CHAPTER 13
They met the starsleeve the next day, in a place half way between the brown dwarf and the ice planet. The starsleeve sent them only fragmentary ship reports, as if the ship had experienced some kind of systems failure. But Tarkos and Bria both thought that unlikely: the starsleeve had been designed and built by Brights and Kirt. And Bright ships, and Kirt engineering, did not fail.
The first visuals confirmed their suspicions. The starsleeve turned in their view, drifting in a slight spin. Its port flank spun into view, exposing a pale dark spot between probability flanges. The ship robots crawled about like ants, knitting metallic panels over the breach in the hull.
“That looks like a heavy particle beam cut, fired in promixity,” Tarkos said.
Bria blinked agreement.
