Vigilante by Laura E. Reeve Read Free Book Online Page A

bot on it during their
    last prospecting season. They hadn’t deserted this bot voluntarily, which was another story
    entirely. Regardless, any research regarding the artifact or the ruins should generate wealth
    for Aether Exploration, so Matt was a bit protective about the commercial processes inside
    G-145.
    “Our business, as prospectors, is entwined with the generational ship
    lines and we will observe their customs. I’m including you in that
    statement, Joyce.” Matt abruptly left the control deck.
    “Is it me, or did he wake up on the wrong side of his bunk?”
    “Don’t worry, it’s definitely you .” She
    couldn’t miss a chance to needle Joyce, although she wondered if Matt had opened the message
    from Athens Point LEF. She swiveled back to face the console and display walls. “We’ve got
    light-speed data now, so let me introduce you to G-145.”
    Joyce sat down beside her as she adjusted the displays to first show the
    entire solar system.
    “We have your predictable system here,” she said. “The sun is slightly
    larger than Sol, but its radiation specs are right on. All the planetary orbits are in the same
    plane. For major planets, we’ve got three rocks toward the sun and three gas giants, one barely
    within the inner system and two far out. The divide between the inner and outer system is a
    huge meteor belt of junk.”
    “Nothing with Gaian-based life, or at most, nothing usable.” Joyce kept
    up with net-think.
    “Except for the ice ball named Sophia Two, but you’re right, G-145
    appeared to be a bust.” She nodded. “It didn’t have exotic resources or seem worthy of
    colonization.When we checked in with the Pilgrimage for our first
    prospecting season, the buzz was that everyone would lose money; no one could recoup costs for
    this mission. Here’s our original claim.”
    On the wall in front of them, the image adjusted backward in time, the
    planets moving retrograde. Tapping, she laid a continuous three-dimensional swathe over the
    solar system image. This space-time slice went through the meteor belt twice and it swung by
    the inner gas giant close enough to extend their placer claim over one moon.
    “Laomedon and Priamos, its moon,” Joyce said. “I’ve done my homework.
    Laomedon is the innermost gas giant and Priamos is its second-largest moon.”
    “More importantly, our placer claim covers this point.” Ariane zoomed in
    on what looked like an empty spot of space near Laomedon, which only resolved to a dot with a
    designation string of garbled letters and numbers.
    “I take it that’s where the artifact sits. Is that a stable Lagrange
    point?”
    “ No . It’s anchored , with no station-keeping propulsion to be found. The only example
    we’ve got of something that never moves with respect to planetary bodies is the Minoan time
    buoys.”
    “So that’s why we have a gaggle of scientists hired by contractors on
    all sides: Terran, Autonomist, and let’s not forget the Minoans. What a mess.” Joyce shook his
    head.
    She winced. Part of this problem had resulted when she signed over
    leases to Terran interests. Those leases had saved her life; they were her payment for Parmet’s
    protection of her and Brandon’s identities. If she and Matt didn’t protest the legality of her
    signatures, Parmet wouldn’t release information that Ariane was pilot, and the mysterious, rich
    Mr. Leukos commander, of the crew that destroyed—that might have
    destroyed—the Terran Ura-Guinn Colony.
    On the other hand, Matt was the one who had balanced the Terran against
    the Autonomist against the Minoan contractors. He’d also tried to balance military contractors
    with purely commercial ones. It’d been tedious for him to get the right counteractions. When he
    showed her the lease and contracting structure, he’d emphasized that this was unavoidable and
    perhaps the best step forward for humankind.
    “Matt’s streamlining the reporting. He created a new matrix that’s