Alpha Centauri: Sawyer's World (T-Space: Alpha Centauri Book 2)
Page 20
“It may not be pointed the right way. They would have reoriented for planetary comms some of the time.”
“Perhaps it ran out of station-keeping fuel?”
“It has a fusion reactor and would align via magnetic field. I don’t think so. Keep scanning at regular intervals, let me know if you pick something up.”
“Aye, Sir.”
The Endeavour and her sister ships, Victoria and Vostok, moved deeper into the system, reducing their warp speed and taking smaller hops. They would be revisiting Kakuloa, too, but Endeavour’s first priority was to recontact the Anderson team left behind four years earlier. From their radio transmissions, as of six months ago they had been doing well. But now there was no contact nor any indication of a problem in the last transmission.
At several million kilometers out from planet Able, around Alpha Centauri A, they completely secured from warp and shifted to continuous acceleration on plasma thrusters. Drake checked the time. They’d be doing a turnover maneuver in about ten hours, to slow down prior to entering orbit.
“Any communications traffic?”
“No sir. We’re sending a hail at regular intervals, but nothing. We should be close enough now to pick up any omni signals.”
“And are we picking up any?”
“No sir.”
Drake stared at the planet’s image on one of the forward viewscreens, and wondered what they’d find.
∞
END BOOK II
The story concludes in
Book III, Alpha Centauri: The Return
Available July 2017
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