Serengeti Read Online Free PDF Page B

it,” he told her, eyes shifting, staring angrily at a camera. “Just this piece. Last I checked, it was Cerberus who called the shots.”
    “ Cerberus is the flagship of the fleet,” Serengeti agreed, “and it was Cerberus that put Brutus in charge of this armada.”
    “And it was Brutus that sent you on this scouting mission,” Henricksen thundered. “You tell him to wait, that arrogant AI prick needs to wait!”
    Serengeti’s laughter caught Henricksen off-guard. He flushed darkly, thinking she laughed at him, but truth was, she found his righteous anger amusing. And she had to admit, she was the tiniest bit pleased that Henricksen—proud, protective Henricksen—was angry on her behalf.
    “I’ll relay your message,” Serengeti said.
    Henricksen froze, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. “Wait. What?”
    “You’re right. We were sent ahead for a reason. It was stupid and careless of Brutus to come barreling through without knowing what was waiting on the other side. I’ll let him know.”
    “Umm…alright…” Henricksen glanced over at Sikuuku, but the gunner just shrugged.
    Serengeti tapped into comms, bypassing the normal ship-to-ship channel to send a message directly to Brutus . And then she copied the message, sending it via an encoded channel to the Valkyries in the armada, trusting them to relay it to the rest of their small fleet.
    “ Brutus has been notified.”
    “Notified? Notified of what?” Henricksen asked suspiciously. “What the hell did you say to him, Serengeti ?”
    “I told the arrogant AI prick he needs to wait next time.” That wasn’t quite what she’d said, but it was close enough. And the look on Henricksen’s face was priceless.
    “You told him…” Henricksen blinked and stared, eyes wide with disbelief. He turned his head, looking to where the hulking monstrosity that was Brutus floated outside, and started laughing.
    “Finlay,” Serengeti called. “Please proceed with the sample capture. Have Six and Ten siphon up as much of the debris as they can and bring it back here for the robots to go over.”
    The robots were her other crew—three hundred and sixteen configurable electronic minions charged with maintenance and repairs, among other things. If there were ship parts inside that debris cloud, they’d know it. And if those parts belonged to a Meridian Alliance ship, the robots would know that too. They were clever little things, and every bit as loyal as Henricksen and the others.
    A message came back from Brutus . Serengeti didn’t bother opening it. She was pretty sure she knew what it said. “And Finlay. Tell them to hurry up about it,” she said, letting a hint of amusement creep into her voice.
    “Yes, ma’am. I mean, ship. Valkyrie,” Finlay corrected quickly, cheeks flushing furiously as she stumbled over the honorifics.
    The etiquette for addressing AI warships was a bit…vague to say the least but they were used to taking orders from the captain, and he from Serengeti, not having to address her themselves.
    Serengeti slipped into Finlay’s console, flashing a smiling kitty face on her screen. “ Serengeti,” she said. “ Serengeti will do just fine, Finlay.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” A shy glance at the camera as Finlay tapped at her station, sending a little cartoon owl back.
    “ Serengeti, ” she corrected with a laugh.
    “ Serengeti, ” Finlay repeated, flushing even brighter. She ducked her head, smiling happily as she relayed Serengeti’s instructions to the probes. “Six and Ten heading in. Grid mapping…thirty-two percent complete. Nothing yet.”
    “Thank you, Finlay.”
    Silence after that brief exchange, all of them waiting, studying the feeds Ten and Six sent back as they worked their way through the debris field, sucking up the drifting space junk and storing it in the compartments at their middles. Lot of debris out there, no way they could get it all—the probes were small, after all, and the cloud of debris diffuse and