Resurgence of Ancient Darkness by Vincent Trigili Read Free Book Online

leave normal space. This allowed us to completely escape the shockwave. It was not what I had ordered, but it was the right thing to do. It was at times like this that Rocky proved his worth as my second officer, and very likely he had saved us from damage and injuries. I needed people like him on my crew, and I knew it. Command was still way beyond me. The only reason I had my own ship was due to the rush to build a Battle Wizard Navy, and I knew it had nothing to do with my abilities, no matter how much Master Shadow insisted otherwise.
    Once we were back in normal space I said, “Good call, Rocky. Head back to the wreckage and let’s see if we can salvage anything.”
    “Yes, Master,” said Rocky as he set a course to bring us back.
    “Spectra, can you tell where or who that ship was communicating with?” I asked.
    “No, I can only tell the direction, and there are many possible systems along that line,” she said.
    “Well, keep digging and see if you can find anything that would narrow it down for us,” I said and headed down to engineering where I had set Skryth working on the datapad that I had brought back from our jaunt on the station. I had been able to get some information from the computers before the robots had forced my retreat, and I was hoping he could make some sense of what was there.
    “Hey, Skryth, any luck?” I asked as I approached his station.
    “Master Dusty!” he said with a start. Apparently he had been deep in thought and had not seen me come up.
    “Sorry, I did not mean to startle you,” I said.
    “No, Master, it is fine. What can I do for you?” he asked.
    “I was hoping for some news on the datapad,” I said.
    “Ah, yes,” he said. “Master, there was very little useful on it, just the beginnings of several files. Some appear to have been logs, and others may have been status reports.”
    “Anything to help us narrow down who built the station?” I asked.
    “Yes, there is, Master. Well, in a way, at least,” he said and activated a display screen containing what appeared to me to be completely random data. He gestured to the screen and continued, “As you can see, the data was not encrypted at all, but from your description you were probably at a master terminal of some kind, so that is not surprising. The data you downloaded was mostly useless, but your video recordings of the fight with the robots may have yielded a clue.”
    “How so?” I asked.
    He worked the controls and the screen soon showed my fight with the robots. He watched it very carefully for a few moments and then froze the image on the screen. The frame showed one of the robots just before I hit it with an Ice Bolt. He enlarged and enhanced the image until the robot filled the screen. “There! Master, do you see?”
    “I see an ugly robot ready to kill me.”
    “Yes, Master, but look at that robot,” he said.
    “Skryth, you’re going to have to help me out here. I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
    “Well, Master, that design is typical of the Thelthron Tribe.”
    “Great, and they are?”
    “Master, they are a high-tech tribe that lives quite far from here,” he said with a tone of triumph in his voice.
    “Are you sure?” I asked.
    “Yes, Master!” he said, as if he were astonished I would ask such a thing. “But even if I was not, I did find some supporting evidence in the logs.” He paused and brought some text data back up on the screen and said, “There, see?”
    “Skryth, this might surprise you, but I never studied robotics. What should I see?”
    “Sorry, Master. This is a partial log of ship operations, and the data format of the log is also typical of the Thelthronians.”
    “I see. Can you show me where this tribe is located on a star chart?” I asked.
    “Sure, Master,” he said as he brought a chart up and pointed to a system on it. “Right there.”
    “Computer, overlay known path of communications from the hauler,” I said. The computer beeped and drew a