Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon Read Online Free

now.” After Maurus was framed for orchestrating the Trucon disaster, Captain Lennard had publicly cleared him of any involvement with the plot, but because he had learned along the way that Maurus actually had covered up his past involvement with the Karsha Ven rebel group when he joined the Fleet, Maurus’s return to the Kuyddestor had come on the condition that he let himself be monitored.
    Parker snorted. “We know nobody’s surveilling you right now, there’s no power. Besides, Forquera never explicitly said not to take us to the engine room.” He prodded Chase toward the stairs that headed down toward the engine deck. “Look, Chase is going there, and oh no, there’s no way you can stop him. Better keep up so you don’t lose track of him.”
    Chase took a halfhearted step down the stairs, giving Maurus an apologetic look.
    Maurus had the flat expression of someone who was about to give in. “If they yell at us to leave, there won’t be any objections.”
    Parker grinned. “They won’t ask me to leave. I’ll be quiet as a ghost.” He gave Chase another prod and then jogged down the stairs ahead of him. “Hey, is it true that Colonel Forquera used to be a smuggler before he joined the Fleet?”
    â€œWhere did you hear that?” asked Maurus sharply.
    Chase’s head snapped to attention. Parker had never mentioned this to him before.
    â€œJust some talk I overheard.”
    â€œDo you believe all the gossip you hear?”
    â€œWell, if it walks like a Horga, and talks like a Horga…”
    Chase frowned at Parker’s back. How many other things had he heard about and not shared?
    â€œHe wouldn’t have been allowed to join the Fleet if he was a smuggler,” said Maurus. After a long pause, he added, “I heard he raced in the comet-chaser circuits. So, yeah, he probably ran with some pretty sketchy people, but I doubt he did anything illegal.”
    â€œOr maybe he just didn’t get caught,” said Parker with a sly smile in his voice. “I heard you can still get into the Fleet if you lie about your past.”
    â€œShut up,” said Chase. That last comment had been a dig at Maurus.
    â€œYeah, Parker, give it a rest,” mocked Lilli.
    â€œDid anyone ever tell you you’re really annoying?” said Parker.
    â€œEnough,” said Maurus in a firm voice. “Move aside. I’ll take the lead here.”
    They had reached the bottom level of the starship, the engine deck. The engine room itself was located in the rear half of the ship, but someone had tossed phoswhites on the ground down the length of the hall to light the way. They walked past soldiers prying open doors with crowbars, while other soldiers jogged by them, passing information to one another in urgent tones.
    The door to the engine room had been jimmied halfway open, and in the dimly lit space behind it, shapes moved among the shadows. Maurus squeezed inside and pointed for everyone to stand along the back wall.
    The engine room was technically an entire suite of individual chambers, but when people referred to it, they meant the big, circular room that ran around the engine core. At any given time there were at least a dozen engineers seated at the consoles and walking briskly from room to room. Chief Engineer Kobes practically lived there full time, reviewing calculations and barking orders. Chase had met him on a few occasions and was always somewhat intimidated by the stout, perpetually grumpy older man.
    One of the consoles in the room was glowing, and a group of engineers including the chief stood clustered around it. “We were running a standard system upgrade on the navigation controls, but instead of performing a concurrent reboot like it always does, it crashed the entire mainframe,” said Chief Kobes loudly.
    â€œHow soon until you get it back up?” crackled a deep voice from a handheld communicator