Glory Main Read Online Free PDF Page B

was headed there for assignment.” Mortas looked at Cranther. “Know anything about this place?”
    The scout was studying the makeshift star map. He walked back and forth slowly, as if orienting himself. “Makes sense. One of the Tarlo planets is listed as a Hab. And you say your orders were taking you to this sector. What about you two? Where were you going?”
    â€œThey almost never tell me. Psychoanalysts get rotated pretty frequently.”
    â€œMust keep you from going nuts. How about you?”
    â€œI’m assigned to the Jonas . It’s a cruiser with Twelfth Corps. I was granted leave to make a mandatory pilgrimage to Pacifica.”
    â€œWisp Central. Got it. So our transport was passing through the area, something happened, and they Emergency Stepped us to a known Hab.”
    Mortas tried to keep his eagerness from showing. “But you’re familiar with this place, right?”
    â€œSpartacans are required to memorize the locations and characteristics of all Hab planets in our sector of operations, Lieutenant. That’s so we can get to the nearest base when we’ve got priority intelligence.”
    â€œThe nearest base? Wouldn’t you head for Glory Main if you had key information?” Mortas asked, secretly proud that he knew the war zone nickname for the Twelfth Corps main headquarters.
    â€œSpartacans don’t call it that. We get shifted around so often that half the time we don’t know who we’re working for. So for us it’s just Main or Forward. The forward headquarters is usually on a ship looking for trouble and nobody, not even us, ever knows where Main is. Nah, we just head for the closest base and then get passed up the chain.”
    â€œDon’t they come get you?”
    â€œMost of the time, yeah. Other times a ship gets diverted to scoop us up or we hitch a ride with a friendly unit, but sometimes they lose track of us and we have to make our own arrangements.” He waved a hand at Gorman’s model, his voice dropping and the words coming out more slowly. “It’s a funny thing, war in space. Fleets Stepping every which way, one minute they’re here and the next they’re not, but Command makes damn sure we know how to find the things that are more or less permanent. First the military bases, next the human colonies, after that the Sim colonies, and as a last resort the Hab planets that haven’t got anybody living on them yet, human or Sim.
    â€œAnd we’ve landed on the last kind.” He looked up at Mortas. “There’s nobody here but us.”
    G orman seemed to have missed Cranther’s diagnosis. “Corporal, why would Command want you to head for a Sim planet if you carried important intelligence?”
    â€œLike I said, we make our own arrangements when we have to. The Sims might not be completely human, but they’re human enough for us to use some of their ships. Wren shuttles work the best. You’d be surprised how easy it is to steal one of those on a busy base. But there’s nothing like that here, so it’s not like I’m gonna get a chance to show you how.”
    â€œHow can you be sure of that?” Trent’s voice was high, strained. “Just because they told you this wasn’t inhabited, why couldn’t that change? That’s what this war is all about, right? Grabbing up all the good locations? Maybe somebody is here, maybe somebody human, and we just have to find them.”
    Cranther raised an open palm toward the sky. “Sure. Why not? Which way you want to go, Captain?”
    â€œThat’s enough.” Mortas was startled by the hard edge in his own voice. “That goes for both of you. We need to think here, not fight. Gorman’s given us the most important information we could get right now, and we need to use it.”
    â€œUse it for what? An entry on a pile of stones?” Cranther’s voice maintained its