Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) Read Free

call until then, though I don’t imagine there’ll be another attack. Tomorrow, when the planet’s rotated enough so that the convention’s on the nightside, take Bull Pampas and a couple of other formidable-looking crewmen and collect our money.”
    “Val’s the most formidable of all,” noted the Molarian. “There’s not a man or alien on board she can’t whip without working up a sweat—including Bull.”
    “Yeah, I know,” said Cole. “But if they’re reluctant to come up with the money, you’ll threaten to shoot ’em all and eventually they’ll pay what they owe. If I send her down and they’re slow to produce the money, she’ll kill them all.”
    “She would at that,” agreed Forrice. “I suppose that’s the benefit of a nonmilitary education.” He emitted a few hoots of alien laughter at his own observation. “Still, she probably saved the ship today.”
    “It wasn’t the first time, it won’t be the last,” said Cole. “That’s why she’s here.”
    “She’s the only one who looks fresh and ready to fight again,” observed Forrice. “If she was a Molarian, I’d stick around for years until she came into season.”
    “Spare me your sexual obsessions,” said Cole. “It’s been a long day.”
    Suddenly the ship shuddered.
    “And about to get longer,” muttered Forrice. “I’m off to the bridge.”
    “No,” said Cole. “Get down to Gunnery and make sure everything’s working. I’ll go to the bridge.”
    They left the office together, and a moment later Cole entered the bridge.
    “What’s going on?” he demanded of Christine Mboya, who was the ranking officer there.
    “One of the class-K ships we killed today just exploded,” she replied. “A big chunk of the hull hit one of our shuttle bays.”
    “Is Slick still out there?”
    “I don’t know, sir,” she said. “I’ll check.” She scanned her computer screens. “Yes, sir.”
    “Put it on audio,” ordered Cole. “Slick, can you hear me?”
    “Yes, sir,” said the Tolobite.
    “Are you okay?”
    “I’m fine, not sure, but my Gorib has suffered some superficial injuries. I’m going to have to come inside very soon.”
    “Have you got time to check and make sure that the ship’s physical integrity hasn’t been compromised?”
    “Yes, sir, I’m sure I have.”
    “Good. Get right on it, and then come back inside.” Cole signaled Christine to break the connection. “Is Mustapha Odom awake?” he asked, referring to the ship’s master engineer.
    “I think everyone is, sir.”
    “So much for three shifts,” he muttered. “All right, tell him to inspect the shuttle bay from the inside and make sure there are no leaks, that it’s totally intact. Then, if he says it is, have him check for weak spots that we may have to reinforce in the near future.”
    “Yes, sir,” said Christine.
    “Pilot?”
    “Yes?” said Wxakgini, the sleepless alien pilot whose brain was literally tied in to the ship’s navigational computer.
    “Take us out half a light-year,” said Cole. “We can’t stay lucky forever. If anything else blows up, I want plenty of warning before any part of it can reach us. Mr. Briggs?”
    “Sir?” said the young lieutenant at the sensor module.
    “Track the other four ships, and let me know if they do anything besides float there dead in space.”
    “It’s a pity you killed them all,” said a familiar voice, and Cole turned to face Val, his six-foot-eight-inch Third Officer.
    “You’d have preferred to play bumper tag with them?” he asked sardonically.
    “I need a ship,” she replied. “I could have used one of those.”
    “I thought you’d joined us permanently,” said Cole.
    “I have. But two ships can take on bigger, better-paying jobs than just the Teddy R ,” she said. “The bigger a fleet we can put together, the more money we can make.”
    “And the more bad guys we’ll attract.”
    She smiled. “Attract and capture enough of them and someday we can even