Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time) Read Free Page A

used. The beam they fire can be condensed to a six inch width.”
    “What benefit is that?”
    “It holds its power over a much longer range. The targeting computers can blow a hole through a large asteroid at eighty miles. The beams can also be widened to more than ten miles wide to fire at a planet’s surface. They’re much more flexible than those they replace.” Kelli really didn’t see it until Cranzen said, “The computers can fire the beam through the ranks of our ships at targets beyond them without hitting or damaging our ships. They’ll be a welcome tool in major fleet actions.”
    Kelli smiled, “Lead me to the tutorial; I’m anxious to see what you have here.”
    Cranzen smiled, “The new Jukeboxes can also fly rings around the old model. Come with me aboard your new ship. We’ll start the learning process as soon as you bond with the ship’s computer.”
    Kelli followed Cranzen and said, “Is it possible to merge my current computer with the new one?”
    “As soon as you bring your old ship, the links will make the transfer.”
    Kelli smiled and entered her new warship.

Chapter Two
    D at walked in the front door and yelled, “I’m home!”
    Gresha came out of the kitchen and rushed into his arms, “I’ve missed you; where have you been?”
    “I wanted to go to Fleet Control and catch up on the status of our fleets but the Jukeboxes were all ordered to the Maintenance Facilities to replace their environmental air handlers. I thought after I finished there I would go and visit the kids; however, Fleet was overloaded with scheduling the change outs and I was told the kids were not available at the moment.”
    Gresha leaned back and said, “Unavailable?”
    “Yes; they said they were on a training assignment and wouldn’t be back for a week or so.”
    “What kind of training assignment?”
    Dat paused, “I really don’t know and they were too overloaded for me to really push them to find out. I could see on my display that they were running around like crazy. One of them would have had to stop what they were doing to go into the system to find out. I’ll just visit them in a week. Besides, fleet told me they needed my ship for software updates and they would need to keep it for five days. I had Stein drop me off here and leave for the update. It’ll be good to be home for a few days.” Dat paused a moment and shook his head, “I really miss our children, Gresha. I’m always having to be formal around them and it would be good to just be able to give them all a hug.”
    Gresha nodded and reached up to kiss Dat before going to the Kitchen, “Supper is ready.” Dat followed her and she said, “Something doesn’t sound right.”
    Dat sat down at the table and lowered his eyebrows, “What do you mean?”
    “Aren’t you the Senior Admiral over all our military forces?”
    “I am.”
    “And they just happened to know our children were on a training assignment without having to go to a system to see where they were?”
    Dat thought about it and said, “That does seem rather odd.”
    “Something else bothers me, Dat.”
    “What is that?”
    “How many trips have you made to the fleets in recent years?”
    Dat had a fork full of food inches from his mouth and he stopped it. He slowly put it in his mouth and thought about it. “Not many.”
    “How many?”
    “I can’t remember the last time I visited the fleets. It seems every time I would plan a visit, Katherine would have another place that I needed to go. Most of the places were recruiting campaigns for the military on various Union Planets.” Dat took another bite of food and chewed it slowly. “She’s been keeping me away from the fleets.”
    “Why would she do that?”
    “I honestly don’t know.”
    “You need to find out.”
    Dat sat and thought about what Gresha had said. He looked at her, “You’ve noticed this before today.”
    Gresha brought her plate to the table and sat down. She sighed, “I’ve noticed