Kabuli worked through the lunar system, clearing out illicit data, then waited for Aomazo to return.
While he waited, he kept a constant eye on the lunar monitoring system, focusing especially on the wormhole.
Soon, he saw the Wormhole Rainbow Bridge activate!
The lunar system detected an incoming visitor. It might have been a tourist, but Kabuli suspected someone from Ziwei Group had arrived.
At light speed, the trip from the wormhole to Earth took six hours. Normally, no ship traveled anywhere near that fast. It wasted too much energy. This wasn't a long voyage into an unknown star system, so why rush?
To work out when the ship would reach Earth, Kabuli ran repeated calculations through the lunar monitoring system. After about half an hour, he confirmed that it had accelerated to half the speed of light.
"Damn it. That fast? They're not coming in peace!"
There were plenty of tricks to space travel. A ship's speed could tell you what its crew intended.
For a small ship, one-eighth the speed of light offered the best balance of energy use and efficiency. For a large ship, one-tenth was better.
Anything slower was a leisurely cruise. Anything faster was speeding.
Few people visited the Solar System to begin with, and this ship kept accelerating. It was no ordinary tourist. Kabuli was certain it belonged to Ziwei Group. But they were coming to take over the territory. Why the hurry? No one was competing with them.
If they gave Kabuli a little time, one side could leave as the other arrived, and the handover would be peaceful.
But Ziwei Group apparently had other ideas. The ship had reached 150,000 kilometers per second and still wasn't stopping. It kept accelerating!
The faster it went, the more energy it consumed. Why come charging