Wildspace (The Stars Aflame Book 2) by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2018-11-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Scott sat at his desk, looking over the latest round of reports from his department heads, trying the old trick of burying himself in administrative trivia in a bid to distract himself from the matter at hand. With a sigh, he tossed the datapad in his hands away, and looked up at the strategic plot on his wall, watching his tiny fleet as it raced for home. Three ships, the remnants of the Omega Fleet, launched in secret as humanity’s last hope. It hadn’t even made it fifty light-years from home before being caught and destroyed.

They’d defeated the Exterminators at the Battle of Kapteyn’s Star, but it had been far too close. The odds had been against them, and more than half of the battle fleet had been destroyed, barely able to inflict a scratch on the enemy. Victory had been as much a matter of luck as of skill. And courage, as well, given the circumstances. They didn’t deserve to be so lucky a second time. Somehow, he knew that they wouldn’t win through as easily again.

There had been any number of theories about the reason for the initial attack. That they had reached the shattered homeworld of one of the former enemies of the Exterminators was his favorite, and it suggested that for both sides, the Ninety Hours War had almost been an accident. This time, evidently, they were preparing the ground. He called up a new file, going over the outlines of the flight of Omega Fleet, and shook his head. They’d suffered the same systems defects, but had tarried too long, waiting to make repairs before daring to push into the unknown.

If he had been in command of that fleet, he’d have run into the darkness and hoped for the best, put as much distance as he could between himself and Earth before stopping to regroup. Instead, they had been assigned a cautious, competent commander, who might have been short on tactical instinct but had all the courage in the galaxy, and had sacrificed his life for those under his protection. One of the better ways to go.

He, instead, was running. This time back to Proxima Centauri, leaving an undefended transport with a skeleton crew and a message for a ship that for all he knew, was under the command of a group of traitors and cowards, fleeing to the distant stars. He had faith in Commander Novak to bring Custodian back, as long as she had anything to say about it, but that was the question. Did she? Was she dead even now, murdered by the mutineers she had attempted to apprehend.

Every instinct in his mind rebelled against the course of action he was taking. They’d beaten the enemy, temporarily. They’d be back. Leonidas had fought alone before, and triumphed, but this time, they had a chance of real reinforcements. If Secretary Hayes had been as good as her word, there would be a fleet assembling at Proxima Centauri, a task force he could take back into battle.

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