Read Online Frontiers 07 - The Expanse by Ryk Brown - Free Book Online

better take him up on his offer…”
    “Dismissed, Lieutenant,” Major Waddell said sternly to Lieutenant Montgomery, cutting Marcus off.
    “Is there a problem, here?” Major Prechitt interrupted.
    “No problem at all, Major,” Waddell said. “I was just telling the lieutenant that he was dismissed.”
    “I think I’d like to hear more about the lieutenant’s idea, Major. How about you, Senior Chief?”
    Marcus’s eyes darted nervously back and forth between the two majors. “Uh, I could go either way… sirs.”
    “No disrespect intended, Major, but this isn’t really any of your…”
    “Actually, since I am the CAG, and this is one of my ships, it is my business,” Major Prechitt insisted. He turned to the lieutenant. “Lieutenant Montgomery, submit your proposal to the senior chief for review.”
    “Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Montgomery answered.
    “Senior Chief, once you have reviewed the lieutenant’s proposal, comment on it and send it to my office for approval.”
    “Aye, sir.”
    “Major? Any questions?”
    “No, sir,” Major Waddell answered, his eyes locked on the lieutenant and full of rage.
    Waddell’s angry gaze did not go unnoticed by Major Prechitt. “Dismissed, Major,” he stated with absolute authority.
    Major Waddell said nothing further, turned, and walked briskly across the hangar deck away from them.
    “Senior Chief, Lieutenant,” Major Prechitt said calmly as he departed their company.
    There was a moment of silence as neither the senior chief nor the lieutenant knew exactly what to say. Finally, the lieutenant broke the uncomfortable quiet. “I apologize, Senior Chief. I was only trying to help.”
    “Yeah, I know,” Marcus said.
    “If I had known that the major would react so…”
    “Look,” Marcus interrupted, “just because I ain’t givin’ you the evil eye don’t mean that I like you any more than Waddell or any other Corinairan aboard this ship. Truth be told, I’d be happier if none of you were here. But you are, and there ain’t shit I can do about that. So just go on about your business, and I’ll go on about mine. You can send me your proposal for the reactor upgrades through the network.” Marcus turned abruptly and walked away, leaving the lieutenant standing alone in the busy hangar bay.
    * * *

    “Thank you all for coming,” Nathan stated as he entered the command briefing room and took his seat. They had been underway for nearly five days now, and for a change, things had settled into a comfortable routine on board the Aurora. By now, his senior staff knew better than to come to attention when their captain entered, having been told by him time and again that he considered such formalities a waste of time in the briefing room. He wanted more informal discussions to take place in this room so his staff would feel more comfortable expressing their opinions openly. He had learned how to turn up the formality as needed, and his staff had learned how to read such cues as well.
    “Why don’t you start us off, Doctor, since this meeting is primarily about the jump drive.”
    “As you know, sir, we began increasing our range by one light year per jump back with jump ten, carefully analyzing the data after each jump. We completed jump fifteen a few hours ago, and I’m happy to report that we have seen no problems with either the performance or the accuracy of the jumps, even during the last jump of fifteen light years.”
    “How are the mini-ZPEDs working out?” Nathan wondered.
    “They are amazing devices,” Vladimir exclaimed. “Thanks to Lieutenant Montgomery and his team, interfacing them with the jump drive’s energy storage banks was not a problem.”
    “We have been running the ZPEDs at twenty-five percent of their maximum output in order to recharge the energy banks more quickly,” Abby explained. “We estimate it will take just over seven hours to fully recharge after a fifteen light year jump.”
    “That’s good news, Doctor,”