Frontier's Reach: A Space Opera Adventure (Frontiers Book 1) by Robert James (best android ereader TXT) 📕

“What are they?” she asked with a combination of awe and disgust.

“Thought your dad might like them.” Jason grinned cheekily.

Kevin eyed the Seekers. “You really shouldn’t have.”

Tai stepped forward. “I’m a medical doctor, Mister Rycroft. If I can be of any assistance—”

“I think I’m going to need all the help I can get.” He led the way to the elevator, while the Marines, Marquez, and Tai followed him.

“I assume you kept an eye on them when they departed?” Tyler asked Aly.

She nodded. “Before they left scanning range, the unidentified ship took a parallel course to the planet.”

“There were no signs they detected us?”

“It didn’t appear so.”

“I think Nash’s got bigger fish to fry now,” Jason added.

“Nash?” Aly appeared confused. “Your friend, Nash?”

“Yeah.” Jason did his best to fill her in on everything that had happened on Orion V as they waited for the elevator car to return and take them up to A Deck.

They entered the infirmary and joined the others watching Kevin and Tai through the observation screen. The pair were in the process of removing the armor from one of the Seekers on the bed.

“Wow!” Aly said.

Wow is right.

Kevin turned to Tyler through the screen. “I need them out of here,” he said of the Marines that were crowding him inside the small medical bay. “They’re already dead anyway.”

Without Tyler saying a word, Marquez instructed them out, allowing Tai and Kevin to begin their examination of the Seeker.

“How exactly did Althaus say he killed this…being?” Kevin asked.

“The bucket of an excavator,” Jason told him.

“That would explain it.”

While the examination continued, Jason thought how peaceful and fragile the Seeker appeared. But then he remembered that it was his people who’d decimated the Orion V mining facility and destroyed the Vanguard with a force and power he’d never seen.

“We should do an autopsy.” Everyone looked at Jason with raised eyebrows. “I want to know what makes them tick.”

“Uh,” Tai began, “Outpost Watchtower has much more adequate facilities for a medical examination of that kind. We are going to Watchtower, aren’t we?”

Marquez glanced at Tyler who nodded to the affirmative.

“She’s right, Jason,” Kevin said. “We should leave this to the professionals.”

Jason pointed at Tai. “If there’re any professionals on alien beings, it’s her. What’s there to do? Get a knife and cut him up.”

“There’s a little more to it than that.”

“There won’t be an autopsy, not on the Argo.” Tyler put his foot down. “We’re in far enough with all of this as it is. When we reach Outpost Watchtower, we can hand it over to the authorities.”

Before Jason rebutted him, Althaus’s voice sounded over the ship’s intercom. “Bridge to Tyler.”

“Go ahead.”

“I’ve been doing a sweep of the system with our scanners. There’s something up here the kid might want to see.”

“What is it, Althaus?” Jason asked.

“Iota particles. Lots of them.”

Twenty-Six

Jason was the first to reach the bridge, but he let Tyler enter before him out of courtesy. Marquez and Petit trailed not far behind. Inside, Althaus stood over the operations station checking the scanners.

Jason sidled up beside him. “Well, I’ll be damned. They really are Iota particles.”

“What exactly are these Iota particles?” Marquez asked.

“The answer to a question that’s has been bugging me for four years.”

Professor Petit joined Jason and Althaus to study the scans for himself. “Iota particles were first discovered in Nebula TPA-338.”

Marquez pointed at the monitor. “You’re saying these were detected in the same nebula where Lieutenant Nash supposedly died?”

Petit nodded. “The data from the Raptor was handed to TIAS. While I wasn’t on the team that investigated it, I did see the results.”

“And they were?”

“Unfortunately, because of the particles’ half-life, the Raptor was unable to retrieve a physical specimen. The scientists at TIAS only had their scans to work off. My colleagues were unsure what to make of them. They eventually had to put the project aside for other work.”

“Put in the ‘too hard’ basket then?” Jason did his best not to sound vindictive.

“Not at all. The war was over, and the commonwealth was in the process of rebuilding. It was simply not at the top of the Institute’s agenda. And, frankly, from the data I’d seen regarding it, without a physical sample, there was nowhere else to go.”

“Well, now we have the chance to investigate.” Jason stepped to Tyler’s side, who’d taken his seat at the center of the bridge. “It can’t be a coincidence that these particles were discovered when Nash was abducted. Then again, in Frontier’s Reach, not far from here. And finally here at Orion V where Nash has shown up again.”

“What are you suggesting?” Tyler asked.

Marquez seemed to be connecting the same dots. “You think the Iota particles might be a by-product of the Seeker’s ship?”

“Perhaps.” Jason nodded. “We’ve determined one of their ships was in Nebula TPA-338 four years ago. Obviously their vessel was here today, and if they had to travel via Frontier’s Reach to get to Orion V, that would explain why a particle reading was discovered out there.”

“What do you think, Professor?” Marquez asked Petit.

“It’s all speculation at this point. Until we get a closer look at this concentration of Iota particles, we won’t be able to tell.”

All eyes turned to Tyler. Once again, as ship’s captain, the ball was in his court. “You know where the helm is, Jason. Plot a course.”

Althaus took a seat at operations while Jason sat at the helm. It’d been a long time since he’d taken the conn of the Argo. If the ship was anything like he remembered, he’d find riding a bucking bronco an easier proposition.

Jason turned to Althaus. “Can you send those coordinates my way?” His console beeped, and a moment later they appeared on his monitor. He plotted a course and maneuvered the Argo out of Orion V’s orbit. The sky-high view of the mining planet disappeared, and he punched the thrusters to full. It might have been ten years, but it seemed like he’d never left. The touch