Chapter 3
338 Words
Chapter ThreeNAS-LR1 entering LEO. This is NAS-LR1 entering LEO.” Brody made sure that the transmission was on automatic repeat. “Non-Aligned Ship, Lifter Rescue One entering Low Earth Orbit.” They were only halfway down from Luna, but it was always best to give a clear warning to prevent a preemptive strike from the surface.
“That and a Stinger-60 gunship will keep us in business,” Karina muttered. “Except we don’t have a Stinger do we, Brody?”
“No, we’ve got a group of civilians in trouble. Find them, Karina.” Felice was good, but the whole ship felt different with Karina beside him. There was a sudden rightness to his world that he wished he had more time to enjoy.
“This part of space give me the creeps,” but she started working the problem while he focused on finding a safe orbit.
“Creeps me out, too. No matter how often I fly into it.” Most of Low Earth Orbit was a blind spot courtesy of the IndiaBeam. Coming anywhere near the I-Beam Zone was bad news, really bad news.
There were only a few groups remaining in any semblance of power down on the dirt. The biggest was India. They hadn’t joined The Exodus. Instead, they lofted a satellite that had opened into a big mirror. Using a ground-based destructive beam, they’d laid down scorched earth for a thousand kilometers around their borders—which just happened to include Pakistan, a swath of China, and several other irritant nations. After that was done, they’d proved their willingness to burn anything out of the sky that they could spot, which had included all the eyes-in-the-sky above the Eastern Hemisphere.
Even doing an overflight at two hundred kilometers in an NAS-declared ship on a rescue mission was a dicey proposition. Bottom line: if an Earther lifted anywhere within the I-Beam’s range, they were on their own. Very few who did ever crossed out of it. In Low Earth Orbit, India’s range was two-thousand kilometers in every direction. Basically overflights anywhere between Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Mongolia were screwed.
“Got them!” Karina put up a projection.
Brody saw that it would take three orbits to match speed. And it was going to happen directly over the I-Beam.
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