Relic of Sorrows: Fallen Empire, Book 4 by Lindsay Buroker Read Free Book Online Page A

Lore.”
    “Guess it would be handy if it were on her station,” Alisa said.
    Abelardus frowned at her. “You do not regard those who lived and died and shaped the past with enough reverence.”
    “Yeah, I’m told I don’t regard much with enough reverence. Leonidas, what do you want to do now? Are you done exploring?”
    “My suit is warning me of the intense radiation in here and that I should back away for my own health,” he said.
    “It’s good to get health tips from your equipment.”
    “Can you bring any of those items with you?” Abelardus asked. “They look old. Perhaps they’re artifacts from the station.”
    “They’re the source of the radiation,” Leonidas said, setting down the plaque. “Unless you want what happened here to happen on the Star Nomad , I plan to leave them.”
    “How can a plaque be radioactive?” Alisa asked, looking at the rest of the items on the floor as Leonidas walked out, the silverware and cups, the helmet. Were all of those things radioactive?
    “Induced radioactivity,” Yumi said. “When lighter elements such as aluminum are bombarded with alpha particles, there will be a continuous emission of radioactive radiations, even after the alpha source is removed.”
    “All right,” Alisa said, “I guess I’ve heard of that happening in nuclear reactors, but to this degree? That the radiation could kill everyone in that ship within days?”
    “Apparently.”
    “And why would they have picked up radioactive souvenirs? That doesn’t seem bright.”
    “That I couldn’t tell you,” Yumi said, “except that it’s possible they had no idea that what they were picking up was radioactive. That ship did not appear to be equipped for scientific testing.”
    “Yumi, that plaque was glowing . Who needs a test to see that?” Alisa thrust her hand toward the video, even though Leonidas had now moved out of the woman’s cabin and was back in the ship’s navigation cabin.
    “Yes, that’s interesting. Radioactive elements don’t glow, at least not in a way that creates light that’s visible to the human eye. Some substances, however, will emit visible light if they’re suitably stimulated by the ionizing radiation from a radioactive material.”
    Abelardus’s forehead wrinkled. Alisa wished she could pretend she had a better understanding, but she was just a pilot. If Mica weren’t busy throwing up in sickbay, she would fetch her for this conversation.
    “Who would do that?” Alisa asked. “Or do you think that it could have happened naturally?”
    Naturally. As if glowing plaques were natural.
    “They may have been running some tests on the items they picked up, trying to figure out why everyone was getting sick,” Yumi suggested.
    “I would have just punted everything out the nearest airlock,” Alisa said.
    Abelardus made a choking noise. “Those could be invaluable Starseer artifacts.”
    “Artifacts glowing with radiation. Besides, what do you care? I thought Alcyone betrayed your people and you were holding a grudge.”
    “She did, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be interested in recovering artifacts from that time period.”
    Alisa waved her hand in dismissal. They could talk more about this later, when they had recovered Leonidas and gotten far, far away from that ship.
    “Leonidas, are you ready to be picked up soon?” Alisa asked, tapping her controls. She was surprised he wasn’t already at the airlock, eager to escape. “What are you doing in navigation again?”
    “Changing the distress call to warn ships away,” he said, his own fingers dancing over the controls, “and seeing if I can change its course, so it won’t make it to Primus 7. If your ship had weapons, I would suggest blowing it up.”
    Alisa shuddered at the idea of blowing up the final resting place of those people, but she agreed that it would be better not to make Primus 7 deal with the problem. “Couldn’t you toss the artifacts out into space?” she suggested.