Dreadnought (Lost Colonies Trilogy Book 2) by B. V. Larson Read Free Book Online Page B

the ship. Why would anyone…?
    “Lieutenant Morris,” I said, contacting him on a private channel. “We have a situation in the aft hold. Investigate and report.”
    “I’m on it, sir,” he said. “We got the alert, too. We’re already scrambling and on our way. I have to admit though, I didn’t expect this.”
    “Didn’t expect what?” I asked. “What do you think this breach is about?”
    “The lifeboats, sir. Has to be. There’s nothing else down there but foodstuffs and extra gear.”
    Life boats? I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
    “What do you think they want to do with our lifeboats?” I asked.
    “Disable them, probably,” he said, grunting and blowing his labored breath over the microphone. I could tell he was running through the ship ahead of his squad.
    “Sabotage? Now?”
    “When else? If you want to destroy a ship that’s attempting to cross a bridge, what better time is there than to do it when she’s screaming toward departure point and can’t stop?”
    “When else indeed…” I said.
    After a few seconds thought, I made a decision. “Morris, if you sense the ship is in danger don’t hesitate to use deadly force.”
    He chuckled. “You read my mind, Captain. For the record, don’t feel bad if things get messy. I’d already decided to play it that way. Morris out.”
    “Captain,” Zye called to me. “Permission to join the security team?”
    “No,” I said. “I need you on the command deck, Lieutenant.”
    Disappointed, she went back to her duties.
    “Give me a visual on Morris and his team, please,” I told Yamada. “Split the screen with the aft hold.”
    “Can’t show the hold, sir. Whoever is down there has disabled the cameras.”
    With a growing sense of concern, I watched as the main forward screen lit up. Instead of displaying Jupiter sliding by, it now showed Morris and his team from the point of view of their helmet cameras. A trio of troops appeared. They were wearing black body-shell armor with heavy weapons mounted on their chest plates.
    This impressed me. It took time to get into a body-shell unit, and this emergency had only been detected a minute or two ago. That meant Morris was really on the ball—or that he was paranoid.
    Knowing him well, I suspected the latter. He’d prepared ahead of time, assuming something would go wrong and require heavy armor just as Defiant plunged into the breach. As was often the case, his instincts had proven correct.
    Morris waved his lead marine ahead. I wondered briefly why there were only three of them in action. The ship had a complement of sixteen marines. Perhaps he’d only suited up a few of them and placed the rest in other strategic gear and positions. Whatever the case, the first marine applied explosives to the hatch after it failed to open. She kicked it in after the hinges were blown, and…
    I don’t know what I’d expected, but it wasn’t what happened next. The three were sucked into the chamber with a sudden gush of air.
    “Is the hold depressurized?” I demanded.
    “It must be, sir,” Yamada said.
    “Why didn’t the computer show that? There’s nothing on the boards. It’s all green.”
    “I don’t know, sir,” she said helplessly.
    “The saboteurs must have fooled with the system,” Zye said. “They’ve hacked the ship’s monitoring system.”
    I took direct control of the screen input. I double-tapped on Morris’ camera. He was spinning, falling in a black pit that an hour ago had been my aft hold. It was hard to tell what was going on, but from the flailing limbs and cursing, I gathered the troops were at least still alive.
    Rumbold spun around at that point. He looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. “Sir, I recommend we abort entry into hyperspace.”
    I looked at Yamada. “If we divert, can we turn around and make a second run at this departure point?”
    She shook her head. “We’re going too fast. We’ll overshoot. It will take about ten hours to get back into