Sneak peek: The Romara Confrontation
Jump complete, the crew went through the usual procedures, reporting in from each section of the CEC ship Loyal Observer. Maintenance, cargo, life support, and the others all checked in with an all clear. I leaned back in my corner, trying to stay out of the way of the organized, efficient crew. Captain Salu had invited me to be present for jump. Usually, the commander of the Phase 1 team witnessed arrival in the new system from the bridge, but my boss was “indisposed.” I certainly didn’t mind filling in.
My little sair-glider, Yasmi, chittered agreement in my ear. She didn’t understand language the way Liam had, but she echoed my emotions uncannily well.
An ensign flicked a holo-file to the captain’s chair. She glanced at it, then waved her hand through the approval icon, still focused on the reports coming up on the duty officer’s station.
The alert klaxon howled.
“Captain! Multiple contacts!” The communications officer sprang from her seat as if it was electrified. “Many, many multiples!”
“Many, many multiples? Is that what they’re teaching at the academy now?” Captain Salu muttered as she swiped the flashing red holo-icon that appeared before her. “Ship, defstat two.”
The ship’s system acknowledged, flashing the lights blue in an assigned sequence. The alert tone sounded in the overhead speakers and my audio implant, followed by the ship’s calm, flat voice. “Defense status is set to level two. All personnel, confirm.”
I swiped the confirm icon that appeared, acknowledging receipt of the alert. As everyone else on the bridge did the same, the captain turned back to the communications officer. “Put ‘em up.”
Before comm could reply, the ship went on. “Captain, defstat set to two. Confirmation at sixty-seven percent and climbing.”
“Acknowledged.” Salu pointed at the communications officer. “Comm?”
“Working on it, sir.” The comm officer—a newly commissioned ensign—hunched over her console, swiping through the display. The space at the front of the room filled with line after line of data, rolling upward at a rate too fast to allow us to read it.
“Pause!” the captain snapped out.
Ensign Warburton jumped a little, then hit the correct icon on her screen. The data stopped flowing.
“What am I looking at, Ensign?” Salu rose from her chair and stepped closer to the data.
“Standard comm data,” Warburton said, her voice pitched high and wobbly. “First column is assigned ID numbers—our system doesn’t recognize any of these sources, so it assigns a number. The rest is vectors, projected sources and destinations, and digitized packets.”
Salu turned to stare at Warburton, her fists clenching against her hips. “Berza is an unexplored system. How can there be this much—any comm data?”
“I don’t know, sir! If I didn’t know we just jumped to Berza, I’d think we’d landed at Sally Ride. Or maybe Lewei since I can’t translate any of this stuff. But even there, our system would recognize the identification packets. My computer is assigning IDs as if every signal was coming from an unregistered source.”
“You’re saying our newly discovered system is occupied?”
The Romara Confrontation will be available April 14th on my Payhip Store. It's up for preorder on Amazon and will go into Kindle Unlimited on April 24th.
