Read No Way to Start a War (TCOTU, Book 2) (This Corner of the Universe) for Free Online

Durmont lamented. 
“Strangest citation I’ve ever read.”
    “His
dad must be an admiral,” Moore theorized.
    Durmont
shook his head.  “No, Heskan’s file lists his father as a machinist on Dione
before he died.”  Durmont pointedly ensured that he knew who the parents of
each of his subordinates were.  He believed attention to these types of details
helped maintain the trajectory of his career.
    “Then
why would they decorate him after Derringer?” Moore wondered.  “You said he got
banished to a desk job after its return and BPC doesn’t pull a ship out of
service and scatter its crew to the four winds after a successful mission.” 
After a moment of silence, Moore cocked her head slightly and asked, “Do you
know what Derringer was doing anyway?”
    “No,
but the rumors are rampant.  That part of Heskan’s record was redacted and the
decoration only mentions them as couriers.”  Still facing away, Durmont brought
his hands to his waist to close around Moore’s.  “You know he’s going to screw
up again.  I can’t let Heskan take me down with him.”
    “I’ll
protect you, darling,” Moore cooed.
    Durmont turned inside
Moore’s arms and embraced her.  “I don’t know what I’d do without you, love.”
    *  *  *
    When
the briefing room door closed behind Heskan and Gary, they both excused their
escorts and walked back to Bulwark’s shuttle bay together.
    Gary’s
face twisted in rage as she squared her shoulders toward Heskan.  “You weren’t
a DG, Lieutenant!  What could you possibly know about combat?” she
mocked as she pointed to the Silver Star ribbon on Heskan’s chest.
    “Don’t
let him get to you, Kelly.  We have some more time to get through to him before
there’s cause for alarm,” Heskan offered.
    She
snorted and replied, “Well, I don’t mean to be an alarmist but we’re all going
to die if we go into battle with that idiot in charge.”  Gary folded her arms
across her chest and added, “It’s bad enough to be under someone so caustic but
what’s worse is he’s thinking in old school ways and the carriers won’t be
fighting like that.  Look at what fighting according to the book has got the
Republic so far.”  She uncrossed her arms and extended the index finger on her
right hand.  “One, we were annihilated at Anesidora.”  She extended a second
finger.  “Two, our offensive at Carpo was stopped cold.”  A third finger. 
“And, Three, we got pushed out of Themisto.”
    “Yeah,”
Heskan agreed.  “Well, maybe our exercises with the task group will show
Durmont the error of his ways.  I can’t see Admiral Hayes sitting on his hands
if his carriers keep getting crushed because of poor missile defense.”
    Gary
brought her hands up to her face and then ran her fingers through her hair.  “I
hope so.  God, I hate it when I get this way.  Just too much stress lately. 
Between Durmont’s screaming, Aspis’ systems constantly breaking, and my crew
of, like, six people to get everything done, it’s enough to make a girl drown
herself in sand soup.”
    “I
still have no idea how you ate that stuff, Kelly,” Heskan chided.
    “The
same way you tolerate briefings with Durmont.  You drink heavily in between
each dose.”

Chapter 4
    As Kite neared the Titan tunnel point in the Anthe system, Heskan sat in his command
chair and silently relived events six hours past and 31 lm (light-minutes)
behind him.  The squadron had completed Durmont’s exercise with mostly expected
results.  The CortRon had faced a determined simulated missile attack and,
while it was defending itself, was “surprised” by a second attack from a
different direction.  Durmont’s “inspired” maneuvering from square to staggered
square formation allowed the escort squadron to successfully defend the computer-generated
capital ships under its protection but it had suffered the loss of Gary’s ship
near the end of the exercise.  Aspis had fought well but had