RAEFF (Jim Able: Offworld Book 6) by Ed Charlton (great books to read .txt) 📕

I would expect.” He slowed the flier to almost a dead stop. “Look here.”

He pointed to an external monitor. Jim saw several large pieces of what might have once been a habitable space station drifting in a cloud of smaller debris.

“What the hell happened here?”

“Catastrophic destruction,” said Tamric quietly. “I don’t think we have time to investigate the cause. The debris is dangerous. I must go much wider than I had intended.”

Jim said, “I’ll listen out for military communications.”

Tamric nodded. The craft was eerily silent as Tanna Gul slowly grew in the monitors. Tamric watched and waited, keeping half an eye on Jim. After ten minutes, he turned and frowned. “Why don’t you get the flier to do that?”

“What?”

“You seem to be trawling manually through the noise. Why don’t you let the ship do it?”

“What do you mean ‘the ship’?”

Tamric shrugged. “All our craft have these systems.”

He stood and touched a panel above the navigation console. The panel slid away to reveal a small control pad. His fingers flashed over the markings on the pad.

“Recognize Tamric. Recognize Jim,” the monk called out. “Jim, say your name,” he added quietly.

“Jim,” Jim said, frowning deeply.

“Raeda accepting voice commands from Tamric and Jim,” came a slightly artificial voice from overhead.

“Monitor planetary communications, select military activity,” said Tamric.

“Monitoring,” came the reply.

Jim stared at Tamric.

“What’s wrong?” the monk asked.

“You’ve had voice control all along and never used it?”

“No, I don’t like to. The raeda will sometimes mistake conversation for instruction. It can be dangerous.”

Jim leaned back in his chair, gripping his jaw and glaring at Tamric. “And that hidden panel is in all the fliers of this make?”

“I believe so, yes.”

Jim swore in English.

“What did you say?”

Jim shook his head and said, “Nothing. I’m just surprised that you don’t put it in the instruction books, that no one has ever accidentally come across this...little feature, and that you don’t think it’s worth using! I’m...I’m staggered.”

Tamric shrugged and said nothing.

“Okay, how do I address it?”

“You can prefix your commands with the words ‘ship’ or ‘control,’ or our preferred word is ‘raeda.’”

“Ship!” Jim called. “While you’re at it, get me the TV transmissions at this console.”

“Accessing,” replied the ship.

It took the ship several minutes, but then Jim’s console changed to a series of small images. The ship had arranged them with a simple numerical key for selection. Jim tried the first five in quick succession. All were in local languages, and he understood nothing of what was being said. The sixth was in Standard. The image was of a well-dressed canid facing the camera sitting at a desk with papers laid out before him.

“News—the same everywhere,” Jim said.

“...the plume now extends four hundred miles to the northwest. All underground facilities are sealed, and any remaining surface personnel have been evacuated. We have with us Doctor Lafan Rul Varhur of the Organization of Concerned Scientists. Doctor Varhur, what are your thoughts?”

The image split to include a less smartly dressed canid, its ears flattened against its head. Its eyes were shining with what Jim did not at first realize were tears.

“Well, we warned that this would happen. This was entirely preventable. It’s a sickening disaster. Why did we waste all that effort—all that money—to construct an ark for an ecosystem and, then, let this happen.”

The canid licked its nose.

“So you think,” asked the presenter, “that nothing will remain of the Mello-haffen reserve?”

The doctor shook his head. “Nothing. It’s more mass extinctions. We are all diminished by this and by the criminality at its root. It’s a black day for us all.”

The presenter laughed nervously, “I’m sure, Doctor Varhur, that you don’t mean to suggest that this disaster was the result of someone’s deliberate action?”

“Of course it was! Everyone knows it. The Gul-Raeff used those weapons, despite every warning as to the consequences. One of the world’s last pieces of biodiversity is ruined and it has his paw print...”

The screen flipped back to just the presenter.

“Thank you, Doctor, for your interesting and...umm...obviously controversial views. We’ll be back after the break.”

The presenter looked greatly relieved to be having a few moments off camera.

Jim turned to see tears in Tamric’s eyes as well. He bit back the joke he was about to make about not needing one of the arks.

“I,” Tamric said with a sniff, “have seen pictures of that place. It was...beautiful.”

“This Gul-Raeff seems a bit of a madman,” said Jim grimly.

Tamric added, “Do you want to add an assassination to our task list?”

Jim was shocked at Tamric’s serious expression.

“My guess is, there’s a line ahead of us.”

“If the opportunity comes to either of us, let’s agree now not to let it pass.”

“Let’s hope we get in and out without having to deal with him. It’s better if they do it themselves.”

Tamric nodded and retreated into his room.

The military communications traffic all seemed routine. Jim heard no reports of their approaching craft.

Tamric emerged from his room with his composure restored. Jim said, “We’ll need to continue being discreet, but I don’t think they’re on to us.”

“I can hide us among the orbital junk for as long as you like. But we must be prepared for them to be watching their skies very carefully.”

“What’s the weather doing down there?” Jim wondered.

“Raeda, show me the weather over Muthlec.”

The screen showed a vast spiral of clouds obscuring the landmass.

“Oh, great,” said Jim.

“They won’t see us through that,” Tamric said cheerily, “though it might be a bumpy ride!”

They watched, listened, and waited for several hours. There were no signs that they had been detected.

Tamric hopped the flier from one piece of orbital debris to the next. They angled their descent down toward the atmospheric chaos of the storm. Once the flier hit the top of the storm, the steady strain of slowing through the atmosphere gave way to unpredictable battering.

Jim was aware of flashes of light burning past the windows, but his attention was on the control panels. Alarms were sounding, and Tamric was praying.

There was a sweet moment of relief as everything went silent