Crescent Read Online Free PDF Page B

and was replaced with the face of a man who was the picture perfect definition of ugly. Gerald would have rather watched the commercial on loop than look at him. The face was as long as a horse’s; the nose hooked up at an unnatural angle. A patchy beard poorly concealed pockmark-ridden cheeks. Gerald’s first thought was that the man could use a shave, but he realized that shaving would only reveal more of his ugliness to the world.
    “Mr. Evans.” The man spoke as if he had a mouthful of marbles. “This is Walter Vegan. I’m Crescent’s Chief of Operations. I’ll be your point of contact for Mayor Kendall’s contract with you. We’ve got your first salvage mission. It is waiting to be downloaded to your ship’s computer. Mayor wants you to leave immediately. You sent a read receipt when you opened this message. We’re timing you. Please don’t delay.”
    “I’m going to need some more coffee,” Gerald muttered.
     
    (•••)
     
    Walter Vegan’s coordinates brought Bean into the Tireca system—a system of six planets that revolved around a massive blue star. The system was one jump between the Anrar system and the New Juno system, the gateway to the wealthy colonies on the frontier. Bean approached an asteroid belt that orbited a nameless blue gas giant. The asteroids were floating black specks against the planets roiling clouds. But not for long. As the hauler neared, the spots soon became boulders, massive and rotating slowly. Bean throttled toward them. Gerald looked to the radar overlay—the 3D image projected from a flat, control console-mounted screen as a shimmering, colored hologram. Bean’s proximity to the nearby asteroids trailed around the bottom of the hologram in glowing green letters.
    “Bean, give me a little less zoom,” Gerald said. The displayed field of view increased, resulting in a choked expanse of colored blobs.
    “The cluster is dense, Captain. A condition you are more than familiar with. I probably don’t need to say that at this resolution you will not be able to detect even the largest of starships.”
    “Thank you for that pearl, Bean. Why in the hell would miners want to fly into this dense bastard?”
    “Captain. You and I are here, aren’t we?”
    “We’re not miners, Bean. What I need you to do is this: Plot the safest possible course using field density variance. We’ll take that route in. Monitor it and remap as necessary for the haul.”
    “Yes, Captain.”
    Bean crested the craggy ridgeline of a shadowed, drifting mountain of ore. Open space swung into slow view. The radar overlay cleared ever-so-slightly to reveal a fair berth between rocks, but the dark strait between the colored blobs was shrinking fast. A glowing orange blip pulsed close to their present location. The salvage. It shouldn’t still be hot , Gerald thought. As the interference cleared on the flickering display, the orange dot was flanked by several smaller red dots. Gerald cut the engines and took control from Bean, then called up the telescopic overlay. A glowing rectangle blossomed midair. It showed three metallic spiders orbiting a mining barge. The orbiting vessels each had eight curved projections that jutted from a central globe. At the end of each projection was a plasma thrower. Just a single thrower was capable of cutting the unshielded Bean right in half. Eight would turn Bean into a small sun. Gerald squeezed out a burst of retro thrust—just enough to reverse Bean out of view. On the radar overlay, the red blips spread out suddenly. Gerald looked up and saw several white flares streak out of the asteroid field. He ran a hand down his face.
    “Bean, take us back the way we came.”
    “Take us back, Captain?” Bean inquired. “I’m reading life signs on the mining barge.”
    “We’re not a rescue ship, Bean. Get us out of here.”
    “Yes, Captain. Drives coiling.”
     
    (•••)
     
    Walter Vegan ambled toward Gerald, his horse-face set in a frown. The tall,