Knight's Move Read Online Free PDF Page B

They’d finally gotten around to sending her the Captain’s file.  Rolling her eyes, she marked it for later attention and strode out of the cabin, heading down towards the shuttlebay.  Half of the ship’s bulkheads were still open, allowing maintenance crews to work on her innards.  She sighed in dismay at the sight, even though she knew that there was no alternative.  The end of the war had also put an end to agreements banning labour disputes on shipyards and other war-related industries. 
     
    Bloody unions , she told herself.  Now that the war is over, they’re trying to claw back their power .
     
    Pushing the thought to one side, she stepped into the shuttlebay and smiled as she saw Jess Armstrong standing there.  The Marine Captain – she was always addressed as Colonel onboard ship, to prevent confusion – looked tough enough to chew her way through iron bars and shit bricks.  She was from one of the Core Worlds, but Sandy had always gotten on with her.  Jess was fond of claiming that she’d been offered a choice between jail or joining the Marines and there were times when Sandy believed it.
     
    “Our new CO is arriving,” Jess said, nodding towards the opening hatch.  Once, the sight had been disturbing; now, Sandy could pick out the shimmer of the force field keeping the atmosphere inside the ship.  “Did you review his file?”
     
    Sandy shook her head, then accessed her implants and reviewed the file, skimming through the highlights.  It was surprisingly short; their new Captain had served on a cruiser, then a fleet carrier ... and little else, apart from training craft.  He didn't have any actual command to his credit, although he did have several awards for tactical bravery.  The Terran Cross wasn't normally awarded for political purposes, not after the last public outcry.  And he’d been at the Battle of Sphere Prime.
     
    Her lips twitched.  She'd been there too.
     
    The shuttle came into view, a boxy shape that seemed to be little more than a flying brick that shouldn't be able to move at all.  Sandy watched as the pilot neatly put the craft down on the deck, then deactivated the drives.  The faint hum faded away into nothingness.  She took a step forward as the hatch hissed open, revealing a young man in a navy-blue uniform.  He didn't seem to have bothered to wear his dress uniform.  It was, she told herself firmly, a good sign. 
     
    She pulled herself to attention as the Captain stepped out of the shuttle.  He made no acknowledgement; instead, as per protocol, he formally saluted the flag painted on the far side of the shuttlebay, then saluted Sandy.  Sandy returned his salute, then relaxed minutely, studying her new commandeer with all the experience of thirty years in the military.  He really was alarmingly young.  And his face suggested that someone had engineered the best possible genotype into his genetic code before birth.
     
    “Welcome onboard, Captain,” Sandy said.  She buried the resentment at the back of her mind.  Whatever connections Captain Knight had, it was unlikely that he’d personally barred her from further promotion.  There were more officers than slots in the years following the end of the war.  “It is a pleasure to see you.”
     
    The Captain extended his hand.  Sandy took it and shook it, then introduced Jess, who gave their new commander a disturbing smile.  The Captain didn't seem to notice the traditional Marine game, but then he had been an XO on a fleet carrier.  He was probably used to the Marine tradition of trying to gross out the spacers, who never had to get down in the mud and get their hands and uniforms dirty.
     
    “Thank you,” he said.  His voice was almost unaccented, suggesting that he’d grown up on Earth or Mars.  Earth tended to have the most blended accents in the known universe, a result of its position as the wellspring of human culture.  “It’s a pleasure to be here.”
     
    Sandy nodded,