Read Online A Silence in the Heavens by Unknown - Free Book Online

the red highlights in her thick black hair.
    The patches and blazons on the jacket told an interesting story. Its wearer, they said, had indeed fought in the campaign just past, but her fellow Warriors had not been Clan. Anastasia grinned, remembering. She’d had fun on Achernar, fighting next to the locals and testing herself against Kal Radick’s Steel Wolves. Finding a comrade-in-arms—and a pleasing if temporary lover—in her fellow MechWarrior Raul Ortega. Being Tassa Kay.
    The grin faded a little. Raul Ortega had gone back to his local woman in the end, and Tassa Kay was—not dead, exactly, but put away until the next time Anastasia wanted to shed for a little while the ambitions and expectations that went with being the bearer of a famous Bloodname. And there was no Bloodname more famed among the Clans than Kerensky.
    Aleksandr and Nicholas Kerensky had pulled the ancestors of the Clans away from the wreckage of the original Star League and made them into what they now were. Natasha Kerensky, the Black Widow, had won fame and notoriety throughout the Inner Sphere as one of the group of mercenaries—and covert intelligence gatherers—called the Wolf’s Dragoons. Anastasia, for her part, intended to take the Kerensky Bloodname still further before she was done.
    For now, she needed to get herself established here on Tigress. The port workers could handle the offloading and berthing of her Ryoken II BattleMech without her direct supervision, and could begin the job of cleaning it up and repairing the damage it had taken during the campaign on Achernar. She would check up on their progress frequently, of course, because the Ryoken II was hers—her weapon and protection in battle, a metal-and-myomer extension of her physical self—and its continuing good condition was as important to her as her own. But Tigress was a Clan world now, and its port laborers and repair techs would know the difference between a real fighting machine and a retrofitted piece of industrial gear. Meanwhile, Anastasia had other work to do.
    Her first stop was the Portmaster’s office. The Portmaster, like the laborers who worked under him, was a Steel Wolf from one of the labor castes—in his case, from among those charged with administration and record keeping. His placid expression changed when she entered his office; she could see that he already knew who she was. Absolutely nothing travels faster than gossip, and Anastasia was well aware that the news had spread from the DropShip faster than its passengers could disperse: A Kerensky is among us.
    “Star Colonel?” he asked.
    His voice was deferential. His manner was not cringing or subservient—he was a Wolf, even if he was not a Warrior, and no Wolf was ever subservient—but he nevertheless accorded her the deference befitting her rank and name. She had missed that automatic deference while she was fighting among the natives on Achernar, even while Tassa Kay was enjoying the easy camaraderie that had filled its place.
    She gave the man a brief nod of acknowledgment. “Portmaster,” she said. “Is there anything happening at the moment here on Tigress that a new arrival ought to know?”
    “Your arrival with the DropShips from Achernar is the only matter of current interest,” the Portmaster said.
    “We have already arranged a local berthing facility for your Ryoken II, and a repair crew has been assigned.”
    A reputation, Anastasia reflected, was a handy thing to have, even if so far hers was mostly genetic and not of her own making.
    “Excellent,” she said.
    “And for yourself, Star Colonel—do you wish your personal effects taken to Headquarters?”
    Anastasia had done her research before embarking on this adventure. The newly constructed Headquarters building housed the senior Steel Wolf officers present on Tigress—at least, it would do so once the Wolves finished settling in—and her rank of Star Colonel entitled her to a substantial set of rooms.
    “No,” she