The Machine Awakes Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    SHADOW PROTOCOL
    â€”PRIORITY 1 SECRET—
    The mission the Fleet Admiral was describing was beyond top secret. So much so that as Avalon leafed through the flimsy pages of the report, she could see that instead of text, the file consisted of line after line of solid green blocks. The report—the entire briefing document for the Fleet Command Council itself—was redacted.
    Avalon glanced up at Moustafa. His folder was closed, but he tapped the cover with his finger and nodded at her. There was no doubt in her mind that he had exactly the same questions as she did.
    A mission too secret for even the Command Council to know the details of? Unless the redacted files were just for her and Moustafa. Avalon’s gaze moved around the officers sitting stiffly behind the conference table. Who really knew about the mission? Some here must have sufficient clearance. Perhaps Admiral Laverick, the Fleet Admiral’s aide-de-camp? Or the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Vaughn, the man directly in command of the millions of Fleet troops spread out across the galaxy. That pair sat next to each other on Avalon’s right. Neither moved nor spoke, their briefing folders lying unopened on the table in front of them.
    Zworykin too. As Admiral and commander-in-chief of the Psi-Marine Corps—Moustafa’s CO—he wore the same striking black uniform as his junior officer, and with his wavy dark gray hair brushed back from his forehead, he cut an impressive figure. As he sat with one elbow on the table, tapping a single finger against his lips as he watched Fleet Admiral Sebela, Avalon saw the corners of his mouth twitch into a slight smile.
    He was the only person in the room who didn’t look afraid. Whatever the Shadow Protocol was, it had the whole council spooked. Except Zworykin. In fact, thought Avalon as she watched the Psi-Admiral, he looked pleased. Like a cat, waiting to pounce.
    Moustafa cleared his throat discreetly and the Fleet Admiral seemed to snap out of it. He looked around the table like he was surprised to find himself sitting there with a dozen senior officers around him.
    â€œI must report,” he said at last, “that Shadow Protocol has resulted in complete failure.”
    Now there were gasps around the table, mutterings from the other officers. Avalon frowned, unsure of what they were all talking about, angry at being left out. She glanced at Moustafa across the table from her, and this time he shook his head. Next to him, Zworykin hadn’t moved, hadn’t taken his eyes from their leader. Hadn’t stopped smiling.
    The shiny black surface of the meeting table flickered into a deep blue, and a three-dimensional holographic representation of a star system appeared in the air above it. It was sparsely populated—the star at the center, labeled as SHADOW , a few asteroid fields in a close orbit, and, farther out, a red cube indicating a Fleet ship or structure. Floating above the cube was a serial number, the official Fleet manifest designation, and then a name. It was a U-Star—but not a ship, a space station. Avalon leaned forward to see the tiny text a little better. It read:
    UNION CLASS FLEET STARSHIP
    RPOS ΨυΨ
    COAST CITY
    The Fleet Admiral took a deep breath, his hands spaced out on the table in front of him. “I regret the RPOS station U-Star Coast City was lost with all hands.”
    Avalon leaned back into her chair, sinking into the padded leather, cold against the back of her head. The holodisplay changed, from the computer representation of the system to an actual three-dimensional image. It was beautiful, clouds of red and blue arcing symmetrically from a black central point, the star field beyond rich and colorful. The Shadow system was now home to a nebula.
    â€œThe star Shadow, an asymptotic technetium star, unexpectedly went nova mid-mission, destroying the Coast City and saturating the system with exotic radiation,” said the