Eyes of Tomorrow (Duchy of Terra Book 9), Glynn Stewart [reading well .TXT] 📗

range if we were to transit into hyperspace in our current relative locations.”

If she was being entirely honest, she didn’t believe the fleet would survive past the first ten seconds. A close-range engagement with the Infinite was suicide.

“So, what do we do?” Squadron Lord Exex asked. The Catach sterile was a chitin-armored mammal that resembled a cross between a human, a fox, and an insect. “If we cannot outrun and we cannot engage them, do we simply wait?”

“Our first wave of Laian reinforcements is due in less than eight cycles,” Tan!Stalla noted. “We have not yet established contact with them via the hyperfold-starcom network, but we will be able to inform them of the situation.

“I hope to be able to have an actual conversation with Fifty-Sixth Pincer Korodaun, but that is uncertain at the moment,” the Squadron Lord said.

To have that conversation, Korodaun and her fleet would need to exit hyperspace to allow them to directly connect via hyperfold com. Right now, their messages were being relayed to the nearest starcom and then sent to the Laian fleet.

“Even without direct planning, ten war-dreadnoughts is a far more equitable matchup with the enemy advance force than ours,” Tan!Stalla continued. “Especially given that we will be aware once the battle is opened.”

“Would we be wiser waiting for the second wave of reinforcements?” Arnaud asked, the Flag Captain raising Morgan’s own thoughts.

“Most likely, yes,” Tan!Stalla agreed. “And if I am able to have a conversation with the Fifty-Sixth Pincer, I will make that recommendation. Twenty war-dreadnoughts is better than ten. Thirty is better still.

“But I remind everyone that our objective was to contain the Infinite inside the Astoroko Nebula. The destruction of their first wave of portal ships achieves that goal. There is now an Infinite swarm trapped in hyperspace blockading us, but that force cannot enter normal space.

“They will be destroyed or they will starve in hyperspace,” the A!Tol flag officer said grimly. “We have bought time for our Lain reinforcements to arrive. More ships will come in over time and we will secure the nebula.”

“When do we move against the Infinite?” Division Lord S!Ra asked. The A!Tol commanded one of the escorting squadrons of cruisers.

“Not soon,” Tan!Stalla replied. “Review the analysis Staff Captain Casimir’s team did, Division Lord,” she instructed. “Even range-limited by their use of ballistic near-c weaponry, the Infinite main cluster represents an astonishing threat level.

“Once the Laians are on the same page and have implemented a successful blockade of the Astoroko Nebula, plans can begin to be made to neutralize the overall threat.” Tan!Stalla’s tentacles shivered.

“I do not believe those waters will be cleared without more blood than any of us wish to spend,” the Squadron Lord concluded. “But those decisions will be made at higher levels. Our task was to contain the Infinite until the Laians arrived.

“Unless something strange happens in the next fifteen cycles, we appear to have succeeded.”

Morgan shivered. She couldn’t disagree with her superior…but those were dangerous words.

Chapter Nine

“We’ve traded containing them for containing us,” Morgan’s image admitted to Rin. “That’s not the official word, but it’s roughly where we are. They can’t get out, but they’ve got a pretty solid plug in hyperspace keeping us right here.

“My team is busy trying to guess how quickly they’re going to get their own hyper-portal system working,” she continued. “We’ve got a few ugly little facts out of our close scan of the fleet that came at us, though, that I wanted to share with you.

“They all have some level of exotic matter in them. I’m guessing it’s a critical part of what makes them tick—potentially even part of how they traveled FTL during Alavan times. Unfortunately, if they can produce exotic matter, very little of our tech is truly beyond them.”

Rin didn’t know about that, but he wasn’t a technical specialist. He was a xenoarchaeologist and, outside the Alava, most xenoarchaeology sites didn’t deal with hyper-advanced technology.

“Sorry to fill up our personal call with work,” Morgan said after a few moments’ silence. “It’s filling my every waking thought, and Victoria isn’t cleared for this.”

She sighed.

“I did get your message,” she noted. “I have to agree that it’s dangerous to apply the Mother’s abilities to the Infinite. We know they have to be more capable than she was in many ways. On the other hand, she was a hell of a lot bigger than even the Queen.

“Some stuff had to benefit from that.” She snorted. “And work again. Sorry. I’d like to plan for what to do when we get back to Earth, but…I have no idea when this will be over.

“When it is, you and I are going home and spending time with Victoria and Shelly,” she told him. “Well, maybe not Shelly. That’s up to her.”

Rin chuckled. He wasn’t entirely sure how, exactly, Shelly—Victoria’s wife—fit into his own relationship with Morgan, but he’d traded a few friendly messages with Victoria. Polycules were almost as hard to keep track of as departmental politics, even if there were fewer people involved.

Morgan blew him a kiss.

“I’m going to go get some rest,” she admitted. “But if there’s any fires you can light to get more ships headed our way, I’m pretty sure I can find a way to make it worth your while. Night, Rin.”

She gave him an exaggerated wink and then her image froze.

Rin sighed and closed the video. He didn’t know what levers he had. Most of the ones he could think of were better pulled by Ki!Tana or Tan!Shallegh, but he was at least there. His role seemed to basically be “advisor to the Fleet Lord,” which at least put him in the room where things happened.

The truth, though, was that not much was happening—regardless of whether Rin Dunst said anything.

Despite questioning his value, Rin joined Tan!Shallegh again. Every day since he’d arrived aboard Va!Tola, he’d joined the A!Tol Fleet Lord in the armored and secured conference chamber deep in the superbattleship’s bowels.

There, they met with Princess Oxtashah and Eleventh Voice