Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera A.K. DuBoff (guided reading books TXT) 📖

toward the enemy, but he nodded. “On it, sir.” He ran off to finish the preparations.

“Who are we taking?” Saera asked once they were alone.

“I’ll go with Curtis and Jason.”

She frowned. “I’m not staying behind.”

“Saera, the High Commander and Lead Agent shouldn’t both go. Not this time.” He left the subtext unspoken.

He expected her to fight him, but instead she nodded. “Are you sure you only want two Seconds?”

“More wouldn’t make a difference. If it comes to that point, it’ll all be on Jason and me, anyway.”

“True.”

“All right, I need to get going. It’ll be at least five hours for transit. As it is, we might not even make it before they do whatever they’re going to do.”

“If anyone can find a way to communicate with them, it’s you.” Saera took his hands. “Please be careful.”

“We’ll do our best.”

—     —     —

An alert for immediate mobilization popped up on Jason’s desktop and handheld simultaneously. Not a second later, he heard rushed footsteps coming down the hallway.

The Lead Engineer went running by as Jason read over the details.

Shite! They’re coming through the Rift?

He locked down his desktop and was about to head to the central elevator when he heard his parents leaving the High Commander’s office.

“Has something happened?” he asked telepathically from a distance, not wanting to shout down the hall.

The information they shared in his mind turned his stomach. How are we supposed to go up against that? He didn’t ask the question aloud, but the expressions on their faces mirrored his concerns.

After well-wishes and a hug from his mother, he and his father made their way to the Conquest, bringing only the clothes they were presently wearing. If it came down to an extended trip, they could manufacture more on board; for now, time was of the essence.

Jason started the pre-flight initiation in the Command Center while his father went down to Engineering to review the work that had been done on a transdimensional imaging solution. Curtis Jaconis, another of the original Primus Elites, and Rianne, the ship’s usual tactical officer from the Militia division, were already in the Command Center when he arrived.

“Hey, Jason. This is some pretty crazy shite, eh?” Curtis said. He ran his hand through his dark, curly hair.

“Not how I expected my week to go, no.” Jason swallowed the bile rising in his throat. Of all the places, why did it have to be Alkeer? Tiff could have gone anywhere…

He shut off the line of thinking. It wasn’t productive, and there was nothing he could do to change the situation.

Instead, he focused on going over the Conquest’s systems to make sure they were ready for a potential engagement. Once they had passed checks across the board, he had Curtis pilot the ship from port and initiate a jump to their destination.

We’re coming. Hold on. Until they arrived, there was little else to do but wait.

—

When the ship dropped out of subspace a little over five hours later, Jason was relieved to see the Alkeer Station was still intact.

The structure consisted of three rings rotating around a central shaft. Several starships were docked at a connected port, with only a single destroyer and the rest transport vessels of various sizes. Not long ago, this location would have been filled with a substantial contingent of warships. So much for the peace that had enabled that demilitarization.

His father had come up from Engineering moments before they dropped out from subspace, not looking particularly happy. “Well, at least we’re not too late,” he muttered upon seeing the view.

“What about the imaging?” Jason asked.

Wil shook his head. “Close, but nothing reliable yet. Rowan’s still working on it.”

So, we’re blind. Jason slumped in the front right seat in the middle of the Command Center, where he’d settled for the voyage.

While his father conversed with Rianne and Curtis about the sensor data, Jason reached out his senses to the minds of the people on the station. It didn’t take long to single out Tiff.

He gave her a telepathic hail that was the equivalent of a door knock. She jumped in surprise but then let him in.

“Hey from afar,” he greeted telepathically. “I swear, I’m not stalking you.”

“Sounds like something a stalker would say,” she jested. “I take it you’re here because of the… weirdness?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t expecting to be out this way any time soon. Sorry to intrude.”

“Glad you’re here. We were pretty relieved to hear the Conquest was coming with the High Commander himself. I suppose you’re okay, too.” She winked in his mind.

“Still liking the new digs?”

“It’s great, aside from these bomaxed neighbors that are trying to destroy the neighborhood.”

“We’ll see what we can do about that.”

With the speed of the telepathy, Jason hadn’t missed much of the conversation about the sensor data. The gist of it was that they could detect the spatial waves but had no idea what was causing them.

Wil paced next to his chair. “We’re still blind up here. How is that imager coming?” he asked Rowan over the comm.

“Still working on it.” The Lead Engineer sounded a little defeated to Jason’s ear. “This synchronization issue is a beast.”

“I know.” Wil groaned under his breath as he ended the commlink. “I should go back down there to help.”

“If these guys make a sudden appearance, we need you here in the Command Center,” Curtis said from the front console.

“Besides, you said yourself that there’s nothing more you can do right now. It’s down to letting the configuration models process,” Jason added. While he didn’t share his father’s passion or aptitude for engineering, he understood enough about what the team was doing to know that their work was at a standstill until the computer found a feasible scenario to meet the conditions