The Devil and Deep Space Read Free Page A

Space and distant star–fields. It was going to be close; their quarry was doing everything it could to escape.
    “Targeting,” Smish said.
    Lek eased the propulsion up just a hair, one eye to his return trajectory. He needed power in reserve to return to base. “Firing. Confirm kill on three. Two. One.”
    The forward display screens blossomed, then blanked as ship’s on–board display recalibrated itself. Explosion; good. That was it for the last of the targets, then.
    Lek heeled the ship into its return arc and brought its speed up as quickly as he dared. All he had to do now was get back to the Ragnarok on time, and they would have beaten Pesadie for good and all. After years of being mocked by their Fleet counterparts as idle vacationers on an experimental test bed — if not worse — the crew of the Ragnarok had shown Fleet that they could obtain and execute with the best of them.
    Pesadie Training Command had done everything it could to discredit the technical and fighting abilities of the Jurisdiction Fleet Ship Ragnarok , under cover of capability evaluation. But the Ragnarok had accomplished every task, exceeded every benchmark Pesadie had set against them; and defended its honor, to the last.

    ###

    Jennet ap Rhiannon stood on the observation deck of the Engineering bridge with her arms braced stiff against the waist–high railing, looking down through the soundproof clear–wall into the well of Engineering’s command and control center, where the Ragnarok ’s last battle exercise was displayed on ship’s primary screens.
    It was a pleasure to watch the Wolnadi fight. None of the crews had embarrassed the ship, but this one seemed to be particularly aggressive, and Jennet sent a question back over her shoulder to Ralph Mendez while she watched. “Security 5.1, First Officer?”
    The Wolnadi took its target on a high hard oblique roll, clearly planning on blasting through its own debris field on its way to the end of the set. She could see the final target start to move toward the perimeter; someone in Pesadie Training Command had noticed the Wolnadi’s successful attack as well, and was taking measures to challenge their final approach — to make it as difficult as possible to get the final kill.
    “That’s them, Lieutenant,” Mendez replied, Santone dialect still flavoring his syntax even after all of his years in Fleet. “Look at him go. Would you have thought a bond–involuntary could show so much ginger, and get away with it?”
    No, she wouldn’t. Bond–involuntaries were much more likely to be characterized by an aggressively — or defensively — conservative approach to life, for their own protection.
    “Kerenko, I think,” Lieutenant Seascape said, from the shadows behind Jennet. “I thought Koscuisko was taking his Bonds home?”
    “Andrej’s taking Security 5.3, Lieutenant,” Mendez corrected. “Kerenko’s on 5.1. He wanted to take all six of them home, but he can’t take St. Clare anyway, no new governor yet. And Fleet would only authorize one Security team.”
    That was right. There were only six bond–involuntary troops assigned to the Ragnarok right now, well short of the hypothetical full complement of twenty–five. Nor were bond–involuntaries the only troops the Ragnarok was shorted; there were only three Command Branch officers left on board, since murder in Burkhayden had removed both Captain Lowden and Lieutenant Wyrlann from the chain of command several months ago. Acting Captain Brem, acting First Lieutenant ap Rhiannon, acting Second Lieutenant Seascape, and that was it.
    “That ship sure doesn’t move like a failed technology,” Jennet said, though she knew there was no sense in being bitter about it. The Ragnarok was shorted Command Branch and bond–involuntaries alike because everybody expected the ship to be scrapped as soon as the new First Judge was seated. Such was the future that awaited the pet research projects of dead First Judges. “Whoever