The Prodigal Sun Read Online Free PDF

study him in return. If the impending battle concerned him, he didn’t show it. Even his voice echoed the easy strength and confidence of his physique. “What were you about to say? Do you know something about this?”
    “Nothing.” Klose’s voice had taken Cane’s attention back to the screen, and Roche followed it at once.
    “Any communication?” the captain had asked.
    “None, sir.” The officer glanced up from his console. “They are not responding to our signals.”
    “Janek: ETA?”
    “Three minutes, sir,” replied the tactician without looking up. Then she leaned in close to her console. “Sir, that dreadnought—”
    “What about it?”
    “It’s not a dreadnought. Configuration reads way off.” She leaned in close again. “It could be the ship we’ve heard rumors about—the new Marauder.”
    Roche studied the image forming on the screen. The ship did look different: a large dolioform drive facility connected to seven pointed nacelles by a complicated web of what looked like threads but were probably access tubes and girders made small by distance. Streamlined mouths at either end of the drive flashed red as the ship maneuvered; smaller spiracles on five of the nacelles were inactive but open, obviously weapon bays or fighter launchers ready for action. The ship looked like nothing Roche had seen before, but she could tell just by its appearance—an ominous cross between a spider and shark—that it was designed for speed and resilience in battle.
    “Broadcast full battle alert,” announced Klose, his voice booming. “Seal the bridge and all compartments! Prepare for defensive maneuvers!”
    “Too late,” mumbled Cane. “Much too late.”
    “What is?”
    “The captain should have attacked the moment he saw them.”
    “Not Klose.” She grimaced bitterly. “He’d never risk a diplomatic incident on the off chance there’d been some sort of misunderstanding.”
    “What do you think?” The approaching Dato ships glinted in Cane’s eyes. “Does this look like a misunderstanding to you?”
    “They haven’t attacked us—”
    “But they will,” Cane interjected calmly. “And if the captain waits any longer—”
    A groan from the bulkheads interrupted him. The view in the telemetry display shifted suddenly as the Midnight’ s engines kicked into life, thrusting the ship along a different course. Life support dampened the violent shift in momentum, leaving a lingering sense of disorientation in its wake.
    Roche blinked and shook her head. Cane seemed entirely unaffected, although she realized with alarm that he was standing much closer than he had been before. If he had wanted to overpower her, he could have done so easily during the maneuver. The fact that he hadn’t did not reassure her. That she had let him get that close in the first place—
    Another disturbance rolled through the ship, more violent than the previous one. Cane’s hand came down on her shoulder. She brushed it aside with the hand holding the pistol before realizing that he was only steadying her.
    He raised an eyebrow at her confusion, then turned back to the screen.
    Klose had sent the Midnight angling along a path heading below the approaching triangle of Dato ships, demonstrating an initial reluctance to engage but without placing the ship in too vulnerable a position. The frigate’s contingent of five fighters peeled away to draw fire. Instantly, the arrowhead formation dissolved, with the Marauder swooping to intercept the Midnight and the three raiders at the rear peeling to either side and below to pen the COE frigate in a potential cross fire.
    The Midnight turned again, to port, disturbing the deadly symmetry of the pattern. The Marauder followed while the raiders jockeyed for new positions.
    Klose ordered the raising of hyperspace disrupters and E-shields. The Midnight’s armory targeted and tracked the Dato ships, awaiting the order to fire.
    Roche’s hands gripped the valise tightly. Cane’s