Shadows of the Gods: Crimson Worlds Refugees II Read Online Free PDF

he just nodded silently. Compton knew the brilliant scientist understood, and probably, on some level, he even agreed. He’d been caught in the fighting six months earlier, when the landing party had been attacked by First Imperium security bots…and then he’d barely escaped the Colossus before it was destroyed in the fight against the overwhelming First Imperium forces in X18. Six months had passed without incident, that was true. But Compton didn’t think Hieronymus Cutter was like so many others in the fleet, ready to forget a threat after a brief respite. No, there was no one more equipped to understand the mysterious intelligence out there directing its forces than Cutter. He knew better than anyone else how determined, how relentless an artificial intelligence could be.
    And still he wants to go, even knowing the risks…perhaps better than I do. Am I wrong on this? Is it worth the danger?
    Compton pushed back the thought. He had tremendous respect for Cutter’s intellect…and the warrior in him wanted to stop running. The idea of developing weaponry to match the First Imperium forces was seductive, and the thought of blasting enemy fleets to dust roused a fire in his belly. But his people needed more than a fighter’s bluster. They needed judgment, rational planning. And he was determined to give it to them.
     
    *    *    *
     
    “I’ve been over it again and again, Terrance. There’s just no way. Even if we dump vital spare parts and you give me another six or eight freighters, we’re still going to come up short. Maybe sixty percent of what we need. Seventy outside…but that assumes no accidents, no unforeseen problems.”
    Compton felt the sigh about to come, but he forced it back, and he just shook his head. Not you too, Sophie. The perfect end to a perfect day . It had been a month since the celebration, and whatever satisfaction Compton had managed to enjoy was long gone. Trying to keep his people alive even without the First Imperium attacking was proving to entail a constant series of unsolvable problems.
    “So what do you propose?” His words came out a bit harder edged in tone than he’d intended them. It wasn’t her fault. Indeed, Sophie Barcomme had worked miracles filling the empty spaces of the fleet’s freighters with a bizarre—but highly optimized—assortment of algae and funguses, unappetizing, perhaps, but edible and nutrient dense. Without her efforts, the fleet would already be out of food, its people halfway to starving to death. “I’m sorry,” he added almost immediately. “Tough day.”
    He still had a headache from his encounter with Hieronymus, wondering if he was wrong, if his caution was costing them the chance to gain the knowledge they needed to survive. You’d be dead already if you hadn’t let him go check out the Colossus . He felt a chill pass through him as he remembered how close he had come to refusing Cutter’s request back then. Sometimes there is a razor’s edge between success and failure, between victory…and death .
    He couldn’t blame the scientist for all of the pain in his head though. After he’d left Cutter, he had gone to the flag bridge…and waded through the tidal wave of reports, the results of the ship diagnostics he’d ordered. He almost put his fist through the bulkhead when he first saw the number of vessels requiring petty repairs. He’d repeatedly reminded his ship commanders to keep an eye on their vessels’ readiness, but no matter what he did or said, some of the fleet’s captains were simply incompetent…or at least not up to his exacting standards. He’d always known the Alliance navy was the best among all of Earth’s Superpowers, the result in large part of the example he and Augustus Garret had set and the standards they had enforced. But the fleet was an international force, an amalgam of crews from nine nations, and Compton knew its survival depended on his maintaining the loyalty and respect of all of