A King's Ship (Empire Rising Book 2) by D. J. Holmes Read Free Book Online

years ago. She’s a Q ship. You’ve heard about the strange disappearances that have been going on in this area of space over the last decade. Well, Innocence was designed to get to the source of the problem. She has been cruising about between Indian, French, Canadian and British colonial space trying to get herself into trouble. At least she had been. When I was promoted to Commander I was given her and put on special assignment. It seems the Admiralty wants us to continue to work together. I can’t say I’m too disappointed. Things are never boring when you are around,” she concluded with another beaming smile.
     
    James nodded in understanding. A Q ship was a freighter armed with military grade weapons. The idea was that an attacker would approach in the hope of boarding the helpless freighter, only to find themselves staring down the barrel of a pair of plasma cannons. Piracy was a rare thing in human space. It was simply too expensive to build and maintain a spaceship without a large industrial base. Nevertheless, a number of ships had been going missing in and around the areas Gupta had mentioned. Not enough to cause any major concern, but enough that the Admiralty had decided to do something.
     
    James now understood how he was to overcome the obvious problem he had seen in the Admiralty’s plan. Sneaking Endeavour into foreign space in the hunt for Chang made little sense. If he wanted to actually find Chang on a planet he would have to land a party from his ship and doing so would reveal Endeavour’s presence. With Innocence joining the hunt, they would have the perfect cover. The freighter could enter any system without causing a stir. She was already well known in these parts.
     
    “Well I’m glad to have you with us,” James said in response to Gupta’s last comment. “I presume you want to come aboard and brief my officers on our updated orders?”
     
    “Yes Sir, I’ll come over right away if that is ok.”
     
    “Certainly, I’ll see you shortly,” James answered with a nod. It was going to be good working with Gupta again.

Chapter 3 – Old Friends
     
    In many ways the Royal Space Navy was like one big family, almost everyone knew each other and many got on well. Of course that also meant there was more than one fierce rivalry that threatened to tear the family apart from time to time. Now those days are long gone, the Empire’s navy is simply too vast.
     
    -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
     
    11 th February 2466 AD, New Edinburgh System
     
    James and Commander Gupta walked into Endeavour’s conference room and stood facing the assembled officers. Along with the senior officers from Endeavour and the Sub Lieutenants who weren’t on duty, RSNI Agent Julia Bell and Major Johnston were also crowded into the room.
     
    The last two members of Gupta’s team had been as much of a shock for James as Gupta’s presence. He had met Major Johnston during one of the first acts of the Void war. He had come on board James’ first command with a group of Special Forces marines to attempt a daring boarding action on a Chinese destroyer. After that the Major had been assigned to command the marine detachment aboard the destroyer Ghost . A ship James had worked closely with. When James met him for the second time aboard Ghost he had changed. In the intervening time Johnston had lost his wife. She had been killed during a Chinese attack on one of the British colonies. As a result he had become a blood thirsty killer. There was no other way to describe it. As James thought about it, it wasn’t a surprise to find him on this mission. The Major’s success and efficiency in the war with China was beyond doubt but as James had read his battle reports he had observed the change in the man. To someone who hadn’t known him before he would look like the perfect soldier, cold, detached and methodical. Yet to James it was obvious the Major was broken, he had pushed down his grief and focused all his