The Phantom in the Deep (Rook's Song) Read Online Free

inside.  But that is a dream, the dream of every saboteur, but one that likely can never happen, and well he knows it.
    Another scanner analyzes the Cereb ship’s pitch, yaw, and roll.  It is the roll that makes him smile.  A couple degrees to port, and then a couple degrees back.  So slow and small the naked eye might’ve missed it, but he knows what this means.  “Detect me, do ya?”  Speaking out loud would not alert his enemies—space did not carry sound.  It helped to think out loud.  Besides that, it was just good to hear a voice.  Any voice.
    The ship remains silent and on its course, not answering his question.
    Rook chuckles.  “Yeah…yeah, you detected me, all right.  Didn’t you, you clever devils?”
    Part of him wonders what the hell thi s luminal ship is doing out here.  It has been a long time since any Cerebrals came out this way.  The Cerebs mostly moved on from this sector of space about a decade ago, not too long after they obliterated the last human resistances in this system, that being Echelon Point, away on Shiva 154e, and then fried the two moons.
    Presently, he looks at his holo-display, at the golden orb that still bathes Shiva 154e.  That sun witnessed homo sapiens come and go very quickly, geologically speaking.  Two hundred years, that’s how long they lasted, which was a little over a single lifetime for a human being, at Man’s peak.
    A chime goes off.  Rook checks another holo-display.  It is monitoring the interplanetary medium, that is, the vast amount of material that fills the entire solar system.  It gives him an idea of the weather in space, something he must always be aware of if he’s to competently manage the Sidewinder.  Right now, it’s monitoring a geomagnetic storm in Shiva 154e’s magnetosphere, caused by a solar wind shockwave from the sun, Prime.
    Another holographic display, just to Rook’s left, shows a chess game, one he’s been playing with the ship’s computer for two days now.  The computer always makes its move the very instant after Rook makes his.  Rook, on the other hand, works out his next move slowly while conducting his repairs.  He’s made a habit out of making a move, then going off to do some maintenance.  Go check on the exhaust ports, come back, make a move.  Go repair an air-exchanger, come back, make a move.  Like that.  No reason not to take his time with each move. 
    He has all the time in universe.
    The computer opened up with a classic Queen’s Gambit, but the pilot had denied him that right from the get-go.  There was an initial furious exchange of pawns.  Rook recently lost a knight to a cleverly placed bishop.  It’s always a damn bishop that comes outta nowhere and gets me .  The game currently sits with enemy pawns at A6, C5, D5, and H6.  Two knights are staring daggers over at his queen and remaining bishop.  His king is soon to be threatened by a rook.  Checkmate isn’t far away.  His move.
    Rook looks back up at the Cereb warship, then back down at his planetary scanner—the screen is jumpy, and sometimes the image rolls. Another sign that the Sidewinder has just about had enough.  A technological marvel when it rolled off the assembly line some seventy years ago, now pushed well beyond its recommended twenty-year lifespan.
    He taps the screen, gets it to stop rolling long enough to read it:
     
    Designation: Shiva 154e
    Type: H; rocky, with sparse vegetation
    Diameter: 28,865 km.
    Year Length: 287 standard days
    Suns: 1; designated Shiva 154 (Shiva Prime or “Prime”)
    Moons: 2; designated Eye of Shiva and Wrath of Shiva (Eye and Wrath)
     
    Atmosphere:
    78.084% nitrogen
    20.946% oxygen
    0.934% argon
    0.0383% carbon dioxide
    0.001818% neon
    0.000524% helium
    0.0001745% methane
    0.000114% krypton
    0.000055% hydrogen
     
    Aphelion:  151,197,662 km.
    Perihelion:  146,088,302 km.
    Mean Anomaly:  356.33271
    Semi-major Axis:  150,473,901 km.  /  1.0058559 AU
    Inclination:  7.15 ° to