Free The Legacy of Earth (Mandate Book 2) by J.S. Harbour Page A

suggested.
    “Negative, and neither ship is coming up. We did ping a freighter, half hour ago, but her situation was normal, heading toward Luna City without incident.”
    “Gone over the horizon?” Long asked.
    “That would be my best guess as well,” Plaas said.
    “Call Luna City.”
    “Devlin, hail the colony,” Plaas ordered.
    “Hailing, sir,” Senior Petty Officer Anton Devlin said. “ Lunar colony, this is the UNS Lexington. Come in, please .”
    A half minute later, he said, “I have them, sir.”
    “On speaker,” the captain said.
    Devlin nodded.
    “This is Captain Long of the UNS Lexington.”
    “Hello . . . captain . What can I do for you?” an older male voice said, full of sarcasm.
    “You can start by giving me your name, sir,” Captain Long snapped.
    “Uh, sure, sure. You can call me Bob . So, like I said, what can I do for you?”
    The captain and XO exchanged a frown from across the bridge while every other bridge officer tensed.
    “Very well, Bob . We’re responding to a distress call from a freighter, the. . . .”
    “Redondo,” the XO whispered.
    “. . . Redondo ,” Long finished. “Surely Luna City picked up the distress call as well?”
    “Can’t say as we did, cap’n,” Bob said. “Possible she was on the other side?”
    “You have comm satellites in orbit, Bob ,” the captain said, trying to cut the sarcasm from his voice, “equipped with RADAR.”
    “Oh, we do ?”
    The XO laughed. “Sorry, captain, but—”
    Long gestured to his comm officer with a swiping thumb at his neck.
    Jones said, “Speaker off.”
    “What the hell is going on down there?” Long said, his tone furious.
    “It’s not military, captain. We have no jurisdiction, and Luna City knows it.”
    “Oh, sure they do,” Long said, “until they need the military to step in and save their asses. I don’t buy it.”
    “Devlin?”
    “Speaker?” Devlin asked.
    “No, son, not yet. Listen, I want you to hack into their system and pull the comm and RADAR data for the past nine hours. Can you do that?”
    “Absolutely, sir. That will take . . . just a minute. . . .”
    “In the meantime,” Long said, “bring Bob back online.”
    “. . . what the military wants with us here, but like I said, we—”
    “Luna City, are you claiming to have no record of the Redondo on your sensors, and no comm traffic from a certain Captain . . . Merrick Lucas?”
    “Look,” Bob said, his voice thick with condescension, “there has been no Redondo in or out of port today. Last I seen her was about . . . six months ago. Can’t help you, captain.”
    Jones shut off the audio and said, “He’s lying , sir.”
    Plaas swiftly walked to the comm station, “Are you sure , Devlin?”
    “Absolutely, sir. Right here in their comm log and RADAR log.”
    “Speaker,” the captain ordered.
    “Luna City has terminated the connection,” Jones said. “Network also severed!”
    “Battle stations,” the captain ordered.
    The alert claxon sounded and cycled. “Alert. General quarters. All crew to their assigned battle stations. This is not a drill.”
    “Get Rox and Buck up here on the double,” Long ordered.
    The XO nodded to Jones, who hit the intra-ship button, then Plaas said, “Commander Baldwin-Garner, Commander Pierce, report to the bridge.”
    “Reporting,” Marjorie said from the left rear door.
    To his credit, Pierce came jogging through the door ten seconds later, despite coming from the troop barracks. “Pierce here.”
    Long waved them over to the right front screen in front of the XO’s station. “Something is going on at Luna City,” Long said. “We’re going to investigate. I want fighters prepped and troops ready to hit the dirt, just in case.”
    “Yes, sir !” Buck said, echoed by Rox.
    “Be ready in ten,” Long said. “Dismissed.”
    The troop commander followed the wing commander off the bridge. Marjorie parted with him at her office down the hall and nodded as he said, “ Finally