Knight's Move Read Online Free PDF

the Governor would expect him to bend the regulations in her favour as much as possible.
     
    It was not going to be an easy voyage.
     
    “The strong survive,” he observed.
     
    “Indeed they do,” Theodore agreed.  He shifted, eying his brother as he'd done years ago, when Glen had asked for his blessing before he left for the Academy.  The memory made Glen shiver.  His brother had been the closest thing to a male role model he’d had until he’d gone to the Academy, where he’d met others.  “And we will survive.”

Chapter Three
     
    “Commander?”
     
    Commander Sandy Mannerheim rubbed sleep from her eyes as she sat upright in her bunk, muttering curses under her breath.  She'd intended to catch a few hours of sleep between duty shifts, but Dauntless was a new ship and problems just kept popping up as her crew tested each and every component.  Sandy was already keeping a log of glitches she intended to rub in the face of the yard master, the next time he showed his face.  It wasn't as if he was going to be entering hyperspace on a new and largely untested starship.
     
    “Yeah,” she said, clearing her throat.  “What is it?”
     
    “We just received a ping from Luna Base,” the duty officer said.  “Our new Captain is on his way.  ETA; thirty minutes.”
     
    “Understood,” Sandy said.  She swung her legs off the bunk and stood upright.  Formal protocol demanded a reception in the shuttlebay, but half of the senior officers were busy and the other half were desperately trying to sleep.  Their estimated departure date was only a week off and they were still finding problems.  “Inform Colonel Armstrong and request that she meet me in the shuttlebay before the Captain arrives.”
     
    She closed the connection, then pulled off her tunic and stepped into the shower.  Warm water cascaded down over her, followed by a gust of hot air that left her dry.  If there was one advantage to serving on a fed starship, it was almost unlimited water ... but there was no time to enjoy it, not now.  If their new commander couldn't have the full formal reception, the very least she could do was to be there in her dress uniform and hope that he was reasonable enough to understand why the senior staff hadn't greeted him.  They hadn't even been told who their new commander was .
     
    It should have been her command, she told herself.  She had joined the Colonial Militia at fourteen and risen in the ranks, then transferred to the Terran Federation Navy after Second Bottleneck, when contact had been re-established between the colonies and the Federation.  It hadn't been that bad until the war had come to an end, whereupon competence and experience had been replaced by political connections, at least when it came to assigning promotion.  It didn't help that she’d been born on the other side of the Great Wall.  The bureaucrats on Luna Base didn't seem to realise that paperwork was a so-so thing for the colonies. 
     
    She stepped back into the cabin and eyed herself critically in the mirror.  Her blonde hair had been cut short, a style that made her look severe; her arms and legs were muscular, while her blue eyes were sharp and clear.  The only sign that she’d been in combat was a nasty scar on her cheek, which she had never bothered to have removed.  It made her look intimidating to the new recruits, the ones who had never seen war.  Shaking her head, she pulled her dress uniform on and buttoned it up, then checked her pistol and facemask out of habit.  The Colonial Militia’s starships had never been as well-built as the Federation Navy’s ships.  Their construction habits were the one thing she would take home, if she could.
     
    They probably wouldn't thank me for it , she thought ruefully.  It’s easy to forget that space is dangerous on a Federation warship.
     
    Her implant blinked up a message in front of her eyes, alerting her to the arrival of a new file from Luna Base.