Rift Breaker Read Online Free PDF Page B

said.
    The captain steadily eased the controls left, avoiding a drifting antenna — a repair vehicle was still clamped to its dish. The tracked wheels were barely attached. A gaping circular burn had taken a bite from the engine. Through the hole of its cracked visors, Milton could make out an unmoving suited body inside.
    The hull rattled as metallic particles patted the Inhibitan ’s skin. The captain slowed to avoid a flat piece of drifting shell on the right. The metal rotated into the light, revealing reflective strips of paint, symbols that spelt the first half of the word Orisurrection .
    The Inhibitan glided towards the looming wreckage. The captain turned into the hull. Her hands delicately applied pressure to the controls. The turning thrusters fired in small hisses, keeping the ship pointed at the opening on the other side. Darkness crawled over the pane and across the faces of the Inhibitan ’s passengers. Milton looked up and saw the main corridor, a place he had walked not long ago. The shadows of shrivelled bodies floated like ghosts. Their hands, clawed and bony, clutched one another in desperation. The glow of the thrusters swept over their faces, revealing snap-frozen expressions of terror.
    The captain rotated the ship ninety degrees and sailed through the exit slit. The console chirped and the autoscan results displayed on the windshield. No life was detected.
    â€˜There were kids here,’ said Milton.
    The captain swallowed through a clenched jaw. ‘We’re leaving,’ she said. She accessed the navi system and punched in fresh co-ordinates. ‘I can take you boys to Lubric. Anywhere else would be too far from my path. This will cost extra.’
    The hitchhikers exchanged a wordless glance as the Inhibitan cleared the space junk. Once the patting of loose metal on theouter shell died down, the captain pushed a lever on the console, kicking her ship into a quantum jump and summoning the hyperspace tube once again.

    Fleet Commander Viceon Raegar cracked his four sets of knuckles and laid his hands on the specially designed armrests. Apart from the occasional eye movement, he sat motionless, staring into the purple hyperspace tube before him.
    His crew was in his peripherals. Each member sat at monitoring stations in slightly sunken sections of the floor. Rookies. He didn’t mind them. Young blood was good for the company.
    An outer-rim space colony had failed to make a periodical transmission. His mission was simple: fly to Orisurrection , investigate the loss of contact and re-establish communications. The situation wasn’t uncommon; transmissions often got lost in the outer rim — sucked into black holes or absorbed by stars — the extended distance caused difficulties. Apparently, thanks to the Weinians, the old methods were about to change. Raegar couldn’t help but sense that, little by little, with every advancement, he was on his way to redundancy.
    He operated faithfully under the banner of the Tranquillian Composite, a fusion of worlds dedicated to preserve co-habitation. Although relatively small in terms of military might, the cooperation of all participating worlds made the Compositea dominant force. The headquarters was located on Cenyulone, a small planet close to the galaxy’s centre.
    Commander Raegar was a Kharla, a creature with high muscle mass. His skull protruded forward in the middle of his face, stopping short of his black nose, and back in the upper rear of his head. His rubbery antennae followed the curve. He had round, nocturnal, mammal eyes, which he kept half-open most of the time. His monochrome skin sagged with age; black as space on his back, and fading to white on his muscular midsection. Stemming from his thin middle, his legs had bulging thighs, backward jointing knees and feet with two toes each. Kharla were naturals in speed and melee combat. The commander wore a tailor-made Composite uniform and displayed his war