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

“There’s no steps, Kelly,” Rin reminded her. “We need to do this all as simultaneously as possible. A team on the computers, a team on the teleporter, a team on the plasma collector.”

“Fuck. Let’s leave the plasma collector, then,” she said. “Unless we’ve got a lot more Wendira resources than I think.”

“Is that…safe?” Rin asked.

“No,” Lawrence told him bluntly. “We’ll be sequencing two teleporters, one to pull matter in and one to throw matter out. Without the plasma collector to provide exact control of how much mass is in the pickup zone, we might overwhelm the containment system at the teleporter station.”

“And vaporize everything we’ve done,” Rin concluded. “But we can rig up the weapon without one?”

“We can. Assuming we find a teleporter station,” she reminded him. “The control center is a win—but my god, do we still need to get lucky.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

In the being walking across the landing bay toward them, Rin Dunst saw the reason some people gave for the enduring war between the Wendira and the Laians. The stranger was an older Wendira, his head broader than the Warriors and Royals Rin had seen to date, with his wings folded around him in a shape that distinctly resembled the shell of a Laian.

There was no way the Worker-caste Wendira could be mistaken for a Laian or vice versa, but Rin had to admit the resemblance existed. It would have taken a spectacular degree of arrogance for that resemblance to have created a reason for a war…but people of all species could manage that.

“Dr. Rin Dunst, I was only just briefed on your team’s arrival a few hours ago,” the Worker told him excitedly, the translator defaulting to English units for non-Imperial time counting. “I am Castellash, the senior scientist and expedition leader here in Skiefail. I hear you have worked on a similar such facility before?”

Even the translation device was having trouble keeping up with the rapid-fire speech of the excited Wendira, and Rin found himself grinning.

“I haven’t, Director Castellash,” he told the Wendira. “But several of my team members have, and I am fully up to date on the work we did on the other swarm.”

What he hadn’t known before they’d started the trip to Skiefail, he knew now. Reviewing all of their documentation, down to the raw reports from individual technicians, would have taken more time than he had—but he’d had five days. He knew enough.

He hoped.

“Of course, of course.” Castellash’s wings flickered out for a moment, removing any resemblance to a Laian, before wrapping around him again. “We have done nothing except catalog and observe here, Dr. Dunst, for three hundred years. To potentially see some of these systems activated… That is incredible!”

“I need to see that catalog,” Kelly Lawrence interrupted. “As soon as we can. Do you have a listing with images of all of the platforms?”

“Of course, of course, yes,” Castellash told her. “Do you wish to see your quarters first—”

“I need to see that catalog now,” Lawrence told him. “If certain facilities are not intact, this has been a long trip for nothing. The sooner I can confirm that one way or another, the better.”

“Of course, of course!” the Wendira agreed. He waved a claw, and several shorter Drones crossed to them. “My staff will see your team to their quarters. If you and Dr…”

“Commander,” Lawrence corrected. “Lesser Commander Lawrence, Imperial Naval Intelligence. Dr. Dunst and I will both look at this catalog.”

Lawrence had been learning command voice in the Navy, Rin concluded. He wasn’t going to complain too loudly, though.

“Agreed,” he told Castellash. “There is no time for us to play games or dance around the point. Show our people their rooms, but the team leads need to get to work.”

He waved Mok over, the Tosumi joining them with a carefully brisk pace.

“The Wendira have a catalog of the intact platforms,” he told Mok. “We need to review it first.”

“Agreed,” Mok said. “Where are we going?”

“This way, please,” Castellash told them. “We have prepared a working space for your team; it seems we shall get started.”

Castellash led them to a space that would do quite handily for their needs. Large chunks of the Wendira space station were clearly prefabricated—and not in regular use. That had allowed them to take an external gallery and assemble fifty consoles and several laboratories’ worth of equipment.

“You have full access to all of our files, data and analysis from here,” the Wendira told them. “We were instructed to hold back nothing.”

“What will we have at our disposal for spacecraft and other resources?” Rin asked, gesturing his team leads toward the computers.

“Everything we have,” Castellash told them. “My entire expedition has been placed at your disposal, Dr. Dunst. We have eight shuttles and four larger sublight spacecraft but no hyper-capable craft.

“My understanding is that you are to have unlimited access to our hyperfold communication network as well,” he added. “I am the only person on this station with that access normally, but I understand that you need to consult with support in the Imperium.”

“Exactly,” Rin told the Wendira. “There are key members of the team that worked on the other Dyson swarm that are not here but are available to answer questions. We have the best we could assemble from the resources on hand—but we were lucky to even have eleven people who’d worked on the project.”

“Found the catalog,” Lawrence announced. An image of a station appeared above the console she was working at. “Passing access to Mok.”

“Set up a console for me as well,” Rin ordered. “I know what we’re looking for.”

“How can I assist?” Castellash asked.

“Make sure we have that full access,” Rin told the Wendira. “I could use an inventory of assets to help sort out what we have to work with—and any maps you have of the station this one is attached to.

“That control platform is one of our key pieces. We need to confirm that the systems we need are intact, but its