McCollum - GIBRALTAR STARS by Michael McCollum Read Free Book Online

locals. After that, it’s just boring routine until you reach the next stargate and it’s time to do it all over again.”
    “How many missions does this make for you, Lisa?”
    “This was our third.”
    “How is the survey going? Does it measure up to your expectations when you proposed this approach?”
    Lisa grimaced. She often wished everyone would forget just whose brilliant idea this sneaking around in Q-ships had been.
    “In one respect, our explorations have far exceeded my expectations. I assumed we could spy out two or three systems before slipping away again. The survey just completed took us to eight star systems…”
    “And the other respect?” Landon asked.
    “Stargate network diagrams aren’t as useful as I thought they would be before we obtained the Pastol database.”
    “How so?”
    “They are topological maps rather than astronomical ones. A stargate diagram shows the sequence of jumps required to travel from Point A to Point B, but not where Points A and B actually are with respect to one another. In this respect, gate diagrams were like subway maps. In the middle of town, the scale increases to better show the numerous train stations and routes, while it contracts in the suburbs and countryside because the stations are correspondingly far apart.
    “Our problem is that we need to know where the Sovereignty’s stars are located in space before we can launch operations against the Broa. Figuring out where we were after each jump was the responsibility of my loving husband here.”
    “Any difficulties, Mark?” the Admiral asked.
    “Not usually,” he responded. “We automatically do a circumambient scan after emerging in a new system and then it’s a matter of looking for the common signpost stars, and of course, the Crab Nebula. Usually, we are approximately where we expect to be. As we learned at Gamma last year, stargates are directional and have to be pointed in the direction of the jump. Still, there are always a few surprises when we get our position plotted.”
    “While Mark and his people map the system,” Lisa continued, “I and my section record all of the local chatter. Mostly we can’t understand a word, but we try to accumulate enough data to give the linguistic computers a statistically valid sample to chew on.”
    “How often do you get translations?”
    Lisa shrugged. “About one-quarter of the time. The problem is that we don’t spend enough time in any one system.”
    “What about the Broa?”
     “Three of the star systems were definitely occupied by the overlords. One might have been a sector capital, albeit a small one. We got some good recordings in the Broan language from that one.”
    “What about the slave species you observed? Any candidates for our subversion program once it’s launched?”
    “We found five of the eight in the Pastol planetary database,” Lisa said. “All are bipeds of one sort or another. There’s one batch that look like little bears with long, fluffy tails. Specialists are studying their database entries to see if any of them fit in with our plans.”
    Dan Landon considered what he had been told for a moment, and then nodded. “Sounds like a productive trip. Are you ready for something different?”
     “Different, sir?” Lisa asked, distress obvious in her voice. “We thought we would have some time to relax before we had to go out again.”
    “You misunderstand,” Landon replied. “I’m not asking you to go out again.”
    “Then what are you asking, Admiral?”
    “Your idea for a Q-ship Survey was a good one. But Staff has been concerned about the pace since the outset. You hit eight systems in a little over three months. When you consider how many Broan stars there are, at this pace it will take longer than any of us will live. Either we get more resources or we find some way to speed up the survey.”
    He fixed his gaze on Lisa. “That is where you come in. How would you like a new job?”
    #
     “New job, sir?”