Space Race (Space Race 1) Nathan Hystad (ebooks children's books free .TXT) 📖

a bunch of crap, the Board saying there’s no intelligent life beyond us. Not even they believe that line anymore.”

“What do you know about Proxima?”

“Not much. Heard it’s habitable, but that’s unsubstantiated.”

How did that play into any of this? “And the Primaries. Are they observing the ships?”

“Not as far as I can tell.”

“Have you heard about a Primary merge?” I asked.

“Merge? There’s no way that’s happening.”

“How can you be so sure?” I asked.

“They’re too greedy. Plus, I think these other guys are about to reveal themselves.”

“Okay, you’re losing me again.” Talking to Jinx was a challenge at the best of times, but when he was obsessing with a subject, it was next level.

“I think an assault is coming.” He shrugged and walked across the room to his cluttered desk.

“What makes you say that?”

“When I figured out these…strangers existed, I started to search for communications. If they were here, they were watching and feeding information back home. Or had to be. So I cast a wide net. Found a gal on Titan that could help with the technical side of things. She’s a bit batty, but after a year, we had a working prototype. What she shared was informative.” A projection emerged from the messy surface, and he had to shove a bunch of junk off to unblock the hologram. It showed our solar system. “At first, we got all sorts of hits, but then, we centered on one we thought might be the strangers. Once we identified what their communication looked like, we were able to track them.”

“You know what they’re saying to one another?” I asked.

“No, not like that. Just the origin and destination pings.”

“And what did you find?”

Tiny lights appeared throughout the hologram, and soon there were thousands of them. If this meant what I thought it did, we were in some serious trouble.

“Hard to tell how many there are, but they’re here. Hidden from plain sight. The messages have increased over the last six months. Ten times as many, which tells me…”

“They’re preparing for something,” I guessed. “Where are they now?”

He tapped a command into the PersaTab, and the light pattern changed. “It seems they’re moving. Outward.”

“Damn it. To the Space Race finish line. Why?”

“Maybe they heard about our trouble. With Liberty and the Primary’s fleet present, they plan on hitting the majority of Earth’s defenses at the same time.”

“While we’re fighting each other,” I finished. “I need this. Give me a patch for my ship.”

Jinx shook his head. “Same old Arlo. What if I was pulling your leg?”

I stepped closer. “Are you?”

“No, but you always told me my imagination was too much for you.”

“I know you aren’t a Corporation fan, but we need to warn them,” I said.

“Who? The Board? Good luck. Their heads are so far up their—”

“Bryson might be able to help.”

“The SeaTech guy? He’s no different than the others,” Jinx spat out.

“He seems better…” I really didn’t know him well, and maybe Jinx was right. I’d been working with Bryson and had trusted him far too quickly. That wasn’t like me. I remembered the pill he’d given me that first day, and cringed.

“Don’t trust these guys. They’re all the same. Profits over people.” Jinx ended the hologram. “Fine. I’ll give you the patch, and I won’t even add it to the bill. Actually, tell you what. The battery is on the house.”

“Come on, what do you need? I’ll make sure you get it.”

“Titan should be safe for a while. Not much here to excite the new overlords.” He laughed. “It’s those other suckers that better beware. Luna Corp. Mars.”

“Earth,” I whispered. Could any of this be reality? A few months ago, I would have said no, but my eyes had been opened. This made getting R11 powered up again imperative. What if these distant beings were out there, and they could help us? It was an extreme long shot, but so was SeaTech’s racer making it this far.

Jinx passed me a Coin with the radar plug-in and led me to the door. Inside was a collection of veritable junk, but each item had a specific purpose for something. He walked inside, his shadow stretched across the floor from a light source across the space. “One R-9818748 power pack.” He dropped the hefty item into my hands.

I was leaving with more than a heavy battery.

“Take care of yourself,” I told him.

“And you. Don’t trust anyone.” It was a classic Jinx comment.

“Even you?”

“Especially me.”

 

 

 

Twenty-One

“…happy to assist you with the removal of my battery unit.” R11 finished a sentence from our previous conversation before Jade had cut the pack out. “I seem to have misplaced some time.”

“Thanks for the help, R11. Without you, we’d have been dead in the water and out of the Race,” Jade told him.

R11 looked at each of us surrounding him on the bridge. “We made it? We didn’t lose?”

“You bet. We leave in the morning.” I pointed at his seat. “We need to see that communication you translated.”

“And here I thought you revived me for my delightful personality,” R11 quipped.

Holland nervously wrung his hands. I’d relayed Jinx’s theories, and they were as on edge as me over the revelation. I’d added the radar plug-in, but so far, there had been zero spikes.

R11 retrieved the file, opening the decoded message. It was shorter than I’d hoped, especially after finding the thousands of mathematical files attached.

“Would you like me to read it aloud?” R11 asked.

“I’ll do it,” I said, standing behind him. Jade’s hand reached out, taking my arm in her grip.

“Location...” I read a series of numbers that sounded like coordinates. “Level Dark. Destination: Refuge. Location unknown. Assault imminent.” I said the words and read it over quickly in my head.

“What do you think it means?” Luther asked.

“You tell us. Looks like it’s in your field of expertise,” Jade whispered.

“R11, are you certain that’s it?” I asked. “Nothing more?”

“Sorry, Captain Lewis. I have brought the location up,” he said. It didn’t match the system we’d retrieved the message from. It