Chronicles of Athena Lee Read Free Page A

orders to the limit. He had closed with the station and had scanned it. Now he thought to flank it. He thought that if he could get into a better striking position he could lead the attack! Fame and glory awaited.
     
    “Sir, have you been monitoring the broadcasts from that station?” The sound of hi XO’s voice woke him from his day dream. Seeing that it was just the XO, Buckley ignored him and ordered flank speed from navigation.
     
    “Uh, Sir, we were just told there was a minefield out here in this area.” The XO was frantic. “Sir, haven’t you been paying attention?”
     
    Captain Buckley turned and looked his XO in the eye. “You are of course aware of the standing orders that forbid line troops from obeying orders from the enemy, aren’t you? We have orders to scout and scan the area. Until I hear otherwise that is what we will do!” Pointing to the rear of the station. “ I choose over there it scout.”
     
    “CAPTAIN!” The navigation lieutenant was screaming. “We are being tracked by multiple sources. Tracking….tracking…Alert! Multiple-in-bounds! I am tracking fifty, that is five zero in bound tracks. Suggest evasive action.”
     
    With the tactical officer screaming at him too, the captain simply froze. Shaking his head to clear it he ordered evasive maneuvers. “Get us out of here!”
     
    “Damn you, Captain,” cried the XO. “Your arrogance has killed us!”
     
    The light destroyer was hit with over 50 antimatter torpedoes and other surrounding munitions as it entered the active minefield. The Redcoat exploded in a bright flash of light.
     
    Another Buckley had entered the history books.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter5
     
     
     
     
    The past, 10 years ago
     
     
     
    Athena was bored.
     
    The last time she was this bored she had built a space station! Thinking back five years ago she wondered why she did it.
     
    The asteroid base had been easy to finish setting up. It had a small hydroponics lab that was super easy to put together.
     
    “I need something to do, and I really need to stop talking to myself. Before I know it inanimate objects will be talking back!”
     
    I suited up and went to the hanger bay. Using the runabout I made my way back to the Tesla. The ship still a mess inside. Very carefully, I picked my way in and around the wreckage. The room that contained the technical library had been damaged but no any of the media inside.
     
    Engineers like hard copy records. Nothing is left to chance in case a ship loses power.
     
    Talking to myself again, “how do I get all this back to the asteroid?”
     
    Staring at the piles and boxes of books I pondered that question. A light lit over my head. The Tesla, like many of the other support ships used piloted drones for a variety of jobs. I had seen quite a few of those drones as I explored the ship. The next day my boredom was gone and I had boxes of books to devour.
     
    Having my own library was great. I spent the next couple of weeks boning up on how space stations were built and maintenance procedures for bases. The tech manuals that I found on weapon systems were very interesting. All this reading made me think of something I had missed. The floating debris of two fleets surrounded me. The enemy ships along with others from my fleet might have information that I could use.
     
    Exploration time.
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
    First things first.
     
    PPL ships first. Exploring ‘my’ fleet was both heart breaking and informative. Our ships had been support not battle wagons. After the explosion there really was not much left. I did find a few broken or damaged drones. Lots of drifting supplies in fancy shipping containers.
     
    I used the salvage drones and cleared a path to the enemy ships. I lost a few. Un-exploded ordinance was everywhere. A bomb disposal tech I was not. Once upon a time in school I had dated a ‘Jack’. For some reason all bomb techs were