Free Matt & Michelle 1: The Fugitive Heir by Henry Vogel Page A

face. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to carry those men around with me for the rest of my life. Forgive them. Let them go. Get on with life.”
    On the sensor screen, we watched Hector’s ship turn away from the wreckage. He looked to be in no hurry to jump back to his home system. Then, just before his ship entered the wormhole, something detached itself from his ship and sped away into deep space. A minute later, Hector’s ship vanished, leaving just us and the mysterious signal.
    “What is that, Matt?”
    “Let’s bring up the full sensor system and find out.” I punched a few keys and got a much more detailed reading within a minute. “Now that is interesting. It’s a messenger drone.” A quick glance at Michelle showed she had no idea what I was talking about. “Messenger drones are small, unmanned spaceships used to carry messages between star systems. They’re a lot cheaper than a courier ship for sending reports and mail back and forth. The military and the Scout Corps have really sophisticated drones that can make multiple wormhole jumps but this is a basic, single jump drone.”
    I finished bringing the engines online and began maneuvering toward the same course the drone was taking.
    “Let me guess, you’re going to follow the drone?”
    “Got it in one, Michelle. There’s got to be another wormhole on that course. The minute a properly equipped survey ship gets here, they’ll discover that wormhole. Whatever is at the other end, Hector wanted to keep it secret as long as possible and send a warning through to them. I want to see what he’s protecting.”
    “But won’t Hector’s buddies be suspicious when the wormhole opens?” Simply asking the question gave Michelle the answer. “No, because they’ll pick up the messenger drone’s signal. And we can just slip away and run dark when they come to get the drone.”
    As the M&M arced into the drone’s wake, Michelle broadcast her prayer for the dead. She surprised me by including Paco in the prayer. We were quiet as I lined us up behind the unmanned ship. Ten minutes later, a new wormhole opened before us.
    For the second time this day, we jumped into the unknown.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER NINE
    Lost and Found
     
    Our first jump into the unknown lasted close to three hours. The second jump was over almost as soon as it began. Thirteen minutes after jumping, the wormhole exit alarm sounded. A minute after that, we popped back into normal space.
    A bright, yellow star filled our view screen, blocking out everything else around us. The screen automatically darkened and the ship’s cooling system kicked on. The proximity warning light strobed, meaning we were within fifty million kilometers of the star.
    “Um, aren’t we a little close to the star, Matt?” Michelle feigned nonchalance but I heard the tension in her voice. The last eleven days traveling with me had subjected her to lots of new and not always pleasant experiences. Here was one more.
    “A bit, but it’s nothing to worry about. The M&M can take the heat for a while.”
    “ A while?”
    That was the wrong choice of words. “Sorry, I should have been more specific. The ship can handle these temperatures for ten hours before heat becomes an issue for her systems. We’ll be far from the star by then.”
    To reassure Michelle, I angled the ship away from the star and increased power to the engines. To distract her, I said, “Can you track that drone? I don’t want to lose it while we’re getting clear of the flaming ball off the port bow.”
    Michelle dragged her eyes away from the view screen and concentrated on the scanners. “That’s odd. The drone is holding its same course. Won’t it get dragged into the star after a while?”
    “Oh, that is clever.”
    “Are you going to expand on that, Matt, or do I have to guess what you mean?”
    “There’s no need to guess, my dear, it’s just logic. I bet you can figure it out if you try.”
    Michelle