Read The Engineer Reconditioned for Free Online Page B

underspace dragged it deeper and slammed it forward. The energy expended was such that the ship left a visible trail behind it in realspace; self-created antimatter sparkled into oblivion as it connected with stray hydrogen atoms and left black lines like stretch marks across vacuum.
    One hour later the Cable Hogue flashed into existence in a field of asteroids with a dispersion of thousands of kilometres. Asteroids glowed and bloomed into expanding spheres of plasma. Jabro segmented an asteroid the size of Earth's moon, then hit each segment with quark bombs. The resultant flash was mistaken as a nova on a distant world, a hundred years on.
    "That cost us," said the ship AI, but Jabro was laughing like a maniac and did not hear. Diana smiled to herself, knowing Hogue would not have allowed Jabro access to that particular weapons bank if the cost had been prohibitive. The cost later turned out to be a twenty minute stopover in the troposphere of a gas giant for refuelling, then the Hogue really opened up with its Laumer engines. The result was called The Cable, and it glowed in the skies of many a world for decades.
    The heat licked at the edges of the air blast on Chapra's face as she entered the isolation chamber. It almost seemed malevolent. Judd walked out ahead of her, to the edge of the jetty, and studied the containers. The creature was floating about ten metres out and Chapra felt that faint sensation that told her she was being ultrasound scanned. After a moment she followed Judd and peered down into the containers.
    "A gift?" she wondered. She squatted down and looked closely. Three of the containers held small quantities of metallic powder. There were small quantities of crystalline substances in a couple of others, and in the remaining three were minute copies of the containers themselves. Chapra reached inside and took one out. Like the originals it was transparent. There was a mere fleck of something inside it. Judd said, "The creature showed increased scanning activity when you spoke and it is showing it again now."
    Chapra stood up. "Perhaps it understands that this is how we communicate. I imagine that it communicates using ultrasound and pheromones — not an easy language to translate." She stooped and took up four of the containers. Judd took up the other four.
    "I don't think these are a gift," she continued. "I think the creature is letting us know its requirements." She turned to the door then and halted in surprise. Abaron, dressed in a totally-enclosing environment suit, stood just inside the chamber.
    "Abaron." She could think of nothing more to say.
    "There is a communication for you," he said, his voice grating from the PA of the suit. He quickly turned back to the door, hit the control to open it, went through. Chapra and Judd followed him through the lock. In that little chamber Abaron removed his mask while Chapra flicked back her hood. His face was pouring with sweat.
    "Is that suit malfunctioning?" asked Chapra sweetly, then damned herself for insensitivity — at least he was trying. She shook her head. "What do you mean 'a communication'?"
    "A priority message from a place called Clavers World," he said.
    "Box? I thought you weren't letting anything through."
    "I merely reassigned priority. One of my subminds has been vetting all communications. This particular one may be relevant to all our actions. It is from Alexion Smith and it is on real time."
    "Him. What the hell does he want?" As she said this Chapra glanced at Abaron and saw the awe on his face. "Strike that," she said. "Let's go and find out." Junger twenty-eights , thought Kellor. He stood in the hold of his ship watching, on a nearby viewscreen, the gunships jetting across vacuum from the heavy-lifter shuttle. The General must have bribed someone in the Polity to obtain them. They were dated, and must have been scheduled for destruction at some point. Sixteen of them. Kellor licked his lips. He was not sure he liked this. The