The Heart of Matter: Odyssey One Read Online Free Page A

teeth.
    As Eric was walking out, he received a signal over his induction set and took a moment to check his messages. A note from the admiral was waiting for his attention, requesting that he take a meeting with someone shortly. Without a name of whom he was supposed to meet, Weston was hardly pleased, but he wasn’t going to turn down an admiral, either. He accepted the meeting and left Roberts to his own personal hell. The Lord knew, Eric had resided there more than once in the past, so now it was someone else’s turn.

WASHINGTON, DC
    ▸“HAVE YOU BEEN out much since you arrived?” Stephen Michaels asked conversationally as he and Milla Chans walked down the crowded street.
    “No. Only very rarely,” she replied, her own musical language sounding odd as the English echo sounded through the induction set he wore on his jaw. “At first, there was much security, and then there was even more things to do.”
    Stephen nodded, deftly avoiding bumping into a man who was talking on a civilian comm with video capabilities. The man didn’t even notice the two of them as Stephen allowed the man to walk right through.
    Milla’s eyes followed him for a moment, but Stephen just shrugged.
    “Some boys shouldn’t have some toys,” Stephen said in mild irritation. “If I zoned out like that in my fighter, I’d have been dead years ago.”
    He knew Milla didn’t really understand the meaning behind the words, but found it endearing that she imitated his shrug as they continued walking. “This is a very…
busy
city.”
    Stephen smiled, noting the hesitance in her words. “It’s pretty small compared to your cities, I know. But we like it—some of us, anyway.”
    “It seems to have so many people, but I was told that there are only a few million?”
    “Yeah, something like that.” Stephen shrugged, then frowned slightly. “I’m not really certain how many though—course, DC’s not my hometown.”
    “Where are you from, then?” Milla asked.
    “Small town down in West Virginia,” Stephen replied with a slight smile. “Haven’t been back there in…Well, I think it’s been over a decade now.”
    The last time he’d been home, the town was on its last legs, most of the wartime income from the labs that built the Archangels had dried up, and what had been a bit of a boom-town for a few years was reduced to an almost ghostlike atmosphere. People still lived there, of course, a few like his own family who had been there for generations and likely would be there for generations more, but so many buildings and homes had been abandoned and shuttered that it felt empty all the same.
    “You do not go home?” Milla’s curiosity turned to puzzlement.
    “Me and the folks don’t get along much,” he told her with a shrug. “And I’ve been pretty busy as well, so…”
    “Ah,” she replied in a tone that made it clear that she didn’t understand but wasn’t going to push.
    Stephen “Stephanos” Michaels just smiled softly for a moment, then pointed out the Washington Monument in the distance and guided his charge through the throng of people toward it.

NACS ODYSSEY

Earth Orbit
    ▸CHIEF PETTY OFFICER Rachel Corrin snorted as she watched the next shipment of equipment destined for the
Odyssey
’s stores come trundling off the shuttle at the behest of one of the automated loaders. Whoever was signing off on this mission wasn’t taking any chances with the stores. Where the
Odyssey
had left on her maiden voyage with a heavy inclination toward exploration, this time she was definitely packing heat.
    She RFIDed the crate with her reader, identifying the package as yet another preloaded high-velocity missile (HVM) magazine, and made certain that the loader had scanned the right information. That done, she just stepped aside as the trundling loader stomped off across the deck toward the ship’s magazines with its current payload.
    It could be worse
, she supposed. The fleet could use nukes or something equally