic hardship, and in the long term they might lose some technology that they can't duplicate here, but she can keep the Royal Planet closed for as long as she likes."
"Well, that settles it." Eddie said with a slight smile. "We go with Plan B."
After decades of living with a human and having fallen back on Plan B more times than I care to count, I was not surprised to learn that Plan B had yet to be thought up.
In the end, Plan B was provided by Captain Borghese and the Tenth Flotilla, those specialists in zero gee and vacuum combat. It isn't easy to sneak up on a ship or other installation in space, especially one that knows that an enemy is out there. In fact, it's frelling hard. So, the Tenth Flotilla had put a great deal of work into making their assault craft as stealthy as possible. After reviewing intelligence that Scipio Africanus had gathered in her trips to the Royal Planet, and sending their own spy drones in to observe their orbital defenses, Borghese announced it could be done. He suggested sending a small squad onto the Royal Planet to grab John and bring him back.
"Absolutely not!" was my reply to that plan. "It's too dangerous to John and it's dangerous to your men. John won't be taken without a fight."
The revised plan was much better from my point of view. Kathleen and I would be dropped on the outskirts of the city. Being Sebacean and having my knowledge of the Royal Planet, we could blend in, find John and he'd willingly accompany us back.
"Now that is what I call a truly idiotic plan."
I was really starting to hate Jenavian.
"What the frell don't you like about it, Jenavian?"
Jenavian smiled her very superior smile. "Aeryn, you're planning on using your knowledge of the Royal Planet to blend in? Two ex-Peacekeepers with all of the social graces of a starving drannit in a field of ripe pollotzies? It'll take you all of ten microns to call attention to yourself, and the kind of attention you'll draw will lead the Paladins straight to you."
"So, you suggest we just give up?"
"Of course not. The plan is workable if you have a competent leader who has extensive knowledge of the Royal Planet." The smile was extremely superior now.
"No." I shot back. "You haven't been on the Royal Planet for more than twenty cycles and I'm not putting you in charge anyway."
Jenavian shook her head with mock sadness. "As the former fiancé of the late, lamented Prince Clavor, I did leave the Royal Planet soon after your departure, but I have had occasion to return and I have kept up the many friendships I made there."
"Friendships? You're a frelling spy! And that's one more reason we shouldn't take you. Even if we could trust you, which we can't, Empress Novia's Paladins may know who you really are."
Jenavian's smile turned nasty. "So, what kind of a dress would you wear on the Royal Planet, to "blend in"?
"I remember they wear something in white, with a kind of a skirt." That sounded lame even to me.
"White? Aeryn, that is so outdated." Jenavian went on the attack. "What kind of jewelry would you wear? How would you wear your hair? What kind of perfume would you use?"
To my horror, I soon found that both Kathleen and Rudy were agreeing with Jenavian.
"Why the frell do you care about John Crichton anyway?" I shot at her.
"Because every leader in the galaxy has a nightmare that comes on them every now and then. John Crichton gets picked up by their worst enemy and, through some magic, suddenly remembers his lost wormhole knowledge. Then the galaxy blows up. The sooner that I can get John Crichton back aboard Moya puttering uselessly about with his voyages of discovery and raising children, the happier the rest of the Universe will be."
"Well forget it. I absolutely refuse to let you have anything to do with finding John. Not now. Not ever. Never!"
"Are you three ladies all strapped in and ready to go?" The pilot asked.
I glared at Kathleen and refused to look at Jenavian.
Kathleen nodded to the Tenth Flotilla pilot. He gave us what he obviously hoped was a reassuring smile and squeezed his way into the pilot's seat immediately in front of us. The assault lander we were in was tiny, with just enough room for a pilot and four soldiers. In this case, there were only three of us and a large cloth bag carrying our clothing and other supplies.
