The Black Sheep (A Learning Experience Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

Thomas.  “See if you can download the ship’s logs.”
     
    “Aye, sir,” Thomas said.
     
    He sat down at the nearest console and keyed commands into the system.  It was an odd combination of human and alien technology, as if the freighter crew hadn't been able to obtain a number of subsystems from Earth.  Given how far they were from the Solar Union, they’d probably been forced to jury-rig a great deal more than just the control consoles.  He would have been impressed, if the system hadn't been so clunky.  Half the files spat out by the damaged system had nothing whatsoever to do with either operating a starship or whatever had forced Ryman and his crew to run for their lives, carrying thousands of refugees and chased by three warships.
     
    “We just completed the headcount, Commander,” one of the marines said.  “There were six thousand refugees, mainly human, crammed into the hulk.  At least nineteen died in transit, sir, and thirty died when a shield generator exploded.  I honestly don’t know how they survived as long as they did.”
     
    “We’ll have to ship them over to the base or down to the planet as quickly as possible,” the XO said, slowly.  “Inform Captain Stuart that we may need to request support from the local authorities.”
     
    Thomas shook his head in horrified disbelief.  Speaker to Seafood was seven hundred metres long, one of the largest ships that could land on a planetary surface, but cramming six thousand humans into the hull would have been damn near impossible.  They’d have to be crammed into the ship like sardines in a can.  What the hell had they been running from, he asked himself as he drove further into the computer network, that impelled them to take the risk?  Losing only nineteen passengers to suffocation - or whatever - had been amazingly lucky.
     
    A new file popped up in front of him.  “I think I’ve found something, sir,” he said.  “It’s not the logbook, but it is a personal diary.”
     
    “Skim the last few entries and summarise them,” the XO ordered.  “Can you tell who wrote it?”
     
    “I’m not sure,” Thomas confessed, after a few moments.  “It reads like it was written by a young person, but there’s no way to be certain.”
     
    “Never mind, for the moment,” the XO said.  “What does it say?”
     
    The girl wrote it , Thomas thought, as he brought up the last few entries and skimmed them as quickly as he could.  He couldn’t help feeling as though he was intruding on her privacy - she talked about video stars she liked as well as her feelings for someone who remained nameless - but there was no choice.  Why doesn't she say anything useful ?
     
    He paused as he read the last entry, dated three weeks ago.  “She talks about the ship landing on Amstar,” he said, slowly.  “There’s a long section in which she complains about being confined to the ship, about being told she can't even cross the landing pad to visit her ... her friend on the other freighter.  The grown-ups are apparently talking about something she’s not supposed to know about, then ...”
     
    The XO leaned forward.  “And then?”
     
    “Nothing,” Thomas said.  “That’s the last entry, sir, but assuming they made all speed from Amstar to Martina they’d have been in transit at least a week.  What happened between the last entry and their departure must have been bad.”
     
    He glanced back over the prior entries, but saw nothing remarkable.  The girl had hoped to be a trader herself, he noted; her parents were teaching her the tricks of the trade, in-between making sure she had a well-rounded education.  He couldn't help feeling a stab of envy - he’d grown up on an asteroid himself; he hadn't seen an alien until he’d enrolled at the academy - at the life she’d led, before dismissing the thought.  Whatever she’d experienced on Amstar had traumatised her.
     
    “No doubt,” the XO said.  “Continue searching