Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) by Ryk Brown Read Free Book Online

best behavior, or are you going to challenge Telles to a duel at twenty paces?”

CHAPTER TWO
    “How was your tour?” Cameron asked as she sat down next to Nathan at the conference table in one of the Karuzara’s briefing rooms.
    “Interesting,” Nathan replied. “The Jung sure know how to build a shipyard, that’s for sure.”
    “The place was enormous,” Jessica added from Nathan’s other side. “Security is going to be a breeze, though. They’ve got cameras and sensors everywhere. You can’t get within a hundred kilometers without them knowing, and every point of entry is remotely monitored and controlled. The place even has its own point-defense system. Not big enough to defend against a full-scale attack, but more than enough to defend against an unauthorized boarding attempt. My biggest concern is the workers. Most of them are registering as dirty on Doc Galloway’s Jung-bug detector, although very few have enough nanites in them for the Jung to turn them into saboteurs. They’ve tagged those who do with tracking chips and refused them entry for the time being, until they come up with a way to remove the nanites that doesn’t cause excruciating pain. Unfortunately, if they find too many with high nanite counts, it’s going to cut into their workforce and slow things down.”
    “Any word on how long that will take?” Cameron asked.
    “Nope. All I know is that they are working on it,” Jessica replied. “I just hope they come up with something soon, because we’re finding a few among our people as well, especially among the newest volunteers from Earth.”
    “If the Jung are not close enough to link to any person’s nanites, then those carriers aren’t a threat, are they?” Nathan suggested.
    “Theoretically, no, but do you want to bet the ship on that assumption? For all we know, there could be Jung spies all over the place, each of them with their own personal bug-control device.”
    “Could we block their signals somehow?” Cameron wondered.
    Jessica shook her head. “Galloway says that we can jam the communications between the nanites within the host body, which would isolate them, but she doesn’t know if that will have any negative effects on the host, since the nanites are acting to help maintain the host’s health to some extent. She just isn’t sure as to what extent. She really needs to figure out how to reprogram them so that we control them instead of the Jung. Then we can give them orders to vacate as we replace them with Corinairan nanites.”
    Admiral Dumar entered the briefing room, followed by the Karuzara’s station manager, Mister Bryant, along with three other men whom Nathan did not recognize.
    “Attention on deck,” the guard ordered. Everyone in the room immediately rose to their feet and came to attention.
    As the admiral and his entourage moved to the head of the table, two more people entered the room. President Scott and his daughter, Miri.
    Nathan remained at attention, though he was surprised to see them. He had visited them both just over a week ago, and neither had mentioned that they would be traveling to the Karuzara. His sister had mentioned, however, that she had taken over the role as their father’s personal assistant, since his former assistant had a significant level of Jung nanites in his system. It was a scenario that had been occurring all over the Earth, as well as on Alliance vessels and stations. In fact, the more Jung nanite detectors that were built and distributed, the more they discovered Terrans infected with nanites.
    Admiral Dumar stood at the head of the table until President Scott and his assistant reached their seats at the opposite end. “As you were,” he finally ordered, taking his seat. “Let it be noted that Captains Poc and Nash are unable to attend, due to the demands of their current assignments.” The admiral looked at the faces of everyone sitting around the conference table, then turned to the man sitting to his