Rudy had ransacked the fleet for what Jenavian said we needed. In the end, we each had a blue dress. It was skin tight above the waist and very loose below. A slit ran down the front from the neck to almost the waist. Mine had no sleeves, which Jenavian thought made me look very daring, fashion-wise. She and Kathleen had long baggy sleeves.
My hair was now in curls that went out past my shoulders. How the frell could someone wear their hair like this? It seemed it would catch on anything.
I had spent several arns learning to put on the make up now in vogue on the Royal Planet. My eyelids were covered with black makeup edged in gold, my lips an odd shade of pink. My finger and toe nails had been painted silver. The shoes were…idiotic. Very uncomfortable and very flimsy.
I felt the transport start to move. I craned my head around, but I couldn't see a frelling thing. Well, if we couldn't sneak past the orbital defenses, I'd probably never realize I'd failed John.
After an arn, the pilot called back to us. "We're entering their detection range. If nothing happens to us in the next minute and a half, we should be okay."
That was reassuring. We should be okay?
I had no timekeeping device, so I took my pulse. When it got to one hundred heart beats, I started to relax. The next two arns were just boring. Just like being back in the Peacekeepers and getting ready to assault a planet.
"Okay, ladies. We're here."
Finally.
The pilot popped the hatch and we stepped out into the night. The pilot had landed us at the very edge of the badlands around the city. We were so close, I could see the lights of the palace in the distance.
Kathleen tore open our bag and removed our clothing. We quickly stripped off the coveralls we'd worn for the trip down and dressed in our Royal Planet clothing. We were dressed in a matter of microns and threw the bag back in the transport. The pilot lifted off, headed for a stretch of ocean a few metras away. He'd land on the ocean bottom off shore and wait for our signal.
A short walk took us to a large structure that Jenavia said was owned by one of her friends. Once I was inside, it was like I had gone back in time. All of the people were dancing and exchanging kisses to see if they were genetically compatible. Did any of these people ever do anything useful with their lives?
Jenavian pushed her way to the bar and asked for the whereabouts of Frink, her friend. The bartender didn't even need to reply.
"Jenavian!" boomed a voice. "Where have you been?" He said, giving her a hug.
Frink was dressed all in blue, but lacked the makeup. He was tall and thin, but like most local men, appeared to be in good shape.
"I was in the far south with Lord Kallens. Oh, Frink! We had such a delightful time. But I couldn't leave without seeing you." Jenavian smoothly lied.
Jenavian told Frink that she had been back on the Royal Planet for over a cycle, but had been staying with friends in the southern hemisphere of the planet. Kathleen was casually introduced as Ulla and I was Nim. As Jenavian spun out her tales of our "adventures", men kept bothering me with their silly vials, looking for a kiss. After I sent the third one packing, Frink spoke up.
"That may work in the southern latitudes, Nim, but around here, it just encourages them. Now you've become a challenge."
I looked around the room. Sure enough, a number of groups of men were eyeing me speculatively. I had had enough of this nonsense the first time I had been here, and was only interested in one man's genetic compatibility anyway.
I smiled at the room, grabbed a vial and put some of the liquid on my tongue. Then I grabbed Jenavian and kissed her.
Frell! It was sweet! How in the frell could that happen!
"It's sweet!" Jenavian crowed. "Why, Nim, we are compatible. That's so very sweet of you, you naughty little girl, you. You know, modern medicine makes many things possible now. We should see that Diagnosian over on Plenkar when we leave here."
That did get rid of the men, but now I was being stared at by a group of women at the end of the room.
"I don't know how you'll get out of here, Jenavian." Frink said. "The Empress Novia has ended all communications with other planets."
Frink, as it turned out, didn't know any more than we did about why Empress Novia had decided to cut the Royal Planet off from the rest of the galaxy. He did, however, have a small place just down the road where Jenavian and the two of us could stay.
A small place? Well, it was small if you were trying to billet a company of Peacekeepers, I suppose. But the bed was comfortable and I was able to get a good night's sleep.
Just as well, since things started going to hezmana the next day.
