Tactical Error Read Online Free PDF Page B

them a very reasonable and honorable people.”
    “That is the contingency plan,” Trace said in a cold, tight
voice. “But not now, not when we finally have them trapped. If we make
peace with them, we’re stuck with them, and there is no place for
Starwolves in our future. It’s their fault that this damned, ridiculous
war has gone on so long. They would never leave us alone and give us a chance
to go our own way, and I should hope that we have too much human pride to let a
pack of glorified laboratory animals dictate our future to us. Right now,
we’re fighting to stay alive as a race. If we have to turn ourselves over
to the Starwolves to guard our collective conscience and police our every move,
then we might just as well die.”
    Trace walked in a rather angry silence, leaving Maeken Kea almost running to
keep up with him. They crossed the twenty or so meters of the bay floor to the
boarding ramp of the cutter. Trace passed her bags into the hands of a junior
crewmember who was making final preparations for getting the little ship under
way, indicating for another to take the bags she carried. They hurried into the
ship with their burdens, and Trace turned to leave just as abruptly.
    “Good luck, Commander,” Maeken called after him, determined
that he would not simply disappear without a word. Once he developed a case of
Starwolves on the mind, he forgot all else.
    He paused only long enough to nod once, looking over his shoulder.
    “Commander Trace!” she insisted, running after him a few paces.
“You can surely spare me a moment more of your time. You’re on your
way to your carefully contrived meeting with Velmeran, and if that goes the way
it has in the past, then I may never see you again. There are a lot of things
that I’ve never said, out of respect for military necessity, but you can
damned well do better than that.”
    Donalt Trace just stood where he was for a long moment, looking startled and
slightly confused, before he turned and walked slowly back to stand before her.
He towered over her, remote and silent, and Maeken wondered almost fearfully if
her quiet hopes had only earned her his wrath. Then, to her great surprise, he
bent to take her hand, and kissed it gently. From anyone else, that would have
seemed a contrived and ridiculous gesture. Donalt Trace was, if nothing else, a
man of quiet majesty and gallantry, and he had meant that gesture in perfect
sincerity.
    “To a future of many hopes, my little lady,” he said, then
turned to walk away.
    Maeken Kea wept silently, knowing that she had forced the question and
wondering if she would have been better for never having known the truth in
matters that she could never have the way she wanted.
     

- 2 -
    Vast and dark, the Starwolf carrier moved quietly through the shadow of the
ring, the black arrowhead shape of her armored hull almost invisible against
the bands of bright colors of the immense gas giant. She stayed close to the
underside of the ring, hiding in its pale shadow and the sensor distortion from
the haze of fine particles of ice surrounding the ring, ready to run into the
planet’s own deep shadow if unwanted visitors were to arrive in the
system. No small, black fighters moved through her closed bays. Her few windows
were sealed, and her running lights were dark.
    On the Methryn’s bridge, Velmeran paced with pentup energy before
the central bridge. Seated at the helm station, Consherra watched him quietly.
She was reminded of Mayelna, his mother and predecessor, gone now these past
twenty years. She had always been content to remain inconspicuously in the
quiet recesses of the commander’s station of the upper bridge, while
Velmeran would more often descend to the main bridge where he could move about,
watching the various stations. He was a very capable commander, but he would
never be completely at home on the bridge. He missed being a pilot more than he
would ever admit, and Consherra would always regret the