Junkyard Dogs 1: The Scrapyard Incident Read Online Free PDF Page B

you everywhere you
go. Want to see the schematic on an Orion destroyer?"
    "You
bet!"
    She spoke softly
at the device.
    "Succession
War...obsolete destroyer...Orion Mark IV...3-D projection...execute!"
    This brought up a
3-D holo display of a representative of the destroyer class in the air in front
of them and she eagerly began to point out details. The two of them quickly
became engrossed in the display and then moved on to other subjects. Carlisle
wasn't anything at all like Harris had expected from Kresge's earlier briefing.
Her mind was lightning fast and the depth of her knowledge was astounding for
such a young officer, but she was surprisingly easy to talk to. Her nervous
speaking habit seemed to get less severe as she relaxed and simply let things
flow. The two of them had so many common interests that Harris completely lost
track of the time.
    "So you see,
all of the information I've been able to pull together so far indicates that
Jannsen was a damned good strategist but he was a lousy tactician," said
Carlisle as she referred to details on a holographic diagram of the final
battle of the Succession War. "Yet somehow he pulled off a brilliant
tactical move that saved the day for the Federation Forces. It doesn't make
sense. Talbot says..."
    A call over the
station intercom brought them out of their reverie. The mess hall had emptied
out except for the two of them.
    "Lieutenant
Harris...Lieutenant Harris... Report to the Command Center, immediately."
    "Damn!"
he said. "Look at the time! I'm set to relieve Perkins as officer of the
watch. Five minutes ago! Gotta go." He smiled at
her as he got up to leave. "It has really been great talking to you,
Ensign."
    "Tamara."
    "Great talking to you, Tamara. You do seem to have a new angle. We should have plenty of time to
discuss it while we're checking out those destroyers over the next few weeks.
See you at seven bells. Goodnight."
    "Goodnight,
Lieutenant."
    She wore a
discrete smile of her own as she left for her quarters. As was her habit, she
spoke softly to herself.
    "Engrossing...intellectually
stimulating...damned nice eyes...so polite... Ryan ...his name is Ryan...I hope
I didn't get him in trouble."
    Now he had been
totally unexpected. She hadn't thought that anyone at the Reclamation Center
would have had much interest in her project, let alone know enough to help refine some of her ideas. As for the Lieutenant himself, she
found herself intrigued by his clean-cut good looks and his unobtrusive manner.
His gentle, intelligent brown eyes didn't seem to miss much either. These next
few weeks were probably going to be interesting, to say the least. Her smile
turned to a frown as the painful memories of seemingly friendly colleagues who
had led her on with kindness only to turn nasty on her when it suited their interests
intruded into her thoughts. Admiral Loftgren's lecture on how important success
at this assignment was to her future career came flooding back as well.
    "Think about
something else, Tamara..." she said as she slipped into her quarters.

Chapter 5
    ...The main occupied construct of the
Reclamation Center, the command facilities and staff quarters, was a standard
military-issue Class J orbital repair facility that had been brought in
immediately after the war. Just small enough to fit the main hold of one of the
huge M-class transports, the facility was a prefab
construction of dumbbell shape with short cylinders instead of spheres at the
ends. These facilities had been designed to be transported fully functional and
in one piece to wherever they were needed. One of the cylinders was rotated to
simulate gravity while the other remained stationary and unpressurized to allow
docking, unloading and storage of supplies without complicated and difficult
maneuvers. In the center of the stationary cylinder was the main cargo door and
tethered outside it were several rows of small two-person sleds, two large
utility sleds, and two small cutters that were used to