Wolf Among the Stars by Steve White

Author:Steve White [White, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Adventure, Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Space Opera
ISBN: 9781451637540
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2011-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“But what if you had been wrong?” demanded Rachel as they hurried along the passageway deep in CNS Broadsword.

“Well,” said Andrew, shrugging uncomfortably against the slightly ill-fitting uniform he had borrowed after going through the formality of reporting himself off leave to Taylor, “I suppose they would have executed me for murder after executing me for treason. Or,” he added thoughtfully, “do you think maybe it would have been the other way around?”

“You’re about as funny as pork barbeque at a bar mitzvah. And I must be as crazy as you are. I can’t imagine what possessed me to help you with your little stunt.”

“I never did get around to thanking you for that, did I? You did exactly the right thing.”

She made a nonverbal sound of deep skepticism.

They arrived at their destination, a briefing room where others were already present or filing in: Reislon, Persath, Borthru, and Commander Huai Mei, Broadsword‘s executive officer. This was hardly the first meeting the room had seen, as the two ships continued to coast outward from the Sun on their high-velocity hyperbolic orbit. The first had been for the purpose of revealing Kharazi’s body to Huai and Taylor‘s other officers and, while they were still in a proper state of shock, recounting the entire story to them—accurately, except that Andrew had continued to withhold the fact of Admiral Arnstein‘s suicide. Afterward had come the process, through the usual military educational trickle-down method, of disseminating the facts of their situation to the cruiser’s crew after requiring full medical scans under the guise that some type of toxin may have been released by the captured vessel. This had gone fairly smoothly. This was not the day of fighting sail, when crews had consisted of press-ganged gutter scrapings, nor even the more recent naval eras when crews had included unwilling draftees. Space crew were intelligent, educated people; they had to be.

“Attention on deck!” rapped a master-at-arms at the hatchway. Everyone rose as Taylor entered. Andrew had carefully briefed the three Lokaron on such points of human naval etiquette.

“As you were,” Taylor rumbled, taking his place at the head of the table. “We all know by now the facts of the . . . extraordinary situation in which we find ourselves. Now we must decide what to do next. Most especially, what to do in connection with that.” He indicated the Cydonia artifact, which sat in the center of the table, enveloped in its flesh-crawling aura of mystery. “Fortunately, we have some leeway, as we’re still in free fall and I haven’t communicated any reports as yet.”

“There is a new factor to take into account,” said Reislon. “We must assume that Legislative Assemblyman Valdes is in league with the Shape-Shifters.”

Even after what had happened aboard Trovyr, it was shocking to hear it put into words. Huai shook her head. She wore a Chinese flag shoulder patch—the CNEN had a policy of encouraging personnel exchanges among its national components—but her English was almost unaccented. “I simply can’t

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