Constitution: Book 1 of the Legacy Fleet Trilogy Read Online Free Page A

my orders from CENTCOM, Lieutenant. See you in a few.”

Chapter Seven

    L-2 Lagrange point, Earth
    Captain’s Ready Room, ISS Constitution

    “Commander Shelby Proctor, reporting for duty, sir.”
    Captain Granger forced out a thin smile and tried not to groan as he rose out of his seat. Dammit, he needed exercise. His belly bulged against his uniform, straining the buttons. The desk job was going to kill him one of these days. And for some reason, his chest felt like someone was wringing his lungs with their fists.
    “Commander. Welcome aboard.” He looked her up and down. Young. Fit. Approaching middle age. Black hair but pale skin. Was she Asian? No. Well, maybe an ancestor or two in the distant past. “Has Haws shown you to your quarters yet?”
    Her brow furrowed. “No, sir. Was he supposed to?”
    He muttered a profanity under his breath. Dammit, Haws, it’s not like she’s after your job or something. “He’s been busy.” Holding out a hand to indicate the doorway he continued, “If you’ll follow me....”
    Granger walked to the door of his ready room, but she didn’t move. “Actually, sir, I wanted to get started right away. We’ve only got two weeks and I want to hit the ground running. You still have a full contingent of V-wing X-25 fighters on board, no? I want to gut about half a dozen of them, strip out all their weaponry, and use them as hands-on display pieces down in the hangar. You know, so kids can get up inside of them and pretend they’re fighter jocks for a few minutes. That should take the longest, so I want to get started early.
    “Next, I want to convert most of the command consoles on the bridge into interactive displays and configure them to run in simulation mode. That way we can run guests through in groups and give them the chance to command a warship in battle for a few maneuvers. We can wire them together with the environmental controls to simulate the inertia changes with the artificial gravity deckplates. Then, I want to—”
    Granger had held up a hand, but she steamrolled right over his gesture. Finally he had to raise his voice. “Commander?”
    “—the galley into a full service restau—” She looked up from her datapad in surprise. “Yes, Captain Granger?”
    “No.”
    She lowered her datapad and pursed her lips, looking as if she were about to stab him with her beady eyes. “Excuse me? Sir?”
    “No.” He desperately wanted to stop the conversation there, to let the single word of defiance hang in the air as he sent her packing, but reluctantly he went on. “Not today. We’ll start tomorrow. We’re almost at the end of the day shift, and tonight we’ve got a standard maintenance of the main engines—”
    “But you’re not going to need those engines in two weeks, Captain Granger,” she interrupted. “I suggest that—”
    “Regardless, my orders stand. I’m still in command of this ship, and if you want to protest that inconvenient fact you can take it up with Admiral Yarbrough.” He glanced at the old leather-strap watch on his wrist. “And by my reckoning she’s dead asleep by now, so you may as well go kick back, have a few drinks at our bar—”
    “You have a bar ?”
    “They call the place Afterburners . Well, technically it’s just a satellite service counter from the galley down in the observation deck by engineering, but some of the boys put together a little distillery. It’s actually quite good if you can believe it. Just don’t drink too much of it or you’ll spend an evening in the detox unit in sickbay. ” He turned back to the door and nodded to the marines as he passed, Commander Proctor hot on his heels. “Dismissed, Commander. See you in the morning.”
    “I—” she began. But the conversation was over. He’d left.

    She pounded the air beneath her hanging fists at her side and muttered, “Dammit. This is going to be a long two weeks.”
    “Ma’am?” One of the marines looked at her questioningly.
    “As you