Homeworld (Odyssey One) (21 page)

They weren’t here for intelligence on the enemy, though he’d take as much of that as he could get without compromising the mission.

Right now, however, it was more important to make a fast survey of the local area and see if there were any signs of a fight. If they didn’t find anything, well, that would be a bridge to burn when he got to it, Eric supposed.

“Nothing.”

Eric was both surprised and not; he’d known that the odds of picking up a stray burst were long, but the odds had seemed to have a way of giving the
Odyssey
a pass ever since its first mission. Some ships were like that, he knew. Always at the center of things, for good or ill, like they had a destiny.

Some people are like that, too.

This time, however, there was nothing else to it but to do things the old-fashioned way. They’d have to sector the area, see if they couldn’t find the Priminae warships he knew were out this way somewhere.

Priminae ships had better long-range gear than the
Odyssey
’s designers had even dreamed of. In their wildest fantasies, there weren’t many on Earth who could imagine looking
into another star system like it was a 16k movie screen, and he knew from experience that the Priminae could do just that over a range of a few light-years at least.

It wasn’t everything you thought it would be, of course. Space was huge, and the further away you looked, the narrower your depth of field was. Past a few light minutes you practically had to know the location of your target down to a few meters if you wanted to be able to see it, unless of course it was absolutely immense. Otherwise it could sail right on by and under your proverbial nose.

That said, they also had superior tachyon detection gear, and that was what he would give a vital body part for just then.

“I’m going to need a course to sector three-niner-eight, mark positive twelve,” he called out, eyes flicking up to where Daniels was standing.

The
Odyssey
’s helm and nav center had grown a lot since the first trip, with Lieutenant Commander Daniels now in charge of training future stellar navigators for the rest of the fleet. Weston didn’t like having green crewmen in charge of pointing the ship in the direction he ordered, to be frank, but Daniels was good enough to ride herd on them. Lord knew that the fleet needed the experience in the worst way.

Besides, it was the only way Weston had been able to keep his talented navigator on board. Daniels had been tapped for a teaching slot at the academy, despite all protests to the contrary, until Eric stepped up and reluctantly offered the
Odyssey
as a training platform.

It hadn’t been as bad as he’d thought, honestly, and it was the direction they were heading anyway, so he didn’t regret it. That said, tripping over green crewmen all the time did tend to ride on his nerves.

“Course solution calculated, Captain.”

“Good,” Eric said. “Bring us about and have all hands stand by to transition.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Daniels said, nodding to his trainee.

A few flicks of the young woman’s wrist was all it took for the
Odyssey
to be set underway as the comm began to blare out the warning.

“All hands, stand by for transition operations. This is not a drill. All hands stand by for transition operations…this is not a drill.”

PRIMINAE WARSHIP
POSDAN

CAPTAIN KIAN OF the Priminae glowered at the screens around her, more frustrated by what she was seeing than she had ever been by anything else in her life.

Something was going on in her sector, of that there was no doubt, but it was following nothing that resembled a pattern and seemed to be intent on nothing less than driving her mad through its actions. They had been tracking some low-order tachyon disruptions that were along a seldom-used transfer route, a section of starway that became largely obsolete a longtime past, due to advances in drive tech and the shifting of population away from an unstable colony.

Nothing unusual, not given the current situation in the colonies, but then the disruption began to change course at random intervals, backtracking on itself, altering velocities, and generally behaving in a manner she had never seen in her career in the merchant fleet, or since then as the Captain of the
Posdan
.

If it is Drasin, they have clearly gone quite mad.

“Captain, new tachyon burst.”

Kian rubbed her temples. “Another course change?”

“No. This time it seems to be from another sector.”

That brought her attention fully to the report. “Show me.”

The display shifted, showing a new section of space and a tachyon burst that had appeared from nowhere. She scowled at the display. “Is this accurate? Where is the originating signal?”

“We don’t have one. It just appeared.”

A stray report crossed her mind and she relaxed marginally. “Cross reference and compare this to the signature on file for the
Odyssey
.”

There was a brief silence, then an embarrassed response.

“Signature match, Captain.”

“Understood,” Kian said thoughtfully.

She had been apprized, of course, that the
Odyssey
was intending to operate in the area.
Something about another ship from their world, I believe. We have not seen anything that matches their drive signature, however. Odd.

She considered it for a moment, but considering the confusion currently reigning in their tracking at the moment, she didn’t worry about it for long and opened a channel to the
Nept
.

“Yes, Captain Kian?”

“Is Captain Tosk available?”

“He’s below decks for the moment. I can summon him.”

“No,” Kian said. “Inform him that I’m taking the
Posdan
to meet the Terran vessel,
Odyssey
. We will return shortly.”

“The new light-speed particle source? It’s them?”

“Matches their signature,” she confirmed. “Inform the captain we shouldn’t be gone long, but I’d rather know where they are than have them surprise either of us.”

“Understood, and I will. Thank you for the update Captain.”

Kian closed the channel to the other Priminae warship and rose from her seat, walking across the command level. “Set course for the tachyon disturbance, best velocity.”

“Yes, Captain, on your orders.”

“Consider them given.”

N.A.C.S.
ODYSSEY