Storming Heaven Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t think that there were so many nude scenes in the original though – and she would have given her soul to only fight the Galactic Empire.  Humanity faced a far worse foe.
     
    She shook her head impatiently as the MassMind transmitted a signal to her, informing her that someone would like to enter her personal environment.  She nodded, transmitting an acknowledgement, and smiled ruefully as the door opened, revealing Administrator Arun Prabhu.  In the MassMind, he reassembled a Sikh from Old Earth, although Tabitha was probably the only person who recalled what the Sikhs actually were.  It was even more of an illusion than her own personality; Arun lived outside the MassMind, in reality.  She envied him more than she could say.
     
    “Captain,” he said, in greeting.  Tabitha rolled her eyes inwardly.  Her title of Captain was the only one she’d kept over the years, even though she’d been Administrator of the Asteroid Belt, President of the Community and Matriarch of the Rockrats in her long life.  “I love what you’ve done with the place.”
     
    Tabitha scowled at him, knowing that she was being teased.  “To business,” she said, tightly.  The environment could quite easily have been a nude steam bath, or a simple Government-Issue conference room from her own time; her apartment was merely a matter of personal choice.  “I trust that the Admiral is on his way?”
     
    “I believe that he was briefing some of his subordinates,” Arun said, as Admiral Brent Roeder stepped in through the door.  He looked like a fairly average military man, although the Defence Force uniform owed more to various science-fiction movies that had survived the years than anything Tabitha had seen from a human military.  She had once been a Colonel in the United States Space Force – which had ceased to exist along with the United States and Earth itself – and part of her found the uniform amusing, and silly.  “Ah, Admiral.”
     
    “Captain,” Brent said, calmly.  He, at least, wasn't too awed with her reputation.  “We had better make this quick.  I’m scheduled to attend another two briefings before the end of the day.”
     
    Tabitha smiled.  She approved of efficiency and the Defence Force, even though it was largely helpless against the Killers, was an efficient organisation.  Brent had handled much of that when he became its Commanding Officer, rebuilding what had been a rapidly decaying communications and reconnaissance force into a formidable military machine – formidable against anything, but the Killers.  He controlled firepower that would have been unimaginable back in her youth and starships that could span the galaxy in mere hours, yet the Killers didn’t care.  To them, humanity was just another race of insects that needed to be exterminated.
     
    She sent a mental command into the MassMind and the image of the Killer starship materialised in front of them.  It didn’t look any less formidable than it had looked in the Council Chamber and she wondered, suddenly, if they were doing the right thing.  Humanity had survived by hiding in the asteroids and out in interstellar space, but now…now they were talking about going on the offensive, against an overwhelmingly superior foe.  Tabitha had been a military officer long enough to know that that was dangerous, yet there was little choice.  The only other choice was to flee the galaxy entirely and escape.  The MassMind couldn’t be moved so easily.
     
    “Our target,” Brent said, seriously.  “The planning sessions have all been completed.  As we know nothing about the internal environment of the Killer starship, we were very limited in what we could tell the Footsoldiers about it.  We believe that we are prepared for anything reasonable, but…”
     
    He didn’t need to finish the sentence.  They all knew how formidable the Killer starships were…and how little humanity knew about their interiors.  The Killers