Rebel by Mike Shepherd Read Free Book Online

spoonful of goulash, the admiral put down his spoon and turned to Vicky. “How would you fight this coming battle?”
    Vicky had a spoon of the quite tasty stew halfway to her mouth. She put it down, patted her lips with the linen napkin, and thought for a moment more. “First, the objective is to overawe the other side into not fighting. Somehow, I would want to put them in a position where they knew they were in trouble and would be badly bloodied if it came to a fight, and thus, would call it quits before it came to one.”
    “A commendable objective,” the admiral said, “considering that some of my friends are on those ships. So, how would you do that?”
    Vicky leaned back in her chair and stared at the overhead for a long moment. She found herself worrying her lips as she thought. Clearly, the admiral was not about to turn his fleet over to a green lieutenant commander. This was an exercise to see if a Grand Duchess could be trusted on his bridge as he figured this one out for himself.
    Still, this was a test she very much wanted to pass.
    “Kris Longknife had a battle very much like this one,”Vicky finally said, remembering a very long analysis that someone had added to Kris’s file.
    Vicky wondered how many friends the man writing that analysis had lost when Kris Longknife won that battle.
    “Which one was that?” Mannie asked. “She seems to have fought a lot of battles if the stories are to be believed.”
    “It was in defense of her home planet,” Vicky said, “when pirate battleships suddenly appeared and demanded its surrender.”
    “Oh, that one,” Mannie said.
    Vicky had noted the slight wince from the admiral when she said “pirate battleships.” No doubt he knew the real reason for the empty seats at Greenfeld Navy Academy reunions of late. In present company, he kept his silence.
    “Yes,” Vicky said, “that one. Six battleships headed for her planet. Only twelve mosquito boats to defend it because of an unbelievable blunder by some politicians.”
    Again, Vicky had a pretty good idea who had encouraged those Wardhaven politicians to make such a botch of matters, but it was not something to talk about here and now. The look the admiral gave Vicky told her he wanted that talk, and soon.
    “So, Kris Longknife had this same problem,” Mannie said, playing the straight man to Vicky. “What did she do?”
    “She put her fast attack boats, along with anything else she could scrape together, kind of like us and our armed merchant cruisers, in a high orbit that reached out to meet the incoming battleships without charging right past them. That put her in a position to fight them all the way in. Is that what you intend to do, Admiral von Mittleburg?”
    “Gravity tends to limit our options in situations like these,” the admiral said, “but yes, that would be my choice. The incoming ships will be braking toward an orbit. We will meet them at a point that allows us to bring them under fire at the extreme effective range of our lasers, where their guns are barely able to heat water. That will give us time to talk. Hopefully, to talk them down.”
    “You might be able to talk the Navy down, but I’m not so sure about that Lord High Commissioner for Safety on St. Petersburg,” Vicky said.
    Mannie scowled. “We can take care of our own safety, thank you very much.”
    “Yes, but can you keep yourself safe from a Lord High Commissioner for your Safety?” Admiral von Mittleburg asked.
    “I’m hoping you will save me from that problem,” Mannie said. “We’ve smuggled some books on irregular warfare in from Longknife territory. It makes interesting reading. The Lord High Commissioner may have no idea what he’s in for, but then, suppression of guerrilla wars can be very bloody to all concerned.”
    “We will try to save you from that,” Vicky said.
    “If your Lieutenant Blue is correct, and Wittenberg is leading the cruisers in, its skipper, Staale Sandback, will not be