Eclipse of Empire by J.N. Chaney & Rick Partlow

Author:J.N. Chaney & Rick Partlow [Chaney, J.N. & Partlow, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2023-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

18

I’d spent way too much of the last few months on the Liberator. It hadn’t bothered me so much when the only alternative had been skulking around Imperial-held worlds or walking with my head on a swivel in pirate systems, but now that I’d gotten a taste of Sanctuary, those corridors got narrower with each flight.

Particularly when I went running. Jogging with the sun over my shoulder, the wind on my face, the smell of the trees in the air was close to heaven. Trying to do the same thing in the passageways of a starship, even one as large as the Liberator, was more like being a hamster in a wheel. I think what I hated the most about it was the hollow sound of my own footsteps on the metal deckplates.

I tried to turn off my brain and just be, get that runner’s high I’d always heard about but seldom experienced. That’s why I’d left Laranna asleep in our compartment and gone running in the first place, because I couldn’t stop thinking long enough to get to sleep. Maybe it was the ship, maybe it was the mission, but I think the main problem I had was Laranna. She wasn’t worried. Well, not worried enough.

At first, I’d thought that it was just the afterglow of our wedding…until I actually brought it up after dinner tonight.

“I wonder,” I’d said to her, wiping the last of the steak sauce off the corner of my lip, “whether I should have a backup plan for Lenny and the rest of the fleet.”

She’d shrugged, sipping at a glass of wine. They made it on Sanctuary of a fruit that tasted like a cherry, and I guess it was better than water, but that was about all I could say for it.

“What sort of backup plan?”

I’d looked around our table, careful to make sure none of the Copperell volunteers were close enough to hear me. I could trust Giblet or Brazzo not to go off the deep end if I said something that might upset them, but I didn’t know these troops, and I hadn’t wanted to take the risk of taking their heads out of the game.

They’d been oblivious, though, smokin’ and jokin’ as Sgt. Redd used to call it when us cadets were messing around and laughing. Giblet had been keeping company with the two females in the Copperell squad, apparently having given up on Mallarna, and he’d been keeping them entertained with stories of his pre-stasis exploits.

“In case we don’t…you know, pull this off,” I’d elaborated for Laranna. “I was thinking maybe we should set up a deadline, so if we don’t destroy the Eclipse, they can abandon the attack and just try to squeeze as many of the Strada as possible on the Zoo ships…the Liberators, I mean.” I’d spread my hands helplessly. “I figure, the Liberators are huge, they could each probably carry a few thousand people. If things go bad, they could take them back to Sanctuary.”

“We’re not

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