Martial Law 1: Patriotic Treason Read Online Free PDF

space,” the Captain ordered. The odds were astronomically against us coming out near another starship, or a planet, but he wanted to be sure. “Communications, transmit our IFF to System Command and inform them that we require a local space information download.”
     
    “All sensors read clear, sir,” Muna said, from her position. “No contacts within active sensor range.”
     
    The Captain keyed his armrest console. “All stations, stand down from emergence alert,” he ordered, calmly. There was no need, in theory, to go to emergence alert either, but the Captain ran a tight ship. The last week had included hundreds of drills, ranging from standard hull breach drills to counter-boarding drills. “Communications?”
     
    “Signal sent, sir,” Roger said. We were several light minutes from the planet, so there wouldn’t be a reply quickly unless there was a starship or sublight spacecraft closer to our position. “No response as yet.”
     
    “I thought not,” the Captain said, dryly. Roger flushed, slightly. The Captain didn’t shout, or lose his temper, but his tone spoke volumes. Roger had pointed out something that Captain had known for longer than Roger been alive. “Engineering?”
     
    “Jump Drive powering down now,” Engineer Ivan Druzhkov said, his faint Russian accent echoing through the communications link. He was a gloomy fellow most of the time, except when he was working with his beloved engines. He also had a surprisingly large collection of model railway locomotives he’d built himself in his spare time. “The drive field is online and ready.”
     
    “Good,” the Captain said. “Ensign Walker; plot us a course to Terra Nova and take us there, standard speed.”
     
    “Aye, sir,” I said. I had already plotted out the course while Muna and Roger were going through their own motions, knowing that the Captain would ask for it. I hoped – prayed – that he was keeping a careful eye on it. I’d once accidentally rammed a planet during the simulations. Lieutenant Hatchet had been scathing. “Course laid in.”
     
    The starship seemed to shiver slightly as she built up speed, heading towards the planet. It would take hours to reach Terra Nova in normal space, unless the Captain decided to open a wormhole to reach the planet quicker, but he didn’t seem to mind. There was no rush, apparently. The display was filling up now as passive sensors started to pick up hundreds of beacons right across the solar system, from small mining craft to massive bridge ships linking Terra Nova with the handful of colonies on the other worlds in the system. I had to remind myself that there was a time-delay in all of the reports. A spaceship could be light minutes from where the display insisted it was. The planet itself, of course, was surrounded with enough icons to form a small galaxy. Any colony world would have a growing space industry…
     
    I frowned as some of the beacons resolved into IFF signals. There were a handful of other starships in the system, along with sublight gunboats and support craft, and most of them were hanging in orbit around Terra Nova. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I’d heard from Lieutenant Hatchet and the Senior Chief how desperately short of starships we were, so why were so many on station around Terra Nova? The mystery only deepened when I realised that the space stations were largely UN-built, instead of local construction…and that the Peace Force seemed to be controlling them. It was odd. Terra Nova didn’t even have a space cable, let alone an orbital tower. If was as if they didn’t want any connection with space at all.
     
    Muna’s console bleeped an alarm. “Captain,” she said, “I’m picking up a distress signal, from the freighter Diamond’s Revenge.”
     
    I looked up at the main display. A new icon had flashed into existence. “They’re reporting that they are under attack,” she said. “They’re requesting