Sky Hunter Read Online Free

you,” his
Human companion said.
    “ I don’t think I like any of you,” she
said. “I don’t suggest you try that again.”
    The easy grin on the Centauri’s face
disappeared. “Or what?” He gripped her arm again only to find her
pistol jammed under his nose. He froze when he heard the quiet
whine of the charge in the sudden silence.
    “ Don’t be looking for trouble, girl,”
the scarred Lieutenant said after a stunned moment.
    “ Back,” she said evenly to the Centauri
who obeyed her command. “I am looking for dinner, not to entertain
a bunch of Rhuwac-brained grunts.”
    A door below them screeched on its metal
track and some sort of cart trundled into the space. Nova took that
startled moment to turn and rush toward the door into the main
base, not quite willing to give the men the satisfaction of seeing
her run, but not wasting any time reaching the more populated
hallways beyond.
     
    * * *
    Finally! Nova thought when, an hour
later, she returned to her small room. After a visit to the floor’s
decon station for a clean-up and a hurried stop for dinner she was
ready to fall into her cot. Her quarters, like those of the other
junior officers, offered little in the way of luxury or comfort but
luckily, as the only female pilot on this small base, she had no
roommate.
    “ Yes, yes, time for bed,” she said to a
picture of a grush cat someone had sketched for her after hearing
that she had never owned a pet. An Air Command military base on one
planet or another was all she had ever known as home and neither
the lack of amenities nor pets had ever bothered her. An army brat
from birth, the frugal soldier’s accommodations were all the homey
comforts she needed.
    She slipped into a robe and took a few
moments to comb her thick mane of copper hair, more than ready for
sleep.
    A knock on her door forced a tired groan from
her lips. “I’m asleep. Go away!”
    “ It’s Captain Beryl, Lieutenant. A
word, please.”
    She frowned and went to the door to open it
for the officer. “Is there an emergency, sir?” she asked, surprised
when the man stepped into her room without invitation. He was not
her commanding officer and his late-night visit was certainly out
of the ordinary. She had seen him on the base many times; his prime
function was to oversee the movement of troops between the home
base and their various combat missions into the Rim towns. Like his
men, he was a hulking, scarred tank, distinguishable from them only
by his insignia.
    He looked around the room before turning to
her. “I hear you met some of my boys today,” he said.
    Her brow furrowed. “Yes, they were definitely
behaving like boys. It’s a shame, seeing how two of them were
officers.”
    He nodded. “The ones you assaulted.”
    “ What?” she exclaimed. Had she heard
that wrong?
    “ You drew your gun on one of my men.
What were you thinking?”
    “ Look, Captain,” she said, feeling
anger rise to where it would soon cause her to say something
unbecoming an officer. She pointed at the door to show him out.
“Take your grievances to my CO. It’s late and this is not the time
for this conversation. Or the place.”
    “ Last time I checked I’m the one who
says what it’s time for,” he said. “You pilots seem to think that
rank and file doesn’t matter out here. Well it does, Lieutenant. On
this mission your fucking arrogance will get you killed. So stand
at attention when addressing a superior.”
    Reluctantly, Nova complied.
    “ That’s better,” he said. “You’re new
here, Whiteside. You don’t know how this base is run. Pissing off
those men can be a very dangerous way to spend your time
here.”
    Nova said nothing. Beryl wasn’t here to get
her side of the story.
    He turned in the small space and perched on
the edge of her storage cabinet. “This place is hard on a man,” he
said. “Long deployments, hot weather, crap food, snipers, fucking
rebels using every trick never taught in basic