Rebellion of Stars (Starship Blackbeard Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

kind that seemed poised to bloom into a full-size beard if it weren’t shaved day and night. The contrast with the science officer’s peach fuzz was telling.
    But Brockett wouldn’t be dissuaded. “You didn’t tie this down properly,” he said as the forklift stopped and the man jumped down to help his partner load the coolers onto the pod. “Next load, use the straps.”
    “Listen, kid, I been doing this since you were in diapers. And I don’t mean two weeks ago. So before you go telling me how to do my job—”
    “Do what he says, Corporal,” Tolvern interrupted.
    The corporal blinked and stared at her. “Aye, sir. Sorry, sir.” The man returned to his work.
    “I don’t know,” Brockett confided to Tolvern. “Maybe I should go down instead of Henry. He’s awfully young.”
    Henry Jukes was Brockett’s new lab assistant and even younger than his boss. Nineteen, was that right? Looked about twelve, to be honest. Henry had been a math whiz studying at the Naval Academy in Juneau, but he’d been home on Saxony for semester break when civil war broke out. He’d quickly enlisted to join the rebellion. She didn’t think Henry was overly political, but throw him in a lab full of cool computers and machines that whirred and beeped, and he’d do anything for the cause.
    “Does Henry know how to synthesize the antidote?” she asked.
    “Not yet, no. So far as I know, I’m the only one who can, unless that Hroom general has figured it out.”
    “We don’t know if Mose Dryz has managed or not, but he’s got his other troubles to worry about. He’s still fighting his own civil war, and Apex is biting at his haunches.”
    There was another consideration. In addition to internal struggles with the Hroom death cult and the attacks by the savage alien race known as Apex, the military commander of the Hroom Empire was himself a sugar eater. Captain Drake had given the empire the antidote—a great weapon in its struggle against human slavers—but it was unclear if Mose Dryz had done anything with it.
    In any event, the sugar world of Hot Barsa was inaccessible to the empire. It was up to Drake’s fleet to spread chaos behind Albion lines.
    “I could do it,” Brockett insisted. “I’ve been on Hot Barsa. I’ve dealt with Hroom before. I could explain how the antidote works better than Henry.”
    “Henry will go down,” Tolvern said. “We can’t risk losing you.”
    “Yes, Captain.” In spite of his brave words, Brockett sounded relieved.
    The com link warned Tolvern that they were beginning their deceleration as they approached Hot Barsa. Once they arrived, Tolvern had less than an hour to send the away pod to the surface and get out. Then the three destroyers Drake had warned her about would arrive.
    Tolvern touched her ear and told the gunnery to man all stations. Cloaking would shortly come down, and they’d better be ready to go hot.
    When that was done, she called Henry Jukes, Sal Ypis, and the two marines who’d be accompanying them to the surface. “Collect your armaments and personal gear and make your way to engineering. I want you strapped down by oh-eight-hundred.”
    #
    The orbital fortresses held their fire as Philistine approached. She was one destroyer, and though her cannons were warm and her missile batteries exposed, she wasn’t shooting. The rebel craft wasn’t strong enough to slug it out with a fort, and so the individual commanders seemed content to wait.
    Tolvern’s tech officer failed to decode the navy transmissions, but she could easily imagine what they said. Perhaps the destroyer wished to surrender—several vessels had changed allegiances since the civil war began. Or perhaps it was a feint, and there was a heavier force cloaked and approaching from the opposite direction.
    Either way, the forts were strong enough to pummel Philistine into submission, yet they had no support craft of their own, since these were out fighting the multiple attacks on the system. Better