Read Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity for Free Online

assured that the crew of the Pillars and I will do all we can for you, but I also ask that you follow any orders from the crew. Survival must come first. We are currently orbiting a planet that may suit as a home, albeit temporary. It's warm, temperate for the most part, and capable of sustaining Human life. Lots of oceans. We are, however, liaising with the other ships who have escaped—and I stress to you that other ships have escaped—and that we're going to begin resettlement as soon as possible. We're looking to start the disembarkation process shortly. I will update you on the situation when I can. Captain Liao out."
    "Very good, Captain," said Cheung. "I'll pass a recording around to the other sections." She cut the link.
    So much was going on in Operations that Liao tried to screen out the least important conversations and focus on critical matters. Her ears found a conversation between Iraj and Jiang. "Sir," Jiang said, "no go on the Broadsword launch. The hangar bay crew reports that the hangar is full of people. They can't decompress it."
    "That's going to be a problem," said Iraj. "Tell them to move as many people as they can to the upper decks—it'll get crowded, but we need to deploy those Broadswords, and we might need to do it in a hurry. I know the hangar bay's a big place, and we need that space for people, but our strike group are a big asset for us right now."
    "Agreed," said Liao. "But get some crew, anyone, to distribute some water and supplies to those people. Make sure they don't panic or get dehydrated and do something stupid."
    Iraj nodded. "I'll see to it," he promised, and Liao let him work.
    "Mr. Hsin," she said, pulling on her long-range headset. "Put me through to the Washington ."
    Within moments, Anderson's southern accent filled her ears. " Beijing actual, this is Washington actual. Good to hear from you."
    "It's good to hear from you, too," she said. "We didn't think we were going to make it for a bit."
    "We have a ship-load of civilians who aren't dealing with the change in circumstances too well. I assume the Madrid is in a similar situation. Break." Anderson spoke to someone on the other end of the line. He left the mic open, possibly out of respect to Liao, although the conversation was too low and too accented for her to make out. "Apologies, Captain Liao, there's been a development."
    "Good news or bad?"
    "Unclear. I ordered a headcount of the survivors on board. We've taken on a little more than we anticipated. We're going to need to start offloading these people if we want to get combat effective."
    "We've got similar problems," said Liao, "but frankly, the more Human beings we can save at this point, the better."
    "Suggestions?"
    "Let's start shuttling people down to the surface. We have six Broadswords in our inventory, although some are damaged, and one is earmarked for relaying our situation to the Belthas system."
    "Glad you're taking care of that," Anderson said. "Our hangar bay is full of people."
    "As is ours, but we're in the process of fixing it."
    "Hopefully not by venting them into space."
    Normally she would find such a joke funny, but not today. "No."
    "Very good, then. We'll work on freeing our hangar bay too. When our birds can launch, we can start loading people from various airlocks on the sides of the ship."
    "Good plan," she said. "We'll do the same. Make sure the civilians get plenty of water. They're crammed in there pretty good, and the ship's going to get awfully hot."
    "Agreed, I was going to say the same thing."
    "Then let's get to it. Pick out an island, and we'll meet you there. Liao out."
    She took off her headset and looked at the damage control screen on her console. Red circles—hull breaches—pockmarked so many areas of her ship. Others were yellow, areas where the weakened hull had begun to ablate away. Spiderwebs of yellow ran throughout the superstructure, revealing for the first time just how badly damaged the ship was. They might not be able