Read Online The War Machine: Crisis of Empire III by Roger MacBride Allen, David Drake - Free Book Online Page A

of this court. As the review will be secret, and carried out at a location convenient to the Navy, no crony of Rockler will have the chance to manipulate the proceedings. It will take time, but my sentence will be carried out. Until such time as it is, Lucius Rockler can look forward to little more than being shuttled from one prison to another.” And Suss and the KT will make certain of that, Spencer told himself. “Perhaps it would satisfy some ancient urge to pull out a repulsor and blast this man on the spot. But we dare not proceed that way, lest it be you or me in the dock next time, with our enemies convening a kangaroo court for the sole purpose of judicial murder. We deny ourselves vengeance in self-defense.
    “In closing, I will make one further statement. This prisoner is to arrive at Daltgeld intact and in good health. He will be fed and cared for. I will not hesitate to reconvene this court to try an alleged assailant. We will have justice, not blood. This court is now adjourned.”
    Allison Spencer stood, bringing everyone else in the room to their feet, standing at rigid attention. “At ease,” he said tiredly, and ducked out of the room through a convenient side door.

    ***

    He got from the wardroom to his office—now vacated by Deyi—without running into anyone. For that Spencer was thankful. He felt too young, too inexperienced, to play the part of judge and jury, and he didn’t want or need the congratulations of the crew over how good a job he had done.
    He closed the door of his office against the outside world and sat down behind his desk, thankful for the solitude. This was the only place he could truly be alone—Suss shared his cabin, if not his bed, and besides, the turmoil of turning Kerad’s Arabian Nights fantasy back into a normal stateroom was not conducive to quiet meditation.
    “You’ve got a visitor coming,” Spencer’s AID announced. “Commander Tallen Deyi’s AID is requesting—”
    “Granted.”
    “Very good, Sir,” the AID agreed.
    A knock came at the door. “Come,” Spencer said.
    Tallen came in, pulled up the visitor’s chair and sat down. “That was not a pleasant job. I’m glad I didn’t have to do it.”
    “But you should have,” Spencer said.
    “Sir?”
    “Knock off the sirs, Tallen. This is friend-to-friend, not commander and XO.” Spencer turned and punched up an exterior view on the wall screen. Daltgeld hovered in the far distance, even at high magnification. They had jumped three times to get here, but now they were in the Daltgeld system, albeit in the outer reaches. Daltgeld was still over two billion kilometers away, and it would still take some time to get there. “You should have gotten the Duncan. Not me. I’d never even heard of this task force until a month ago. You know the ships, know the men. But I came along and kicked you out from behind this desk.”
    Tallen cleared his throat and held his hands together in his lap, staring very intently at the way his fingers wrapped around each other. “Well, Sir—I mean, Al, you may be right. But they didn’t choose me. They chose you. They decided you were the more qualified commander—”
    “Just as Kerad was more qualified?” Spencer asked. “I’ve never commanded Navy men. I have to keep asking my AID what the most basic terms mean. I shouldn’t be here. I don’t want to be here. I got listed as a screw up dirtside, and they dumped me on you.” That was close enough to the truth for present discussion, anyway. “Kerad’s appointment was political, and so was mine. So don’t tell me I was chosen because I was more qualified.”
    Tallen looked up fiercely at the younger man. “All right, I won’t. But I will tell you that you are more qualified than I am. I couldn’t have conducted that trial, manipulated our departure schedule to keep the dirtside lawyers from giving Rockler a slap on the wrists and a kiss on the mouth. I would have let them take him away. As it is, his crew