Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) Read Online Free Page A

nothing out there listening
to us.”
    Which might not mean they
weren’t there.  In the past, any ship listening to hyperdrive emissions could
only transmit the information to other waiting ships by grav wave, detectable
by the ship they were tracking.  The humans had changed all that with their
wormhole tech, and their other strange methods of instantaneous com.  That
seemed to Jasper the mentally superior species, his long lost people, and
recently he had started wondering if he was serving the right side.
    “Accelerate up to point
eight five light,” he ordered.  “One third maximum acceleration.”
    The Helm nodded, then
pushed forward the grabber units up to the maximum that a freighter was
expected to do, about one hundred and seventy gravities.  In actuality Fool’s
Bane could pull five hundred and fifteen G’s, similar to most warships. 
But again, she was playing a game, and had to look the part.
    They pushed the ship
ahead for many hours, eventually getting up to point eight seven light,
slightly above the norm for merchant ships, but not outside the realm of
possibility.  They travelled several hours more before Jasper felt a sense of
relief.  They were well inside the Empire now and had not been challenged.  In
fact, they had seen nothing on their scans.  A bit of luck, but not unexpected
when military forces had so much space to cover, and most of them were
congregated at the frontier they had already penetrated.
    “Time to target system, forty-six
days,” called out the Navigator.
    Jasper nodded.  When they
reached the target system they would be three day’s transit from their
objective.  The other ship was five days ahead, since they had a much longer
transit into the gravity well of the black hole.  With luck they might even
make it back home at the end of the mission.  They had a wormhole, after all,
and if the Masters gave permission they could step across twenty thousand light
years in an instant.  He didn’t expect that to happen, either for them to
survive to that point, or for the Masters to even consider extracting them. 
But it didn’t hurt to stay hopeful.
    *     *     *
     
    CAPITULUM, JEWEL. NOVEMBER 18 TH , 1002.
     
    Angel Sergio Martinez
stood on the balcony of his townhouse and looked out over the city of
Capitulum, lit up like a true gem in the night.   The balcony was situated a
thousand meters up on the megascraper.  Jewel was situated in the edge of the
northern tropics of a planet slightly colder than Old Earth.  It could get
uncomfortable during the day, and sometimes at night, if one were not in the
climate controlled confines of a building.   The added altitude took a little
bit of the edge off of that temperature, though sometimes the winds could get a
little rough.
    Tonight it was perfect,
and the man known to the Underworld as The Angel of Death was enjoying
the sight of the city, feeling its pulse as he watched the chain of lights that
were aircars moving across the night sky.  The city, with over three billion
inhabitants, truly never slept.  At any time of day or night there would be at
least a billion sentient minds awake, if not always sober and alert.  More
during the day, of course, but the night life was legendary.  If he had not
been such a wanted man he might be enjoying that night life himself.
    Since leaving the Fleet,
where he had served as a Naval Commando until being thrown out for reprisals
against sentients on some shithole world, he had always gone first class. 
There had been exceptions, during a mission, a contract.  But since money had
been plentiful he had always enjoyed the life that was his when he wasn’t
planning and executing a hit.  The Imperial Government had frozen as many of
his assets as they could find, but he had too many hidey holes, purchased under
too many aliases, for them to find everything.  And now his lifestyle was at
risk, since he was turning his back on contracts.  After his last run in