The Terran Privateer Read Online Free Page B

least a couple of years ago if Bowman hadn’t been an epic piece of scum,” he noted. “So, the offer is to bring you at full Captain, with seniority based on your years wearing the title for Nova Industries. Much the same for your people: everyone comes across at an equivalent rank to what they’ve been doing and with appropriate seniority.
    “You keep Tornado ,” he pointed out. “You get the full privileges and authority of her Captain, including veto right on the officers and crew we’ll need to fill in around the cadre you already have.”
    “And the rest of the Captains will treat me like something they’d scrape off their boot,” Bond replied. “You tried, Admiral, and it’s not a bad offer—but no, thanks.”
    “They won’t be able to,” Jean told her with an exasperated sigh. “You will command the single most powerful ship in the Space Force. A ship that could single-handedly destroy the entirety of the Space Force in an afternoon.
    “A ship we will be acquiring more of as fast as possible,” he continued. “Commands for those ships will be assigned based on experience with a brand-new class of vessels with completely different performance parameters.
    “Damn it, Bond, I’m handing you a chance to make those idiots obsolete and choose our next generation of Captains. I need to break that club as badly as you want to,” he pointed out, “or I’ll just leave this problem to the next Chief of Operations. I can’t micromanage who ends up on Tornado —but I trust you to pick men and women I’d be proud to pin oak leaves on.
    “What else can I offer you?” he asked.
    Finally, finally , he got a crack of a smile.
    “John Bowman’s head,” she noted. “But you gave me that already.” She shook her head. “All right, Admiral. I want your promise that you’ll back me to the hilt—I don’t trust your Captains.”
    “Some of them are actually decent people,” he pointed out. “But I promise. I’m not going to bring you back in and cut you off. If you take the eagle I’m promising, I’m behind you all the way.”
    “This ship will still need work,” she pointed out. “I don’t know how much of our…shortfalls Casimir has told you about.”
    “He basically told me you could fly and shoot,” the Admiral replied. “I was honestly surprised you had a conference room.”

Chapter 4
     
    “I’m sorry, Captain, but it will simply not be possible to meet your requests.”
    Annette leaned back in her chair and eyed the man sitting across from her with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Commodore Joseph Anderson was a heavyset man with tanned skin, and the current head of logistics for the United Earth Space Force.
    They both wore the dark blue service dress uniform of the United Earth Space Force, a general requirement aboard Earth’s military orbitals, but where Annette Bond now wore the silver eagle of a Space Force Captain, Anderson wore a single silver star of his senior rank.
    They’d last met when Captain Joseph Anderson had stood as Captain Bowman’s defensive character witness during Bowman’s trial. He’d made it very clear that day that he regarded Annette’s pursuit of her Captain as a betrayal of the Force.
    “Which part of my requests is a problem, sir?” she asked, keeping her voice level and cold. “Was it the supply of interface drive missiles that were specifically manufactured and delivered for Tornado ’s use? The seventh fusion power generator core that was also specifically built for Tornado , and whose absence means I have an open core installation in my engineering section?
    “Or was it the food and other logistical supplies standard for the commissioning loadout of any United Earth capital ship? Supplies you have known would be required since Tornado was brought into United Earth service a month ago?”
    The smirk remained constant.
    “All of these pose issues,” Anderson noted. “IDMs are a scarce resource in the Space Force right now. Other