Shadow of Victory (Honor Harrington Book 19) by David Weber

Author:David Weber [Weber, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781476781822
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2016-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

APRIL 1922 POST DIASPORA

“It’s a bit drastic, but to paraphrase an ancient pre-diaspora politician a friend of mine turned up a while ago, ‘The Solarian League is like a hog. You have to kick it in the snout to get its attention.’”

—Admiral Michelle Henke,

Countess Gold Peak,

CO, Tenth Fleet,

Royal Manticoran Navy.

Chapter Forty-One

“Coming up on final bearing in twenty seconds, Ma’am,” Lieutenant Commander Nakhimov announced.

“Very good,” Ginger Lewis acknowledged as HMS Charles Ward picked up her orbital station-keeping marks after three hard days of exercises in Manticore-B’s Unicorn Belt. She watched the maneuvering display while CPO Dreyfus gentled away her last few meters per second of velocity, then nodded as the numbers trickled across the digital readout and, exactly on the mark, fell to zero.

“On station,” Nakhimov said. “Impellers going to stand by.”

“Very well done, Astro. And you, Chief,” Ginger said.

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Nakhimov responded, and Dreyfus smiled briefly, then returned her attention to shutting down her board.

Ginger looked at the back of the chief petty officer’s head for a moment. Angelina Dreyfus was one of the best helmswomen she’d ever seen. At only thirty-six, she was on the young side for a CPO, but she had the gift.

She was also the member of Charles Ward’s bridge crew who most worried Ginger.

It was ironic, in some ways, she supposed. She was only ten years older than Dreyfus—which was at least as young for a starship captain as Dreyfus was for a CPO—and they were within a couple of centimeters of each other in height. Not only that, they both had red hair. In fact, they favored one another a great deal, aside from the fact that Dreyfus had blue eyes, instead of green. Ginger suspected they had similar senses of humor, as well…normally. But Dreyfus’ older brother had been the night shift manager in Dempsey’s Hephaestus restaurant. He’d been her only sibling…and her parents had been dining in his restaurant when the Yawata Strike hit. She’d taken their deaths hard, and it was obvious she remained a long way from coping with her loss.

She was scarcely alone in that. Most of Ginger’s new crew had lost someone—family, close friend, crewmate. In her own case, the entire crew of Hexapuma; in Charles Ward’s case, virtually all of the ship’s senior officers. Not that it stopped there; almost a quarter of her crew had been aboard Hephaestus, enjoying what was supposed to be their last leave before they deployed to Talbott while their ship lay sixty thousand kilometers off the station, unable to find docking space. Thank God Captain Mathis’ “couple of weeks” had expanded rather significantly! And not just because Ginger had needed the time to settle in. Her new crew needed that time even more desperately than she did.

The duty bridge crew had watched the space station blow up before their eyes, which certainly explained the state of shock which had gripped the entire ship when Ginger read herself aboard. Of course, the same thing could have been said of just about

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