Free The Terran Privateer by Glynn Stewart Page B

finally confessed. “I know…almost nothing about them except that they exist and that Earth was in their territory. We’re a very distant frontier at best, though, Annette. A privateering campaign may make it far too expensive for them to operate this far away from the core of their power.
    “But”—he raised a finger—“there may also be some truth to the claim that their enemies would have come for us if they hadn’t. I know even less about them—only a name: the Kanzi. Your mission is to drive the A!Tol from our world, but you need to learn more about their enemies.
    “I will back you against any enemy Earth faces, but I’d prefer we didn’t leap from the frying pan into the fire.
    “We need data, Annette. Everything I know is included in the attachment to this message. Anything we learn later will be sent along with Of Course We’re Coming Back and Oaths of Secrecy . But…it’s all so little. We’re a tiny fish in a giant galaxy, and we don’t even know which way the current is going.
    “Find out for us.
    “God speed you, Annette Bond. If this task must fall to someone, I’m glad it fell to you.”
    The recording ended, and Annette found herself looking at the now-unencrypted directories. The organization was of an entirely different magnitude than the UESF data. There were directories for analysis, star data, hyperspatial spectrographic spikes, alien races, known worlds.…
    She doubted there was a lot of depth to anything even Nova Industries had. They may have known things the Space Force didn’t, but if they’d known enough to make a difference, Elon Casimir wouldn’t have concealed it.
    “Rolfson,” Annette opened an intercom to her tactical officer. “I hate to hand you a task and tell you to drop it, but I’m forwarding you the data that Nova sent us. I think we’ll want to go through that first.”

Chapter 10
     
    For the second time in two days, Tornado erupted out of a hyperspace portal. This time, they weren’t emerging into empty space, and sensors sang into space: radar, lidar, and more exotic techniques sampling the space around Alpha Centauri as the cruiser emerged into potentially hostile space.
    Thanks to Of Course We’re Coming Back ’s survey mission, Annette and her people knew the exact layout of the Alpha Centauri system. Both components of the binary system had two close-in planets orbiting their individual stars, while three more planets followed long, oddly shaped orbits around both stars.
    All were rocky worlds, only one even of Earth’s size. Alpha Centauri A2 fell, just barely, into the habitable zone of its parent star. Of Course ’s survey mission had named the frigid world “Hope” when they’d first located it.
    Further investigation had shown the naming to be apt: Hope was a life-bearing world, with shaggy animals and wide-leaved plants well adapted to its low temperatures and long winters. It wouldn’t be a comfortable place for humans to live, but humans could live there.
    Which meant, of course, that the supply cache Nova Industries had been assembling was on Alpha Centauri AB2, the outermost rock of the system. AB2 had absolutely nothing going for it—no valuable minerals that weren’t more easily extracted from asteroids, no life, not even enough sunlight to run a solar panel.
    It was perfect for hiding.
    “Are we seeing anything?” Annette asked.
    “Negative,” Rolfson replied. “Alpha Centauri looks as dead as it did when Of Course We’re Coming Back came through. No emissions signatures of any kind.”
    “Is Of Course herself in system?”
    “I don’t see her,” he said. “We don’t know when she left, though.”
    “Amandine, take us to the coordinates of the depot,” Annette ordered. “Rolfson, keep an eye out. We’re supposed to be seeing the survey ships showing up, but that doesn’t mean that the A-tuck-Tol won’t be showing up themselves.”
    Tornado started to move, slipping closer to the rock at a speed her crew