Sword of Minerva (The Guild Wars Book 10) by Mark Wandrey (good books to read for teens txt) 📗

“Gamma radiation?” Sato asked.

“No, thermal radiation. It’s showing 173 at the surface.”

“That’s hot,” Sato agreed. “Jupiter is 128, and it’s on the warm side. Uranus is only 49; even the Izlians think it’s chilly.”

“I don’t understand how anything can live in those temperatures.”

“Good old exotics,” Sato said.

“My species is classified as exotic,” Dakkar flashed. “I do not want to go swimming in that.”

It took Rick a quarter of an hour to finish scanning the near-system area. “I have four starships identified within range. Three are in orbit around the gas giant; one is transiting toward the stargate. Three of them are freighters, or bulk transports. Not warships, or really poor ones if they are. The last could be a frigate.”

“Where is that one?” Sato asked.

“In orbit, near one of the big structures around the gas giant.”

“Anything nearby?” Sato asked. “Anything manufactured, even a few meters in size.”

“Hold on,” Rick said and increased power and narrowed focus on the radar. “I have a few pieces of a ship,” he said after a minute. He uncovered and focused the ship’s only telescope. “Here’s the first.” A jagged piece of hull plate. “The second.” A visibly cracked fusion torch nozzle. “The final, and third.” About two-thirds of a small craft, probably a shuttle or an escape pod. It was obvious by the gently floating wires it had been stripped, as well.

Sato steepled his fingers and stared blankly at the display, thinking. He was waiting for something to trigger a memory, a feeling, anything. “Can I see the big objects?”

“Sure,” Rick said and refocused the telescope. “This is the first.” The camera showed a former ship, and a big one. Sato guessed it had been a battleship, or maybe a part of one. Could have been towed into orbit for salvage, because it looked like there were many holes in the superstructure, either cut or burned in combat.

“One of those transports is here, too,” Rick added. The view focused on a transport in almost as bad a shape as the dead battleship. They were over 200,000 kilometers distant, so the camera couldn’t focus in enough to see details. However, tiny shapes were moving on both vessels, and miniature sparkles appeared. “Cutting or welding,” Rick suggested.

“Reasonable. Next?” Sato asked.

Rick moved the focus to the next large object. This one was unrecognizable as anything. It almost looked like a random collection of parts and materials, which it might well have been. This one, too, had an old junk freighter docked to it, but in this case, there was no sign of any work going on, and the docked ship demonstrated only minimal power. “Could be a ship powered down, awaiting friends or hiding here?”

“Anything’s possible.” Nothing here piqued his interest. “The last ship?”

“Also docked to an object in orbit,” Rick said, and the view moved again. This time it wasn’t a ship or even debris; it was a large asteroid. “Its orbit is stable, no rotation. I can’t get any readings from the asteroid, but the ship is live.”

Again, it was too far away to see detail on the ship beyond shape. It was a sleek, winged ship, not dissimilar to their own, except it had more of a lifting body. It was also painted in a dark color, making it difficult to focus on.

***

He was walking down the hangar toward a waiting shuttle. To his left, a pair of Insertion Cutters waited for a mission, their swept lifting bodies and black paint suggesting speed and stealth.

***

“That’s it,” Sato said. “What’s the ship doing?”

“It looks like it’s landed on the asteroid,” Rick said. “I can’t confirm if it’s tied down or not. That asteroid can’t be very big or have much of gravity.”

“Let me have the sensors,” Sato said.

“They’re yours,” Rick said and flipped a switch, which toggled main control between workstations.

Sato quickly analyzed the gas giant’s orbit, as well as the altitude and velocity of the asteroid. “It’s not natural,” he concluded. “The asteroid’s orbit is almost perfect, and far lower than you would expect.” He turned to Rick. “I’m setting a course for the gas giant.”

“If there’s someone in that ship, won’t they see us coming?” Rick asked.

“Yes, so I’m heading for the junk pile.”

“There’s a ship there, too,” Dakkar reminded him.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” The fusion torch lit, and Vestoon accelerated away from the emergence point and toward the gas giant.

* * * * *

Chapter Five

Vestoon fell toward the gas giant. Sato thought it was rather majestic, in its own way. It didn’t have the startlingly beautiful bands of Jupiter, the extensive rings of Saturn, or even the deep blue vastness of Uranus. It did have a single band of green around the equator, which broke up the rest of the dark red swirls. It had a ring, too, but only a small one. It was majestic to him for what it represented. The possibility of answers.

He brought the ship into orbit while the asteroid was on the opposite side of the planet. Vestoon passed within 1,000 kilometers of the derelict battleship. It appeared, just as Rick had shown from the long-range scans, a gutted hulk. A single equally wretched ship clung to it, a dozen beings in spacesuits forlornly cutting at the wreck with plasma torches in search of he knew not what. If the salvaging operation took any note of them, it was impossible to tell. Soon it was left behind.

The hulk was in a higher orbit than their destination, so as the asteroid was closing on the wreckage. The two would pass each other in only an hour or so. Good timing for them to make their move.

Their approach to the asteroid was made slowly, looking as if