. and also where she had a good line of sight on the door. Abby was a crack shot who even the Marine detachment’s Gunny Sergeant could only match shots with.
Penny, the staff’s intel expert, had taken the seat to Kris’s right, which put her back to the door. If something evil got as far as that without her knowing it was coming, she’d consider her job a failure and the mess something for the Marines to clean up.
To Penny’s right was Colonel Cortez, Kris’s defeated foe and ground-tactics advisor. Right now, he pursed his lips in reflection. “I’ve never been around when a galactic war got started, but that sucker didn’t leave you any choice but to shoot. Very aggressive behavior.”
“I’m glad to hear that somebody else feels the way I do,” Kris said. “But I need to know what actually happened back there and who was doing what to whom. There are too many unknowns and unthinkable things that leave me scratching my head. I do not like that. Not at all. Penny, will you take the lead on forensics?”
“I expected you’d want me to. I’ve had Mimzy capturing some of the raw feed off the boffins’ video take. The wreckage is in much bigger chunks than I would expect had a reactor failure been involved. With luck, we’ll have something bigger than atoms to examine. Professor, I hope you’ll excuse me for having my computer do what one of Nelly’s kids can do so well.”
The professor scowled at the request for forgiveness. He had been offered one of Nelly’s “children” when Kris’s computer got the biological urge to gestate. His initial experience had been something less than sterling, and he’d returned the gift.
He and Captain Drago, both.
The boffin could not be happy to have Penny using the same secret weapon that he had declined in order to steal a march on his people.
“Do what you will. But remember, what might look like something at first blush to an amateur may have a totally different meaning when examined patiently by a trained expert.”
“A good point that we will keep in mind,” Kris said. “So, Penny, what are your first observations?”
“Give me a minute,” Penny said, her unfocused gaze aimed in the general direction of the overhead. Penny’s ivory skin seemed to pale almost to translucent as her breath slowed.
Usually, this kind of first glance would have been done on one of the wall screens for all to see and comment on. Instead, Penny held whatever output she was getting to just herself and her pet computer, Mimzy. The computer feed colored the contacts of Penny’s eyes but was private to her.
The minute Penny had asked for stretched into two. Then three.
Kris began to get edgy; this was her first initial alien contact. This was humanity’s first new alien contact in eighty years. The last one had gone horribly wrong.
This one looked to be going along the same downward path.
Kris didn’t much like the trip. Worse, Kris didn’t like that this one was her responsibility.
Just as Kris was about to open her mouth, Penny’s gaze dropped from the overhead. She took a deep breath. “Okay, I think I can see how to brief this.”
“We’re ready,” Kris said.
“Nobody will ever be ready for this one,” Penny said, half under her breath.
Across from her, the wall screen lit up. Abby turned to face it. Jack pushed his chair away from the table so he could see, without losing sight of the door.
The screen opened on a view of the moon as a large explosive blew out in a gale of expanding gases. Some of the debris cloud achieved at least orbital speed, maybe escape velocity.
“First things first. The explosion on the moon. It was a chemical explosive, conventional. Not something we use. That stuff is corrosive and dirty. It’s in our books, but it hasn’t met environmental standards since before we broke loose from Earth. I’ll leave it to the boffins to give you all the gory details if you want more.”
“Was it done intentionally?” Kris asked.
“No doubt in my mind,” Penny said. “Both because of the type of explosives and the timing. It blew within five seconds of the ship destroying itself.”
“Isn’t that an opinion?” Abby shot at Penny.
“A well-founded one, I think,” Penny countered. “When you have the same explosives letting go within seconds of each other, coincidence must take a backseat to facts. Once can be an accident. Twice, we should start looking for hostile activity. Three, and