Rebellion Ebook Full by B. V. Larson Read Free Book Online

there and we spent the whole time running around avoiding the Macros, not taking careful measurements. Anyway, subsequent analysis of the video we brought back places the star in that region, around the constellation of Orion.”
    Everyone nodded and worked their instruments. No one looked terrified. No one looked as if they were going to barf on my screen. I kept talking, and they stayed focused and calm while data poured into their computers concerning the new star system we’d just discovered.
    “The second star on the known chain of systems is Sol, our home star,” I continued. “Third was Alpha Centauri—very close to Earth. The fourth was the red giant where we fought the Worms on Helios. This is the fifth system we’ve mapped. It appears to be G-class. A yellow, cheery, solo star. Perfect for warm-water planets and life. What is the stellar mass, Gorski?”
    “About ninety-one percent that of Sol, sir,” he said. “Interesting new detail coming in: the star is metal-rich according to spectral analysis.”
    “Meaning?” I asked.
    “A higher likelihood of rocky planets.”
    I nodded thoughtfully. If we were on a colonizing mission, this would be an excellent place to start. None of the other systems I’d visited thus far had been inviting places for humans to live.
    “Sir, more bodies are being plotted now—a lot of them,” Gorski said.
    We watched quietly as planets appeared magically on the big screen. There were indeed a lot of them, and no less than six were in what we projected to be the habitable zone. Two of these were twins, both about the size of Mars. They orbited one another in a tight, tidally-locked dance. It was as if each was the moon of the other.
    Such a lovely system. There had to be habitable planets here. It was a colonization mission commander’s dream.
    “Life signs?” I asked quietly.
    “None yet, but we have six in the zone for liquid water, and a grand total now of twenty-one bodies, not counting moons.”
    Twenty-one worlds. My mind could hardly grasp it. Our eight planets—plus Pluto—seemed paltry in comparison. Eleven of these were out past the gas giant, frozen iceballs it was certain. There was a handful in too close as well, blasted worlds that must look like Mercury. But it was those six worlds in the cradle, nestled between a gas giant and their steady, warm sun, which kept drawing my eye.
    I looked around my crew and saw that all of them were feeling a sense of wonder. We had discovered what might turn out to be a treasure-trove of habitable planets.
    “I wish this was a friendly, exploratory mission of peace,” Sandra said.
    We all looked at her, and we all wished the same thing. But we had come here to fight—and we didn’t even know who we were up against yet.
    “Something I don’t get,” I said aloud. “There are six living worlds, and yet the Macros said we are going after people on satellites. What’s wrong with the planets? Have we spotted any of these stationary structures yet?”
    “No sir. They are too small to detect yet. They wouldn’t have much gravitational tug, less than a moon. They probably aren’t emitting too much radiation, either.”
    “Try radio waves. Are we picking up any com traffic?”
    Sandra jumped a little and worked at her board. “Oops,” she said.
    I looked at her with a flat stare. She made tapping adjustments on her screen. Suddenly, the big screen lit up with contacts.
    “I think I had it set for known contacts and signals only,” Sandra said. “It was just showing our two Macro ships.” She turned back to the big screen. Then she shut up and joined all of us in jaw-dropping shock.
    The screen swam with hundreds of contacts. There were ships around every planet, or satellites of some kind. Dozens of contacts roved the surfaces of all six of the central planets and a few on the icy worlds as well.
    “Give me some color!” I shouted. “Sarin, give me something. I want to see red on unknowns, blue on