Free Warrior Chronicles 2: Warrior's Blood by Shawn Jones Page A

focused on us. But I want some physicists and design people working to stay ahead of anything we sell to Earth. Agreed?”
     
    Keen nodded to Cort’s screen this time. “Agreed.”
     
    In his own message to Dar, Cort expressed his personal feelings more completely. “Dar, you need to be prepared. The weapons they want aren’t necessary against alliances on Earth. I think they are for use against us. Prepare for that. I’m attaching the CONDOR Two specs. You might want to make a few. And I think you should up the launch rate for the foreseeable future. I’d pack every module top to bottom. I think war is on the horizon.”
     
    Cort called his move, “Bishop to Queen’s first. And Dar, be prepared to evacuate. If you can’t get out of Atlantica, get on a module. Come here. I don’t want to lose you.”

 
     
     
Seven
     
    Ares Federation Science and Military Headquarters, Argyre Site
     
    “I think you’ve done a great job here,” Rhodes said as Cort showed him around the new training facility. “And Kim did a great job with your new open spaces.”
     
    Zandra kept herself between the two men. She had never met Chief Rhodes, so she didn’t trust him. When he had first stepped out of the MELT, Rhodes slapped Cort on the shoulder, eliciting a low growl from the female wolf. Cort had to settle her down before he could take Rhodes on a tour of the rebuilt facility. Cort said, “Once Kim had taken everything apart, we realized that this was almost perfect for what we needed. I got a larger training area with both interior and exterior training areas, the design people got a testing area, and by moving everything that arrives through this site, we can protect the other two more easily.”
     
    Rhodes nodded. “And if Atlantica ever does send something to the other sites, those fixed railguns the design people put together will keep them from even landing.” Rhodes paused as he remembered the day he first saw a railgun in action. To have seen something the size of a freighter module simply cease to exist was still incredible to him. “Do you really think they will come here?”
     
    “No, I don’t. But that’s why we’re putting satellites up. I think they will try and land somewhere remote. If they establish a foothold, they may or may not interfere with us. I hope they don’t. I hope they realize that I was serious. This is our planet now. Every single hectare. So if anything enters our orbit that Dar didn’t send, I’m going to destroy it. No exceptions.”
     
    “Just a minute,” Cort said as his comm unit chirped. “Addison here. Go ahead.” He listened for a minute then said, “Okay, Wynn. We’re headed there now.”
     
    “What’s up?” Rhodes asked as they backtracked and headed down a different corridor.
     
    “That was Wynn Black. Do you know him?”
     
    “Only the name. One of your family right? He’s been here a couple of months, I think,” Rhodes replied.
     
    “Yeah, that’s him. He’s a geologist. He heads that group. Well, he heads Planetary Sciences, but geology was his specialty on Earth. He found water.”
     
    Rhodes stopped dead. “Water? Here? How much?”
     
    “Let’s go find out,” Cort said.
     
    --
     
    Wynn Black was a small man with thinning hair. Because of his olive-brown skin and enormous eyes, he reminded Cort of Gollum from the old books by Tolkien. Adding to the effect was his perpetual hunch. He had been injured in a fall while exploring a cave on Earth as a young man. With three separate fractures along his spine, synthetics kept him from being paralyzed, but the trauma was so extensive that his spine didn’t heal properly. As Cort and Rhodes walked into his lab, he looked up and introduced himself to Rhodes before Cort could. Then he bent back down to his ‘natural’ posture to pet Zandra. She knew Dr. Black well, because Wynn often dined with Cort in the park.
     
    “Cort,” he said while pointing at a map of the Tharsis region, “This is