The Terran Privateer Read Online Free PDF Page B

uniform.”
    “Get used to it,” Annette ordered. “If I’m reading the cards right, we’re going to be doing a lot of full-dress affairs. Tornado is the Force’s newest and shiniest toy.”
    “Wonderful. I’ll go say hello to the natives, then,” the man replied in an exaggeration of his natural British accent.
    Kurzman glanced around, set his eyes on a cluster of civilians, and sauntered away from Annette. She, despite what she’d told him, remained standing next to the dais where she’d read her commissioning papers, formally taking command of Tornado as a United Earth Space Force officer.
    “Auntie Annie!” Morgan squealed, providing Annette about half a second’s warning before the girl torpedoed her way into the Captain’s midsection.
    Annette gently and awkwardly patted the child on the head, looking around half-desperately for Elon Casimir. She liked Morgan, inasmuch as she liked any child, but this was not the place for it.
    “Come here, Morgan, or you’ll muss Captain Bond’s uniform.” The older Casimir thankfully arrived to her rescue. The blonde child detached herself from Annette—only to attach herself to her father like a limpet.
    Casimir simply smiled and ruffled his only child’s hair as he met Annette’s eyes.
    “The uniform looks good on you,” he said quietly. “Better on you than a lot of these twits.” He gestured to the gathering with his head. Roughly a third of the UESF’s ninety-four Captains were in the room, at least pretending to like their newest compatriot.
    “To be fair, most of these ones are decent,” she admitted. “I had a veto on the guest list—not a perfect one”—her gaze touched on Commodore Joseph Anderson and she barely concealed a snarl—“but enough to weed out the true scum.”
    “Villeneuve needed you for this more than I did,” Casimir told her. “You were never comfortable commanding anything without guns, either. Made you feel vulnerable.”
    He met her responding glare with a disarming smile and shrug.
    “You belong here,” he finished. “And you are the woman of the hour. It’s your ship, which makes all of these people your guests.”
    “And I should be talking to them and not my old boss?”
    “Pretty much,” Casimir agreed with a wink, reminding her of other things he’d been at one point. “I’ll always back you, Annette. You may not work for me anymore, but that ship is still my baby and I trusted you with her from the beginning.”
    “I appreciate it,” she told him. “But I believe I see an Admiral approaching, and in this new job, stars trump even you.”
    Casimir gave her a wave that vaguely approximated a salute and swept Morgan away into the crowd. Annette took a moment to relax from what had been a friendly chat, and then turned to face an older woman she didn’t know with the tripled stars of a Space Force Vice Admiral.
    “Vice Admiral Katherine Harrison,” the tall white-haired woman introduced herself, offering her hand. “We’ve never actually met, though I spent several days reviewing your reports on Captain Bowman prior to the Admirals’ Board a few years back.”
    Annette felt the cold mask settle over her face. While the Admirals’ Board had voted to prosecute Bowman in the end, she hadn’t been privy to their discussions and doubted the margin had been broad—the Captains’ Board had voted ‘lack of evidence to charge,’ after all.
    “Bad memories, I apologize,” Harrison said after a moment of awkward silence. “Between you and me,” she murmured, glancing around to make sure no one overheard her, “let’s just say that I think it’s about damned time we found a way to put you back in uniform. Whole thing was a mess and you deserved better.”
    “If you say so, ma’am,” Annette said flatly, and the older woman laughed.
    “I do say so, Captain Bond,” she replied. “Someday, you’ll believe me. Until then, just do the job.”
    “That’s what I do,” she said. “That’s