The Hive Invasion- The Complete Trilogy by Jake Elwood

Author:Jake Elwood [Elwood, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-20T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23 - KAUR

The clatter of docking clamps told Kaur the cruiser Hannibal had docked with the Achilles, but it wasn't until a figure in a Navy vac suit with a lieutenant's stripes on the chest stepped onto the bridge that she properly realized she was in command.

She'd been helping ease Brennan into a body bag. Now she stood and faced the newcomer. It was a man of thirty or so, Asian from what Kaur could see through the faceplate of his helmet. The man's cheeks moved as he spoke. Kaur, not hearing a thing, shrugged.

After a moment she heard a click in his helmet's speakers and a voice said, "Can you hear me now, Ma'am?"

Kaur nodded. "Commander Kaur." She glanced down at Brennan as a sailor sealed the body bag. "I guess I'm the commanding officer."

"Lieutenant Ogawa." He saluted briefly. "I brought a technical crew with me. Most of them are in the engine room." He looked around the bridge. "It looks like you've had quite a scrap."

"Yes." Kaur suddenly felt so weary she could barely stand, and her eyes strayed to the captain's chair. It's mine again. For a few minutes. Captain of a demolished ship. My career's on fire. It was a selfish thought, and she squashed it. "Thanks for the assistance."

"You're welcome." There was something off in Ogawa's voice, and Kaur felt some of her weariness slough away, replaced by a growing alertness.

"I have a few things to tell you," Ogawa said. Body language, stifled at the best of times in career military personnel, was even more difficult to read through a vac suit. Ogawa, though, had an unmistakable stiffness in his posture and speech that told Kaur there was a subtext to his message, and a dangerous one at that.

Kaur glanced around the bridge, wondering who else was listening. After the EMP strike she'd lost the ability to change channels through her implants. Hell, she couldn’t even tell what channel he was on. Odds were, every vac suit on the Achilles was on the same channel now, which meant plenty of listening ears.

Displaying her best poker face, she said, "Go on, Lieutenant."

"Colonel O'Hare will be taking command of your ship." Ogawa gestured at the ravaged starboard window. "He's just waiting for basic repairs. As soon as the ship is pressurized again he'll come aboard." Ogawa shrugged minutely. "The colonel doesn't like vac suits."

Kaur gaped at him, completely flabbergasted. "Colonel O'Hare? That's not even a Navy rank. Who the hell is Colonel O'Hare?"

Ogawa frowned and touched a finger to the side of his helmet, about where his ear would be. "The colonel is with the Earth Defense Force. Spacecom has turned over command of the fleet to the EDF. Every Navy ship has an EDF officer in command now."

"What?" Kaur realized she was staring like an idiot, mouth open, eyebrows practically on the top of her head. She couldn’t stop, though. "Some ground-based civilian organization is commanding Navy ships?" She shook her head, wondering if she was dreaming.

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