John Maddox Roberts - Spacer: Window of Mind by John Maddox Roberts Read Free Book Online

hostile. Upon his return to Earth, the captain of the ship very wisely bound his crew to secrecy and informed only the superiors of his line whom he knew to have top security clearances. These, in turn, informed the Security Council."
    "That's news of a high order, all right," said the skipper. "But just where do our humble selves come into all this?"
    "The Council has decided that, as the only humans with any extensive dealings with intelligent alien beings in the past, your services in an advisory capacity might be of considerable value."
    "And the rate of pay?" she asked.
    "It shall be substantial. You will bear in mind, of course, that you will be serving the government."
    "That government hasn't done much for us lately," said the skipper. "After our 'epochal journey,' as it was called, the government confiscated our whole cargo "
    "For further study, of course. I might add that your cooperation in this matter could greatly facilitate the release of those items."
    "Put that in writing and you have a ship," said the skipper. "Assuming, of course, that the rest of my crew agrees." She looked around. The rest gave reluctant nods. Kiril was a little puzzled at their attitude, but she left the question for later.
    "Now," said the admiral, "let's show these people what little we know so far." He punched a button in the arm of his chair, and a man promptly appeared through a door. He appeared to be around thirty years old and he wore the uniform of the Satsuma Line, with the collar insignia of a captain in the Expeditionary Branch.
    "This," said Nagamitsu, "is Mr. Ng, master of the Hideyoshi. It was his ship that discovered the aliens." Ng inclined his head slightly toward the Angel's spacers. Behind him an entire half of the large room filled with pale green light. It was an immense holographic tank. Ng began his monologue in a dry tone which indicated that he had delivered it frequently of late.
    "My ship was on an assignment to check out the system around D6835, a G-type in the Pleiades Sector. It was a standard system: four gas giants, six ice-and-rock balls, and two Earth-types, one of them so marginal as to exclude colonization short of finding really valuable and exploitable materials. Naturally, I turned my attention to the better Earth-type.
    "I established orbit and instituted a scan. Immediately my instruments picked up a signal on a band not commonly used. I suspected a smuggler or pirate base and look suitable precautions to avoid being detected myself. My computer could make nothing of the signal after extended analysis, so I determined to make a reconnaissance."
    "Kind of risky, wasn't it?" said Torwald.
    "My ship is equipped with the armament customary for a line explorer," said Ng, with a touch of superiority, "and any such base could represent a threat to any ships of my line that might follow.
    "I spotted the location of the signal's source. It was a rather large facility, much larger than any smuggler or pirate base would be. At first I thought it might be a base for a rival line, but after double-checking official records, I was sure that no legitimate concern had filed a claim anywhere in that system. I next considered the possibility of a secret military installation, but soon discarded that."
    "They'd never have let you file a spacing plan for that system if that'd been the case," said Ham.
    "Exactly," said Ng. "I could see that something peculiar was going on, to say the least. This is what I was watching through my screens." The holo tank showed a series of buildings as seen telescopically from space. They looked small, but there was no scale to judge them by. Their outlines were hazy, apparently from the intervening atmosphere. "I tried to get better resolution through computer enhancement, but was unable to. That should have tipped me off, but at the time the idea of alien settlements was still theoretical. This was, you understand, before news of the Space Angel's feat had reached the sector where I