The Oncoming Storm Read Online Free

report on the activities of young aristocrats—but Kat Falcone didn’t seem to court scandal. Instead, the reports merely mentioned that she’d gone to Piker’s Peak and then helped save a starship during a border tussle. That, at least, matched with the Navy file, although neither was very informative, suggesting that some of the details had been classified. It left an odd taste in his mouth.
    A wider search revealed more about the Falcone family and corporation than he’d ever wanted to know. It was one of the original founding corporations that had moved operations to Tyre; it accounted for the planet’s considerable economic growth before the Breakaway Wars had smashed humanity’s fragile unity and created dozens of independent star systems, some on the brink of total collapse. The family had remained powerful through the economic crash, and then played a key role in organizing the Commonwealth and building up the Royal Tyre Navy. As aristocracies went, he had to admit, they were definitely enlightened.
    So why, he asked himself, had the Duke ensured that his daughter received one of the most coveted command chairs in the Navy?
    William knew she wasn’t qualified. He’d looked it up. The youngest person to be appointed to command a heavy cruiser had been thirty-seven—eight years older than Captain Falcone. A handful of younger officers had taken command briefly, when their commanders were disabled, but only one of them had been allowed to keep the ship. That particular officer had been in line for a command of his own, according to the files, and the Admiralty had merely decided to leave him on the ship rather than transfer him elsewhere. And he’d been thirty-six.
    William’s wristcom bleeped. “Yes?”
    “This is Ross,” Lieutenant Linda Ross said. Her voice was, as always, calm and professional. “We have received a signal from groundside. Captain Falcone is on her way.”
    William gritted his teeth, unsurprised. It spoke well of her that she wanted to see her new command as soon as possible, he supposed, but Lightning was nowhere near ready to receive her. Half of the ship’s personnel were assigned to urgent duties, while the remainder were scattered all over the ship. The Admiralty had been dragging its feet on assigning additional crewmen to Lightning, something that irked him more than he cared to admit. But a superdreadnought had required urgent crew replenishments in a hurry and Lightning wasn’t scheduled to leave for another two weeks.
    “Understood,” he said.
    “She specifically requests no greeting party,” Lieutenant Ross added. “And she also wants readiness files transmitted to her at once.”
    William lifted an eyebrow. He’d served under five captains since joining the Navy and some of them had been egotistical enough to demand that their senior officers stop work and greet them whenever they returned to the ship. A greeting party was traditional, at least when the captain boarded for the first time, but it would be a headache at such short notice. The captain’s appointment had only been confirmed nine hours ago, for crying out loud. But it spoke well of her too, that she didn’t want a greeting party.
    “Transmit the files,” he ordered. Technically, they shouldn’t be sent until after the captain had formally assumed command, but there was no point in withholding them. It would be petty, pointless spite. “Do we have an ETA?”
    “Thirty minutes,” Linda said, after a moment. “She’s coming directly from the planet.”
    “I’ll meet her at the shuttlebay,” William said. He glanced down at the terminal once again, then returned it to his belt. “Pass the word to the other senior officers, Linda. The captain is about to come aboard.”
    He closed the channel and then looked around the Ready Room. It had been intended for the starship’s commander, but he’d found himself using it during the desperate struggle to get Lightning worked up and ready for