The Starkahn of Rhada Read Online Free Page B

thousandth of an ampere. But it is there. The readout indicates some sort of life-support system. Not more than one meter by two meters. Very sophisticated. And it seems totally independent of the main power sources aboard and distinct from the positronics.”
    I had the squeamish feeling that Ariane was describing some sort of coffin, and I was about to comment when the ship’s rotation slowly brought into view an open portal.
    The nebular glow painted the nightside of the hull with a vague, silvery light. But the portal was distinct: a darker darkness against the black bulk of the ship. I raised the magnification of the walls and zoomed in on the opening. It was exactly that, an opening. No hatch, no airlock--just an open hole.
    “Probe that, Ariane,” I said anxiously.
    “It’s just what it appears to be, Kier. An ingress-egress port. Completely open to space.”
    Now I knew (if I had ever doubted it) that I should chart the derelict’s position and make for CB-20 at Ariane’s best speed. But that open portal drew me. I was, after all, twenty and the Starkahn of Rhada, and I lived in an age that offered little in the way of opportunities for grand gestures and gallantry. Bookish I was, but I was the descendant of warrior star kings and the son of a Great Vegan noblewoman. Personal bravery was expected of me.
    What I planned now was not bravery, of course. It was sheer folly--and Ariane said so.
    “You can’t be serious,” she said, sounding very feminine. “You simply can not be serious.”
    “I am,” I said, trying to sound masterful and commanding.
    “I won’t permit it,” she declared.
    I drew a deep breath, nerved myself, and said, “I am in command.” It was quite true. Ariane’s fleet rank was ensign, a single sunburst to my two as a sublieutenant. This was not always the case. In several of the Survey teams, the cyborg held the higher rank. Ariane had to defer to me. But as a free citizen of the Empire, she had the right to enter her protests on the log tapes. This was a privilege she exercised often, and she did it now.
    “I am making a copy for the Lady Nora, as well,” she said threateningly.
    “We’ll see about that,” I said hotly. ‘Those tapes are classified as of now.”
    “Protest,” Ariane said sharply.
    “Noted,” I said, tight-lipped. Probably if Ariane hadn’t threatened to “tell my mother on me,” I might have reconsidered. There was actually very little I could accomplish by boarding the derelict, and sober second thoughts about penetrating that grim and enigmatic monster were chilling my desire for glory. But there was no turning back now. “It is decided,” I said.
    I could feel the computer working again. She was probably searching Fleet regulations for some way to prevent me going EV in a tactically questionable situation. But there would be nothing. The Grand Fleet still operated on the regulations and Noble Code written when the military took over the starships from the Order of Navigators. My single sunburst advantage in rank made me warleader, lord, king and master of our little two-person ecology.
    “There’s nothing in the Regs, is there?” I asked.
    “No,” Ariane said.
    “So?”
    “Very well, Starkahn,” she said. She was sulking, no doubt of it.
    “Take us in to one kilometer while I suit up,” I said, feeling masterful and vindicated: a true descendant of Kier the Rebel.
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    The legends say that there were those among the great of the Golden Age who determined to cleanse the race of all foulness, and to this purpose sent into darkness millions: some guilty, some innocent, all embittered.
    The legends say this, and so do the Warls. But of my own knowledge, I cannot tell whether or not this monstrous tale is true.
    Nav (Bishop) Julianus Mullerium,
Anticlericalism in the Age of the Star Kings, middle Second Stellar Empire period
     
    Before the founding of our Order, there was undoubtedly great glory. What was lacking was