Accord of Honor Read Online Free PDF

who had attacked my ship. I couldn’t help thinking about the kid who died. I wondered how long it would be before his memory stopped haunting me. Those people killed one of my crew. And they’d put the lives of everyone on Earth and Mars at risk.
    “I want in, Dad. I don’t know what you’re headed off to do, but these people attacked me. The people on this station are my friends too. If you’ve got something in mind to stop these people, I want to be part of it.”
    He stared at me for a long moment. I thought I saw the shadow recede a bit, but that might have been my imagination. “OK,” he said simply. “You’ve earned the right to be in on this. But once we get in that ship, there’s no turning back. And you might not like where we’re going.”
    “I think I’ll manage,” I said grimly. We walked together out onto the docks. For some reason, I felt closer to the Old Man than I had in years.

    T he trip took us out about two light minutes from Mars – not a short hop. Took more than a few hours, during which the conversation was just about non-existent. I had tried to quiz Dad about where we were going, what he had in mind, and why the total secrecy, but he brushed off my questions and attempts to draw him into chatter.
    “It’ll be easier to show you than explain to you,” he all he would say.
    Finally I gave up, let him peck intently at his tablet while I stared at the flight controls, trying to keep my mind busy without worrying about what the pirates were up to or where they’d pop up next.
    I wasn’t too worried about running into them, mind you. We were well off the beaten path of the major shipping lanes, and as I said before, space is a really, really big place. No, I was more worried that we’d get a sudden alert from corporate headquarters on Mars that the station was under attack. Dad asked me to order all company personnel on Mars Station groundside, which was an unusual bit of delegation for him. That kept me busy for all of twenty minutes while he piloted us away from the station and set our course. Most of our folks went, but we had a few die hards who had volunteered to stay and keep things running. I hoped they’d be OK.
    Meanwhile, word had gotten out, and the situation in Olympus City was getting pretty wild, or so I gathered from the radio. People were panicking, and a few fights had already broken out. Once the radio confirmed that the story had been leaked, I figured we were a little more free to help our people out. I ran the idea by Dad, who nodded, then I passed the word that all employees and their families were to be housed in the company base if they wanted a safe spot to stay. We had the room, with a little work and a lot of cot setup. And if the bottom of the base was safe enough for Dad to want to plunk me there, it was probably one of the safest spots on Mars right now.
    Instead of being tucked away, I was out flying God knew where on Dad’s ‘secret mission’. I was starting to regret my earlier curiosity. No conversation, no idea where we were going, and I wasn’t in the mood to lose any more chess games today. Bored, I pulled up the station’s data on the missing ships. Two of them were ours, which stood to reason. We had more ships flying to and from Mars than any other company. When I got to the rosters of missing personnel, I froze. I sucked in my breath, hard.
    Keladry Flynn.
    I scanned the rest of the info absently, half in a daze. She was listed as pilot on one of the missing ships. On their way back from a long survey mission to the outer planets. Lost on approach a day out from Mars, overdue. No communication.
    I couldn’t concentrate on the data, couldn’t focus. My mind was playing back memories of a young woman with auburn curls helping me load cargo and almost dropping a crate on my foot. Of her smile on a shared watch. The scent of her as we tumbled together in free-fall, nothing between sweat-slick bodies.
    It wasn’t unusual for crew of