Blood and Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

found any situation he couldn’t handle. And she doubted she would.
    She caught up with him in the officer’s mess, where he was poring over a set of schematics.
    â€œHow’s your team doing?”
    â€œThey’ve had thirty hours training, Captain. They’ve had the last six hours off so they can be thoroughly rested and ready when we go in.”
    â€œWhat about yourself?”
    â€œI’ve had my sleep for this month.”
    â€œWe’re going to have some very long days coming up ...”
    Korie nodded, still preoccupied with the diagrams. “I can handle it.”
    Parsons stepped in close and whispered, “I know you can handle it.
But I don’t want you playing superman all the time. You’ve got to learn how to pace yourself or you’ll burn out before you’re thirty.”
    â€œI’m thirty-two,” Korie said.
    â€œThen you’re overdue. We’ve got six hours until we begin final approach. Go take a power nap—”
    â€œI don’t need—” Korie stopped himself. “Aye, Captain.” He switched off the display, pulled his headset off and picked up his coffee mug and sandwich plate. He ducked through the hatch to “Broadway,” the starship’s main corridor. Captain Parsons watched him go, pleased that Korie was learning how to follow orders.
    She’d been worried about her executive officer’s strong will and independent nature. That was part of his “legend” too. It was no secret among his fellow officers that Jon Korie had earned his captain’s stars three times over. That the admiral had not yet given him a ship of his own was rapidly becoming an embarrassment not only to Korie, but to everyone serving with him as well—not to mention other captains whose names had come up later than Korie’s.
    In fact, Korie didn’t know it, but Parsons had refused this posting when she discovered her executive officer would be Jon Korie. But Admiral O’Hara had told her to put her objections aside and take the ship. It wasn’t that Korie was unready for command—he’d already proven that—but there were other factors at work. And in the meantime Korie needed the opportunity to practice the virtues of patience and cooperation. Parsons’ supervision would be a useful and important role model for him.
    Parsons suspected that Korie had already figured it out. Korie’s mental agility was part of his growing “legend” among those who had served with him, and it was part of the scuttlebutt around Stardock that Jon Korie could tell you how far out of alignment the hyperstate grapplers were just by tasting the soup in the galley. Parsons had not yet seen Korie demonstrate this particular skill, but after a few weeks of watching him oversee the maintenance of the vessel, she would not have been surprised. The man was the most totally dependable officer she had ever met. Almost a machine.
    Neither was it a secret why Korie was so driven. Korie’s wife and two sons had been on Shaleen when the Morthans attacked. They were presumed dead. Afterward, Korie had received a delayed-in-transit message from Carol indicating that they were trying to evacuate to Taalamar—but Taalamar had been destroyed by an avalanche of asteroids, launched by teams of Morthan commandos. The Star Wolf had
been part of a massive (but insufficient) evacuation effort. In what few records survived from Taalamar, there was no evidence of the arrival of his wife and children. Emotionally, Korie had lost them, been given a nugget of hope, then lost them again.
    Still, part of him prayed. He didn’t want to be alone. Perhaps they had been separated. Perhaps one of the boys had gotten away. But he didn’t dare torture himself with those thoughts anymore. That was planting the seeds of madness.
    At Stardock, Korie routinely and methodically worked out with robots designed to look like Morthans.