In Earth's Service (Mapped Space Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

not in the military. Never
was.”
    “Projectiles kinetic killed two drones security.”
    I tried to hide the sinking feeling in the pit of
my stomach. The last thing mankind needed was to make the mighty galaxy spanning
Nisk mad at us. We had enough trouble with the Matarons constantly plotting our
destruction. It explained why Trask and his two clean skins were using armor
piercing slugs, not to kill Sorvino but to eliminate any bugs that got in their
way. Considering how many billions of Nisk were scurrying around just below the
surface, ripping a few security drones apart took crazy guts, and they’d gotten
away with it!
    “Are you sure they’re military?”
    “Analysis doubt none.”
    “We sell those things to anyone, human or not.”
    “Non humans have use none for weapons kinetic.”
    Maybe not, but our primitive kinetic weapons had
taken down two of their combat drones before they even knew what was happening.
“Can you prove humans fired those slugs?”
    “Knowledge none. Proof none. Sensors disrupted.
Field interference active at five-intersect-twenty-one.”
    A cold chill ran down my spine. “What kind of
interference field?”
    “Counter-harmonic resonance.”
    It wasn’t anything I’d ever heard of, which made
it my ticket out of here.
    “Do humans have such technology?” I asked, knowing
the answer but wanting Katinuuk to acknowledge the obvious.
    “No. Sirius Kade Human to identify weapon users.”
    “They were humanoid, maybe human. That’s all I know.”
    Katinuuk studied me a moment, then made a short
strumming sound. A drone retrieved the tray displaying the JAG-40 slugs, then I
was lowered to the rock floor and freed from the suspension field.
    “This drone security to guide Sirius Kade Human to
surface. Landing rights revoked.”
    The attendant headed off into a tunnel as one of
the drones near the rock wall approached me carrying my gun in one of its
antenna-manipulators and a dull gray circular device in the other which it
unceremoniously aimed at me. I holstered my P-50, then it motioned its weapon toward
a tunnel to the right. The combat drone was not fitted with a vocalizer, so expecting
no conversation, I moved in the direction indicated.
    The tunnel was wide enough for two drones to pass
each other comfortably and was lit by dull gray illuminator panels. Several
times, the tunnel opened onto ramps leading down into vast galleries filled
with multilayered metal frameworks linked by single arch bridges. They swarmed with
tens of thousands of worker drones operating machines and carrying raw
materials, parts and finished products. The industrial galleries were crowded
and chaotic, yet frighteningly efficient. Each time I tried stopping to take in
the frenetic activity, the security drone would motion for me to move, giving
me no time to loiter.
    Soon we were on a ramp leading up to a circular
door which rose on four telescoping pylons. The drone stopped, sending me up toward
the gray light. I emerged in the center of Nisport at an intersection of metal
grill covered roads. The door lowered back in place behind me, melding into the
center of the intersection as four men approached. They’d obviously been
waiting for me to appear. The leader was well dressed and unarmed, while his
companions wore dark clothes and aimed pistols at me.
    “Captain Kade,” the leader said. He was a swarthy,
silver haired Indo with a short manicured beard and a diplomat’s polite bearing.
“I’m Ambassador Singh and you sir, are under arrest.”
    One of the Ambassador’s security men reached down
and retrieved my gun, unaware that the Nisk had unloaded it before returning it
to me.
    “While the Nisk normally do not allow weapons fire
on their planet,” Ambassador Singh informed me, “my security men are exempted
from that law providing they shoot only humans. I trust that exemption will not
need to be exercised in your case.”
    I smiled grimly and raised my hands in surrender.
     
    * * *