"What do you mean, Mr. Tollero isn't here?" Jenavian snapped at the attractive, if dim, woman sitting in the front of offices of Tollero Enterprises. This Tollero was apparently Jenavian's contact here on the Royal Planet. I assumed that meant he was a Disrupter as well, although Jenavian had gone to some lengths to suggest he was just a close friend and business associate,
"He's not here." The woman repeated slowly to Jenavian. "He left. He didn't tell me where he is. He didn't say when he'd be back." Her duty done, she went back to polishing the large and gaudy bracelet she was wearing.
I wondered idly if slamming her head against her desk might help her memory. I decided against it. That wasn't the way things worked on the Royal Planet.
Jenavian promised to report her unhelpful attitude to Mr. Tollero and then stormed out. Kathleen and I followed in her wake.
We found Jenavian standing in front of a large, ornamental fountain. In the center of the fountain was a statue of a young woman with water shooting from her hair. The Goddess only knows what that was meant to represent.
"That bastard Tollero may have gotten word that the Empress was about to close the planet down and decided to get himself off planet." Jenavia snarled under her breath.
"I thought Disrupters were better disciplined than that." I said quietly.
Jenavian didn't bite. "He's a merchant, dear Nim, and like his kind, he looks out for himself first."
After a brief discussion, we decided our best bet was to try the palace. As the former fiancé of the late, unlamented Prince Clavor, Jenavian was tolerated by the Imperial Family and the palace staff, even if Prince Clavor himself had been widely despised by everyone except for the Empress, and I must admit, Princess Katralla, who seemed to have allowed the fact that they were related to have clouded her judgment of the power mad prince.
We set off at once and in no time at all were entering the outer precincts of the palace. That is when disaster struck.
"Aeryn Sun! I haven't seen you for years!" Boomed a voice, "and Jenavian Chatto, too!"
I stopped, stunned and stared at him. Dregon Carzenonva stood there smiling and walking towards me. First he makes me fall off a mountain and now this!
"Aeryn Sun?" growled a voice from behind me. "Aeryn Sun has been proscribed from ever entering the Empress' domains! Stand where you are!"
I turned and smiled widely at the Paladin. "I'm sorry, this gentleman is confused. My name is…" In mid-sentence I kicked at his mivonks and sent him down. Too frelling late! When I stepped forward to take his weapon, three more Paladins came forward to cover us with their weapons. In microns, there were at least a dozen surrounding us.
In spite of Jenavian's and Kathleen's protestations that they didn't know me, we were all hustled away. A brief DNA scan established that I was the same Aeryn Sun who had landed on the Royal Planet more than twenty cycles ago and had been forbidden to ever return. The scan also established that neither Jenavian nor Kathleen had landed on the planet legally. In no time at all, we were in a dungeon, deep within the cellars of the palace.
"Just once could you think, instead of acting like a brainless Peacekeeper?" Jenavian snapped at me.
"If you've noticed, Disrupter, my career since leaving the Peacekeepers has been quite un-Peacekeeper-like. And since when have the Empress' Paladins been susceptible to reasonable arguments? The last time I was here, they were salivating at the chance to execute everyone from off-planet!"
I suppose it would have gotten much worse if one of the jailers hadn't yelled at us from outside. "Silence! Princess Katralla and Prince Consort John are coming to see you. If you hope to keep your lives, behave!"
I stopped. Thank the gods, whoever they were. I had found John. The door swung open.
I micron later I was cursing those gods.
"You're Counselor Tyno!"
"Silence!" snapped Katralla. She stepped closer to me. "When John Crichton left, my lover Tyno took his name and his place beside me. Few knew John Crichton by sight and those who did would never betray the secret. Didn't John tell you of this?"
I glared at Jenavian. "No, we had other things to consider in the aftermath of escaping from here."
"No matter. You know now. Tyno and I were returned to our normal form many years earlier than originally planned because my mother has been ill. In a few microts, guards will come to bring you three to see her. Try not to antagonize her and we'll try to save your lives. Now we must go."
