Free Shadows of the Gods: Crimson Worlds Refugees II by Jay Allan Page A

right. It is better for us to preserve fuel, to husband all of our resources. We are up against a great unknown, and we must be cautious…stay ready for the next battle. Because I have no doubt that a fight awaits us out there somewhere.
     
     
    AS Midway
    X49 System – 12,000,000 kilometers from the X48 warp gate
    The Fleet: 144 ships, 32,802 crew
     
    “Preliminary scans indicate the system is clear, Admiral.” Cortez was hunched over his workstation, his eyes following the fresh scanner data as it came in. “It looks like six planets…” He paused as he assimilated the reports flashing onto his screen. “Three gas giants…and one frozen chunk of rock six billion kilometers from the primary. Looks like two Earthlike planets.” Another pause. “Yes, both definitely within the habitable zone.”
    Compton sat in his chair and nodded. “Very well, Commander.” He had a thoughtful look on his face, but he didn’t say anything.
    “Should we move the fleet closer to get some concentrated scans on those planets, sir?” The entry warp gate had dumped the fleet too far from the inner planets to get more than the most basic data.
    “Negative, Commander. I want to get the fleet through this system as quickly as possible…and we’re more likely to find warp gates out here than deep in system.” It took considerably more time to find warp gates than it did planets and other major bodies of matter. The strange phenomena that made interstellar travel a practical reality were still largely a mystery to human science. But a century and a half of research had yielded a few bits of knowledge, including the fact that warp gates tended to occur in the outer reaches of systems, with fewer than 3% of known gates located closer to a primary than the most distant planet.
    “Very well, sir. Warp gate scan is underway.”
    Compton leaned back and sighed softly. The search could take hours, even days. He might as well put that time to good use…
    “Commander…Admiral Hurley is to launch a fighter wing to scout out the inner planets.” He wasn’t about to have the whole fleet burn fuel to move in-system, whether he had the time to waste or not. But a group of fighters could make a quick run and be back onboard their mother ships without affecting the overall timetable. And he did want to know what those worlds looked like if he could…at least some basic scans.
    “Yes, Admiral.”
    Compton sighed again. He was trying to focus, but his mind kept drifting back to X48…to those he had left there. Hieronymus, Ana, Max…almost fifteen hundred Marines and most of the top scientific brainpower on the fleet. So many key people…friends. The loss of the landing party would cripple the fleet, in more ways than one.
    And Sophie . He’d found himself pondering ways to keep her on the fleet before the expedition departed. He knew, even as the thoughts went through his head, that it was foolish, hopeless. The primary reason for the expedition was to solve the food crisis…and Sophie Barcomme was the fleet’s foremost scientist in that area. It was unthinkable for her to remain on Midway . The fates of thousands of fleet personnel relied on the success of the mission. If Sophie and her people didn’t bring back the food the fleet needed, people were going to start dying. Soon.
    Still, he was surprised just how much he missed her. Their late talks had been one of his few pleasures, and since she’d gone he had lain in bed each night, a constant array of problems running through his sleepless and tormented mind. Compton knew every man had his breaking point, that last bit of stress and pressure that was just too much for him to endure. But he also realized he couldn’t afford to have one. Whatever had to be done, he simply had to do it, had to endure and face whatever happened. His people depended on him, and he’d be damned if he would let them down.
    What if she doesn’t come back? It was a thought he’d tried to banish from his