Stars in the Sand Read Online Free PDF

frowning.
     Turning to the man, he said, “What’s your name?”
     “ Tanaka.”
     “ Go down to Deck 4, and turn yourself into the rear guard. They’ll see you are taken prisoner.”
     He looked from side to side, then said, “Why do you trust me?”
     “ It really doesn’t matter. If you go somewhere else, you’ll be caught soon enough, but if you go where I’ve said, you likely won’t get shot in the process. Your call.” Looking at the rest of his team, he said, “Come on. Let’s get this done.”
     He pushed back the surprised Tanaka, flashing a quick look to Manning, who released him and followed into the room. The facility was unmanned at the moment, banks of consoles and terminals flickering on and off under automatic controls, clipboards and datapads drifting around the room, orbiting a trio of empty food cartons. Cantrell snatched one out of the air, took a sniff, and shook her head.
     “ Don’t they care that someone has to clean this up?”
     “ Freighters aren’t run like warships,” Cooper said. “You should hear my uncle on the  subject.”
     Turning back to the door, she said, “Tanaka’s gone the wrong way.”
      “ Probably gone for help.”
     “ Don’t you care?”
     “ Not really, he won’t get anywhere. This is a non-vital area; anyone left is probably on their way to the bridge, where I am sure Lieutenant Orlova will shortly be forcing a surrender.”
     “ But…”
     “ Spaceman, they’ve got nothing left to fight with. Once we stopped them jumping out of the system, we gave ourselves all the time in the world to secure this ship without taking any risks. We can starve them out if we have to, but it won’t come to that. My guess is that the captain will put up a glorious last stand to look good for his employers, then surrender.”
     Shaking his head, Manning said, “Still seems wrong just to turn a prisoner loose like that.”
     “ Well, just on the off-chance, Manning, you can guard the door.”
     With a shrug, the technician drifted over to cover the exit, while Cooper slid his pistol into his holster, and started to work the controls. He’d spent a lot of time in Astrogation on Alamo over the last week, and almost knew what he was doing.
     “ There it is,” Cantrell said. “The course computation.”
     He glanced up, then said, “I forgot you worked down on the sensor decks.”
     “ Want me to take over?”
     “ No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got this.”
     “ I’d be faster.”
     “ Maybe I need the practice,” he replied. “Hold on, I think I’ve got it.”
     A series of calculations burst into life, and he breathed a sigh of relief; the ship had been heading back the way they came, towards the Cabal fleet that Alamo had recently defeated. There would be no help from that quarter, though no doubt the enemy commander would have been willing to make the attempt if they’d got the information.
     “ We’d better get up to the bridge,” Cantrell said, looking at the door.
     “ No hurry, Spaceman. I haven’t finished yet.”
     “ You’ve got the information. We can send it over to Alamo and get on with securing the ship.”
     Turning to her with a frown, he replied, “Don’t take this the wrong way, Spaceman, but you are enjoying this far too much.”
     “ I joined up to get some excitement, and this is the first chance I’ve really had.”
     His eyes widening, Cooper began, “Over the last four months….”
      “ Yes, but I haven’t been able to do anything. Just down below decks putting things back together again, repairing battle damage or being terrified while things explode all around me. I wanted a chance to really get my hands dirty.”
     “ Get your hands dirty?”
     Nodding, she said, “I wanted to see some action.”
     Cooper paused, turned to her, and said, “During the Interplanetary War, the average injury rate for Marines was 201%. Do you