The Sentinel (The Sentinel Trilogy Book 1) by Michael Wallace Read Free Book Online Page A

with its deep-set, almost sunken eyes added to the impression of someone not quite human.
    Tolvern rose to shake the man’s large, bony hand, then retook her seat at the head of the table. She gestured. “Sit down, please.”
    “You heard her,” Capp said peevishly when the man didn’t immediately comply. “What the devil are you waiting for?”
    Djikstra sat with obvious reluctance, but took the seat farthest from the captain and closest to the door, where he now glanced. His eyes darted to Captain Tolvern, then back to the door. If he meant to make a run for it, he’d have to get past Lieutenant Capp, who stood blocking the exit with her arms crossed.
    “Well?” Tolvern said. “What have you got to say for yourself?”
    Djikstra looked back at her. “There was coffee before, all of your officers present. Food, too, although I can’t say the Albion grub agrees with me. This meeting seems rather less welcoming.”
    “We were happy to see you before. Now, not so much.”
    Djikstra glanced at Capp, whose scowl deepened as she met his gaze. “And what’s with your henchman? She looks ready to draw her sidearm and pistol-whip me.”
    “You don’t cooperate, and I bloody well will,” Capp said.
    Djikstra looked back to the captain again. “What’s this about, anyway?”
    “You answer questions, you don’t ask them,” Capp said.
    “Lieutenant, please,” Tolvern said.
    She changed the console from its display of ship damage to a map of the system, provided from Djikstra’s computers. Since jumping, they’d been running scans, and she overlaid this fresh map on top of what the New Dutch ship had provided.
    “I’ve had a chance to look over your charts, such as they are.” Tolvern drew the view out to show a system-wide perspective, then scanned over it. “Not all of your planets are in the right position. There are several prominent asteroids your maps didn’t show, or are in the wrong orbit, and there’s evidence of a comet swarm that could be hazardous to shipping.”
    “We didn’t have fresh charts,” Djikstra said with a shrug, “and no time to update them, either, what with Apex breathing down our throats.”
    “Fresh charts? This planet is in the wrong orbit entirely. This one isn’t on your charts at all. That’s not a lack of freshness, that’s simply wrong.”
    “What did you expect? We’ve flown off the edge of known space since we made contact with these Singaporeans. I was working with their info, and since they’re in serious shit, it’s not like they’ve been keeping on top of their charts, either. I put this together from the memory of a marooned pilot who’d crash-landed his ship into an asteroid and sent out a distress signal.”
    “And how do you explain this ?” Tolvern asked.
    She highlighted the system’s two primary jump points as purple, pulsing points on the three-dimensional map. There were other jump points in the system, but they were unstable, the kind that opened and closed over the course of a few months or years. It was the stable pair that interested her, as they would have appeared on older charts, as well.
    The first was the jump point they’d taken into the system after the battle, and the second was an exit on the far end. Tolvern had seen everything from a single jump point system—a cul-de-sac, as they called them in the navy—to eleven entries and exits, but this paired jump point type was common enough in the space lanes. No habitable planets in the system, which was also common. If this were in Albion space, the Royal Navy would have built a base to keep an eye on anyone traversing the system. Probably set up a patrol, too.
    “What is the problem?” Djikstra asked. “The jump points match my charts.”
    “Exactly. This second jump point is stable in time, but not motion. It’s a wanderer, and has already floated about fifteen thousand miles since we entered the system. If we extrapolate back a few years, this is where the jump point