Queen of the Pirates Read Online Free Page B

lady associate kissed him lightly on the cheek and withdrew without a word.
    Loncar leaned forward and dropped his voice down to a low rumble as Tesar sat. “Aye, Tesar. A tour of duty and glorious conquest out on that frontier, cleaning up the mess that snotty little brat Keller left behind. And then, when I get back in a year, it will be time for the Senate to force Kasum out for someone who understands what this Republic was founded on.”
    “I see,” the old Fleet Lord said, leaning forward as well. “And who would you propose as a new First Lord?”
    The younger man smiled gloriously. “If called, I would find it in my duty to save the Republic from those meddling fools and their lower–deck peons. We are the Fifty Families, Bogusław Tesar. We own the Republic. It’s high time we got back in charge and started running it better.”
    “All well and good, Loncar,” the old Fleet Lord said, “but how do we manage it?”
    Loncar pointed at the door by way of answer. A well–dressed, plump woman stood in the door, glancing around until she spotted them. She looked out of place without her Senatorial robes, but Andjela Tomčič still stood out in the room, younger than most of the men, often by a generation, and without the erect carriage that came from a lifetime of Fleet Service.
    On her arm, an unobtrusive man in his late thirties. He wore a dark suit and moved with care, as if intent on not leaving an impression. Only the shaved skull marked him in any way that a bystander might remember later.
    He worked hard at that, especially for these players. Brant was one of the key operators behind the scenes that kept the Senate working well. Some things could only be done in the shadows.
    She strode to their table, bringing the man along with her.
    Loncar smiled an alligator smile up at her, toasting her with his glass. “Andjela,” he said, “good to see you again.”
    The younger man stood at her side, perhaps half a step back. Quiet. Observing.
    “Brant, let’s get you something to drink, and then we can retire to a private room where we can chat.”
    Brant studied each of them in turn. “Fleet Lord Loncar,” he nodded, “it is good to see you again. Fleet Lord Tesar, we have not been formally introduced, but I’ve heard a great deal about you. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
    Both men rose to kiss the woman on the cheek and shake hands with the man. The staff escorted them to a small chamber to one side and settled them around a small table.
    Loncar raised his glass to the assembly. “My friends, I give you our duty to the Republic.”
    “The Republic,” they chimed back.

Chapter IV
    Date of the Republic September 23, 393 Edge of the Ramsey System
    Jessica watched the big three–dimensional projection slowly rotate in front of her, left to right like a spinning top. It dominated the center of the conference table in her Flag Bridge, surrounded, as always, by the ghostly images of her command staff, each comfortable on their own bridges as they appeared and settled in.
    A deck above and a little forward from where she sat, Denis Jež commanded Auberon . Technically, he was just the first officer of the big Strike Carrier, while she was the command centurion, but she had a squadron to control. Plus, he was good at what he did, and would have already been given command somewhere else, if anyone had noticed his skill before she came along. She wasn’t about to give him up.
    One of the only two other people physically present at the table was her Flag Centurion, Enej Zivkovic, the young man responsible for passing her orders to the other vessels.The ghosts visible at her table were Command Centurion Alber’ d’Maine aboard the Heavy Destroyer Rajput , and Command Centurion Tomas Kigali of the Fleet Escort, the former Revenue Cutter, CR–264 .
    “Good afternoon,” Jessica smiled to the faces around her. It was just the small staff today, plus one other person who occasionally joined