Battle of the Ring Read Online Free Page A

had been nervously pacing the hall outside Richart Lake’s office
in Rane Manor for the past half hour. Now he straightened his back cautiously
and eased himself into a chair. Circumstance had not been kind to him these
past two years. He had just finished with a series of operations to reconstruct
his ruined back, blasted by a bolt from a Starwolf’s gun. Nor had his
reputation survived the raid on Vannkarn unaffected, in spite of his uncle’s
best efforts to protect him. Then the old Councilor had died suddenly, leaving
him to fend for himself while still immobilized by his injuries and his new
weapon only half built. As the new Councilor, Richart had shown him little
support and had gone so far as to consider his replacement.
    But now that they needed him for their purposes, they could not be nicer.
The door to the inner office opened and Richart Lake stepped out. Trace rose as
quickly as he dared, hoping that he was not betrayed by the pain in his back.
His real condition was such that, had it been an officer in his command, he
would have restricted the man from space travel and certainly combat duty.
    “Hello, Don. I’m glad that you could make it,” Lake
greeted him cordially enough, almost enthusiastically.
    “No problem,” Trace assured him, stepping into the office as the
other held the door for him.
    “Please excuse the mess,” Lake said as he pulled the door shut,
indicating the boxes, files, and temporary access terminals that littered the
room. He showed Trace a chair in front of the desk and hurried around to take
his own seat behind. “I’m afraid that we are only now getting
matters straightened up and back into working order. Next week we move into the
new government building, but it will be at least a year before we return to the
same level of efficiency we had before the Starwolves brought the roof down on
top of us. Farstell was a lot easier to put back together.”
    “Farstell had the advantage of duplicate records as shipping and
receiving ports and factories,” Trace pointed out. “There was a lot
gone from the government and military offices that can never be
replaced.”
    “True enough,” Lake agreed, and leaned back in his seat.
“I have received a full report on the space trials of your new ship.”
    “So? What do you think?”
    “It is slow... “
    “It was never meant for speed,” Trace replied. “Just as
long as it can get itself where it needs to be.”
    “Then you are satisfied with the machine?” Lake asked.
    “Yes, I am,” the Sector Commander replied without hesitation.
“It is everything that I had hoped it would be. It accelerates and
handles perfectly. The computer network and channeled power grid work as well
in real life as they did on paper.”
    “And the sentient command computer?”
    Trace shrugged. “Again, it was perfect in its operation. It is no more
or less than it needs to be. As you know, it has intelligence, independent
reasoning capabilities, and self-awareness, it can take care of itself, but it
will also follow orders without question. It is not a living, thinking, feeling
being like the Star-wolf carriers, but we did not want that in the first
place.”
    “No, we did not,” Lake agreed thoughtfully.
    “And it can fight,” Trace continued. “We ran it through
twenty-eight simulated attacks by Starwolves. Everything we know they have, we
threw at it. It survived every attack, and won more than half of the
engagements that we played through.”
    Lake glanced up at him. “No problem for you, I trust? I mean, you are
still fairly fresh from your last surgery.”
    “No, no problem,” Trace assured him. “As you pointed out,
the machine is no light cruiser. We took at most a momentary five G’s,
otherwise no more than sustained three.”
    “Then you will be along for its first mission?”
    “Yes, I must. I expect that we will have no problem the first time
that we meet Starwolves, since they will not be prepared for what my beauty can
do.