T'aafhal Legacy 1: Ghosts of Orion Read Free

more thoughts about re-upping with the Fleet?”
    Bobby half laughed, half snorted.
    “We have not yet decided, Billy Ray,” said Mizuki quietly. “I have been offered a position at a research base on Triton. There would be no problem with Bobby signing on as a shuttle pilot with them.”
    “Triton?” asked Beth, incredulously. “Isn't Neptune a bit far away?”
    “About as far as you can go and stay in the solar system proper,” Bobby agreed.
    “Astrophysically speaking, Triton is a very interesting moon,” said Mizuki, a scientist to her core. “It is an irregular satellite—its orbit is retrograde to Neptune's rotation and inclined relative to the planet's equator. It, and Neptune's six other irregular satellites, are probably gravitationally captured objects from the outer solar system.”
    “Seems like a damned cold, remote place to go to just to study strange moons,” commented Billy Ray, swirling the bourbon and ice in his glass. “And flying a shuttle has got to be a comedown after captaining a starship.”
    There were a few moments of awkward silence as the four friends avoided eye contact by staring at their drinks. Finally, Bobby broke the silence.
    “What have you and Beth been thinking, Billy Ray?”
    “Maybe pooling our accumulated back pay and buying an asteroid mining ship.”
    Beth looked at her husband and lay her hand on top of his.
    “It's almost as disagreeable an idea as fleeing to the outer solar system,” she said, “but there is really no good alternative.”
    “Yup,” Billy Ray added, “the only employers for starship captains are the Fleet and the Colonization Board. The CB is a bureaucracy run by idiots, and both Beth and I have had our fill of the Fleet's internal politics.”
    “I hear you, brother,” said Bobby, nodding in agreement.
    Until the first dome of the new Earthside base was completed, Farside's Atrium, with its palm trees and waterfall, was the largest habitable space on the Moon. As the quartet slipped into a morose silence a strange object floated into the bar, past the towering palms. 
    About the size of a golf ball, the object was polished silver in color and hard to distinguish against the background. It flew a zigzagging course until it hovered above the friends' table.
    “What's that thing?” asked Bobby.
    “I don't know, pardner.”
    As the foursome rose, preparing to vacate the area, the hovering sphere hummed and projected an image beneath it. Floating above the table was a man's head and shoulders—like a living bust. Each of the four saw the man face on, regardless of their position around the table. At the same time their view of the rest of the bar darkened and became blurred.
    “Good evening, children!” said the apparition. “Don't stop drinkin' on my account.”
    “TK?” said Beth in an unsure tone.
    “Yes Ma'am, in the flesh. Or rather, in the hologram. I was hoping to catch you all together.”
    TK Parker was a former Texas oil billionaire who had bankrolled the construction of the Peggy Sue and her first voyages into space. He was now a member of the ruling council and rumored to be the richest man in the solar system.
    “If you wanted to talk with us you could have just called,” Billy Ray replied, settling back into his chair, “why the parlor tricks?”
    “The little gizmo in front of you has a remote holographic link over a quantum encrypted comm channel. It also cloaks the conversation on your end so no one can listen in. I don't really trust the public network.”
    “Isn't that rather paranoid, TK?” asked Beth
    “Even paranoids have enemies, darlin'.”
    “So what's up, sir?” Bobby said, hoping to get to the point so they could go back to drinking in quiet misery.
    “I understand that those of you who are currently serving in the Fleet are being pestered to commit to an extended period of service. Once you sign on there's no tellin' where they'll send you. Now I'm not one to tell folks how to live their lives but