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Back The Collapsing Empire Save as PDF
Chapters (26)
  1. Cover
  2. The Collapsing Empire
  3. PROLOGUE
  4. PART ONE
  5. Chapter 1
  6. Chapter 2
  7. Chapter 3
  8. Chapter 4
  9. Chapter 5
  10. Chapter 6
  11. PART TWO
  12. Chapter 7
  13. Chapter 8
  14. Chapter 9
  15. Chapter 10
  16. Chapter 11
  17. Chapter 12
  18. PART THREE
  19. Chapter 13
  20. Chapter 14
  21. Chapter 15
  22. Chapter 16
  23. Chapter 17
  24. Chapter 18
  25. EPILOGUE
  26. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Marce slipped into his bunk area, which had barely enough room to sit up, and connected his tablet to the ship’s system. There was already a message waiting for him, informing him where to report to his new superior, and when, the latter being a half hour from then.

Marce opened up an app that would allow him to text anonymously and securely and pinged Vrenna. This is your friend Kristian, he texted.

I already said good-bye to you. Now you’re ruining the moment, Vrenna responded.

Marce smiled at that. I need you to look up someone. A man named Sjo Tinnuin. He crews on the Tell Me Another One. I need you to do it before the Yes, Sir hits the Flow shoal.

All right. Why?

Because he’s heard a rumor about that thing that I’m interested in.

I love it when you’re vague.

Particularly the thing I’m about to deal with. Vague enough?

Perfectly.

Good. It would be helpful to know where he heard the rumor. It’s a very weirdly specific thing to have a rumor about.

I’m on it. How is the ship?

I’m in a bunk the size of a dresser drawer.

Jealous. All I have is my massive bed back at the palace, in a room the size of a small village.

I hate you.

Hate you too, Kristian. Be safe. I’ll ping the ship with a message when I get news.

Thanks— and here Marce almost typed “sis” but stopped and just added a period instead. Then he turned off his tablet, sealed up his bunk, and spent a few minutes in the uncomfortably close dark, having the first twinges of homesickness.

Chapter 11

“You said you wanted to be informed if something unusual happened on our way out from End,” Captain Tomi Blinnikka said, to Kiva. They were two days out from End, and another day out from the Flow shoal that would have them heading toward Hub. Kiva and Blinnikka were in the captain’s private room, off the bridge of the Yes, Sir, along with Chief of Security Nubt Pinton. The room could comfortably fit two people tops, and Pinton was exceedingly large. Kiva felt like she could actually taste his sweat particles.

“What is it?” she asked.

Blinnikka activated a tablet and showed it to Kiva. It featured a live feed of the Yes, Sir’s position in space, along with the logarithmically mapped position of other objects and ships within a light-minute of distance. “We’ve got a ship coming toward us.”

“Toward us? Or toward the shoal?”