Valour's Choice by Tanya Huff Read Free Book Online Page A

officious never caught on.
    “I was wondering,” Captain Daniels asked, catching her eye, “if you had an opinion on the evening.”
    Torin had overheard more conversations than she’d been a part of. Most of them had been amazingly inane. “A military opinion?”
    “Please. I think we’ve all heard as many uninformed opinions on the state of the buffet, the other species present, and the new season of All My Offspring as we can stomach.”
    “There’s nothing like having a Mictok overanalyze your favorite vid,” Lieutenant Ghard sighed.
    Nothing Torin could think of anyway. “The civilians seem concerned that the Silsviss come in on our side,” she began, organizing her impressions as she spoke, “although the doctor isn’t pleased about bringing a fourth aggressive species into the Confederation.”
    Representatives of the three other aggressive species snorted.
    “The Navy seems concerned that the Others will figure out what we’re doing and blow this new defensive array into atoms before it’s up and running. And one of the vjs who took the first contact team in said we’d better recruit the Silsviss before the Others do because she wouldn’t, and I quote, want to meet those S.O.B.s in battle.”
    Jarret nodded. “I heard that, too. Good thing we’re going in as friends.”
    * * *
    “All right, people, the clock is running again; we’re forty-nine hours to planetfall. You’ve all seen the vids on the Silsviss, you’ve heard how important it is to impress them enough so that they join the Confederation before the Others move in. Given that, over the next forty-nine hours we’ll be practicing ceremonial drill morning, afternoon, and evening. Or the shipboard equivalent thereof.”
    “Aw, Staff, we’ve been drilling...”
    “I know.” Torin fixed Haysole with a basilisk smile. “I’ve seen you.” She lifted her gaze to include the entire platoon. “I’ve seen all of you. And that’s why you’re doing more drill.”
    “I thought the Silsviss were supposed to be impressed by our military prowess,” a Human voice muttered.
    “I’ve got a better idea, Drake...” The heavy gunner started, while those around him snickered at his discomfort. “...let’s start by impressing them with how well you can tell your left foot from your right. All of you; flight deck, with your weapon, 0830. Dismissed.”
    She stepped back to stand by the lieutenant as the platoon moved muttering out of the mess.
    “Do they really need more drill?” he asked quietly.
    “Not really. Considering that none of them have done it since basic, they’re surprisingly good.”
    “Then why?”
    “You don’t want them thinking too much before a planetfall.”
    “But this isn’t like other planetfalls.”
    “None of them are, sir. None of them are.”

THREE
    “N ot a bad looking place.” Through the cloud cover, the orbital view of Silsvah showed two large land masses and half a dozen smaller ones. Although a little smaller than Terra with a little less ocean, Torin found the planet had a comfortable familiarity—even though she’d been born on Paradise, the first of the colony worlds, and had never personally seen the Human home world from space.
    “Mind you,” she muttered thoughtfully to no one in particular, “the fact that no one’ll be trying to shoot us out of the sky as we land adds to the attraction.”
    As the Berganitan began passing over a storm that seemed to involve half the southern hemisphere, her implant chimed.
    *DIGNITARIES APPROACHING.*
    Wincing, she tongued the volume down and hurried across the flight deck to join Lieutenant Jarret. Sergeants and above had received the Silsviss translation program and the upload had scrambled her defaults, forcing her to reset almost every function. Her next promotion would net her a new implant and she had to admit that, as little as she enjoyed the techs cracking her jaw, she was looking forward to the new hardware. Among other things, she’d gain