The Lost Voyager: A Space Opera Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

shrugged his shoulders and grunted. “Who the hell knows?”
    “Weren’t you at the job agency when Mach took the work?”
    “No, I had to run an errand in the capital. Once we got paid for bringing in Ripper, I left Mach to negotiate the next contract.”
    At this Tulula placed her cutlery onto the plate and sat up straight, staring right at Sanchez. The will of her stature seemed to penetrate through Sanchez’s defenses, and he too looked up and gazed into her eyes.  
    Mach increased the volume. He hadn’t realized until now just how hard he was gripping the edge of the stool on which he sat. He was just a few centimeters away from the screen. He zoomed it in to Sanchez’s face and increased the brightness until he could see Tulula’s reflection in the hunter’s eyes.  
    “Where did you go?” Tulula said, then answering her own question with that same statement voice, “You went to the clinic.”
    The atmosphere of the mess hall seemed to thicken around Sanchez. His body shrank and he ran his two large hands down his face as he sighed. “I did,” he said, almost whispering now. “You can’t tell anyone about this. Not now, not when we’re about to go into hell knows what.”
    Tulula’s right hand reached out for him, her lithe fingers wrapping gently around his wrist. “I won’t say a word, but you need to tell me, is it what I thought it was?”
    “It is,” Sanchez said, dropping his hands to the table and covering Tulula’s.
    “How long?” she asked.  
    “At best, I’ve got—”
    A set of footsteps outside of Mach’s door snapped him away from the conversation. A rap on the door made him jump. He quickly gestured across his smart-screen to shut off the video and audio from the mess.  
    “Come in,” he said, standing up from the stool and straightening his waistcoat.  
    Lassea entered the room. “Sir, just wanted to let you know that we’ve made extra time and will be prepared to exit the L-jump in approximately three hours.”
    “Thank you,” Mach said. “I’ll be on the bridge shortly.”
    The girl just stood there for a moment, staring at him. “Sir, is everything okay?”
    He didn’t know. What he had seen between Sanchez and Tulula had left him confused and anxious. Was his old friend okay? What were they talking about? But the thing that got him the most was that if Sanchez was in trouble of some kind, why hadn’t he come to Mach?
    “I’ll be right there,” he said, more firmly this time. “That’s all, Lassea.”
    The girl blushed and stepped back out of the room as the door slid closed behind her. Mach sat down on the edge of his bed and pondered on whether he should tell the crew, or at the very least Sanchez, what it was they were really going to rescue.

Chapter Four

    The two dwarf planets of the Noven system lay directly ahead in close proximity. Mach thought what he would do if he were on Voyager . The obvious choice would be to get the easy part out of way and visit Noven Beta, the location of the main mining facility, to destroy the data. Beta was a small cold planet on the outside of the system, which also meant it was the closest to their position as they came out of the L-jump.
    “Head for the Beta facility,” Mach said to Lassea. “If we’re lucky we’ll find the Voyager there.”
    Sanchez groaned. “Great, the cold one first.”
    Mach noticed a pained expression on his face.  
    “Don’t worry, old friend, you’ll get some R&R after we complete the mission,” Mach said, putting slight emphasis on the rest and recuperation part.  
    Sanchez just nodded before turning back to his console.  
    “We’ll find nothing but snow and ice is my guess,” Adira said. “I doubt any of their systems survived a decade of sub-zero temperatures.”  
    Mach frowned but quickly relaxed his brow. Adira gave him one of her disarming smiles. She never liked to make his life easy and adding to Sanchez’s grumble was her way of giving Mach a little kick.