Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance Read Online Free Page A

when I changed the security protocols was that I left out anything about running the ship while it was already operational- leaving that out simply wasn’t possible. I saw a flash from the periphery of my vision as I walked towards the Bridge hatchway and by the time I turned my head Tanya was in the pilot’s seat and strapping herself in. “Son-of-a-bitch!” I swore as I jumped for a seat and grabbed for a harness.
    “You bitch!” Bren swore as he sat back down, knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do about it if I was stymied- but what was I supposed to do? Drag her bodily from the pilot’s seat? It wouldn’t work and for some strange odd reason I had the impression that Bren and I had been the only ones out of the loop on these plans though I was sure Tanya and the rest would be counting on me to pilot us out of this once they had engineered us into it.
    “For any who are interested we are about to depart warp.” Tanya announced calmly over com. “We have been running for three hundred and sixty-four days and I refuse to run for an entire year.”
    “We’re all set back here.” Janice came back over com. “Did you tell Marc beforehand?”
    “He knows now.” Manuel laughed out over com.
    “Does he know about the asteroid-field yet?” Melanie asked sweetly.
    “He knows now.” Manuel laughed out again, everyone laughing out loud over com at me, but I didn’t get the joke- they were all apparently willing to put their lives at stake on the weak presumption that I would somehow be able to get us all out of this.
    “Yes what asteroid-field, dear ?” I asked, but the dear wasn’t an endearment.
    “It’s a big one.” Tanya said as she dropped us out of warp. I hated warp transition more than I hated any of these people- at the moment at least- and that was saying a lot.
    “You might want to get over here Marc.” Tanya said as she unclipped her harness and stood up, all the while holding the control yoke at full throttle. Under what felt like about six gees I got up and staggered to my pilot’s seat while Tanya stood there as if unaffected, and as I got myself into my seat and harnessed the proximity alarms began ringing of incoming warp signatures.
    “I think we have company.” Tanya said innocently as I took the yoke and she made her way to her station. Our three missiles and single fixed photon cannon weren’t going to be much match against those Destroyers and their numerous independently tracking photon cannons- each ship would have several- but as promised Tanya had dumped us right on the outskirts of a massive meteor field and soon I was maneuvering us into it.
    “In this plan of yours,” Bren said to Tanya, “did you take into account that we’re going to be trapped inside the meteor field?”
    “Of course.” Tanya said.
    “What was your plan for getting us out of it?” Bren now inquired of Tanya, as if that were the big punch line- I already knew what was coming and was surprised Bren missed it.
    “I don’t have a plan. It’s up to Marc to get us out.” Tanya said as her fingers twitched over the controls for the nuclear missiles. “He's the Captain.”
    “Don’t you dare!” I swore at her as Bren slowly made sense of Tanya’s madness.
    “They’ll just surround the meteor field and blast it until they get to us!” Bren nearly exploded. “We’re completely trapped.”
    “Better ask Marc what he has planned.” Tanya told Bren with a sweet smile. “It's not really my realm of expertise.”
     
    Chapter 7
     
    Tanya’s meteor-field had the mass of several heavy stars according to scan and would eventually coalesce into a new star-system in a million years or so- if the Katons didn’t vaporize all of it first. It was spread out over several parsecs in a roughly spherical pattern and Tanya had dropped us out right on its fringe. From our vantage on the very edge of the cloud it was as if the meteor-field and dust-cloud around it were growing and engulfing the