Read Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet for Free Online

for which someone was unaccounted. For a miracle even after a recount nobody was absent and unaccounted for. Gordon was disposed to believe them after a second count.
    The captain of the Retribution, Aristotle, may have sensed his apprehensions. "We have all hands aboard ," he confirmed. "Not all are ready for immediate duty. My XO, Napoleon, told me that the last shuttle was on close count to lift when a Derf trooper came staggering in with the last Hinth carried in his arms, too drunk to walk, and a Human in swimming trunks and black brassard riding his shoulders wearing the Hinth's mask, sound asleep. I seriously doubt any of that bunch will be worth a damn to do any duty this shift, but they are aboard . I'd give them all filter duties but I'd have to give it to all the Hinth to keep them together, the Derf wouldn't fit most places to access the filters, and the Human has vital duties I shouldn't take him from. But by your leave I decided it was too much trouble to get all worked up about it, they won't have opportunity to repeat the behavior underway, and I would prefer not to take official notice."
    "I'm encouraged you have enough command wisdom to know when a little selective blindness is appropriate. Good job and carry on," Gordon told him. He could hear Lee behind him trying to stifle laughter with both hands. He applied a little selective deafness himself and ignored her.
    * * *
    The command ship, the High Hopes, had the bridges of all five ships tied in a tight little com net, nobody having a full tenth of a second lag to his signals.
    " High Hopes will depart orbit first," Gordon announced, "with The Champion William to follow, then Murphy's Law and the Retribution . Sharp Claws will bring up the rear. That will be our normal order until I find some reason to alter it. In deep space, beyond the frontier, I may send in the Sharp Claws first, as the fastest most nimble armed ship, before entering as a group. Unless I am really paranoid about a system, in which case I may even send in the fast courier Roadrunner, which would normally be carried grappled and unmanned on the Murphy's Law . It is unarmed, but nothing here can touch it for speed." The Roadrunner was unmanned, held in reserve and grappled on the Retribution because it was far too small to force somebody to endure a long voyage in it by choice.
    "We shall transition in sequence this first jump to a known system, Survey System 2723. It has no particular navigational hazards. Each ship will transit at thirty second intervals, spaced a hundred kilometers laterally. After comparing notes and transit clock settings we'll jump to our last surveyed point, Survey System 2754. It has a gas giant and a few minor navigational hazards to anyone going deep in system. However, we shall transit the fringes of 2754 and exit to our first uncharted system."
    "That exit will be our first exercise in coordinated jumps. We'll do so with the same physical spread for safety during training, but making every effort to exit and arrive within the microsecond of each other. Any time you need a quick answer on jump coordination you may bypass me and inquire of my navigator Brownie directly. Eventually I expect us to have the capability to jump together within a kilometer of each other, even if for some reason one or more of us has a speed differential. Emerging together as one radiant point in a new system masks our numbers and size. The military does this all the time, there is no reason we can't do so with the same nine nines probability of arrival a standard jump demands. I am having Brownie ping your clocks and starting our run. See you on the other side."
    "Ready," was all Captain Priceless Fenton of The Campion William had to say.
    "The military does it two ships at a time and counts it a damn hot piece of piloting!" The navigator Parsimony Cho on the Murphy's Law noted to his Captain Precocious Henry. "Does Gordon really intend to have all five of us jump in a bloody fur ball