Read Starship Tomahawk (The Hive Invasion Book 2) for Free Online

He had given his orders before the last jump. The ship was focusing its scanners even now on the distant colony. There was nothing for Hammett to do but wait.
    "There's something in orbit," said Sanjari. She tapped an icon, and a blurry image appeared on Hammett's screen. The planet was nothing more than a fuzzy blob. The object in orbit was a speck on the near side of the planet, ringed in white to keep it from being lost in the image of the planet.
    The urge to ask foolish questions was strong, and Hammett suppressed it with difficulty. There was no point in asking if Sanjari could see anything else. It wasn't as if she would keep the information to herself.
    Ramirez twisted around in his seat, an odd expression on his face. "Captain."
    "What is it?"
    Ramirez touched a finger to his ear. I'm picking up a … radio broadcast."
    "And?"
    Ramirez shook his head, as if an explanation was beyond him. His fingers moved, and music, faint and scratchy, came from the bridge speakers. It was something classical, a full orchestra by the sound of it, a lot of strings with woodwinds rising in the background.
    Hammett raised an eyebrow.
    "The broadcast is coming from the planet, Sir." Ramirez looked flustered, as if he'd said something foolish. "It's very faint. I don't know what-"
    The music faded and a woman began to speak. "That was Wheaton's second Symphony, performed by the Mars Symphony Orchestra. You're listening to Radio Free Naxos, the voice of stubborn humanity in the colony that just wouldn't die. It's a long dark night, but the sun will rise again, and in the meantime you're not alone. Now I'm going to play a classic of a different sort. This is Mathew West with Coal Mining Blues."
    More music began, and Ramirez gestured in the air, reducing the volume. Hammett looked around at his bridge crew.
    Kaur said, "Apparently there are survivors."
    Sanjari said, "With a radio station?"
    Kaur shrugged. "It seems so."
    "Monitor the broadcast," Hammett said to Ramirez. "Record it too, but I want you to listen. One EMP hit and the recording's gone." He leaned back in the captain's chair, thinking. Survivors were a complication. He was ashamed by the thought, but the simple fact was, his already difficult mission was made vastly more complicated by humans on Ariadne. If the Hive had wiped them out, Hammett's life would have been easier.
    "Obviously we need to take a closer look," he said. "In the meantime, let's recap what we know about Ariadne and the colony. Ms. Kaur?"
    Kaur nodded and tapped a console. A map of the planet appeared in the air above her console. "Naxos," she said. "The third system ever reached by human explorers, and the second system connected to Earth by Gates. Gate One goes from Earth to Alpha Centauri, and Gate Two takes you back to Earth. Gate Three connects Earth to Naxos." She frowned. "Connected." The Gate was offline now.
    "Naxos had two Gates," she continued. "Gate Four led back to Earth. Gate Five continued on to Deirdre. From there it linked to four more systems, so quite a lot of traffic went through Naxos before the Hive showed up."
    Hammett nodded, fighting impatience. It would do no harm for Kaur to take them through the basics.
    "There has been a human presence on Ariadne for a hundred and nine years," Kaur said. "Terraforming began in earnest about eighty years ago. Ariadne is well within the Goldilocks zone, and it has a gravity of about point nine eight, so it was an excellent candidate for colonization." She moved her fingers in the air and the holo projection zoomed in on the northern hemisphere.
    "The planet has an atmosphere mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. Terraforming efforts have focused on generating oxygen at low elevations, where it can dislodge the lighter local gases." She zoomed in further. "This is the Green Crater. The floor of the crater is almost eight kilometers lower than most of the planet, with quite steep walls." The projection showed a circular gash in the planet's crust,