Read Eagle (Jacob Hull) for Free Online

started to tighten his fingers into fists again. “His former commanding officer—along with several others—suggested the promotion. At least, they did so just before the majority of them resigned from their posts.”
    Leon sat back, a surprised expression clear on his face. “Captain Irving resigned? That’s a surprise to me. I would have thought the old fool would have…” He trailed off, apparently catching some hint of the frustration rising inside Jacob. “In any case, Isaac always did have a talent for sniffing out intrigue. He might be helpful to us, if we reached out to him.”
    Jacob shook his head. “Any effort I would make to contact Captain Bellworth is not welcome at this point. You know why that is.”
    An uncomfortable silence fell, filled with the memories of Laurie, Isaac’s wife, who had died at Tiredel under Jacob’s command. Then Al-shira spoke up. “At the same time, we do have things to worry about aside from this battle, Jacob.” She tapped a control and brought up an image of the stars along the border. “This message came in just a short while ago. It was routed through the Galahad to reach us, but they passed it on to Eagle once they saw the priority tags.”
    Jacob motioned for her to continue, and she pressed a button on her console. The image magnified to show a star system. It was labeled Al-Nasser, one of the border systems the Navy depended on to resupply its fleet. As Jacob watched the system move, a small flotilla of ships appeared at the very edge of the system. His breath caught when the ships were tagged with identification codes. “Oduran warships. How far did they get? What damage did they do?”
    Al-shira quieted his questions with a look, and they watched the Oduran vessels move inward, tracking along the course of a gigantic, fragile cargo freighter. The merchantman was armed, unlike the majority of its fellows, but the pair of missile launchers it carried was not going to be much help against five Hatchet -class frigates. It would be a massacre.
    The warships closed in on their targets, and then a pair of new vessels appeared nearby. The system tagged them as Defender -class destroyers, the version of Celostian warship that had eventually been modified into the Wolfhound and her fellows. Seeing their enemies already in system, both destroyers came about and accelerated. They would have a tough fight on their hands against five frigates at once, and Jacob could appreciate the bravery of those commanders.
    Yet the Odurans didn’t stick around to test the resolve of the Celostian craft. The moment the frigates saw the new arrivals, they came around on a new course and began to accelerate hard, leaving both the merchantman and the destroyers behind in their wake. None of the frigates paused until they riftjumped out of the system, abandoning whatever mission they had been given there.
    Jacob’s mind whirred while the image shut down. He looked over at Al-shira. “Did the destroyer commanders mention any transmissions from the Oduran ships? Did they demand surrender or ask for speaking terms?”
    “No.” Al-shira shook her head emphatically. “The frigates weren’t responding to signals. They didn’t send anything to the merchantman either. Commander Emmonds mentioned they might have been worried about being intercepted by other reinforcements.”
    Leon laughed. “I doubt it. In fact, I’d lay odds that if any other type of warship had jumped into the system, those ships would have fought.”
    Al-shira raised an eyebrow at the other officer. “Why? Since when did a couple of outdated destroyers frighten anyone?”
    “Since those destroyers look like the newest engine of death the Celostians have put out.” Leon’s smile grew a bit more gloating. “They must have thought a couple of Hunter -class ships had jumped in. The Odurans are still pretty spooked by what we managed at Tiredel, from the looks of this recording.”
    Jacob chuckled along with Leon. He’d