Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance Read Online Free

shut for the moment while she smiled another of her contented smiles, because she was absolutely right. Where in the hell were we supposed to go when we were wanted in human space while on the other hand returning to a Kievor Trade Station carried the very real likelihood of instantaneous vaporization! Suddenly the Universe seemed a very enclosed place.
    “I wonder how long they’ll follow us?” I asked instead of continuing our argument, but Tanya seemed to have other ideas about that.
    “That’s your plan!” Tanya said with a scowl and menacing look. “Wait for them to stop following us? They’ll follow us forever you idiot. You shake their asses and you shake them now! I’m the Empress of the Alartaw and I want my Throne back!” Tanya glared at me a moment longer then turned and stormed from the Bridge.
    I could only stare.
     
    Chapter 6
     
    I wasn’t sure how Tanya expected me to restore her to her Thrown… and the jewelry which was always behind her every motivation, much less figure out how to shake our pursuit. I didn’t usually have a problem shaking a tail. The disproportionate size of Last Chance’s huge fusion engine in ratio to her overall mass and the military-grade specs of her engineering meaning I was able to put her through maneuvers which most other ships couldn’t follow or would tear them apart if they attempted it. Drop out of warp on a full lateral burn and then jump right back into warp and Last Chance was leaving a trail most ships couldn’t follow without looping back around in real-space to reorient on the warp point. Confuse the trail enough and I usually lost them but I had never had so many hounds behind me. It didn’t matter what trick I tried, what strategy I employed, they had enough ships to scent down every false-trail I created and they were always there behind us, just waiting for us to drop out so they could pounce.
    “I’m unhappy.” Tanya said as she studied the warp-scan screen. She made a little moue with her mouth as she said it.
    “I can’t understand how anyone can see anything in that image.” I said. I seemed to be the only one who couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing when I looked into the blurry warp-scan imager.  “All I see is a bunch of swirling colors. I don’t think they’re even back there.” I added, and though it was true that I had never been able to see much in the warp-scan imager this was really about veering off from the thing I could see coming, though it went to an extent far beyond what I was expecting.
    “That's because you're not the type with a high creativity level.” Bren said, interjecting himself into the conversation to criticize me, everyone doing the same at every possible opportunity since our departure and no one remembering that it was Bren who had begun this misadventure in the first place- at least this small leg of it. I may have been the Captain and owner of this ship but I’d be laughed out of it if I tried ordering them to stop picking on me. At the moment I couldn't find a friendly face anywhere I might turn, and there weren’t all that many places to turn.
    “There are only ten directly behind us now.” Tanya said. “I think those are good odds.”
    “Good odds for what?” I said, of course seeing her madness immediately.
    “What did you say?” Bren demanded, slow to catch on to some things even though so quick at others.
    “Ten to one is good odds.” Tanya said clearly and with a calm look between us. It was just the three of us on the Bridge.
    “Those are Destroyers.” Bren said standing up abruptly also obviously realizing where Tanya would be going with this and trying to glare at me to get me to object. It didn’t work for two reasons; one was that Bren couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper sack much less pose me a threat and the other was that the stare was unnecessary.
    “Not a chance.” I told Tanya as I rose and headed out of the Bridge, but what I hadn’t taken into account