The Kassa Gambit by M. C. Planck Read Free Book Online

her.
    “No. It’s not good enough.”
    His eyes were like flames behind smoke: hot and black. She recognized the look of stubbornness, the spirit that would not back down. It was like looking into a mirror.
    Casually, disguising the action as merely flipping the intercom switch to contact Melvin in his gunnery pod, she began the arming sequence for the missiles. Outside, the hatch panels would slide open; the electronic brains of the missiles would come awake, sniffing for a target, eager to be released on the hunt.
    The sound of grating metal was washed away by the windstorm.
    “Melvin. Direct us to the new signal.”
    Melvin argued with her. “Why? Because the tin-horn sheriff says so? Screw that! Screw him.”
    She was too tired for insubordination, too tired to stroke her crew into doing their jobs. “If you don’t, I’ll send him up there to take your place.”
    “Whatever. See if I care.” Even while he dismissed her threat, he caved in to it. “Go right, five degrees. And down.”
    Visual was worthless. The cameras, so finely tuned for empty space, were blinded by whirling flecks of white. They hovered a hundred meters above what the radar claimed was ground, and crawled slowly forward.
    “Can we even see it this far up?” Kyle was obsessed.
    “They’ll see us long before we see them.” Prudence kept trying to change his mind, mostly out of habit. She knew she would fail. “What if they shoot us down? It’s not just us that dies. That arctic team won’t last the night.”
    “Land a kilometer away and we’ll walk in, if you’re worried about getting shot at.”
    It was tempting: the walk would surely kill him, and that would be the end of her problems. But then she almost certainly wouldn’t get paid.
    “Stop, Pru! You’ve passed it.” Melvin had become conscripted to the cause by sheer curiosity. “Radar says metal, but not ship-sized … it’s a boat or something.”
    She sent the ship down, drifting through the white sky. If the enemy hadn’t fired yet, they weren’t going to.
    “How do we know it’s not a mine, waiting to explode when some fool comes out to investigate?” she asked. It was the sort of thing a paranoid person would do. Like herself, for instance.
    “Nobody would put a trap out here. They would have left it where it would matter.” Kyle was looking around, searching for something. “Where’s your suit locker?”
    “Next to the air lock,” she said, trying not to sound too exasperated with his ignorance.
    “I’m going out there. If I lose radio contact, take off immediately.”
    A thrum, deep and distant, sounded in the far recesses of her mind. Her suspicious nature, flaring up despite the exhaustion.
    “I’m going with you.”
    He stared at her, shocked. “Don’t be foolish. Send one of your men, if you want. But you can’t leave the bridge.”
    “Can I go, Pru? I want to see it.” Jorgun was grinning with simple excitement at seeing something new. How easy it would be for Kyle to pull one over on him, set up whatever trick he’d come all the way out here to prepare.
    “We’ll all go, Jor. Suit up.”
    This had to be what Kyle was here for. This had to be what all of this was about.
    “What if something happens to you?” Kyle stood in her way, adamant as a wall. “Who else can fly the ship? We’ll all freeze out there.”
    “Then you better not let anything happen to me.” She would not let him get away with it. Thousands had died on Kassa, and she was going to find out why.
    “You can’t tell Pru what to do,” Jorgun explained patiently. “She’s the captain. She tells us what to do.”
    “You’re being stupid.” The anger in Kyle’s voice was leaking out.
    He wasn’t in real danger. In a few weeks, Altair Fleet would be all over this planet. He would be safe on the ship until then—its life support could sustain people in deep space, it could certainly protect them from a blizzard. His Fleet would come and get him. He didn’t