The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
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- Author: Megan E. O’Keefe
- Language: English
- Genre: Space Opera Science Fiction
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The Amaranth
Tarquin Mercator stood on the command bridge of the finest spaceship his
father had ever built and hoped he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself.
Serious people crewed the console podiums all around him, wrist-deep in
holos that managed systems Tarquin was reasonably certain he could name,
but there ended the extent of his knowledge. The intricate inner workings of
a state-of-the-art spaceship were hardly topics covered during his geology
studies.
Despite Tarquin’s lack of expertise, being Acaelus Mercator’s son
placed him as second-in-command. Below Acaelus, and above the
remarkably more qualified mission captain, a stern woman named Paison.
That captain was looking at him now—expectant, deferential. Thin,
golden pathways resembling circuitry glittered on her skin, printed into her
current body to aid her as a pilot. Sweat beaded between Tarquin’s shoulder
blades.
“My liege,” Captain Paison said, all practiced obeisance, and while he
desperately wished that she was addressing his father, her light grey eyes
didn’t move from Tarquin. “We are approximately an hour’s flight from the
prearranged landing site. Would you like to release the orbital survey drone
network?”
Tarquin hoped his relief didn’t show. Scouting the planet for deposits of
relkatite was the one job for which he felt firmly footed.
“Yes, Captain. Do we have visual on the planet?”
“Not yet, my liege.” She expanded a vast holographic display from her
console, revealing the cloud-draped world below. “The weather is against
us, but the drone network should be able to punch through it in the next few
hours.”
“Hold off on landing until I can confirm our preliminary survey data. We
wouldn’t want to put the ship down too far from a viable mining site.”
Polite chuckles all around. Tarquin forced a smile at their faux
camaraderie and pulled up a holo from his own console, reviewing the data
the survey drones had retrieved before the mining ships Amaranth and
Einkorn had taken flight for the tedious eight-month voyage to Sixth
Cradle.
Not that he’d been awake for that journey. His mind and the minds of
the entire crew had been safely stored away in the ship’s databases,
automated systems in place to print key personnel when they drew within
range of low-planet orbit. When food was so expensive, there was no point
in feeding people who weren’t needed to work during the trip.
Tarquin’s father put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a friendly
shake. “Excited to see a cradle world?”
“I can’t wait,” he said honestly. When he’d been a child, Tarquin’s
mother had taken him to Second Cradle shortly before its collapse. Those
memories of that rare, Earthlike world were vague. Tarquin smiled up into
eyes a slightly darker shade of hazel than his own.
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