The Rise of Earth Read Online Free PDF Page A

paying docking fees for a ship we can’t touch.”
    â€œIncoming transmission,” Vesuvia said.
    â€œFinally,” Mavry said.
    â€œYou may proceed, Shadow Comet ,” said the lieutenant. “ Sparrowhawk out.”
    The Comets belowdecks let up a ragged cheer as Carlo grabbed the yoke and brought the privateer down to her docking cradle for the first time in five months. It took an hour for Yana and Tycho to muster out the hands, issuing their exemptions and warning them to beware of press gangs. But then the last crewer hoisted his chest and passed through the port airlock to a waiting ferry, and the Comet was empty of all but her bridge crew.
    The Hashoones gathered their own gear and climbed down the aft ladderwell to the gig. Carlo unlatched the little craft from its socket in the Comet ’s belly and let it plummet down Callisto’s weak gravity well, fast enough to make Tycho’s stomach turn flips.
    â€œEasy on the sticks,” Diocletia complained. “We’re not shooting the Kirkwood Gap here.”
    â€œSorry, Mom,” Carlo said with a grin, easing up on the controls and tapping the gig’s retro rockets as itsettled on the landing pad, so gently that Tycho barely felt the bump.
    â€œShow-off,” Yana muttered, and Carlo offered her a mocking bow.
    The Hashoones tramped down the corridor to Port Town’s transportation hub, where their grav-sled was waiting in its stall for the brief trip to Darklands. Tycho was so busy debating the legality of press gangs with Yana that he didn’t notice Mavry had come to a halt and collided with him.
    Grigsby was standing in the corridor, his duffel bag at his feet and a grimmer-than-usual expression on his face. Behind him stood a knot of morose-looking spacers, hats in their hands. Tycho recognized them as the Comets who had been sent aboard the captured cargo hauler weeks earlier.
    â€œI don’t suppose you’re here to welcome us home,” Diocletia said.
    Richards stepped forward, eyes downcast. “’Fraid not, Captain. It’s my duty to tell yeh we lost the prize, ma’am.”
    Tycho and Yana traded looks. The cargo hauler had been flying Earth’s flag, and while she wasn’t the stuff fortunes were made of, she’d been worth enough to make the Comet ’s last cruise a moderately successful one. Without her . . .
    â€œLost the prize?” Diocletia asked. “How did this happen, Mr. Richards?”
    â€œShe was recaptured, ma’am. A rescue ship fromEarth intercepted us a day out of 153 Hilda. Frigate by the name of the Gros-yoo .”
    â€œGesundheit,” Yana said, earning a stern look from her mother.
    â€œWe couldn’t outrun her, Captain,” Richards said. “Not much in the solar system could. She took back the prize and her captain made us give our parole. Then he hailed a liner heading for Jupiter and put us on it.”
    â€œAn Earth captain paroled you?” Diocletia asked.
    Tycho understood his mother’s surprise. Earth regarded privateering as thinly disguised piracy. Many captains in His Majesty’s navy would have taken the Comet ’s prize crew prisoner. But this one had allowed the Comets to return to Jupiter.
    â€œI was surprised meself,” Richards said. “We thought we was bound for the brig, but this captain was a right decent cove, Earthman though he was. He turned us loose, and the Gros-yoo took the prize back to the asteroid belt.”
    â€œI’ve never heard of an HMS Gros-yoo ,” Mavry said. “Are you sure you’re pronouncing that correctly, Mr. Richards?”
    â€œMaybe not, but it’s summat like that. ’Cept the Gros-yoo ain’t no navy ship, sir. She’s a privateer, she is. Carryin’ a letter of marque from Earth.”
    â€œThat’s impossible,” Huff said. “Earth ain’t issued letters of marque since the Third Trans-Jovian