StarFight 1: Battlestar Read Online Free PDF Page B

there, but had never spent time with him at the academy. Just before boarding she’d heard he was a loner, not sociable. Which did not fit his manner during the officers holo shoot at the orbital shipyard station. Or his manner on the Lepanto . While the man was shy, he had made Kenji feel welcome in the ensigns ward room, a place rarely visited by any enlisted Spacer. He’d done the same for Quincy, a Brit who came from a Royal Navy family. That reaching out had endeared Jacob to her. Which left her wondering why she had not taken the obvious step and invited him to join her at the weekly Dance Night. Surely he knew how to dance. While he was congenial to other women ensigns and enlisted, she had seen no sign he wanted close contact with women. Could she change that attitude?
    “Acting Captain, the six spysats we have on that side of the world report every alien ship remains as they have been,” O’Hara said softly. “There is a forward group of six ships arranged in a hexagonal pattern, and a following group of six ships arranged similarly.”
    Daisy blinked as a memory of her high school biology class filled her mind. She recalled a picture of a wasp nest hidden under the eave of an old wooden building. Each chamber built into the mix of plant fiber, mud and wasp secretions had six walls. They made for hexagonal chambers, similar to the honeycombs of bees. Larvae were born and fed in the hexagonal chambers until they became true wasps. The memory caused her to tap her right side armrest and bring up a holo image of the twelve alien ships. Yes! Each ship was long and had six sides faceting its shape. Tubular shapes stuck out from the front, middle and rear of each log-like ship. Were they lasers? Cannons? Missile launch silos? Something else?
    “Thank you, Tactical,” Jacob said. “Uh, CWO Osashi, those spysats uploaded continuous video of the meeting with the aliens, didn’t they?”
    “They did, sir,” the man said, his tone formal but not amiable. She wondered at that.
    Her left armrest’s overhead image of the entire Bridge showed Jacob tapping his fingers on his armrest, clearly working at patience with the man who had challenged his right to issue any order. “Rerun on the front wallscreen the last three minutes of AV imagery. I assume the feed was cut off due to the lightning storm?”
    “Sir, that is what happened,” the elderly chief warrant officer said, sitting stiffly at his post. The man tapped the control pillar in front of him. “Last three minutes of imagery going up. Time stamps are in the lower right corner.”
    Daisy looked forward, trying to ignore the constant rasping of her vacsuit against her arms and legs. The suit was a bother but its wearing was in conformity with the new Alert status. At least the helmet-back position allowed her to breath normal ship air.
    The wallscreen filled with a high density color image of the backs of the captains and XOs who sat on field stools facing a cluster of eighteen wasp-like aliens. Clearly the image came from the tablet of one of the ensigns who sat behind the senior officers. She saw the broad back of Admiral Johanson on the left side of the arc of officers. None of them wore vacsuits. All were dressed in woodland camo NWUs. In the middle of the room hovered a hologram that showed various Earth plants and animals. The imagery was controlled by some officer who was trying to establish a common language or terminology. A holo next to it was controlled by the aliens, one of whom held a silvery tablet in his upper arm pair. That holo showed color images of the fleet ships in orbit above the fourth planet. Behind the aliens was parked their shuttle, which like their ships had a hexagonal outer hull. Words were heard as the humans talked among themselves, while the only sound coming from the aliens were rare raspings of the top limbs against their thorax shell. She wondered if rasping their limbs against their chitin shells was how they