Free Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2) by Michael G. Thomas Page B

belt that lies between the second and third planets of T’Karan. We’ve received
contact from one of our patrol ships, ANS Serenity out on patrol in
this sector. They found Spartan and several others on board a
T’Kari Raider and embroiled in some kind of major
gunfight.”
    Gun laughed to himself.
    “Yeah, sounds like Spartan.”
    Teresa looked less
amused by the story , however. She had no
doubt he would be involved in such a scenario, but she was also
well aware that Admirals didn’t request to meet with you to discuss
it.
    There’s
mo re to this, she thought.
    “ A
S pacebridge opened up right in the middle
of the asteroid field, and the Raider escaped.”
    Teresa jumped up at the mention of the ship
vanishing.
    “ What do you mean,
just opened up? Where is he? Don’t you know?”
    Admiral Anderson shook his head.
    “No, we do not. The ship and the rest of his team
vanished with her.”
    Teresa looked
panicked, but the Admiral lifted his hand
to calm her.
    “ I have spoken with
our T’Kari friends, and they tell me that the whole of T’Karan is
filled with potential Spacebridge sites. They thought all were
either sealed or being monitored. This one suggested there could be
others, and if true, who knows what else is out there. They’ve
already told us of the ones they know about, and we have drones and
equipment monitoring each one. It would seem there are many more
that we don’t know about.”
    Gun seemed intrigued at this information.
    “Yes, I saw the information on Hyperion about this.
There was a map of different stars. It was like a network of
tunnels.”
    “ Exactly, though our
information until now has been, well, somewhat scant,” replied the
Admiral.
    He then nodded to
the Captain nearby, and he changed the model of the asteroid belt
to a number of images from the ruins of Hyperion. Teresa and Gun
instantly recognized some of the designs.
    “ This design only
shows the access points to the Network in
Alpha Centauri, as well as the key nodes in other star systems and
galaxies. What it doesn’t show is the detailed maps of other areas.
T’Karan, for instance, all it shows is one connection in and a
dozen more heading back out. Each of these is being guarded by
drones and T’Kari and Alliance patrols.”
    Teresa tried to
absorb the information, but the thought that Spartan, the person
she cared about the most other than her children, simply overrode
her other thoughts. With every extra word they spoke, she imagined
the horrors he might be facing with creatures, machines, and alien
worlds, all of them light years away. The Admiral continued
speaking, but his words started to fade into background noise.
Eventually, it lowered, and she looked back at the Admiral to see
him staring at her, waiting for a response.
    “ Well? What do you
think? Are you up for this operation?”
    She looked over to
Gun who actually looked quite excited at the prospect. She
considered asking for confirmation , but
the idea of explaining that she hadn’t been listening was far from
ideal. Instead, she nodded politely before asking one last
question.
    “What about Spartan?”
    The Admiral looked
to the T’Kari and spoke quietly before moving back to her. His face
was serious, and it was clear that whatever had been discussed was
significant to both the Alliance and the T’Kari.
    “ If this mission
succeeds, it will give us our only chance of finding him. More
importantly, I think this is the only way we will be able to bring
him back home. We need to understand the rest of this Network, and
the only way to get the information is by performing a full
reconnaissance of Helios and all Spacebridges from it.”
    Gun snorted at the comments.
    “ Spartan is no fool.
He has Khan with him, and I have no doubts about those two. Spartan
and I used to cause heads to roll, but with Khan, pah!” He turned
to Teresa.
    “ I wouldn’t be
surprised to see them in control of that Raider ship and enjoying
the sights of Terra Nova