Willful Child Read Online Free PDF Page B

energy, sir? In any case, even should a beam strike an enemy vessel, ship hulls among all the spacefaring civilizations employ composites that absorb energy and, indeed, make use of it.”
    “Clearly,” Hadrian growled, “I need to talk to Buck about all this.” He leaned forward, squinting at the screen, and then said, “Eden, what’s the in-system chatter?”
    “Uh, this and that, sir. Border drones have detected our arrival and transmitted inward, but I’m not sensing any panic on the, uh, lines, sir.”
    “Smug bastards, aren’t they. Fine, we can play that game. Helm, light us up and take us in, point eight-five.”
    Sticks twisted round, eyes wide. “From standstill, sir?”
    “You heard me. There’s bound to be some decent brakes on this clunker.”
    “Sir, the strain on the inertial dampeners—”
    “Oh, a little plastering of our insides against the ribs never killed anybody. Let’s see the kind of strain those dampeners can handle. The sooner we know this ship’s limits the better. Besides, I lasted the longest in g-stress tests. Won a gold star, in fact. Nothing blacks me out. Except the hell of routine, that is. But to spare the rest of you, make it seven-five.”
    “Sir, even at seven-five we’ll overshoot the entire system before we attain that velocity.”
    “Precisely, this is a fly-through at insane speed. Watch ’em scatter like mice as we swoop in. Then we’ll come around, use the star to slow down, and take a look at what they might’ve dumped in their panic to get out of the way. Scare a smuggler and he shits contraband. I mean to end this Jersey War here and now. Light us up, Helm.”
    “Y-yes, sir.”
    “Split the main screen to port and starboard views. Damn, I forgot my white glove. But we’ll wave in spirit. Of course, the best view would be from any in-system ships in our path. Our antimatter nacelles should be lighting up like angry suns—”
    “Nacelles, sir?” Jocelyn Sticks asked.
    Hadrian grunted sourly. “Fine. Pods, then. Antimatter pods . There? You happy now?”
    Even with the port and starboard views, there was little to see. Brief blurs of faint light, the occasional flare of lit-up engine pods , a lone rocky planet with ice-capped poles girdled by private stations and an inner ring of satellites, a heavy freighter rolling onto its side with thrusters blazing— ooh, that was close! See what comes with standardizing every approach on the ecliptic? Ridiculous, you’d think we were boats or something.
    Despite his thoughts, Hadrian said nothing, since his chest was being crushed by a giant hand and he felt the skin of his face spreading out to the sides and then back to bunch up against his ears. Vaguely, he saw Jimmy Eden fall from his chair in a delicate swoon, and this triggered a smile that swiftly grew painfully wide.
    The raging inferno of the star appeared onscreen as the ship’s hazard protocols kicked in with a display of imminent destruction, and then Willful Child was past, slipping between two small scorched moons still arguing with each other over which one was the planet and which one was the moon, and the tidal flows between these rocks battered at the Willful Child with thundering broadsides. Once they were through that, things settled down again, the dampeners caught up, and Hadrian was able to breathe.
    Alarms were ringing from the comms station.
    “Get me a new officer for comms,” Hadrian said. “There’s a reason that man came in fourth. Now, Helm, drop us down to two-seven-five as we come around. Oh, and next time, if there’s some fancy fucked-up planetoid tug-of-war going on close to a damned star, be sure to highlight it, will you?”
    Sticks was still gasping, and although Hadrian could only see the pulsing ebb of her back, he could well imagine what such deep breaths were doing to the front. “Yes, sir,” she said in a rather enticing whimper.
    Rubbing at his face to make sure everything was back as it should be, Hadrian