Eyes of Tomorrow (Duchy of Terra Book 9) by Glynn Stewart (best e book reader TXT) 📕

potential way out, he couldn’t quite blame them for trying to seize it—even if they had attacked the ship he was on.

He could blame them for the fact that every meeting after that had also started with the Infinite shooting at whoever they encountered. That wasn’t making them any friends and was, well, why there were now over four hundred Core Power major capital ships in the Tohrohsail System.

On the other hand, Rin Dunst had seen some of Morgan’s analyses. He still wasn’t sure they had enough ships.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Morgan’s briefing had gone surprisingly smoothly, laying out what they knew with certainty about the Infinite—not nearly enough—and what she thought they were going to do next—acquire resources to produce more systems and more of themselves.

She’d been expecting a larger audience. She’d ended up presenting to three people: Voice Tidirok, Fleet Lord Tan!Shallegh, and Royal Commandant Ronoxosh. They’d been seated in that order, either intentionally or instinctively putting the A!Tol between the Laian and the Wendira officers.

Ronoxosh was smaller than Oxtashah but had almost identical coloring and other features. His wings were much more clearly vestigial than hers, tiny faerie-like things half-covered by the floor-length cape he wore, closed at the neck with the golden orb insignia of his rank.

He had waited through the entire presentation in calm silence, then leaned forward as Morgan finished up.

“I have questions, if Captain Casimir can remain to answer them,” he told them, his voice soft in both translation and in the untranslated musical hum of his true voice.

“I am at your disposal,” Morgan replied. “Fleet Lord Tan!Shallegh made certain I had the rest of the cycle clear.”

She knew perfectly well that the First Fleet Lord did not have the rest of the cycle clear, though the administrators of his flag staff would rapidly fix that if the meeting continued over its schedule.

“I do not believe my questions will take that long,” Oxtashah replied, the translator picking up an amused tone. “How wide is our catchment net for scouting around the Astoroko Nebula at the moment?”

“The Laian portion of it is now up to forty-six stealth ships,” Morgan told him. “With long-range anomaly scanners, they are covering a section of the nebula approximately sixty-two by forty-eight degrees across.

“We have not been briefed on the positions of the Wendira star hives covering your side of the Nebula,” she admitted.

Ronoxosh paused thoughtfully.

“That coverage is less than five percent of the total surface area of the Nebula,” he pointed out. “Our coverage is roughly comparable on the other side. We have not yet seen Infinite movement into our space, but I wonder…”

“Sir?” Morgan queried before the other two senior officers could say anything.

“Between us, we are covering less than ten percent of their potential exits. Are these creatures clever enough to realize that and go around our screens and scouts?”

“Yes,” Morgan said bluntly. “That is one of my largest concerns at this point. Unfortunately, full coverage would require thousands to tens of thousands of scout ships, all hopefully stealthed to evade detection and elimination by the Infinite.

“So far, we have successfully intercepted them by blockading the route that the conspirators used to enter the nebula. We cannot assume that they will continue to use the same route to exit the Astoroko Nebula once they have confirmed the validity of the maps they will have acquired from the conspirators.”

“It seems likely, then, that the Infinite have already evaded our attempts at surveillance and are carrying out operations we may have missed?” the Wendira officer asked.

“Yes, sir,” Morgan agreed. “I have no real way of projecting what they are doing that we cannot see, beyond attempting to extrapolate their likely objectives, as I have done.”

“I am not objecting to your work, Captain,” Ronoxosh said. “I am attempting to make certain that I and my fellow fleet commanders understand the limits of the information we have. You are projecting that their next action will be the acquisition of resources on a mass scale. However, you’ve also noted that you do not know where they acquired the resources necessary for the manufacture of five million missiles.”

“There is potentially sufficient raw material in the Eye to support munitions manufacture on that scale for a period,” Morgan countered. “But, yes, we do not have information on how much of those asteroids, et cetera, have already been converted into Infinite biomass versus were available to be used in production of Laian-style technology.

“We also cannot speak to the degree to which they are able to reconfigure their existing biomass,” she warned. “We currently believe that the portal emitters they are using are newly bred Category One bioforms, potentially existing in symbiosis with larger forms as a kind of ‘add-on system.’

“Until we have regular-space visuals of a hyper-capable Infinite force, it’s hard to judge. In our last engagement, we did not even get drones into the visibility bubble of the swarm.”

“Have we deployed hyperfold-com-equipped drones in the most likely systems for their resource extraction?” Ronoxosh asked.

“We have,” Tidirok said before Morgan could answer this time. “And more drones and scout ships are on the way to expand our surveillance. As of the last round of reports from those drones, the Infinite have not been spotted in any of the systems.”

“So, it is possible that the enemy has eluded us entirely with multiple forces,” Ronoxosh replied. “And even if they have not, we still have no idea where Swarm Bravo went after destroying Pincer Korodaun’s forces?

“Does that summarize our problem sufficiently?”

“Yes,” Tidirok snapped. “Do you have a solution, Royal Commandant?”

“No,” Ronoxosh admitted. “As I said, I am attempting to make certain we are all on the same tablet of the problem.” He stabbed a pincer at the nebula on Morgan’s presentation map.

“As Captain Casimir has laid out, there is a force in this nebula that can destroy everything we have gathered,” he said bluntly. “They could have sent out multiple secondary forces we have not yet detected, and have sent out at least one force, Swarm Bravo, that