Constitution: Book 1 of the Legacy Fleet Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page A

to make that many q-jumps. Each only took about a minute to complete, but only advanced them about a tenth of a lightyear closer to their destination.
    “That’s about right, sir. Fifty-five minutes, to be precise.”
    The IDF Intel ships were small, but blazingly fast. Most larger capital ships like the Lancer class heavy cruisers the IDF built a decade ago were lumbering sloths in comparison, only able to q-jump every two minutes or so—it took that long to build up a sufficient charge in the solid state capacitor banks. And the old blocky ships like the Galaxy class carriers, well, those were more like slugs. Not too many of those left, and once the Washington was decommissioned, that would leave only the Thatcher, and the Norfolk . And that didn’t even include the Legacy Fleet—the ancient heavy cruisers from the last century. Thankfully, only the Constitution was left from that bunch, and IDF only kept her around as a piece of living history.
    “Still no meta-space signals?” If there were any problems at Merida, or Starbase Heroic , they would have heard something by now. Meta-space signals were extremely low bandwidth, but they effectively travelled at a hundred times the fastest q-jump drives. Only twenty-four bits per second, but that was better than nothing.
    “Still nothing, sir. Not even from Heroic .”
    That was damn peculiar. Not that the starbase was constantly sending out meta-space transmissions—it was relatively expensive to do so since each signal consumed upwards of a terawatt—but for there to be no response to CENTCOM’s repeated messages requesting their current status, well, that was unusual.  
    And it was also classified. CENTCOM hadn’t told Admiral Yarbrough the reason they were sending Intel ships out from Earth’s Valhalla Space Station rather than the much closer Starbase Heroic . The truth was that they’d lost contact with Heroic over three days ago. But that was classified top-secret. She’d find out in a few days, but CENTCOM played its hand close to its chest, even with its own admirals.
    “Ready for q-jump,” said the navigator.
    “Proceed.” Commander LaPlace’s fingers tightened slightly around his armrest. The q-jumps were benign enough, but they still always made him momentarily queasy. Not unreasonably so, given that he was effectively going into nonexistence for the barest fraction of a second as the quantum fields worked themselves out. Less than a Planck-second, and therefore imperceptible, but still.
    The bridge was small, and a little cramped, and as such LaPlace knew something was up the moment his sensor officer’s brow furrowed.
    “What’s up, Andy?”
    “I’m getting a strange reading from one of the planets in the Leon System.”
    LaPlace craned his neck to glimpse the sensor station. “Such as?”
    The officer shook his head. “I don’t understand it. It’s a meta-space signal, but it’s gibberish. It’s like a pulsating oscillation. Pretty regular—maybe three hertz, with some overtones.”
    “How many overtones can there be at only 24 bits per second?”
    “Not many. And I’m not sure it’s even regular. But ... I’ve never seen anything like this.”
    LaPlace bit his lip. Continue on to Merida and Starbase Heroic ? Or investigate this new mystery? His gut told him all the events were related. “Hold q-jumps. Andy, can you triangulate a source?”
    “Maybe. Can we increase lateral speed? That’ll help.”
    LaPlace nodded. “Navigation, aft and starboard thrusters at fifty percent.”
    A few moments later the sensor officer nodded. “Got a lock. The source is the fourth planet from the star in the Leon System.”
    The tactical officer to LaPlace’s left tapped his screen, indicating to the Commander a local star map. “Sir, the fourth planet is where the new Mexican settlement is. Nueva Leon. They’re governed out of Merida.”
    “How close?”
    The nav officer checked his board. “Just two q-jumps away. We can be there in