The Lost Stars: Shattered Spear by Jack Campbell Read Free Book Online

talking about giving command of almost all of your mobile forces to an Alliance officer?”
    The laughter from Drakon momentarily shocked everyone. “Yeah,” he said. “We are. Can you imagine this a year ago?”
    “A lot has happened,” Iceni said, smiling thinly in response.
    “Hell, yeah, a lot has happened.” Drakon looked at Gozen. “Colonel, this Alliance officer is Black Jack’s. As crazy as it sounds, she is the best choice for that assignment. We’re not Syndicate anymore. Our warship crews respect Captain Bradamont.”
    “Not all of them,” Bradamont muttered. “I’ll need to take my bodyguards along if I’m going to be riding
Midway
or
Pele
,” she added in a normal voice.
    Gozen smiled in turn. “Taking your bodyguards everywhere? So you’ve become a little bit Syndicate yourself?”
    “Please do not say that.”
    *   *   *
    A week later, the war-damaged Dancer warships having crossed the star system and jumped for Pele without ever disclosing where they had been or whom they had fought, Kommodor Marphissa sat on the bridge of the heavy cruiser
Manticore
as the warship approached the jump point for Iwa. Beside her was Kapitan Diaz, who was frowning with clear unhappiness. “Kommodor,” he asked in a low voice, “what if the enigmas have already taken Iwa?”
    “Then I am to evaluate the situation and either continue on to Moorea,” Marphissa answered, “or return immediately to Midway.”
    “The president gave you that much discretion?” Diaz said, surprised.
    “She did. We’re not working for the Syndicate anymore.”
    “That never would have happened if we were,” Diaz agreed. “But what if the enigmas have already mined the jump point we’ll arrive at, or have some of their warships stationed at it to catch any human ship that arrives?”
    Marphissa smiled humorlessly. “In that case, Kapitan, you are to avoid hitting any of the mines, and avoid being hit by any enigma weaponry, until this ship jumps back for Midway.”
    Diaz stared, then grinned. “Now that sounds like a Syndicate order!”
    “Bite your tongue, Kapitan. You may jump for Iwa.”
    But Marphissa, despite the banter with Diaz, could not help a jolt of anxiety as the stars vanished and were replaced by the dull gray nothingness of jump space. Orders that left her the freedom to decide what to do also meant they left her the freedom to make the wrong choices. And if the enigmas were at Iwa when
Manticore
arrived, even one wrong choice might be one mistake too many.

CHAPTER THREE
    “WE need to plan for an attack on Iwa. It might be against the Syndicate presence there, which would be an easy operation.” General Drakon looked from Colonel Rogero to Colonel Safir to Colonel Kai. His three brigade commanders. It still felt wrong, it would feel wrong for a long time, to see Safir there instead of Colonel Conner Gaiene. But Conner had died at Ulindi and would never be here again except in Drakon’s memories. “Or it might be against an enigma occupation force.”
    “Which would not be easy,” Rogero commented.
    “Has there ever been a ground fight with the enigmas?” Safir asked.
    “None that we know of,” Drakon said. “To the best of our knowledge, some of the star systems they occupied over the last century had surviving Syndicate ground forces. But we have no idea what happened when the enigmas landed.”
    “Black Jack’s information has nothing to offer?” Colonel Kai asked.
    “No. They didn’t have any ground or ship-boarding operations, either,” Drakon said. “The one thing Black Jack’s reports emphasizedwas the enigmas will not surrender and will try to blow everything to hell before we can learn anything from it.”
    “Themselves included?”
    “Themselves included.”
    “How much will we send?” Rogero asked.
    “Plan on one brigade.” Drakon looked over his colonels again. “I don’t know which one of yours will be tapped for the operation if we go ahead with this. Each of