Cobra Outlaw - eARC Read Online Free PDF Page B

Kusari was intrigued by the development. Weapons Officer Filho was suspicious, but equally intrigued.
    Tactical Officer Castenello was not only not intrigued, but openly contemptuous.
    “With all due respect, Captain, this is ridiculous,” he said, twitching his eyelid to close down the sensor report Garrett had loaded into the data stream. “There’s no evidence whatsoever that this flicker net has anything to do with us. Or with Aventine or Qasama, for that matter.”
    “It’s on the vector between Aventine and the coordinates Ukuthi gave us for Qasama,” Kusari pointed out.
    “Which means nothing at all,” Castenello said scornfully. “Unless we were somehow able to confirm those coordinates while I was off-watch?”
    Filho stirred. “Your tone borders on the unacceptable,” he rumbled.
    “My tone is precisely gauged to my words,” Castenello countered. “Did you even read the report? Eight spider ships, none of them bigger than scout class—they couldn’t even take the Hermes , let alone the Megalith or Algonquin . If this is a trap for one of our ships, it’s an incredibly inept one.”
    “Then what’s your reading?” Garrett asked.
    “They’re pirates,” Castenello said flatly. “Pure and simple. They’re sitting on the Aventine-to-wherever vector in hopes of snagging a Troft merchant ship. That’s the only thing that makes sense.” He paused just a fraction of a second. “Sir.”
    Barrington felt the tension level in the room jump another couple of levels. None of Dorian ’s senior officers particularly liked Castenello—actually, Barrington doubted anyone aboard really liked the man. But Castenello had a powerful patron, a senior member of the Dominion Central Committee itself, and the tactical officer had long since concluded that he could be as grating and unpleasant to the universe around him as he wanted. Provided he did his job with reasonable competency, no one in the Fleet could touch him.
    But that didn’t mean the man’s blind spots shouldn’t be pointed out to him. And Barrington was still the Dorian ’s captain. “Interesting theory,” he said. “May I point out in turn that, just as we don’t know Ukuthi’s coordinates are Qasama, we also don’t know that those eight spider ships are the only forces guarding the net. That’s merely the number we can see from this distance.”
    “Exactly,” Garrett seconded. “Who’s to say some Troft warship isn’t running the same stealth mode we are?”
    “Possibly near or behind one of the net generators,” Filho agreed. “There’s not a lot we can see through the energy glare.”
    “Or someone could be lurking out here like we are,” Kusari said. “If he sticks to low power mode we’d never spot him without bringing up our active sensors.”
    “And why would a hypothetical warship bother stealthing or lurking?” Castenello countered. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere. As far as any lurking warship knows, the only ships that could possibly spot it would already be trapped in the net. Why waste energy with stealth mode when there’s no reason to do so?”
    He turned to Barrington. “My recommendation, Captain, is that we get back to the task of locating Qasama and completing the mission that Asgard and the Dome gave us. Time and lives are on the line, and the longer we sit here waiting for nothing to happen, the more of both are going to be lost.” He looked around the table. “Or are there other recommendations?”
    A small ripple of discomfort ran around the table. And on the surface, at least, even Barrington had to admit that Castenello’s recommendation made sense. The visible Troft ships were small, compact things, and even a courier ship like Hermes had the firepower to hold them off until it could recalibrate its drive and escape. If the net instead caught one of the Dominion war cruisers, the resulting battle would be over within minutes.
    But there was still something about this whole thing that