Free Kingdoms Away 1: Jorian Cluster Archives by S. V. Brown Page A

DC, on while admiring the workmanship of this latest
model from Behemoth. It was sleek and small but he didn’t like the
fact it was silver when his own décor was black, blue and gold.
    “You can’t have everything.” Though he was
sure he came close.
    He swiveled in his chair so that he could
access his DC on the short part of the L. Three messages had
arrived and had been downloaded to his computer. They were all
encrypted so he applied his “key” and read the messages. Two were
work related and one came from his wife. He read that one first.
She was now sorry she hadn’t come on the trip to Saxe but would
rendezvous with him at the Us : VA Post. He grinned; she wanted to
be part of the search and nothing would stop her. She had majors in
Psychology and Detection. Tharini Chen knew when she was needed and
would provide over two hundred years of experience in both of her
fields. She signed off her message by stating that over fifty other
partners of those onboard would be joining her at the Post. She was
a strong advocate of not depriving members of a healthy sex life
while on long journeys. In the nineteen days since he had sent her
a message she had organized her group and sent a message back.
    Chen smiled again; he missed her. Tharini had
amazing abilities to organize and make people realize things they
never even thought of. It was that way since they first met. She
had calmly pointed out that they were a first rate team and should
bond permanently. Didn’t he think so? It hadn’t occurred to him but
after a few years he agreed. She had smiled in that all-knowing
way, and he knew she was thinking back to when she had first
mentioned the idea to him. So, he liked to mull a little.
    He turned his attention to the next two
messages. They confirmed his arrangements for the plan, crew
distribution and procedures concerning the way the investigation
should proceed on each planet. The council had already issued out
notices about the girl, in the hope that someone would notice any
unusual activity and then report in. They had debated long and hard
about keeping it quiet but decided that the Joiran Cluster was
simply far too big an area to search in without additional outside
help.
    What was new to Chen was that he also had to
keep updated with the science vessel, the Sordes, which was named
after and had the appearance of a flying reptile. It was an Averay
class ship with Basic Shielding. They would be picking up the
kidnapped girl’s parents from the Cruise Ship Anamoth, still
undergoing repairs from the attack, and transferring them to the
Sordes. The science vessel was headed toward the Oriri to
investigate some unusual movements of the Elysians. Chen noted this
down in his handheld organizer. He set up the rest of his desk by
raising the far end so that it would sit at a fifty-five-degree
angle; the table made some alarming noises as it inclined and he
noted this dutifully down. He moved slightly away from the
offending desk. He adjusted his chair to allow himself to reach all
parts of the inclined surface, which was now lit up like a large
monitor. Even after adjusting his chair so that he was in a
supported half kneeling half sitting position, his knees bumped
into the bottom part of the desk that had lowered when inclining.
He noted this down. The designer of the inclining monitor desk was
a friend of his obsessed with space-saving ideas.
    The desk surface beeped, startling him. He
turned the volume down. He’d missed his meal. It was time to go
back to the bridge to prepare for Transcluster Verging.
    Some hours previous they had just completed
Intergalaxial Verging. As he arrived there the equipment, engines
and machines had gone through their final checks. Eye contact was
made with all his crew with exchanged nods of greetings and a
chorus of crisp “Captain” heard from those who were free from vital
duties. Theirs was a standard bridge formation with all the
workstations pointing in towards the central