Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera by A.K. DuBoff (jenna bush book club TXT) 📕

Michael was often straightforward with his communications, he rarely barged in—and never without urgent reason. “What and where?”

“It might be connected to the other business near the Rift,” Michael explained. “Alkeer Station is reporting strange activity in their vicinity.”

“Strange how?”

“Erm, the best way to describe it might be ‘spatial ripples’. See for yourself.” Michael swiped information from his handheld to Wil’s desktop, and it popped up on the holoprojector.

The information was, indeed, odd and difficult to classify—much like everything related to the alien contact through the Rift. There was an array of rolling spatial distortions heading toward the Alkeer Station, one of the more remote TSS outposts. The ‘waves’, as Wil saw fitting to call them, appeared to originate at the Rift and then flow toward Alkeer. There wasn’t any consistency to it, and any given wave didn’t form a continuous line. However, looking at the composite image Michael had displayed, showing all of the information recorded within the past three hours, a defined path was beginning to form between the two locations.

Wil frowned at the holodisplay. “Agreed, there’s definitely something strange going on, and it does seem to be connected to the Rift. The relative distance to Alkeer is far greater than to the site where the Andvari was attacked. So, given that the timing and placement of the spatial distortions exceeds lightspeed transit, it means there’s a transdimensional component to whatever is going on.”

“I haven’t been able to get the image out of my head of that leviathan wrapped around the ship,” Michael said, concern tinging his voice.

Wil studied the composite image of activity, seeing where his friend was going with the observation. When he let his vision go fuzzy, the spatial distortion points were reminiscent of the curves where huge tentacles could be reaching across space from the Rift toward the station. No, the scale of that… He dismissed the thought. “These entities are no doubt large, but this would be absurd! We’re talking dozens of lightyears in span here.”

“It doesn’t have to be one of them. Ants make bridges by linking together. Gophers carve tunnels. This could just be a bridge or super-highway.”

“Not unlike what the Bakzen did with the Rift’s expansion,” Wil realized.

“Obviously, this is different, but…”

Wil took a moment to collect his thoughts. They’d strongly suspected that the event with the Andvari was just the beginning and that the beings would make their presence known again on a larger scale. Based on the limited information at their disposal, they had been working on preparations for that inevitable contact. However, they weren’t nearly as far along in that process as he would have liked. The problem was that they simply had insufficient information to make informed decisions. Every new encounter would give them greater insight, but that meant going into each of those engagements at an extreme disadvantage. No matter how he looked at it, they had no choice but to face the entities head-on.

“Okay, we’ll go talk with them,” he decided.

“Talk how? It’s unclear if there’s anyone there.”

“There’s some kind of presence,” Wil insisted. “I have no doubt that someone—or, more appropriately, something—is watching and listening to everything we’re doing.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try,” Michael agreed. “The Andvari’s crew destroyed their own ship. Based on everything we know, these beings just mess with people’s heads.”

“That’s my thought.”

“This whole thing is crazy, for the record.”

“It is, but we play the hand we’re dealt.” Wil stood up.

“Your pep-talks are normally more eloquent than that,” Michael quipped.

“I’m saving my creative energy for convincing these beings that this is all an unfortunate misunderstanding. The Gatekeepers listened to us and were willing to keep the peace, so let’s hope these others respond in kind.”

“Except, the Gatekeepers said that the ‘others’ wouldn’t be so forgiving. So, if these are those others…”

“The other conflict was a long time ago. Things change.”

“Let us hope. Be safe,” Michael said. He hesitated, seemingly on the verge of saying something else, then left the office.

Wil could guess at what he might have said, but the two of them had been through too much for the words to need to be spoken aloud. It was a dangerous mission; they both knew it. But they would fight for freedom to the end, and there was no point in admitting early defeat by saying goodbye.

They needed to depart for Alkeer as soon as possible, but certain preparations were required. Wil called Saera and the Lead Engineer to his office to coordinate.

“It’s go-time,” he said when both had arrived, waiting in front of his desk.

“For what?” Saera asked.

He directed her attention to the image on the holoprojector.

Rowan, the Lead Engineer, reacted first. “Fok! What is that?” Not the most professional response, but Wil couldn’t blame him. The stocky man’s face had flushed up to his hairline, dark eyes wide.

“It would seem the aliens are making their grand entrance after the prelude.”

Saera groaned. “Naturally.”

“How is that imaging solution coming?” Wil asked.

“We’re not finished yet,” Rowan replied. “It sounds a lot easier to do than it is in actuality. The way that the Andvari pulled off that capture wouldn’t be safe for the people on the station. I mean, they basically produced a bomb blast. To do this in a controlled fashion, we—”

Wil held up his hand to stop the rambling. I should have been working on it myself. He respected the TSS’ engineers, but it was a point of fact that he could see solutions no one else did. It was why he’d cracked the ‘uncrackable’ code for the independent jump drive, not to mention a dozen other engineering marvels over the course of his career. But time, not intellect, was his limiting factor. “Grab what you need, and we can work on it in transit.”

Rowan paled slightly at the prospect of heading