With that, Katralla and Tyno turned and left.
Sure enough, they were no sooner out of sight than I heard the tramp of booted feet approaching. The Empress' Paladins had arrived to escort us to the throne room.
The normally busy throne room was almost deserted when we got there. Novia was sitting in a simple chair on a raised dais, with Katralla and Tyno to her left. To her right was a tall, elderly looking man who looked like he wished he were elsewhere.
Empress Novia looked dreadful. She had lost a great deal of weight, and I could see that the skin on her face was pulled tight over the bones. Her hair was thin and hung lifelessly around her face. Most of her was covered with a white robe, but I could see her hands were shaking slightly.
"Aeryn Sun! You were banished from my dominions. How dare you come back?" Her voice was low and she sounded tired.
"Your Majesty. " I began, "I have been seeking my husband, John Crichton. He was.."
"John Crichton is married to my daughter!" She snapped at me.
Princess Katralla leaned over to her mother. "Empress, there are two John Crichtons, don't you remember? One is married to me. The other is married to this lady."
Novia looked confused, then shook her head, as if clearing it. "Yes. That other one came here with that abominable Scorpius. What a dreadful man he was. That's why I had the whole crew of Moya banished from my realm. Dangerous. Dangerous, all of them."
"My husband, my John Crichton, brought peace between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrens, Empress."
Novia's had snapped around to look at me. "Peace! Peace? What peace? We've had nothing of any peace in the last ten cycles. Renegade Charrids have attacked our commerce, not to mention so-called Peacekeepers and even those filthy Luxans. That's why I won't allow any more ships to leave the Royal Planet. I solved the problem. I did. I did."
I was trying to think of some way to get through to Novia who was obviously mentally impaired. Suddenly, she focused on Jenavian.
"Jenavian! Why did you leave? Clavor was so in love with you. He was a bit headstrong, but young men are like that. If you had only stayed, he would have been a good ruler. Why did you desert us?" The last sentence ended in a sob.
Jenavian smiled, as best she could. "Your Majesty, Clavor died. I did remain for a while, but the sight of so many places and people that I had known with my dearest Clavor soon became intolerable. I had to leave. But you know I have returned when I could."
"Clavor is dead." Novia stared at Katralla who nodded.
"Yes, Clavor is dead!" Novia suddenly yelled out. "I remember. It was a conspiracy. The Scarrens and the Peacekeepers all wanted my realm. This so-called peace agreement is just a trick to get us to lower our defenses. But I've been too clever for them. They'll never defeat us. They'll never penetrate our defenses."
Suddenly she stopped and stared at the three of us. "You have penetrated our defenses. You must not be allowed to return with the secrets of our defenses." Novia looked wildly around. "Captain Taiho! Captain Taiho!"
An officer in the uniform of the Empress' Paladins stepped into the throne room. "Your Majesty?"
"Execute these three. At once. Now!" Novia stormed.
"Mother, please. There is no reason to execute these people. One of whom would be your daughter if Clavor had lived."
"You dare defy me!" Novia raged.
"Your Majesty?" Captain Taiho said quietly.
"What?" Novia barked at him.
"It is customary to execute traitors publicly, to show your loving subjects the lengths to which you will go to preserve their safety."
Novia nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes. A public execution. The very thing. Do it now, Taiho. I knew I could count on you."
Captain Taiho bowed. "But the streets are almost empty and your loyal subjects are at home, thanking Your Majesty for protecting them. And there hasn't been time to alert the news media." Taiho said soothingly. "Your Majesty's justice should be seen to be done, so that your beloved subjects can appreciate how hard you work for them."
Novia seemed to be very tired all of a sudden. "Yes, yes. I knew I could count on you, Taiho. There are so few left anymore that are loyal. You handle the details. You have my complete trust."
