Read Online The Clone Redemption by Steven L. Kent - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Steven L. Kent
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the ship were left unprotected.
âCan you repair the rear shields?â I asked.
âThey got the antenna, sir. Weâre going to need to build a new rear array.â
âI see,â I said. âHas Lieutenant Mars had a look at it?â
âHe says he can fix her if we take her into the dry docks.â
I sighed, thanked Cutter for his report, and dismissed him. All in all, the news could have been worse. We had a working ship and a way to communicate with Sweetwater and Breeze. Given a little time, Mars and his engineers might even get the spy ship operational. All just a matter of time, but we did not have time.
Glad to have a moment to myself, I reviewed the situation in my head.
The good news was that we had liberated the Golan Dry Docks from the Unified Authority, so we had facilities for repairing the Churchill . Fixing the spy ship was another story. Mars might be able to make her broadcast-worthy if he got her to the dry docks, but the dry docks were thousands of light-years away. We couldnât get her to the dry docks without broadcasting.
And then there were the Avatari. Over the last two weeks, the bastards had attacked New Copenhagen, Olympus Kri, and Terraneau. They were destroying planets every three or four days. Unless we stopped them, weâd be galactic nomads in another few months.
The room was oblong, brightly lit, its nearly soundproofed walls devoid of art and windows. Sitting in the well-lit silence, I stared straight ahead, taking in the sterile emptiness around me.
I could not win this war, yet I felt compelled to fight. We could attack and defeat the Unifieds, but they were more of a distraction than a problem. They had massacred our leadership while holding up a flag of truce, but we wouldnât make the mistake of trusting them again.
If it came to a fight with the aliens, on the other hand, we didnât stand a chance. We couldnât even strike back at them if we wanted.
How the speck do you defend planets from spontaneous combustion? If anyone could figure out a solution, it was Sweetwater and Breeze. Freeman was right, we needed them. Finding that communications computer was worth the risk ... assuming they would be willing to help us. The last time I had spoken with them, they had not known that the Unified Authority and the Enlisted Manâs Empire had gone to war. Hell, they didnât even know that the enlisted men had an empire; they thought we were loyal to the Unified Authority.
I sat lost in my thoughts, for maybe fifteen minutes.
The Avatari did not attack arbitrary targets. They went after the planets we had reclaimed after their first sweep through the galaxy. Once they finished attacking our planets, they would turn their sights on Earth. Sooner or later, we might need to evacuate the Unifieds from Earth along with the people living on our planets.
Thinking about the situation made my head hurt, the kind of low, thudding ache you get with a hangover. I sat and I stared and I rubbed my temples, and finally I got up, still staring blankly ahead, and left the conference room. I went to the temporary quarters that Cutter had assigned me in officer countryâa comfortable suite generally reserved for visiting politicians, with its own office and a spacious shower in the head.
When I opened the door to my billet, I found Ava waiting for me. Ava Gardner, the cloned incarnation of a twentiethcentury movie star, was my ex. When the Unifieds decided to jettison all clones from their republic, they didnât just aim that animosity at military clones; they extended it to the only known cloned goddess in the galaxy.
First, she was under my protection, and the next thing I knew, we were in love. Well, maybe I was in love. She moved on before I did. Thinking they were doing me a favor, my engineers rescued Ava and her natural-born lover when the Avatari incinerated Terraneau.
Iâm not being fair. Ava left me because I talked nonstop
âCan you repair the rear shields?â I asked.
âThey got the antenna, sir. Weâre going to need to build a new rear array.â
âI see,â I said. âHas Lieutenant Mars had a look at it?â
âHe says he can fix her if we take her into the dry docks.â
I sighed, thanked Cutter for his report, and dismissed him. All in all, the news could have been worse. We had a working ship and a way to communicate with Sweetwater and Breeze. Given a little time, Mars and his engineers might even get the spy ship operational. All just a matter of time, but we did not have time.
Glad to have a moment to myself, I reviewed the situation in my head.
The good news was that we had liberated the Golan Dry Docks from the Unified Authority, so we had facilities for repairing the Churchill . Fixing the spy ship was another story. Mars might be able to make her broadcast-worthy if he got her to the dry docks, but the dry docks were thousands of light-years away. We couldnât get her to the dry docks without broadcasting.
And then there were the Avatari. Over the last two weeks, the bastards had attacked New Copenhagen, Olympus Kri, and Terraneau. They were destroying planets every three or four days. Unless we stopped them, weâd be galactic nomads in another few months.
The room was oblong, brightly lit, its nearly soundproofed walls devoid of art and windows. Sitting in the well-lit silence, I stared straight ahead, taking in the sterile emptiness around me.
I could not win this war, yet I felt compelled to fight. We could attack and defeat the Unifieds, but they were more of a distraction than a problem. They had massacred our leadership while holding up a flag of truce, but we wouldnât make the mistake of trusting them again.
If it came to a fight with the aliens, on the other hand, we didnât stand a chance. We couldnât even strike back at them if we wanted.
How the speck do you defend planets from spontaneous combustion? If anyone could figure out a solution, it was Sweetwater and Breeze. Freeman was right, we needed them. Finding that communications computer was worth the risk ... assuming they would be willing to help us. The last time I had spoken with them, they had not known that the Unified Authority and the Enlisted Manâs Empire had gone to war. Hell, they didnât even know that the enlisted men had an empire; they thought we were loyal to the Unified Authority.
I sat lost in my thoughts, for maybe fifteen minutes.
The Avatari did not attack arbitrary targets. They went after the planets we had reclaimed after their first sweep through the galaxy. Once they finished attacking our planets, they would turn their sights on Earth. Sooner or later, we might need to evacuate the Unifieds from Earth along with the people living on our planets.
Thinking about the situation made my head hurt, the kind of low, thudding ache you get with a hangover. I sat and I stared and I rubbed my temples, and finally I got up, still staring blankly ahead, and left the conference room. I went to the temporary quarters that Cutter had assigned me in officer countryâa comfortable suite generally reserved for visiting politicians, with its own office and a spacious shower in the head.
When I opened the door to my billet, I found Ava waiting for me. Ava Gardner, the cloned incarnation of a twentiethcentury movie star, was my ex. When the Unifieds decided to jettison all clones from their republic, they didnât just aim that animosity at military clones; they extended it to the only known cloned goddess in the galaxy.
First, she was under my protection, and the next thing I knew, we were in love. Well, maybe I was in love. She moved on before I did. Thinking they were doing me a favor, my engineers rescued Ava and her natural-born lover when the Avatari incinerated Terraneau.
Iâm not being fair. Ava left me because I talked nonstop
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