Free Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles 7: Renegades by Andrew Beery

said.
    “And as we get more experience we can refine our calculations. We may be able to do even better in the future,” Sassi added.
    “Let’s hope so,” Ken said. “I’m with the Admiral on this one. An adversary can do a lot of damage in three seconds.” He straightened in his seat. “Ben, get repair teams going on all systems. Helm, set a course for the home world. Sensors, I want a full but passive sweep of the system. If there is anything out there I want to know about it without broadcasting our existence or position. Yorky… cloak the ship as soon as your systems have recovered enough to do so.”
    “Aye Captain,” was echoed by the various stations around the bridge.
    ***
    Forty minutes later Admirals Faragon and Melbourne along with Ken Kirkland and Ben joined Cat in her conference room.
    Sensors showed the Yorktown was about three days from the Hupenstanii home world at maximum sublight speeds. Cat would have preferred to emerge closer but there was nothing to be done about it.
    “So,” Sherry Melbourne said. “Our little trick seems to have worked. Imera believes us to be vaporized and Sharn Drago’s ships chased his taskforce out of the area before they could spend too much time confirming the kill.”
    “It would seem so,” Cat agreed. “The real question is ‘What are we going to do about that?’” Cat said pointing to the floating holographic display in the center of the conference room table. It showed four massive orbital defense platforms guarding the Hupenstanii home world.
    “Do we know whether or not they belong to the Hupenstanii or the GCP?” Ben asked.
    “There is only a very limited amount of traffic between the platforms and the larger of the two moons. As far as we can tell there has been nothing traveling to or from the home world and the platforms,” Sherry answered.
    Bud Faragon rotated the display with his hand. “I don’t know about the rest of you but if these were Hupenstanii platforms you’d think there would be more traffic with the home world... shore leave, supply runs and the like. I suspect these are GCP platforms intended to guard the high orbitals and keep our Hopper friends planet-bound.”
    “I agree,” Cat said. “Notice how they are positioned. Between them they have a complete and overlapping view of the planet’s surface. They are an interdiction force. The good news is they are focused on looking down. Even if they are watching for approaching ships, we emerged nowhere near the systems only jump point and we are cloaked.”
    ***
    Triska’nar focused on the entertainment screen in front of her. It was playing some sort of game show that involved abnormally high amounts of physical agility in order to avoid being soaked in faarna beer. The fermented grain alcohol would bleach the unfortunate contestant’s plumage – turning it pink should they be too slow navigating through the ever more difficult course. The final contestant could look forward to a rent-free apartment for a family of three on Worldview 10, the newest of the low-orbit orbital habitats. 
    The shuttle Triska’nar was traveling on was headed towards another of the orbiting habitats, number six. She was traveling with false travel documents. For the next few hours her name was Baska’nar.   Supposedly she was visiting her uncle Elder Trifano for a few days of well-deserved vacation. In actuality, she was reporting to her mentor. The information she was bringing him would literally redefine the world they lived in.
    The shuttle shuddered as it docked with Worldview Six. For a moment she thought she was under attack again. The GCP agents monitoring the Hupenstanii had learned of her discovery and attacked her research team on the planet’s surface. She hoped they had assumed she had been killed along with the others but one could never be sure.
    She held her gift close to her breast. The gift was not unlike the gifts that almost every other passenger brought with them… a