Captain by Rick Shelley

Author:Rick Shelley [Shelley, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0441006051
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The building they entered housed Hope's only pub. There were no customers in it. The woman behind the

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RICK SHELLEY

bar—she appeared to be in her early thirties but could easily have been much older—seemed glad to have company. Esterling ordered beer for himself and his guests.

"If West strikes," Esterling said after their beers arrived, "they'll strike here,"

"That's not the way our intelligence sees it," Orlis said. "Our other battalions are far more likely targets. They're closer to West's army, accessible. If West tried to strike here, we'd have plenty of warning, time to do serious damage to their transports before they could put men on the ground."

Esterling shook his head. "I hate to disagree, Captain, but I must. Certainly, the purely logical move would be for West to strike your other battalions, but this has never been an exercise in pure logic. Hope is a thorn in the side of Syracuse. As long as we're here they will insist on feeling violated. If they see trouble coming, such as your reinforcements, they will want—above everything else— to remove the thorn while they have a chance. No, if they attack anywhere, it will be here, with everything they can bring to bear."

Lon sipped his beer, watching the other two. For the first time Lon began to feel some doubt about the careful analysis provided by regiment and CIC, that the odds were overwhelming that West would strike at the nearer target, the battalions of 7th Regiment in the mountains between the colonies. The major lives here. He might have a better handle on what West will do than we do. Maybe our preparations weren 't a futile exercise.

"West doesn't have a town or a military base within seven hundred miles," Orlis said. "The only ground route goes through a bottleneck along the seacoast, and it would take a convoy twelve hours to get here that way. And if we see unusual air activity, we can have interceptors in before they can get here."

"I hope you're right, Captain, but I'11 wager two bottles of my best wine against your canteen of water that right at this minute West has troops within three hundred miles, out of sight, ready to strike. From that distance they could

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have shuttles up and down before your fighters could arrive."

Matt Orlis did hesitate—for about five seconds—before he took the bet.

He lost.

CIC ditf COMB up with a logical explanation—in hindsight. The nearest concentration of Wester soldiers was actually only 250 miles from Hope, Most had been there since before 7th Regiment reached Aldrin, and they had been reinforced and resupplied by sea. CIC

admitted to having seen several small ships within a hundred miles of the rendezvous, but had written them off as fishing trawlers or pleasure craft. Both colonies had taken to the sea, over generations. With a world that was more than 80 percent water, that was natural.

West's troops moved after sunset, using ground effect trucks concealed from the spy-eyes by extensive thermal shielding. The convoy spread out over a front that was several dozen miles across at one point, gradually narrowing as it approached Hope.

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