Read Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi for Free Online Page B

images?”
    Commander Sheng, Liao’s former XO, whom she shot on the bridge of the Tehran for mutiny.
    Liao processed that. “Yes, but hang on a second. You’re telling me that while Sheng was on the ship, the Toralii were communicating with himvia e-mail ?”
    Summer shook her head. “Not quite. The images were being relayed to him from a radio telescope observatory in Brazil. As far as I can tell, the observatory was a front for an operation being run by the American CIA to monitor Chinese satellites, and they picked up this signal being relayed from a faraway probe. But it turns out the whole operation was infiltrated by the Chinese government—like most American operations these days—so the messages ended up in the hands of the Chinese Government, then Sheng got hold of them somehow.”
    Liao nodded. “Sheng was a military man from a very powerful family—everyone in the service knows the Shengs. Since he was originally earmarked to be Captain of the Beijing , I imagine he had a lot of people who supported him.” She pointed at the laptop. “I’ll get a translator on those messages straight away to see what we can find out.”
    Summer nodded, then pointed at the screen again. “I ran them through an automated translator. It didn’t give me much, but it did give me one very usefulthing.”
    “What was that?”
    The redhead grinned like a jackal, cracking her knuckles. “I’ll tell you if you say I’m the smartest woman on this ship.”
    Liao stared at her, blinking a few times. “You… what?”
    “Say that I’m the smartest woman on the ship. Say that without me this whole place would fall to pieces and you’d be completely lost without me. And give me a bottle of the scotch you keep in your cupboard. Then I’ll tell you.”
    Liao raised an eyebrow. “How about I just give you a hundred thousand yuan raise and not fire you?”
    Summer laughed, reaching out and patting Liao’s side. “Oh, how mercenary of you, Captain! I thought you communists weren’t like that?”
    “These days, China is communist in name only.”
    “I know, I know. I’ll take the raise. Anyway.” Rowe took a deep breath and tapped a few more keys. A large pair of numbers flashed onto the screen, blinking white characters on a black background. “I’m shithouse at Chinese, but I know a bit. These here, they’re numbers. Whoever was talking to Sheng wanted to meet in person.”
    Summer ran her finger along the vertically aligned numbers, grinning. “They’re jump coordinates.”

Chapter III
    “ Shadows of the Departed”
----
    Captain Liao’s Office
    TFR Beijing
    Three Weeks Later
     
     
    The weeks had been good to Liao. Her morning sickness subsided—mostly—and her arm was eventually removed from its sling, although moving it still felt a little awkward. She sat with her first officer, Commander Iraj, in her office near Operations, reading through the messages Rowe had recovered from the images Sheng had sent.
    “He really thought he was going to get the Beijing , didn’t he?” Liao remarked, passing over another printout. “I mean, look at this. Right here. ‘ I’ll be certain to take my ship to your location as soon as possible. The Toralii–the Demons, as the other Humans call them–represent a threat too powerful for us to engage on our own. Speaking with their enemies, gathering allies and strengthening our cause, is the only way we’ll survive as a species.’ ” She put down the paper. “He even knew their name, long before we did. What do you make of that? Quite some stones on him, don’t you think?”
    “You know what I think, Captain. Sheng was arrogant, ambitious, well-connected, and powerful. Someone who was used to getting his own way.But he has a point, you know. About us needing allies.”
    Liao frowned and Kamal gave a light chuckle. “Not that I agree with his methods or anything, nothing like that. I’m just saying. We’ve had some victories against the Toralii Alliance, yes, but