(eng) Lindsay Buroker - Fallen Empire 0-3 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

15

Leonidas saw the warships and immediately headed for the hatchway.

“Any chance you’re going to get me chocolate?” Alisa asked, scanning the space around them, wishing a comet or a rogue band of meteors would stray into range so she would have something to hide behind, someplace to run from those ships. But the green moon was the only body nearby, and the Alliance warships, coming from that direction, would easily intercept her. The featureless sphere held few hiding spots, anyway, and she doubted the domed moon stations would invite her to dock.

“I’m getting my combat armor,” Leonidas said, his voice grim.

“Leonidas.” Alisa turned toward him. “Even if I had weapons, I couldn’t… I can’t get in a fight with Alliance warships.”

It was cheeky of them to all show up this close to Perun and that orbit full of imperial warships, but there they were, nevertheless.

“I’m not asking you to. They want me alive. They’ll have to come get me.” A fiercely defiant expression crossed his face before he ducked out of view, jogging to his cabin.

The comm flashed, and Alisa sighed. Was there any point in answering? It was probably Commander Bennington again, prepared to be smug now that her backup had arrived.

It flashed relentlessly as the warships closed, no question as to their destination. Like the tug, they were on an intercept course with the Star Nomad.

Feeling cranky, Alisa swatted the button. “What?”

“What?” an amused male voice on the other line asked. “Is that really how you answer the comm now that you’re a civilian, Marchenko?”

Alisa gaped at the console. The man’s voice was familiar, as was the way he had said her name, but it took her a few seconds to place it. “Captain Tomich?”

“It’s Commander Tomich now. There were lots of promotions after the war ended and the temporaries mustered out. Look at what I got.”

Alisa linked the comm signal with the ship it had come from, the Viper-class warship in the lead. She was a beauty, newer and bigger than the two trailing it, though any one of those ships could have pulverized the Nomad in seconds.

“Not that you’re smug about it,” Alisa said.

“Not at all,” Tomich said, a familiar grin in his voice. It had been two years since they had served together—he had been her squadron leader when she’d been assigned to the Merciless. He was practically the one who had taught her that snark was expected from military pilots, not that she hadn’t already had a knack for it.

“I can’t believe they gave you a ship that big. You could barely land your cobra without scraping the paint off on the hangar bay doors.”

“This ship has bumpers.”

Alisa snorted.

“So, are you truly a greedy little smuggler these days,” Tomich asked, quoting Bennington, “or are you in an awkward situation?”

“Awkward doesn’t even begin to describe my week,” Alisa replied before she had fully parsed the nuances of the question. She realized he might be asking if she was a prisoner on her own ship, with Leonidas being the one in charge.

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