Reasons for the ships that blip in and out of scanning?
No identifiable cause.
Harbin did not like this. Something was going on, and it was not right. He had a feeling in the pit of his stomach. He still held concern for Lady Bianca, and that concern seemed to color his view of everything.
He was suspicious and tense, feeling certain that something was coming. He wondered if seeing Bianca would do a great deal to ease his mind.
All the group, of course, needed to be protected, which was why Harbin made sure his unit had five total members, one for each member of the party. He felt one on one protection was necessary. While dissension among the Rhimodians was very unlikely, not every Rhimodian still had their Shine.
There were Tarnished ones.
And sometimes, the Tarnished objected and argued with Master System's goals. That was just on the Rhimodian side of the treaty. With the Terrans, anything could be possible. He remembered when the first Ambassador died, the Empress. There was no evidence of a crime by the Rhimodians. The death was tragic, but it was not malicious.
Harbin did not want to see death happen again. Hence the bodyguards. Fortunately, Master System agreed with Rhimodians guarding the delegates from the Terran worlds.
“Who is the Ambassador?” Jedriek asked. “The Terran’s name.”
“Her Imperial Highness Princess Caoimhe London Montgale Bron,” Harbin said. “And her companions.” He almost added Lady Bianca, but he stopped himself. He did not want to explain why he knew one of the companion's names, but not all.
“Do they all have names like that?” Bahran asked.
“The Terrans like their titles,” Harbin replied.
That they did. Bianca had told him all had some kind of title, none as long as the Imperial Princess's name. Still, all had some form of particular address to mark them as important in their society.
"I want a title," Kian said.
"Arrogant?" Wrathin answered.
Harbin cleared his throat. “We will make certain the Ambassador’s entourage is safely brought to Sol-3. No matter what.”
“Execute,” all of them said in unison.
Harbin shifted in his seat, his fingers resting on the controls under each hand. The cockpit kept him lying down mostly flat, with his gauntlets plugged into the programmed systems and some manual ones under his fingers.
Scan immediate area again with traffic counts.
Scanning.
Some ships were leaving the moons already, heading back to Sol-3. An eclipse was coming in a few hours. Already the usual light from the gas giant of Sol that magnified the solar light in the system had begun to dim. It would go completely dark in a few hours and stay that way for at least sixty-nine hours.
They were very close to going into Sol-3 to land, so regardless of Harbin's uneasy sensation, this portion of the trip was about to be over.
Two-hundred thirty-five ships in the immediate area,Master System announced.
Harbin blinked. "What?" he muttered. That was well over double what he had recorded just a few minutes ago.
He started to send out a message to his unit, and the ground forces prepared for an emergency.
"Master System," he started to say.
The Terran ship started to explode right in front of him.
And those hidden two hundred extra ships appeared and started to attack.
9
“We’re under attack,” Veta said as she raised a piece of the bulkhead so they could pass. “We have to get off this ship. The damn Rhimodians double-crossed us.”
