Vicky Peterwald: Target Read Online Free PDF

brother . . . or a mature lover.
    Choices. Opportunities?
    The admiral finished his examination and turned from her scrutiny. “Take a seat, Lieutenant.”
    Vicky looked around. She saw a standard suite: desk, conference table, a small discussion ring. Vicky settled herself on a red leather settee. The admiral took his own seat in a matching overstuffed leather chair across a low coffee table from her.
    “May I ask, sir, how you came to be so close to Chance? It’s not like we were expected.”
    “Yes. I saw that tub of Kris Longknife’s. Is it safe for space?”
    “I’m told no. The wreck can’t be risked in another jump and will be scrapped where it lies there, pier side.”
    “That news report I saw you give, was it accurate?”
    “Allowing for the requirement that I entertain the lowest quality of viewer, yes, sir, what I said is basically accurate. We engaged the enemy by a battle plan that Kris Longknife developed . . .”
    Admiral Gort interrupted, “The admirals let a mere lieutenant commander lead them around like bulls with rings in their noses?”
    “She had the new superweapons. They had no idea how to use them. She came up with a plan, and the admirals went along, sir. Or maybe I should say, the other two admirals, the ones from Musashi and Helvetica agreed, and our Admiral Krätz had no choice but follow or be branded a coward.”
    “No one would ever accuse Krätz of being a coward. Not to his face. I served under him,” Admiral Gort said. “If ships were headed into battle, he’d be at the head of them.”
    “He was, sir. When we met the aliens, he was leading the battle line.”
    “That sounds like Krätz. You said the aliens were more powerful than Kris Longknife expected. How much more powerful?”
    “The main alien ship was the size of a large moon, sir.”
    The Navy officer whistled. “That big, huh?”
    “It had several hundred, I’m not sure exactly how many hundred, ships docked on it. Every one of the ‘smaller’ ships dwarfed our Terror-class battleships.”
    That drew another whistle. “You’re right. I’m glad they are on the other side of the galaxy from here.”
    The room filled with a worried silence for a few moments.
    “Sir, may I ask again, how does it happen that your division was so close to Chance?”
    The admiral frowned, not at Vicky but at a space off to the side. “Matters have not changed much since you sailed away. There is still much civil unrest. Far too much of the Navy is tied up to stations providing shore parties to back up the local police forces. There is even talk of forming an army. A real one, not the toy soldiers that prance around the palace and serve hors d’oeuvres at parties. The problem is, if they raise an army, they have to arm it and no one’s too sure that the army won’t become a player in the political blood sport that passes for governance at the moment.”
    He eyed Vicky as he said those last words.
    “No doubt Admiral Krätz turned in some kind of report and quoted my own opinion of the sad circumstances of our beloved Greenfeld,” Vicky said.
    “Yes. He reported that to the Navy’s General Staff. I was provided copies when I was sent out on this mission. Officially, I was here to show the flag. Our intelligence was receiving a lot of reports from its sources that the Greenfeld fleet was being discounted as good for nothing but bashing in the heads of unarmed hooligans. We needed to counter that misperception, so it was decided to distribute the battlecruiser fleet by divisions around human space. To show the flag. To show that we could still make it away from the pier and to let the various Navies see the size of our guns.
    “Oh, and being battlecruisers, we could make our way home very quickly if matters took a turn for the worse, or, young Lieutenant, if some of the mauled fleet came straggling in from what was supposed to have been a sightseeing excursion.”
    “I and my six associates are all you will be