The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast Read Online Free PDF Page B

that done to them every once in a while. It’s the only thing that keeps them even a little humble.”
    The woman looked back at Geary. “I’m overriding the jamming of your comms and releasing the lock on the control-deck hatch. Please come forward so we can see the positioning data your ship provides.”
    Tanya unstrapped from her seat and triggered the hatch, watching as it opened and gesturing Geary to stay back. “All right. It looks safe. Come on, Admiral. This shuttle crew may be playing straight with us, but I’ve still got a bad feeling about this.”
    The flight deck was roughly similar in layout to an Alliance shuttle. The basic design must have been settled on long before humans went to the stars, Geary speculated. He grabbed a handhold to steady himself while Tanya took a free seat next to the male pilot. “I’ve got comms again,” she announced. “
Dauntless
, give me a remote look at the vicinity of this shuttle.”
    She tapped her unit to bring up the 3-D display, which popped into existence above her hand.
    “There are three of the Gorms!” the flight engineer cursed. “And closer than we thought.”
    “You don’t know who they are?” Geary asked.
    “No. Whoever they are, they must have been waiting for us up here. We got snookered, Matt,” she said to the pilot.
    “They were watching for anyone lifting out of there en route that warship,” the pilot agreed. “Good thing they’ve had as much trouble seeing us as we did seeing them.”
    “But your ship can see us and them that easily?” the engineer asked Desjani. “How?”
    “Do you really expect me to answer that?” Tanya asked.
    “No. But it was worth the asking, wasn’t it?”
    The pilot had been studying the display and now turned and climbed slightly to avoid the nearest other stealth craft, which was just below them and angling in their direction. The second craft was in higher orbit, tracking slightly away as it searched for them, and the third lower, but rising and converging on their track. All around, following their own orbits or trajectories, scores of other spacecraft, satellites, shuttles, and ships operating without any stealth equipment wove through space oblivious to the four hidden craft playing hide-and-seek among them.
    “Martian,” the flight engineer declared, pointing to the nearest pursuer.
    “Are you certain?” the pilot said.
    “Absolutely. The signature on that bird is Martian. I can’t tell if the other two are also Reds.”
    “Why are people from Mars after us?” Geary asked.
    “Hired guns,” the pilot answered. “If you’ve got money, and you want a job done, no questions asked, Mars is the place to put up your offer. The only difference between the three primary Red governments is how much they charge for looking the other way and how much control they actually have over their countries. Speaking of looking the other way, you haven’t been up here or seen me or the flapping ear or talked to either of us. All right?”
    “You get us to
Dauntless
, and officially we won’t breathe a word otherwise,” Geary promised. “Flapping ear?”
    “Flight engineer.”
    “Oh.” He studied the movements of the three other stealth craft. “If your ground controllers can spot indications of those three, why aren’t they trying to target them?”
    “Target?” Both the pilot and the flight engineer shook their heads before the pilot continued speaking. “You mean engage with weapons? There aren’t any antiorbital weapons allowed on Earth or in Earth orbit. Even if there were, our rules of engagement are straight out of Gandhi.”
    “What?” Desjani asked.
    “We don’t shoot,” the flight engineer clarified. “Not if you’re Earth-based or -controlled. Those three hunting us might shoot if they get a good chance at us, but that’s because they’re Reds, and because even if they’re one hundred percent official property of some Martian government, there won’t be anything on them to