The Dead Sun (Star Force Series) by B. V. Larson Read Free Book Online

crossed her arms. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the consort of a barbarian king.”
    I snorted. “That’s fine. But don’t get any ideas the way Attila the Hun’s wife did. I’m not going out that easily.”
    We laughed and sat down on our poufy couch. The furniture was overstuffed and entirely too silky for my taste. I felt like I was in the lobby of some swanky hotel, rather than in an officer’s quarters. These ex-imperial ships were almost embarrassing.
    “Why does everything have to be red, gold and purple velvet in here?” I complained.
    “Do you really want to redecorate before we go out to the Thor System?”
    “Nah,” I said, steering her away from that idea. If I let her, I knew she’d decorate the hell out of this place. “There’s no time for that.”
    She looked slightly disappointed.
    “Can we talk about something serious for a second?” she asked.
    “What?”
    “Miklos. You haven’t told him you’re leaving yet, have you?”
    I heaved a sigh. “No.”
    “Are you worried that he’ll be upset about your decision to fly with Newcome as your fleet commander?”
    “He’ll be threatened, I don’t doubt it. But I want him to oversee the construction of the orbital shipyard. And I want Newcome to get some field experience.”
    “How do you think Newcome is doing so far?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “My first impulse is to relieve him and find someone younger and less timid.”
    “He has wisdom, good judgment.”
    “Yeah, maybe. But would he surrender to the machines as quickly as he did to us?”
    She frowned at me. “That’s not fair. He believed in you and wanted to save his fleet to fight Earth’s real enemy.”
    I nodded. “That’s what we say . But you know the news people and junior staffers call him ‘Newcome the Runner’.”
    “He lost more than ten percent of his force before withdrawing,” she said. “He had no idea what we could do. He was outranged and outgunned. From his point of view, Phobos wasn’t even badly damaged.”
    “I was there,” I reminded her.
    Jasmine was talking about our fleet battle upon entering the Solar System. We’d barely survived Newcome’s missile assault, but when we managed to blow up a good number of his ships while outside the range of his guns, he’d called it quits and withdrawn.
    “The very ship we’re aboard right now survived that day due to his action,” she pressed. “But let’s get back to Miklos. When are you going to tell him?”
    “Right now,” I said as I activated the coffee table. It was a screen, as were most of the walls. The coffee table served as the primary interface when I cruised the ship’s net, looking at data and vid feeds.
    Admiral Nicolai Miklos came online within a minute of my hailing summons. The man had always been prompt.
    “Sir?” he said, sounding a bit sleepy.
    “What time is it down there…” I asked. “Oh, sorry, Admiral. I guess I can wait until morning.”
    “You have me up now, sir. I take it there is no emergency?”
    “No. This is about fleet operations.”
    I quickly filled him in on my decisions. Like the rest of the staff, I left him in the dark about Marvin’s plans.
    Miklos wasn’t like most of the commanders around me. He was more of a numbers man. While I briefed him, I could see he was tapping at something. He’d brought up the manifests Marvin had put out on the command web.
    “This list contains a lot of specialized materials, sir,” he said, frowning. “Most of them will have to come from the Bellatrix System.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “Sir? May I ask what…?”
    “You mean what the hell we’re planning on building with this stuff? A powerful generator. The most powerful that’s ever been seen in our corner of the galaxy.”
    He nodded his head slowly, rubbing at his eyes and flicking through reports with his fingers. I could see the blue light reflecting on his face.
    “Where are you going to build this generator, if I may ask?”
    I hesitated, but