Read Online Here Be Dragons by Craig Alan - Free Book Online

Gabriel had left Earth exactly one hundred and eighty days before, and she had not had a single uninterrupted meal on any of them. Today would not be the day.
    “Second Officer Okoye requesting permission to enter.”
    Elena set her tray of chicken masala back into the slot built into her desk.
    “Granted.”
    Okoye entered and dropped down to the rear bulkhead before her desk. His eyes faced the wall behind her head.
    “Captain, I have prepared the duty roster.”
    He unrolled his bracelet from his wrist, straightened it, and handed it to her. She took it with a silent sigh. Elena was an expert in orbital mechanics and black-body radiation, but the complicated watchkeeping system employed by the Agency gave her a migraine. Most personnel matters were handled by the executive officer, but Elena had a policy of rotating tasks among the ship’s officers to encourage cross-training. Even now Vijay was taking her place at the flight station, with Hassoun as his officer of the watch. This week the watchbill had fallen to the tactical officer.
    She glanced briefly at the document, and because she knew that he expected it, scrolled through a few pages.
    “I see you’re working on your birthday.”
    Ikenna’s face remained smooth.
    “Yes, Captain.”
    He gave no sign that he was surprised she knew. Ikenna never showed the slightest interest in the details of anyone else’s personal life, and probably imagined that no one cared about his either.
    Elena stopped and frowned.
    “Dr. Golus requested a day off? That’s unusual.”
    “She said that it was a religious observance.”
    “Es asi? No importa.”
    Elena laid her thumb flat on the pad, then signed her name at the bottom of the order before handing it back to Ikenna. He rolled it back around his wrist and tightened it into place, and remained at attention before her.
    Instead of asking the question he wanted to hear, she rose and floated past him to the miniature galley in the far corner from her desk. It held her pride and joy, a zero gravity coffeemaker. Headquarters had fought like hell to keep it off Gabriel by conjuring, not unreasonably, the image of scalding hot globules of coffee careening throughout the ship, burning all in their path. Elena had won that battle, but it had been a close thing. She made herself a cup, studiously keeping her back turned to Ikenna as she worked the press.
    Ikenna remained silent as the vacuum pump whirred. It sucked the liquid out of the grind chamber and forced it into a plastic squeeze pouch. Two centuries of space travel later, and no one had yet invented a dignified way to have a drink. Elena returned to her desk, hooked her legs under her chair, sipped her coffee, and waited. Ikenna cleared his throat.
    “I’m having a problem with Chief Officer Nishtha.”
    “This should be good.”
    “I’ve been developing new tactics,” Ikenna said. “I wish to research equipping missiles with variable payloads.”
    “EMP?”
    “Or search radar,” Ikenna said.
    “You want to turn our missiles into baby drones,” Elena said.
    It was creative, aggressive, and just like him. Ikenna had been among the first to notice that, while Phobos Academy limited admission to Global citizens, any person with at least four years experience as a licensed astronaut could apply for a commission with the Space Agency—and the Astronautical Union, like the International Olympic Committee, the Society of the Red Cross, and the Alliance for Sovereignty, was open to all people of the world. One favorable World Court ruling later, and Ikenna had been the first and only independent to take advantage of the loophole before it had been closed by the Global Assembly.
    “ Cherub and Seraph inspired the idea. And the missile bodies are built to be easily disassembled and the warheads removed.”
    “Bueno, what’s the problem?”
    “I requested permission to take one missile offline and open it up it to study the matter further, but the executive officer