Read Online Mech 3: The Empress by B. V. Larson - Free Book Online

them liked him. He’d bedded every attractive girl on Aareschlucht and several less attractive ones as well, only to move on to the next. He could hear their thoughts: was he a cheater at cards, as well? The Lieutenant in particular had never liked him. He was an ill-favored man with a face that resembled a mask of twisted meat and hair that seemed oily and lank even immediately after a shower. Aldo knew the girls tended to dart away when he made his clumsy overtures.
    “What was it that you saw, Lieutenant?” Captain Knox asked. He had a deep voice that rumbled when he spoke.
    “I would rather not say.”
    Aldo withdrew his hands from the pot of coins and threw them up into the air. “Very well!” he said. “I don’t want there to be hard feelings. I give back the credits. You may divvy up mine as well.”
    “Well, there’s no need to—” began the Captain, suddenly embarrassed.
    “No, no,” Aldo said. “I don’t want to sully this fine mission with misunderstandings. I’ll simply—”
    “There has been no misunderstanding,” interrupted the Lieutenant.
    “There most certainly has been,” Aldo said, “and I intend to repair matters.”
    “You cheated,” blurted the Lieutenant. “You dealt the Captain’s hand from the bottom of the deck, while the rest of us received cards from the top.”
    Aldo froze, as did everyone else around the table. The Lieutenant was stone-faced. An open accusation of cheating raised the matter to the level of public honor.
    The Captain leaned forward and touched the Lieutenant’s arm, who flinched at the contact. “Jacob, there is no need. Let the subject rest.”
    “I will not.”
    The saloon was deadly silent now. Several people had taken a shuffling step back from the table. Every further step along the path of honor made the situation ever more difficult to defuse among the gentlemen of Neu Schweitz. The scene could become violent very quickly, and all there knew it.
    “How then, shall we resolve this?” Aldo asked quietly.
    “You have dishonored this ship, my Captain and yourself,” the Lieutenant said. “Honor must be satisfied.”
    “And so it must,” Aldo murmured.
    “Aldo,” Joelle whispered, having appeared at the rogue’s side. She placed a hand that tightened like claw on his shoulder and hissed into his ear. “Don’t you kill that boy.”
    Aldo patted her hand and pushed it gently away. “No one lives forever, my dear.”
    Joelle retreated, clearly unhappy. The group, now solemn, moved to the single large open area of the ship, which was the mess hall. At a touch of a button, the tables folded themselves and receded until the walls swallowed them. By this time, news of the imminent duel had reached every ear on the ship. People came rushing from below and even down from the bridge. Captain Knox looked worried, but Aldo saw he could not think of a way out of the situation. Aldo himself felt some regret for having caused a crisis, but he also felt the Lieutenant was indulging himself. Aldo had as much as admitted his guilt by handing out the pot to the players. Was he to also be publicly humiliated? Was he to be shamed into refusing to duel, like a craven coward? No. The matter had been pushed, and pressed, and forced, until there was nothing left to do but allow it to be decided with blades.
    Aldo knew the Lieutenant could fight. He was a capable man with sword and pistol, they all were, or they would not have been placed aboard this godforsaken vessel on a fool’s mission. Perhaps the close quarters and the continual rejection of the females everyone else seemed to enjoy had combined with Aldo’s naturally abrasive manner to finally drive the Lieutenant to this point. It did not matter. All that mattered now was the speed and accuracy of each man’s sword.
    Aldo cleared his mind of extraneous chatter. He did not see the eyes that stared at him. He did not worry about the Captain, or the aliens they pursued through space, or the ship around