Free Singularity: Star Carrier: Book Three by Ian Douglas

Sleipnir packet, it would be eighteen days for that leg of the trip, and another 116 days for a fleet to get to Texaghu Resch, not counting the time it would take to assemble such a fleet if the Confederation Senate decided to send one. It would be more than four and a half months before Earth could reach Koenig’s next destination.
    CBG-18, on the other hand, would be at Texaghu Resch in another seventy-four days. Whatever they found there, it would be another two months at least before the Confederation Military Directorate could catch up with them.
    And by that time, Koenig expected that they would be long, long gone.
    “Would the information, do you think, be of help to you personally when you face the Directorate?” Koenig asked.
    Giraurd’s eyes widened. “Why should you care?”
    “Because I know what it’s like to face losing it all, while doing what I think is my duty.”
    Giraurd nodded slowly. “It would help, yes. I wouldn’t be going back . . . empty-handed.”
    “We’re heading for Texaghu Resch. The Agletsch know of it . . . and it’s listed in the Turusch Directory.”
    “Texaghu Resch? Strange name . . .”
    “It’s a G-class star that’s not even visible from Earth, which is why the alien name. According to the Directory, there’s something there the Agletsch call a ‘Sh’daar Node,’ and it appears to have something to do with the Sh’daar communications and control net across the galaxy.”
    “Interesting. Is it inhabited?”
    “Not according to the Agletsch. Not anymore.”
    The two Agletsch guides on board the star carrier America had translated the name Texaghu Resch as something like “the Eye of Resch,” Resch being the name of a mythological being in the folklore of a race called the Chelk.
    Nothing was known about the Chelk now, save that, like humans, they’d once voyaged among the stars, and like humans, they’d seen pictures of their deities and heroes in the night skies of their homeworld. Exactly who or what Resch had been—god, demigod, hero, or sky monster—was unknown. Its image had been seen in the night sky of the Chelk, who’d held a modest interstellar empire in this region of the galaxy perhaps twelve thousand years earlier.
    According to the Agletsch, the Chelk had refused to yield to the Sh’daar demands that they freeze all technological development.
    The Chelk were now extinct.
    “And after that?” Giraurd asked. “Where will you go after Texaghu Resch?”
    Koenig grinned. “Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you. You know that. But I can tell you truthfully, Admiral, I just don’t know. It’ll depend entirely on what happens at the Sh’daar Node, and what we learn there.”
    “I understand.”
    “I will suggest that Earth send a follow-up, though. If we can, we’ll leave word of where we’re going next. They can keep track of us that way.”
    “Yes . . . months too late to do any good.”
    “Depends on what you mean by ‘good.’ I don’t intend to let them stop us, if that’s what you mean. But at the same time, we’re learning a lot out here about the Sh’daar, about who and what they are, about their client races, about how they see the universe. Geneva will need to know this stuff, no matter what they decide to do back there . . . negotiations, or a military offensive.”
    Giraurd studied Koenig carefully for a moment. “You really believe that what you’re doing is for the good of Earth, don’t you?”
    “Of course. I wouldn’t be out here if I didn’t.”
    Giraurd shook his head. “I truly hope you know what you’re doing. I hope—”
    “What?”
    “I actually hope you are right, Admiral, and that the Confederation Senate and Military Directorate are wrong.”
    “So do I, Admiral.”
    “Because if you’re wrong, Admiral Koenig, God help us all.”
    Officers Mess
    TC/USNA CVS America
    Kuiper Belt, HD 157950
    98 light years from Earth
    1215 hours, TFT
     
    “Hey, Sandy. Mind if I join you?”
    Trevor Gray