Chapter 31: Bone Yard
“What in the name of Mother Night happened here?” Debbie Love’s eyes were wide in astonishment. The broken shell of a heavy cruiser and more than a dozen navy frigates, destroyers and corvettes littered the space around Malzonto’s outermost jovian. They were not alone, several corsair raiders floated lifeless in the dark among them.
“No challenge from orbital control?” she asked.
“No orbital control,” Hernshaw told her. “I’m detecting wreckage of about the right mass down on number five’s surface.”
“What was Floyd doing here?” she asked, speaking primarily to herself.
“Damn lucky for us he was,” Hernshaw said. “We’d have been slaughtered.”
“Any active ships on scope?”
“Not a one,” he confirmed. “If we’re quick we can refuel the entire wing and skedaddle before anyone knows we’ve been here. This happened within the last two or three days so we can be gone before any response force shows up.”
Debbie Love leaned forward in her chair and covered her mouth and nose under folded hands. Making up her mind she sat back and gave her orders. “We’ll do a fast orbit of the gas giant and make sure we’re not being set up. Then we’ll call in the wing.”
Leaning back she shook her head and sighed in relief. Thank you, Doc Flamingo…
