Battlecruiser Alamo - 7 - Battlecruiser Alamo: Sacred Honor Read Online Free Page A

replied, sighing. “All of those things could be an advantage, though. Think about it. Our saboteur would be expecting someone like Bailey to be on the case, or you, for that matter. Sending in Corporal Cooper will catch them by surprise. Besides, he had the usual combat hacking course.”
     “Where he came in the middle of his class. I checked.”
     “And got the best score of any of the espatiers we have left.” 
     “True.” She looked around the room, lounging back towards the wall, “This is a hell of a risky plan. As risky as the one…”
     “That got us out here in the first place? Maybe. I still stand by it, though. We’re going to get hunted down piecemeal, battered down a piece at a time until we can't run any more . Hell, they could have ships strung out half-way home, get us one battle at a time with hit and run attacks. This way we get the battle out of the way.”
     “And…”
     “Damn it, Deadeye, I don’t like retreating. That task force sent us running with our tails between our legs, and cost us a ship and more than two dozen people. My people. We’ve got to redeem that.”
     “No, we don’t.”
     He shook his head, “Yes, we do. The crew need it, for one thing. Morale’s low.”
     “Being stranded light-years from home on the wrong side of a hostile frontier will do that.”
     “And a good victory will restore it. Hell, my instincts are telling me that this is the thing to do. Then we can push through Cabal space, and…”
     Caine looked at him, cold in the eyes, and said, “You don’t expect to win.”
     He glanced up, and said, “What?”
     “This isn’t about getting home. You don’t think we can do it, cross the Cabal.”
     “The odds are against us…”
     “Damn it, Danny. You can be honest with me, even if you aren’t honest to yourself.”
     Rising to his feet, he looked down at her, saying, “Yes, then, damn it. We’re one ship, trying to cross thirty, forty light-years of hostile territory, with a fleet at our backs and others up ahead. No resupply without a battle, no espatier force, no fighter squadron. At some point they are going to catch us.”
     “You’re giving up.”
     “Not yet, I’m not. We came out here to prevent a war, one way or another, and if we can give them a bloody enough nose, we might just manage to do that. I’ll do as much damage as I can, and then…”
     “Surrender.”
     “The crew, yes. I’ll go down with Alamo.”
     “You’ve got it all worked out, don’t you. A glorious last stand.”
     “We’ve got the name for it.”
     “That’s a memory to live up to, not something to blindly imitate. Damn it, Danny, I’ve never known you this fatalistic before.” She stood up, fury on her face, “I’m going into this battle to win. Not to do as much damage as possible, but to blast our way through the bad guys and get this ship home.”
     “Don’t you think I want to do that as well? Look, if we can’t get home, if we can’t complete our mission, then we owe it to everyone back home to mitigate that as best we can. This is the best way I can see to do that.”
     “We can get home, Danny. Don’t let one defeat knock you down. You’ve got to get up and fight again. Zebrova’s wrong, and your instincts are right.”
     “We’ll see in about three weeks.” He shook his head. “I just wish Orlova was here. She’d probably have some wild idea to get around this problem.”
     

 
    Chapter 3
     
     Sitting in the hastily-patched bridge of the Battlecruiser Hercules, Sub-Lieutenant Margaret Orlova, by a string of accidents and disasters serving as Acting Captain, looked at the viewscreen and frowned, wondering what would appear when they finally left hendecaspace. Forced to jump without calculating a proper course, she had no idea where they would end up, or even how long it would take to get there.
     She looked around the bridge, the crew working to prepare themselves