Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) by Mark Wandrey (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📕

“What can I do for you, Colonel?” Alan asked.

“Commander is more apt,” Teef said. “We don’t use ranks like yours.” Alan shrugged. “When I heard Uufek was coming to Earth, I asked to come along. My clan is not involved in the investigation of your…charges’ origin.”

“Then why are you here?”

Teef took out a slate and held it up. “May I?”

“Please.”

The Zuul commander worked on his slate for a time, and a Tri-V of the galaxy appeared. “I found out your company is missing its ship and forces recently.”

Alan’s lips narrowed and he was instantly on guard. “How did you find this out?”

“We are both mercs,” Teef reminded him. “This means we have access to the same data from the Mercenary Guild. So, you are missing your ship and troopers?”

Alan sighed and nodded his head. “Two months now. We took a contract at Ploofka, in the Coro region of our Tolo arm. Garrison duty, but it turned hot. You know how it goes sometimes.” Teef nodded, so he continued, “Well, we had another two months on the contract, but needed to rotate some personnel. I left a full battalion under the command of Captain Jill Anderle while I caught a commercial transport with Captain Tucker back to Earth.

“We brought our wounded back and the equipment in need of repair. The intention was to travel back to Ploofka once we picked up reinforcements from cadre and some more gear. Then Earth was invaded.”

“Did you fight? Against the Mercenary Guild?”

“No,” Alan said. “We only had a platoon of partly-trained troopers, and not enough armor for them, that old Phoenix-class dropship out there, and no starship. By the time we realized the magnitude of the situation, it was over. There were some occupying forces in Sydney. We considered a strike, but were worried about our dependents. Family. The guild might retaliate.

“We hated just sitting here, but what could we do? Then the war ended, and we still haven’t heard anything from our team. We’ve been struggling to pay our bills and put together a force to go see what happened to our people.”

“The guild showed the contract completed within requirements,” Teef said, “just two months ago.”

“Yes,” Alan agreed. “We assumed they would come straight back, since the war was over. However, nothing.” He spread his hands wide.

“Something happened to them en route,” Teef suggested.

“The route isn’t special. In fact, Ploofka is nowhere. The direct route was through a major planet, and I left orders to avoid that world. So they should have passed through a minor trade hub at the edge of the Cresht region called Piquaw. I sent a message to the Cartography Guild after they were overdue. The guild said Starbright, our ship, never passed through either system.”

Teef was tapping on his slate as he listened to Alan’s details. As soon as Alan finished, the Zuul modified the slowly swirling galaxy to zoom in on the Tolo arm of the galaxy. It zoomed in on Earth, then the view spun to show the Ploofka system. It zoomed out, and a green line traced between Ploofka and Piquaw.

“This is the route you believed they took,” Teef said. “However, there is another route which would have also taken them out of the way, and I believe you instructed your subordinate to follow.” The route moved to intercept another star system.

“Klbood?” Alan said, the pronunciation a hard one. “Never heard of it.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. It’s a dead system, no habitable planets. It does, however, have a stargate. If your ship transited through there, it could have then jumped directly to this system.”

“I hadn’t considered that.” Alan nodded as he thought. “I’ll have to draft an inquiry to the Cartography Guild right away.”

“Hold on a moment,” Teef said. “You see, I didn’t come here to offer this information for no reason.” His ears swiveled to the side. “Insho’Ze is also missing a ship, Gheshu, and a unit. We believe it was traveling through the Klbood system. Our inquiry to the Cartography Guild was not answered.”

“Something’s going on there?” Alan asked. Teef nodded. “What can we do about it? I don’t have a ship.”

“We do,” Teef said. “My clan’s ship, Paku, is in orbit. I’d like to ask if you are willing to come along and help search for our lost clans together.”

* * *

Alan watched the Zuul shuttle take off and boost for orbit with conflicted feelings. The clues to Starbright’s possible fate were tantalizing, and he wished he could follow up with them himself. Dana stood by his desk, shaking her head. She seemed just as undecided as he was, probably still struggling with her emotions about the pups and Uufek wanting to take them back with her.

“What do you think?” she asked suddenly.

“About what; them wanting to take the pups back or maybe knowing where Starbright is?”

“Yes,” she replied, crossing her arms.

“Well, I think we both agree it’s the pups’ decision to go or not.”

“Despite that they’re only 14?”

“We’ve been over this,” he reminded her. “You even agreed to pursue the case to adjudicate them as adults. Besides, they’re considered adults in their society, too.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Alan had been married long enough to know when a logical discussion wasn’t what was called for, so he moved on. “As for Starbright, they have a good point, and the evidence suggests they might be correct.”

“We have to check it out first, don’t we?”

“No time.”

“Only because they said they’re leaving in a week, after they’ve completed repairs and resupply,” she said.

“Well, we have to take their word on those points, and we don’t have time to get a response from the Cartography Guild on the others.” He knew it was a minimum of two weeks, probably four, to get a response to