Rika Unleashed by M. D. Cooper

Author:M. D. Cooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Wooden Pen Press

* * * * *

“I might have an option,” Vargo Klen said after Rika explained the situation in the Iberia system.

“Oh?” Barne asked. “Does it involve telling us at which point you used to be the governor of some planet?”

Vargo snorted. “Right. Like it would be that easy. How big’s the pool?”

“Seven thousand credits,” Chase supplied.

“What?” Vargo exclaimed. “That’s it? Leslie’s tail is at fifty.”

“Wait…my tail?” Leslie asked, looking around the room where the battalion commanders were meeting. “What are people betting on? That it’ll get chopped off in battle?”

“Gruesome,” Adira muttered. “I’ll bet against, if that’s what the wager’s about.”

Barne patted Leslie’s shoulder. “Nothing like that, just how long you’ll keep it for.”

Leslie hugged her tail to her chest. “Forever!”

“Shit,” Chase muttered. “I’m out a hundred credits—though I still have two hundred on it getting chopped off at some point.”

“Chase!” Heather exclaimed. “It’s our good luck charm. How could you bet on that?”

“Yeah,” Leslie glowered at Chase, then glanced at Barne. “I thought you said there was no pool for that.”

“Uhhh…Barne made me do it,” Chase admitted, and Leslie threw him a dark look before turning back to the sergeant major.

“Barne? Care to explain?”

“OK, folks,” Rika said, raising her hands. “As much as I love talking about Leslie’s tail—I bet in the ‘five-year plus’ range, so ‘forever’ is a win for me—I want to hear what Vargo has to say.”

“Thanks, Colonel. It’s about the Asora. While we were stuck shaking hands and kissing asses back in Blue Ridge, Chief Ashley, my flight leader, was reviewing some of the Nietzschean scan software and realized that the Asora has an experimental scan suite that was intended to be used for more precise dark layer navigation.”

“Which is to say…” Barne prompted.

“That if there is a possible FTL route deeper into the system, the Asora can take it.”

Rika glanced around the table. “Huh…that actually seems like a solid option. The Asora has good stealth, too. It would get us in fast enough, if there’s a clear path through the dark layer.”

“Asora can take a cruiser, too,” Vargo said with a grin. “And we missed out on the recent action, so…you know.”

“ ‘You know’ what?” Barne grunted.

“It’s our turn for some pew-pew.” Vargo held his fingers like they were pistols and made shooting motions as he spoke.

Rika shook her head. “Glad we’re all so mature.”

<OK, while you all goof off, I’ll look over the DL maps for Iberia.> Niki’s tone was sour, but Rika could tell that the AI wasn’t really upset, she just liked to remind them all she was there. <Oh…huh…there’s actually a route into Iberia that smugglers used to use—maybe still do. Records on the Lance show that the Niets patrol its exit points. Well…they used to before they lost seventy thousand ships and then a major shipyard.>

“I feel like there might be some sort of idiom in there,” Barne mused. “It’s all law and order until you lose seventy thousand ships.”

“Lame,” Heather shook her head.

“So how well does the DL

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