Free Mindscape: Book 2 of the New Frontiers Series by Jasper T. Scott Page A

light of the recent attacks, we have every right to know. Explain the situation as tactfully as you can, but make it clear that we need to know what they’re doing if they don’t want us to suspect them. Also, send Fleet Command an update with the location of the Solarian dreadnought. It’s the only lead we have so far.”
    “Aye, sir.”
    Alexander saw McAdams shaking her head. “Something on your mind, Commander?”
    “It doesn’t make sense for the Solarians to attack us. They own almost half of Alliance debt. If those missiles hit Earth, they’ll put us that much closer to defaulting on our loans.”
    “Maybe that’s what they want,” Alexander replied. “Then they’ll have an excuse to come and collect.”
    “Assuming we let them. Our fleet won’t be affected by an attack on Earth,” McAdams replied.
    “Not immediately maybe, but who’s going to pay for upkeep when the entire Alliance is in shambles? It won’t take long before it’s a ghost fleet being auctioned off to the Solarians for emergency funds. Look at the evidence—someone is using the wormhole to hide these attacks and trying to make us think it could be a surviving remnant of the old Confederate Fleet, or even aliens. That gives the Solarians anonymity. They can cripple us with a minimum of effort and expense, and without starting an all-out war that they’d surely lose. All they have to do is sit back and wait for the dust to settle before they make their move.”
    “It’s possible, sir.”
    “Cardinal—how much longer to intercept?” Alexander asked.
    “Eleven minutes, sir.”
    “Put up a clock on the MHD.”
    “Aye, sir.”
    Alexander kept his eyes glued to the clock as time ticked away and everyone went about their tasks. Below the clock, the MHD showed a broad, starry vista. A bright red target box glowed there, inching visibly closer to them with every passing second. He found himself mesmerized by the stars and the steadily approaching target. After a while, he glanced up to check the clock.
    Two minutes.
    In the next instant the red target box split into twenty-one smaller boxes, all of them streaking in at high speed…
    “Weapons hot!” Cardinal announced.
    “Stone, report.”
    “All drones and fighters are sitting five thousand klicks ahead of us, locked on and waiting.”
    “Good. Keep me posted.”
    The target boxes sped across the holo display, seeming to accelerate as they drew near—an illusion created by the angle between their trajectories and the narrowing distance between them.
    Thirty seconds… ten…
    Alexander realized he was squeezing the life out of the armrests of his couch, and forced himself to relax with deep, calming breaths. His surroundings might be virtual, but the stress was real, and he needed to keep a cool head.
    One second.
    Dozens of blue laser beams flashed across the void and converged on just a handful of the targets. Alexander blinked and then both the lasers and the glowing red target boxes were gone, leaving nothing but fading after images in their wake.
    “Report! What did we hit?” Alexander said.
    “Give me a second to reacquire, sir…” Frost replied. After just a moment, he let out a frustrated sigh. “All twenty-one blips are still headed for Earth.”
    “What the hell happened?” Alexander demanded.
    “I did my best to account for the sensor and firing delays, sir,” Cardinal replied, “but it looks like we missed by anywhere from fifty to a hundred klicks.”
    “The drones’ closest shot went wide by twenty,” Stone reported. “Sorry, sir.”
    “Twenty klicks? A hundred klicks? What’s the cross-section on one of those missiles from our perspective?”
    “The target is twenty meters long by two meters in diameter. That gives us a maximum of forty square meters to shoot at, sir,” Cardinal replied. “Our targeting systems simply aren’t precise enough to hit something that small moving that fast.”
    Alexander grimaced. “Well, you both did your best.