Read Daring for Free Online Page B

room fell even more silent.
    Somewhere, someone broke it. “I told you we were crazy to follow one of those damn Longknifes.”
    Kris let a wry chuckle sweep the room before going on.
    â€œI would draw your attention to the U.S. contingent. PatRon 10. They are converted and armed merchant ships. Corvettes, folks. Small, fast, and loaded with sensors. They’re good at poking their noses into things and getting out fast.
    â€œThat, folks, is our mission. We will scout far, scout well, and run like bats out of hell. Our job is to see and report back. Nothing else.”
    Kris paused to let that sink in. “I can’t help but notice that for some reason, you have brought battleships. I know it feels good to be backed up by muscle and they are good in a fight.”
    That brought proud smiles from the battleship sailors among them.
    â€œBut you Big Boys are slow and very conspicuous. I do not intend to start or allow myself to get involved in a fight,” Kris snapped, and the smiles got swallowed.
    â€œWe are going out there to see, identify, and run back. You remember that old saying. ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ Forget it. Our goal is, We came, we saw, we ran like hell away.”
    That got a laugh, which grew louder when some wag was heard to exclaim, “Who is this strange woman, and what have they done with Kris Longknife?”
    Kris waited a moment for things to quiet down to a dull roar before saying, “Just so long as we understand ourselves.” Then she began to outline all the boring details that needed to be covered before they departed on their voyage of discovery.

6
    â€œThat’s Santa Maria’s star field. We made it,” Nelly announced. Only then did Kris and everyone in her Tac Center start breathing again.
    Grampa Ray had strongly encouraged Kris to take the twoweek-long, dozen-jump route to Santa Maria. Since he didn’t actually make it an order, she’d chosen to lead her fleet through the wild, two-jump route that had first accidentally taken Grampa Ray to the lost colony of Santa Maria. That sabotaged jump had been intended to kill him and everyone on the ship carrying him.
    Instead, he’d discovered a couple of million lost humans and the first map of the jump-point system.
    â€œLongknifes aren’t easy to kill” was Grampa’s usual ending to that story.
    Kris watched as the jump point rapidly coughed out more ships. Once through, each ship dampened its spin to a steady course but did not slow down. When the count reached twenty-two ships, Kris finally relaxed. For a recon mission best done by a scurrying mouse, this fleet was rapidly becoming very much like an elephant.
    Just how much of a zoo it would end up remained to be seen.
    A day’s trip sunward was Santa Maria’s inhabited planet. On any normal cruise, Kris should go there, if for no other reason than to pay her respects to Tommy Lien’s folks. Tommy had been her first friend in the Navy. She hadn’t seen his parents since his wedding to Penny.
    Or his funeral three days later.
    Kris glanced at Penny; she was busy taking reports from each ship as it came through the jump. Penny had not mentioned Tommy in months.
    Kris would respect her silence.
    â€œWhere to next, Princess?” Captain Drago, the contract skipper of the Wasp , asked.
    â€œJump Point Beta,” Kris ordered. “See that we get there with the same velocity on the boat. Please have maintenance take a good look at the ship’s stabilization system.”
    â€œAlready doing it. Nothing wrong with it and I want it to stay that way.”
    The jump points built by the aliens two million years ago had opened space to humanity. Well, the Iteeche, too, and maybe someone else.
    That didn’t mean the jump-point system was without its problems. The jumps connected several stars, all of which could be accessed if you knew how and were willing to take the risks. What this meant