With that, we were lead back to our cell. We had no sooner returned to our cell than Captain Taiho arrived with our dinner. The food looked to be too good to waste on prisoners who were to be executed soon, so I felt slightly better. Taiho, however, refused to tell us anything. The reason for his reticence was soon apparent. Princess Katralla and Tyno arrived.
Katralla wasted no time. "My mother is not well, but she is still the Empress. She can be distracted for a while, but she views you three as a threat and she will not tolerate a threat to the Empire."
Tyno took over. "You need to tell us why you are here. Tell us everything."
And so we did. I started with the details of my kidnapping and Kathleen continued with the history of Human Forces Command. Jemavian confirmed the size and power of the human force we had left on the other side of their defenses.
"I'm not sure you're not a threat to the Empire." Captain Taiho remarked when we were done.
"If you want to see a threat to the Empire like you've never imagined, allow Empress Novia to execute us." Kathleen said sharply. "My father is not a forgiving man where family is concerned."
"We do not appreciate being threatened." Katralla said coldly.
Jenavian smiled. "Then don't think of it as a threat. Think of it as an analysis of how this planet will be destroyed."
"Your fleet would have to get through our orbital system defenses," Taiho said with a slight smile. "I don't think we have to worry."
Katralla and Tyno left to try to reason with the Empress, and I presume Taiho went off to plan our executions. We decided to get a good night's sleep. If we had to, we'd try to make a break for it when the Paladins came for us in the morning.
The Paladins arrived long before morning.
"Wake up! Wake up!" That was Taiho. "The Empress demands your presence in the throne room. Who the frell are you people?"
I remained on my bed, not moving. If I could get a Paladin to come close enough, I could disarm him. Kathleen did likewise. Jenavian pushed herself up on one elbow and smiled at Captain Taiho.
"Are you perhaps finding out that we're not people you can threaten with death and just laugh about it, Captain?" She asked nastily.
Taiho nodded. "A huge warship has entered our solar system. It simply sailed right past our defenses. None of our orbital defenses did a frelling thing. And now we can't even establish contact with the satellites. They've ignored every command we've sent to them."
"It does sound like you have a problem." Kathleen was unable to suppress a laugh. "Much like I told you you'd have. Let me know how things work out." Kathleen turned over and pulled her blanket over her.
"The Empress demands your presence in the throne room at once!" Taiho said, obviously trying to keep from losing his temper.
"Demands can be difficult." Jenavian replied haughtily.
"Your commander has also requested that you be present in the throne room so that he can be sure that you are alive and well."
Kathleen rolled over and rolled out of bed. "Marshall O'Donnell gave us orders? Well, why didn't you say so? Up and at 'em, girls. Time's a-wasting."
The throne room was more crowded this time. In addition to Novia, Katralla and Tyno, there were officers of the Paladins and Novia's Counselors, all talking among themselves and all having no clue how to solve their problem. In the center of the room was a large holo transmission of Eddie.
"And I assure you, Empress Novia, that if my officers are not returned to me, I shall hunt down and kill all who…" Eddie stopped and turned to look at us. It was a two way holo, then. "Ah, I see they have been brought out. Everyone all right?"
Kathleen nodded. "No harm has been done to us, sir."
Eddie smiled and nodded. "Excellent, excellent. Now, I'll be sending a landing craft down to pick them up. There's a large space in front of your palace that…."
"You dare give me orders?" Novia screamed. "I command here. And I have commanded that these three be executed. How dare you presume to give me…"
"Mother!" Katralla interrupted. "Can't you see…"
"I see that as long as I have them, I am in control."
"Not really." That was Eddie. "Your orbital defenses are under our full control. When Scipio Africanus came here, they were very careful to record the computer codes you used to let your own ships get past your defenses. It was no great trick to use them against you. And, we also used nanobots to re-program your defense satellites. Your satellites were programmed to ignore things the size of a grain of sand, but you'd be surprised at what you can do with enough of such tiny machines. Ah, excuse me, you are surprised already, are you not? You really should inspect your weapons more closely and not rely on what your ground based computers tell you."
