Star Alliance Read Online Free PDF Page B

hours. Traversing between the two ships was significantly easier thanks to the Boxans. They had connected the two vessels by using an emergency docking tube that extended a hundred meters in length. The ends of the tubes were able to seal themselves around one of the Athena’s airlocks. The dark gray material was both flexible and strong while maintaining a rigid structure once it was programmed in. Getting back and forth between the two ships took only minutes now.  
    Kaylan headed to the science lab where Emma waited for her, hunched over a microscope.
    “Efren, I told you Kaylan was coming up here. The hydroponics lab will have to wait,” Emma said.
    Kaylan cleared her throat. “Efren come here often?” she asked.
    Emma looked up from the microscope and grinned. Her short dark hair was pushed back behind her ears. “Just this morning. He’s a little on edge. We all are. But how are you doing?” Emma asked.
    “I’m fine,” Kaylan said a little too quickly. “I’m sorry. It’s almost automatic.”
    “No need to apologize to me. Still no luck finding anything in the wreckage?”
    Kaylan shook her head. “Kladomaor says it’s not safe to keep searching.”
    A soft chime sounded from the speaker near them. “The Boxan’s risk assessment is correct. Significant potential of our presence being detected increases the longer we stay here,” Athena’s AI said.
    Kaylan frowned at the speaker, but the ship’s artificial intelligence was just speaking the facts. She had been encouraging the AI to share its insights with the crew more. “What about your own analysis, Athena?” Kaylan asked.
    “The instrumentation available was insufficient to track all of the escape pods leaving the Xiiginn cruiser. There is a seventy percent probability that Zack Quick was taken to Selebus and a thirty percent chance of Zack Quick being moved to the Nershal home world,” Athena said.
    Kaylan frowned. “How did you arrive at these probabilities?”
    “By leveraging my connection to the Boxan ship’s computer. Before going to the Xiiginn cruiser, Zack had requested that an open connection between our two systems be allowed. Currently that connection is still authorized. According to the computer systems aboard the Boxan ship, the escape pods were brought to Selebus. However, ship traffic between the Nershal home world and Selebus has increased since the Xiiginn cruiser’s destruction. I estimated that some of the crew members returned to the Nershal home world based upon the ship’s capacity for additional passengers. I apologize that I cannot be of further assistance,” the AI said.
    Kaylan shared a glance with Emma. “No, you did a good job. I can find no fault with your reasoning,” Kaylan said.
    “Athena,” Emma said. “Are you able to connect to Zack’s PDA?”
    “Not since the destruction of the Xiiginn cruiser. I am monitoring for it, and there are a number of reasons for lack of communication, ranging from a malfunction to the device simply being powered off,” Athena said.
    “Or the signal could just be blocked,” Kaylan said.
    “That is also a possibility,” the AI answered.
    Kaylan chewed the inside of her lip while she thought about their next move. Kladomaor had already confirmed that their Nershal allies on Selebus were looking for Zack and the Nershal called Etanu. Their search hadn’t yielded any results either. Kaylan rubbed her eyes.
    “When was the last time you slept?” Emma asked.
    Kaylan shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t need sleep right now. The more time that passes, the more I think we’ll never find Zack.”
    The door to the lab opened and Katie Garcia walked in. Katie and Kaylan had more or less stayed by each other’s side since Zack had been taken, both working toward finding a way to figure out where Zack was being held. Tiny seeds of doubt threatened to take root in each of them and, like a weed, they pulled one out only to have two more come up.
    “I’m glad