(eng) Michael Wallace - Alliance 01 by Stars

Author:Stars [Stars]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Even before he met the man, Svensen decided that Captain Edward McGowan was a pompous buffoon. Peerless’s war room was done up like a lord’s personal study, boasting dark hardwood bookshelves, a massive oak table with heavy swiveling chairs, and most ridiculously, a faux stone fireplace at the far end. The stone looked real enough, but when Svensen tapped it, it turned out to be molded plastic.

He grinned at Lieutenant Kelly. “Can you imagine lighting a fire on a starship? What are you going to do, poke a chimney out of the bridge and huff smoke into outer space?”

“I saw a working fireplace on a ship once,” she said.

“Huh?”

“Lord Malthorne. It was a gas fireplace made to look like wood. I assume it was properly vented, and not into space.”

Svensen was baffled. “Why?”

“These aristocrats like to feel at home.”

“Are you one of them?”

“An aristocrat?” she said. “Heavens, no.”

He waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. Neither had delved into their past, nor pried, for that matter. She hadn’t pressed any harder into his Mercian accent, and he didn’t inquire how she’d learned Scandian so fluently.

The room had a smoky smell, and Svensen discovered a pipe in a small box on the shelf, together with a small canister of tobacco. He was of a mind to light it.

“What are you doing?” she said. “You don’t mess with a man’s pipe.”

The door hissed open, and McGowan appeared just as Svensen clamped the box shut and turned around. McGowan looked them over, scowling at one then the other.

“Are you going to translate for this Viking?” he asked Kelly.

“He speaks English, sir.”

“Does he, now? We’ll see. Sit down.”

They did so. McGowan gingerly eased himself into the chair on the opposite side of the table, as if he had an injury in his thigh or buttock. The wrappings had disappeared from around his forehead, but a pink, raw gash ran from his hairline to his right eyebrow and glistened with a liquid bandage. Word had it the enemy had killed a third of his crew in the fight, not to mention all the other ships destroyed.

“I don’t have to tell you we’re in a bad spot,” McGowan said. “And your poor preparations don’t help matters. Your base is pathetic, your yards nonexistent.”

“What were you expecting?” Svensen said. “The Odense spaceyards? We had two weeks and whatever we were carrying in our hold. We slapped together what we could.”

McGowan seemed not at all impressed by Svensen’s command of English, nor did he comment on the Mercian accent. “There was an existing facility on this base. No excavation needed. All I expected was command and control up and running, a landing pad, the space for gun emplacements cleared, and your crew standing by, ready to assist. Instead, you divided your forces and took a jaunt around the system.”

Kelly’s jaw clenched. “I was operating under direct orders from the admiralty.”

“Yes, well show some initiative next time. You saw the planet, the state of their civilization. It was wrecked, and you knew it.

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