Shepherd Moon: Omegaverse: Volume 1 by G.R. Cooper Read Free Book Online

had it configure the ship. The price was what he feared it would be. Astronomical. He began to see why individuals didn’t buy ships. They were used mainly by groups who could pool their resources to buy one. Large groups. He hoped Clancey was right about that auction.
    Closing the menus, Duncan decided to begin exploring the station.

Chapter 6
     
    Birmingham, West Midlands. UK.
     
     
    Eric West paced in the computer room in his small, two bedroom flat. Six high resolution screens were arrayed in two rows of three, one over the other, on one wall. They provided the only light in the room. The center top screen showed a view of space dominated on one side by a hemisphere of a rocky planetoid; a shepherd moon in the ring around a gas giant. The rest of the monitors were divided among charts and instrument panels.
    He stopped, leaned forward, and looked at the center bottom screen. It presented a three dimensional view of a star system. The star system that he’d been stalking all day. He touched and dragged on the screen, rotating the map to get a better view of the trade routes laid over it. The green lines cut through the system, converging as they approached the system’s fourth planet; the jump point for this system. All ships passing through this system in hyperspace had to pass that point. All systems had a jump point; nobody knew why they had to be used. All part of that silly, ‘lost tech’, Old Ones cover story the game used, he thought.
    Bright red dots marked spots on the map that West’s research had identified as past pirate activity. As the cargo routes came together, the frequency of attacks increased, but falling off rapidly as the routes approached one astronomical unit from the fourth planet. He confirmed that his ship was still targeting this region with its passive sensors. Throughout the day, at irregular intervals, he’d tracked the bright green dots of cargo craft as they approached or left the system. The shields created for faster than light travel spread tachyons, faster than light particles, that were somehow detectable via the Old One technology. This allowed anyone with the requisite equipment to follow the progress of FTL ships through the various star systems. But there’d been no sign of his prey. There was one green dot at the edge of his detection range, approaching him.
    “Number One, how often do attacks occur in this system and how long has it been.”
    “Attacks average once every sixty-four hours,” answered his assistant. “It has been ninety-three hours since an attack.”
    The last answer had increased by thirty minutes since the previous time he’d asked. He resumed pacing.
    “Overlay sensor ranges”
    Concentric rings, centered on his ship, appeared on the map. At each subsequently larger ring, the sensor range increased by one light minute. The seventh ring intersected the heaviest concentration of red dots. He was seven light minutes away, hiding in the shadow of the fourth planet’s moon. Unless a raider knew just where to look for him, he wouldn’t be found. He’d been silent all day. Nothing radiating. No chance of anyone picking him up passively. Behind him, the gas giant’s ring would probably prevent any active scan from picking him up as well. He waited. Watched.
     
    Seven minutes after an attack, his sensors would detect the torpedo signature and he would instantly go to flank speed and the clock would begin to countdown the seven minutes until the pirate detected him. Six minutes after starting, he’d reach the L5 Lagrange point, an area of stable equilibrium between the gravity created by the pulls of the planet and its moon. At that point, effectively outside of the gravitational well of the planet, he’d be able to light off his jump drive, already set with the coordinates of the attack area. Thirteen minutes after it attacked, he’d jump in on top of the pirate, all of his weapon systems armed and primed: one full minute before the sensors on