Shades of Treason Read Online Free

engines, bulky weapons systems, and most importantly, bulky, outdated computer systems. The latter was the reason they’d pulled the ship out of a museum—a physical, dirt-anchored museum —and were retrofitting her for Star Dive. The war council had decided to send an old, brainless warship into the Sariceans’ territory so the enemy wouldn’t be able to ransack the systems of the Coalition’s newest, sleekest sentient-class ships.
    The plan would be called genius if it worked. If it didn’t work…
    Well, Rykus would most likely be dead if the plan failed. The war and the future of the Coalition would be someone else’s problem.
    He and Bayis walked past the loud clank, clank, clank of a spacer pounding a wall panel back into place; then they stepped into the Obsidian’s central lift. Gears ground as it fought the artificial gravity. Rykus glanced at the admiral, but Bayis kept his attention focused on the lift’s oil-smeared door.
    “You could always turn the gravity off,” Rykus suggested.
    Bayis’s eyebrows lowered a small, almost imperceptible fraction. He waited until the lift doors groaned open before he responded to Rykus’s comment. “I’ll be sure to tell the war chancellor you’re looking forward to meeting with him.”
    If Rykus hadn’t had a mother lode of responsibilities weighing him down, he might have laughed. Instead, he acknowledged Bayis’s victory with a nod that said point-to-you.
    They parted ways, and Rykus walked half the length of the ship—not a quick jaunt—before he stopped in the middle of a cross-corridor. He wanted to hole up in his quarters with Ash’s file, but if he did, he’d pass out. He hadn’t slept in well over twenty-four hours, not since he’d learned what Ash had done.
    What Ash had allegedly done.
    He needed a good shot of energy to make it through the rest of his shift. He could take the lift down to the Obsidian’s gym, work off some excess tension until he cleared his head, or he could pump himself full of caffeine in the officer mess hall. The noise and the conversation of the latter might be a good distraction, so he hooked a right turn at the cross-corridor —
    And nearly ran into a face from his past.

CHAPTER THREE
    “KATIE?” HE SAID, making her name a low rumble to disguise his surprise.
    “Commander Rykus.” She didn’t look at the curious spacers who glanced their way. He did. He glared until they continued on with their business, then he turned his attention back to the woman he’d almost married.
    “What are you doing here?” he asked. Then he noticed her med-sack and grimaced. The medical specialist from Caruth. She’d come on the war chancellor’s shuttle and was here to evaluate Ash. He should have been prepared for the possibility she would arrive.
    “I was summoned.” She kept her tone professionally neutral. Obviously, Katie had been prepared to see him.
    He dug through his memories for something to say, but they were buried beneath too many layers of numbers and tactics and training-sims. He couldn’t push the upcoming mission from his mind any more than he could push away Ash’s alleged betrayal.
    “I didn’t know you’d made medical specialist,” he said, settling on the first safe topic that came to mind.
    “I was promoted two years ago.” Katie smiled. It was a pretty smile, one any man would beg to see on her lips, but there was something hesitant about it too, something pensive.
    Had it been that long since he’d spoken to her? They’d separated—more accurately, Katie had left him—three weeks after Ash’s class of anomalies graduated. He’d been immersed in training and testing the two years they’d dated. He hadn’t had time to focus on a relationship that had been falling apart for months.
    “I should have called,” he said.
    “I wouldn’t have answered.”
    He took the punch without comment. He deserved it. Katie Monick was a beautiful woman. Intelligent. Compassionate. Passionate . He