Rise of the Witch (Witch of the Federation Book 14) by Michael Anderle

Author:Michael Anderle [Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798885414371
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2022-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

“Knight,” BURT called and his voice jolted through the scenario startup, “make sure you give her the real version first. Do it like you’ve never seen it before. You too, Steph. I want to see how she would have done at the Battle for Meligorn.”

“The what?” Rawlins responded and her face paled. “Are you sure I’m ready for that?”

“At least she asked the question,” Emil murmured and raised his voice to answer. “You’re about as ready as I was. This was one of my earliest trips with the Knight.”

“If you say so,” she replied but she still looked worried.

And with good reason, he thought. That fight was what we called baptism by fire.

He said nothing out loud, though, and merely watched as the scenario unfolded.

It started with the Meligornian fleet breaking orbit. Captain Rawlins settled into the captain’s chair as the Ebon Knight took its place among the other ships. Her face was pinched with concentration as she studied her boards and looked around the command center.

On the forward viewscreen, she saw the fleet she’d joined. Around her, flying in tight formation, were the two destroyers, three gunboats, and three corvettes that had accompanied the Knight into that battle. Farther to the left, dwarfing them all, flew The King’s Warrior and on the right, bracketing the small fleet, was the Selestine’s Hammer.

Exactly as she had the first time, Stephanie walked into the command center with Vishlog and Lars. She didn’t say anything but took her position at the rear.

When Rawlins didn’t acknowledge her presence, she spoke. “Where do you want me to be, Captain?”

The woman raised an eyebrow and her face colored. “Where?” she snapped. “I’d rather you were anywhere but my command deck, but given that you seem to think you belong here, I want you to stay there out of the way.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Stephanie responded sharply, “and what are we doing?”

To make her point clear, she indicated the crew around her and the ships on the viewscreen.

Her question coincided with V’ritan’s order for the smaller ships to go forward and meet the skirmishers the Telorans were sending toward the fleet.

Emil groaned. “She was never that irritating with me.”

“You didn’t give her a reason to be,” BURT pointed out. “In the footage I saw, you told her what the ship’s task was without needing to be asked. I think Rawlins has found the first thing she needs to tweak.”

He snorted. “If she’s the kind of captain I think she is, she’ll have that worked out by the end of this run-through.”

“I hope so,” the AI said as Rawlins gave her answer.

“Do you see those little ships out there?” she asked but didn’t bother to wait for a reply. “They’ll crawl up our oversized friends’ asses. Our job is to stop that and do some crawling of our own if we have half a chance.”

“That’s almost exactly what you said,” BURT observed as Stephanie’s eyes widened, but the woman hadn’t finished.

“And if I hear one more stupid question, you’ll be off the bridge.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.