Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) Read Online Free

that
happened.  Or, better yet, transiting the tunnel at the time.

Chapter Two
     
    A pessimist sees the difficulty in every
opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.  Winston
Churchill
     
    BORDERLANDS, NOVEMBER 12 TH , 1002. 
D-50.
     
    “We are well into the
space of the human Empire, sir.  My Lord,” said the Navigator, looking at
Jasper, then the Ca’cadasan Overlord.
    Four four eight three
one, known for this mission as Ship Master Tom Jasper, watched in relief as
they got to the point where they could start playing the role that would
hopefully get them to the target.  He looked back at the Master, wondering once
again why they had to come on this mission, when his people could have handled
it very well by themselves.  He then looked at four four three seven six, known
as Mary Sowell, the First Mate, as well as his mate.
    It had taken them
thirty-six days to come through the borderlands space in hyper IV, something
they could have pushed through in a day and a half in VI.  But by transiting in
four, they were putting out a hyper signal that transmitted only a sixteenth of
the distance that they would in the much higher dimension, while picking up the
enemy at sixteen times that range.  The fear had been that a human ship would
still coast past them, picking up their hypersignal and jumping down to
investigate what would appear to be a smuggler or infiltrator trying to sneak
into their space.
    Now they were in the
space where an Imperial merchantman might be expected to be.  Still some
suspicion this close to the border, but a place where they might be able to
talk themselves out of an inspection.  Then again, they might not.
    “What has the plot looked
like?” asked the Overlord.
    The Captain looked at the
plot, currently set on a twenty light year radius.  Their normal range of hyper
VI detection was about a light year, but anything jumping would be detected for
a few moments out to two and a half to three light years.  Unfortunately, they
would also be detected to the same range when they jumped to VI.  But they
would jump to VI in one step, giving the enemy only one chance to detect their
translation.
    “We have seen nothing for
over a day, my Lord,” said the Sensor Tech.
    “I believe it is safe
enough,” said Jasper, looking back at the Ca’cadasan.
    The male was silent for a
few minutes, thinking.  Jasper knew the Masters were not the fastest of
thinkers, with less flexibility than his own people.  He had been raised to
think of the Masters as superior in all ways, physically and mentally.  It soon
became obvious to anyone who worked with them that they were truly the
physically superior species, or at least the stronger, longer lived race.  It
also became obvious to anyone working around them that the Ca’cadasan were not
mentally superior to most of those they ruled, especially the mentally flexible
humans.  The only reason they ruled such a large Empire was the luck of
timing.  They had advanced at a time when their neighbors weren’t to far ahead
of them, and became too large to fail as they steamrolled single and small
multisystem species afterwards.
    “Proceed,” ordered the
big male.
    “Jump,” ordered Jasper a
moment later.  The lights dimmed for a moment as the ship put all of its power
into the hyperdrive arrays, which projected a wave of gravitons to open a
temporary hole between the dimensions.  The ship slid smoothly through the hole
from the red background dimension of hyper IV into the brighter red higher
dimension of VI.
    The ship coasted in VI
for ten minutes, holding her entry velocity of point two light.  She actually
had the capability of jumping at point three light, in the same range as most
of the warships of both sides.  But she was playing the deception game, and
anyone picking her up before or after jump would see what they wanted to see.
    “No tracks,” called out
the Sensor Tech.  “As far as I can tell, there is