Katya's World Read Online Free

had no idea what a “ chimp ” was, but it didn’t sound like a compliment to her. It apparently didn’t sound like one to the officer either. He drew his baton in one smooth move and slammed it across his prisoner’s thigh so hard that she wouldn’t have been surprised to hear the bone snap. The prisoner grunted and fell to the floor. The Fed stepped up to kick him where he lay when Sergei cleared his throat.
    “ Ahem, ” he coughed theatrically. The Fed stopped and looked at him. “ Officer, educate me. Aren’t there regulations about the handling of prisoners? ”
    The Fed’s face was pale with anger, which only served to make his acne stand out . “ He… he was... Allowances are made for subduing prisoners. ”
    Sergei nodded sagely and cocked his head on one side to look at where the prisoner lay on the floor clutching his thigh. “ Subduing. Right. Seems fair enough. He looks pretty subdued now, wouldn’t you say? ”
    The Fed scowled, grabbed the prisoner by the arm and pulled him back to his feet. “ You, ” he said to Sergei, “ are you the usual navigator? ” Sergei nodded. “ Then she stays behind. We don’t need two navigators. ”
    Uncle Lukyan still didn’t look happy, but she knew that he had no choice. She was already braced for the bad news when he turned to her. “ Katya. I’m so sorry… ”
    “ Miss your first voyage in a crew position? ” butted in Sergei. “ I don’t think so. It’s not a long trip to the Deeps. You can head straight to Lemuria from there and be back here halfway through third shift easy. I’ll sit it out. ”
    Katya could almost have kissed him. Almost, but not quite. Instead she made do with a grateful smile.
    Leaving Sergei on the dry side of the lock, they trooped back into the Baby . Katya and Lukyan strapped themselves back into their seats as the Fed secured his prisoner in the passenger position behind Katya. Then he moved forward, blithely stepping over the yellow line to lean on the crew seats. Lukyan glared at him , but the Fed was utterly unaware of the faux pas . He watched as Katya laid in a new course that would take them to the FMA facility. After a few seconds he snapped, “ What are you doing? ”
    Katya bit back the sarcastic comment she was dying to make and tried to be helpful and friendly. “ I’m plotting a course to the Deeps, as you wished. ”
    “ You’re deliberately wasting time. Why isn’t the course direct? Why this detour? Explain yourself! ”
    Katya couldn’t believe it. Were there people who really believed that the quickest route from A to B was always a straight line? “ If we go there directly, ” she said slowly , as if talking to an idiot, “ we will have to go through this volume. See? This bright yellow place on the map? That’s amber for caution. That’s the Weft, a volume of random currents, Russalka has lots of places like that. ”
    “ Is that area dangerous? ”
    Katya realised that the Fed truly knew nothing about submarine operations. He was thinking in two dimensional areas, not three dimensional volumes. She fought down the urge to lecture him on the subject; the Weft was clearly going to be hard enough to explain.
    “ No, but the Baby doesn’t have the big drives of a military boat. If we get caught in a tow, it could put hours on the journey while we break free. Believe me, it makes more sense… ”
    “ Use a direct course. That’s an order. ”
    “ You, ” said Lukyan, quiet and dangerous, “ do not order my crew. I‘m still captain here. ”
    “ Then tell her to set a direct course. ” The officer moved aft without waiting for a reply and strapped himself in.
    Katya looked to Lukyan. He plainly had murder in his heart, but crushed it down by effort of will. He nodded.
    As Katya scrubbed her previous plot and started inputting the insane new one, her uncle hailed Traffic Control to explain what was happening. “ Tell Lemuria they’ll get their parts a few hours late, ” he