Read Dark Beneath the Moon for Free Online Page B

Earthside . Respond.” I knew that voice, although the owner wouldn’t realize he’d been recognized.
    I’d chuckled as I answered him, even though he couldn’t hear me. “Not yet, Mr. Baden Methyr. We’ll talk soon again, but not yet.”
    Pita had flipped on the new F-shields then, just in case the crew of the Tane Ikai wasn’t too happy about the torps, but I didn’t expect them to return fire. Everything my research had told me about Captain Luta Paixon and her crew made me think I was safe enough unless they truly started to feel threatened. The F-shields were more new tech I was testing for PrimeCorp, and they should remain be undetectable by the Tane Ikai unless something impacted them.
    This was only for fun. Testing the waters, to use an old nautical term.
    Their shot across my bow seemed like a good time to end our little skirmish, and once the torpedo impact had revealed the existence of my shields, there wasn’t much more fun in it anyway. I told Pita to change course, engaged the new burst drive—also thanks to PrimeCorp—and took off.
    “They’re letting us go,” Pita said after a moment.
    “Pretty much what I expected. We didn’t do much except annoy them, after all. And that’s all I wanted to do for now.”
    That, and make certain Paixon hadn’t tried to pull a fast one, switching ships. Baden Methyr’s voice on the comm was all the confirmation I needed for that. I sent a quick encrypted message to Sedmamin to let him know I’d located them and would stay on Paixon’s tail. He’d no doubt respond with a demand for a full report, but I’d send that when I got around to it.
    “How closely do you want to follow them?” Pita asked.
    “Circle around outside their scanner range, then backtrack and pick them up again. They’ve got to be headed for Mars, so we’ll tag along, same as we were before. Stay at the outside edge of the tracker range, and don’t let them spot us.”
    I slipped the wrapper off the energy bar and took a bite, chewing reflectively. “To you, Dad,” I said, lifting my mug in a toast. “To persistence. To revenge.”
    “Nice one,” Pita said, and I rolled my eyes. If she were a real person, I’d probably have strangled her by now.
    I kept the rest of my toast to myself, because although I was pretty certain of Pita’s loyalty to me, she still didn’t need to know my every thought. To Alin Sedmamin , I thought, arrogant, self-important little bastardo that he was, for making it all possible.
     
     

Chapter 5 – Luta
Pavlovian Responses and Other Intriguing Behaviours
     
     
     
     
     
     
    SEVEN DAYS LATER , we arrived at the planet Anar in the Lambda Saggitae system, where we were to meet the Lobor historian Cerevare Brindlepaw. Being only one wormhole skip from Sol System, both inhabited planets, Anar and Damir, had developed quickly and boasted thriving, cosmopolitan populations. We’d made plenty of cargo runs between Sol System and Lambda Saggitae in the last ten years, when Hirin was in the nursing home and I favoured shorter trade hops.
    I won’t say that by the time we got there, the crew hated me, but I might not have been their favorite person anymore. No-one had spent any more time immersed in private projects if I could provide them with an alternative. Every inch of the ship had been scrubbed and polished, accompanied by much grumbling.
    “It’s long overdue,” I told them, “and if we’re going to participate in a Protectorate mission, I’m not giving them any reason to complain.”
    Every system had been overhauled. I invested in upgrades for navigation, communications, and the First Aid station while we were on Mars, as well as new fuel recombinators and a matter generation enhancement package. I decided we could afford it; after all, I didn’t have to pay Hirin’s nursing home bills anymore. The crew installed it all on our way to Anar. I insisted that Maja step up and show me how serious she was about learning navigation; and