"And, Empress, we're well aware that even as we speak, your soldiers are trying to regain control of your orbital defenses. However, that will not work, I assure you."
"As for your spacecraft, you have a limited number of so-called warships to call on. They are, however, used for rescue and police work mostly. All together they are absolutely no threat to me."
"And your Regiment of Paladins is slightly less that two thousand strong and is equipped with nothing more powerful than rifles. Again, they are no threat."
Captain Taiho bowed to Novia. "Our lives are yours, Your Highness."
"Yes, Mother!" Katralla said acidly. "Getting your Paladins slaughtered would be a fine end to this fiasco."
"I will not put my Empire in jeopardy!" Novia screamed, shooting to her feet. "I have fought for years to keep out the Scarrens and the Peacekeepers and the Charrids and…"
"And now you have a powerful warship inside our defenses. You have no options, Mother."
The fight went out of Novia. She sagged and sat down heavily. Katralla moved over to stand beside her, taking her hand.
"My mother agrees to your proposal, Marshall O'Donnell. I suggest your transport land in front of the palace so as to minimize your soldier's time on this planet."
Eddie smiled and bowed graciously. "A most wise decision, Empress Novia. And I will not be sending soldiers down. A Mr. Vergraah will come by to pick up my officers."
It took a few microns for a transport from Donegal to land. Rudy walked down the ramp and strolled into the palace, looking like he like a casual visitor, just dropping by to say hello. He even stopped to smell a flower growing in a large pot at the entrance to the throne room.
"Hello!" He said cheerfully. "I'm Rudyard Kipling Vergraah. Thank you ever so much for returning our little lost sheep to us. Their coming here was a dreadful mistake on our part, of course. So sorry."
Rudy was trying hard to turn a near war into a minor mix-up. Novia simply stared past him and the rest of her court glared at him.
Rudy turned to us. "Ah, ready to go? Excellent! Excellent!" Then he turned back to Katralla. "Marshall O'Donnell has asked me to speak to you about your defenses. I'm afraid you've been living on their exaggerated reputation. We really don't find your defenses to be all that intimidating. And it's not just because we have superior military technology. We're quite sure your less peaceful neighbors could breach your defenses if they gave it a bit of thought. We'd be quite willing to leave a task force here to look after you, for a fee, of course. Also provide a training and equipment team to see about upgrading your defenses to some more modern orbital missile batteries and system defense boats, which we can also sell you. Then we could see about your ground forces…"
"No!" Katralla said forcefully. "Please just leave our planet, now."
Rudy bowed and we all headed for the door. Rudy seemingly had to have the last word. He stopped by the flowers he had admired on his way in. "Would you mind at all if I took a cutting? Really a lovely flower. We have a garden you know."
Katralla stared at him for a micron. "Take the whole frelling pot, if you please. Just leave."
Rudy took a small cutting and we walked out to the transport.
We were in orbit and in sight of Donegal when Kathleen said what we had all been thinking. "Whose brilliant idea was it to send us through the orbital defenses in that tin can when you could have shut down the frelling defenses?"
Rudy laughed. "When we could have shut down the defenses, Kathleen? We did shut them down. We added another electronic warfare pod to your lander just for that purpose. Couldn't tell the crew of course. And you were followed by one of Borghese's destroyers in full stealth mode with their full EW suite running. We confirmed the satellites weren't functional well before you got in range. You were never in any real danger."
"That's more than I can say for you, Rudy." Kathleen muttered under her breath.
In a few more microts we were back aboard and I was more depressed than I had been for weekens. My only lead to John had turned out to be a dead end. Where was he? How would I find him?
I was headed for the CIC with Rudy, Kathleen and Jenavian for debriefing. We were almost to the hatchway when the alarm bells began to ring.
"Ships dropping out of FTL at the edge of the system. Footprint indicates they're big."