Intrepid by Mike Shepherd Read Free Book Online Page A

if each word out of her mouth was a snake or spider out of the fairy tales.
    As Jack held Kris’s chair for her to sit, the captain did the same for the young woman. She seemed startled by the chivalry.
    You have an awful lot to learn, Miss Vicky, Kris thought to herself. So do I, but at least I know I do.
    Kris decided to open the conversation. “I was rather surprised to see the Surprise tied up along the next pier. If it isn’t a state secret, can I ask how you come to be here?”
    “Some people might consider it just such a state secret,” Captain Krätz said, with a chuckle and a glance at the young woman he was escorting. “But a look at the ship you escorted in tells me that both our planets are likely concerned about the same matter. How did that freighter come to be so shot up?”
    “I’m afraid that I did it,” Kris said, not quite succeeding at looking bashful. That only got her raised eyebrows from both the captain and the ensign.
    “It fired on the Wasp while we were making like an unarmed merchant,” Kris said in formal report mode. “I was on weapons and returned the compliment. I put a twenty-four-inch pulse laser through their bridge, and that was the end of the discussion.”
    “Just like you did to my brother,” Victoria Peterwald shot back.
    “Ensign, we talked about that,” the captain said, giving warning.
    Kris shook her head. “Excuse me, Captain, if you will,” Kris said, “Ensign Peterwald and I need to get this out in the open. She may never agree with me, but she needs to hear my side.” Kris turned her full attention to Victoria.
    “You killed my brother just like you did that freighter crew,” Vicky got in first.
    “I was involved in your brother’s death, but not ‘just like’ those people on the pirate’s bridge.”
    Vicky’s mouth was half-open, a retort already coming, but with a glance at the glower on her captain’s face, she bit it off and shut her mouth.
    “Your brother had my ship on the ropes. It was his ship and crew or mine. I fired six-inch lasers, aimed for his engines, not bridge. His evasion actions, or maybe it was just dumb luck, put his bridge where we were aiming.
    “On his ship, every crewman had a survival pod. We did not find a single one on that pirate ship. When I opened up their bridge, they were all doomed. Most of their bodies were blown out into space.
    “On your brother’s ship, they all activated their survival pods. With the exception of your brother’s, they all worked. His didn’t. Consider that.”
    Kris paused. She studied the beautiful blue eyes across from her. Tried to measure the acceptance, the comprehension in them. It didn’t look like much, but there was some.
    “There is one more thing I can add, though I doubt if anyone in my government will back me up.”
    “What is that?” Captain Krätz asked.
    “If it’s not a state secret, could you tell me what were the series numbers of the survival pods on the Incredible ?”
    “The Incredible and the Surprise were built at the same time. We all used 68000 series pods.”
    Kris nodded. “The defective pods on the battleships we fought at Wardhaven all had a 90000 series identifier. Do you know what was the number on Hank’s pod?”
    Both Krätz and Vicky shook their heads in silence.
    “I have a picture of his pod. I could show it to you now, but I won’t.” Hank’s body was still in the pod. That was one picture Kris did not want to show Vicky. There were still pictures from poor Eddy’s kidnapping that Kris had never seen. Would never see.
    “Do you know Hank’s survival pod number?” Vicky asked.
    “Ninety-seven thousand, five hundred, and twelve,” Kris said.
    “Holy Mother of God,” Captain Krätz muttered.
    “That’s impossible,” Vicky said.
    Kris rolled her hand, palm up on the table. “My computer has all the photos taken on my space station of your brother’s pod, both before it was opened and after. Several of them clearly show the pod