Read Online Galactic Vigilante (Vigilante Series 3) by T. Jackson King - Free Book Online
Authors: T. Jackson King
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appointing ten chief assistants would reduce the real time distraction of commanding 507 starships that were newly awakened. And still shocked by the demise of most T’Cha k Masters. Each Cohort Commander could gather their fifty ships into a time-synced unit for Translation, with a nearly simultaneous exit from Translation for the future refuelings they would all have to do as they traveled along the Magellanic Stream of gases back to the Milky Way. “But Mata Hari, that leaves seven ships with no cohort commander. Or am I wrong?”
“Just not yet informed,” she said with a smile as her naked form reached out to touch a Command/Control/Communication stud on the wall of her mental Interlock Pit. A text image appeared next to the holo pattern of the ship hexagon. “These seven ships are under the direct control of myself and BattleMind. They do what we do. They move where we move. They hear my voice just as much as you hear it. Their flexhulls change into a T’Chak dragon shape when our ship does so. Which, of course, is also what the other 500 Dreadnoughts do by way of the interlinkage with their Cohort Commanders. You like?”
Matt saw that his small cohort of eight ships, counting Mata Hari , lay at the center of the hexagon, arranged in a ring that mirrored the sides of the hexagon’s outer ring. He smiled. “I like. A lot. With this delegation of control to ten Cohort Commanders we retain the ability to have ten battle groups that can move differently in three dimensions, while also obeying any combat orders given by myself, you or BattleMind. Uh, what are the name sigils of the Cohort Commanders?”
In his mind the naked Mata Hari touched another stud, then waved at the mental holo. “Here are the ships and their names, Matthew. Long ago they named themselves as Perfect, Torsion, Defiance, Melody, Slith, Nova, Immovable, Diamond, Imperial and Destruction.”
Matt stared at shapes that varied from the long crocodile snout and tail, with armored spine and black wings similar to the shape now shown by Mata Hari , to a silvery tube with four outrigger pontoons that each carried an antimatter cannon, to a thick pillar with embedded AM pontoons, to smaller dragon images. “Are the smaller shaped ships the female T’Chak personas?”
“Yes,” said the naked Mata Hari as she stepped out of the mental Interlock Pit, stood facing him naked, then reappeared as the happy Summer Girl of Morrigan. “Did we conspire well?”
He had to hand it to Mata Hari, Eliana and Suzanne the IT Queen. They had anticipated his needs as central commander of the anti-cloneslavery fleet, and even now he could hear the distant whispers of Cohort Commanders interlinking with their fifty cohort members, the electronic noise of their instantaneous tachlink chatter a matter that could overwhelm him if he concentrated on it. He did not. Instead, he thought ahead to their upcoming trip back through the Large Magellanic Cloud, their frequent stops for fuel gases every 10,000 light years, and their joint arrival at the point where the Magellanic Stream passed close to the star cluster occupied by the Bogean Harmony. Those aliens had promised to deliver a Dark Energy FTL engine and a Stasis Projector when they returned. Their payment for a copy of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Alien minds were indeed alien.
“Yes, Mata Hari, you and Eliana and Suzanne conspired well. Can you do equally well i n creating full-powered combat suits for the women, in training them for suit combat in our armory chamber, and in training them and George for lightspeed neurolinking when they occupy their own Interlock Pits?”
Mata Hari’s Summer Girl image nodded slowly. “Yes. Probably. How soon do they need to be ready to pilot one of my sibling Dreadnoughts?”
“By the time we reach the Bogean Harmony space. It will then be a single long Translation jump to reach the space controlled by the Anarchate.” Matt paused, sending his ally a mind image of the
“Just not yet informed,” she said with a smile as her naked form reached out to touch a Command/Control/Communication stud on the wall of her mental Interlock Pit. A text image appeared next to the holo pattern of the ship hexagon. “These seven ships are under the direct control of myself and BattleMind. They do what we do. They move where we move. They hear my voice just as much as you hear it. Their flexhulls change into a T’Chak dragon shape when our ship does so. Which, of course, is also what the other 500 Dreadnoughts do by way of the interlinkage with their Cohort Commanders. You like?”
Matt saw that his small cohort of eight ships, counting Mata Hari , lay at the center of the hexagon, arranged in a ring that mirrored the sides of the hexagon’s outer ring. He smiled. “I like. A lot. With this delegation of control to ten Cohort Commanders we retain the ability to have ten battle groups that can move differently in three dimensions, while also obeying any combat orders given by myself, you or BattleMind. Uh, what are the name sigils of the Cohort Commanders?”
In his mind the naked Mata Hari touched another stud, then waved at the mental holo. “Here are the ships and their names, Matthew. Long ago they named themselves as Perfect, Torsion, Defiance, Melody, Slith, Nova, Immovable, Diamond, Imperial and Destruction.”
Matt stared at shapes that varied from the long crocodile snout and tail, with armored spine and black wings similar to the shape now shown by Mata Hari , to a silvery tube with four outrigger pontoons that each carried an antimatter cannon, to a thick pillar with embedded AM pontoons, to smaller dragon images. “Are the smaller shaped ships the female T’Chak personas?”
“Yes,” said the naked Mata Hari as she stepped out of the mental Interlock Pit, stood facing him naked, then reappeared as the happy Summer Girl of Morrigan. “Did we conspire well?”
He had to hand it to Mata Hari, Eliana and Suzanne the IT Queen. They had anticipated his needs as central commander of the anti-cloneslavery fleet, and even now he could hear the distant whispers of Cohort Commanders interlinking with their fifty cohort members, the electronic noise of their instantaneous tachlink chatter a matter that could overwhelm him if he concentrated on it. He did not. Instead, he thought ahead to their upcoming trip back through the Large Magellanic Cloud, their frequent stops for fuel gases every 10,000 light years, and their joint arrival at the point where the Magellanic Stream passed close to the star cluster occupied by the Bogean Harmony. Those aliens had promised to deliver a Dark Energy FTL engine and a Stasis Projector when they returned. Their payment for a copy of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Alien minds were indeed alien.
“Yes, Mata Hari, you and Eliana and Suzanne conspired well. Can you do equally well i n creating full-powered combat suits for the women, in training them for suit combat in our armory chamber, and in training them and George for lightspeed neurolinking when they occupy their own Interlock Pits?”
Mata Hari’s Summer Girl image nodded slowly. “Yes. Probably. How soon do they need to be ready to pilot one of my sibling Dreadnoughts?”
“By the time we reach the Bogean Harmony space. It will then be a single long Translation jump to reach the space controlled by the Anarchate.” Matt paused, sending his ally a mind image of the
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