Read Odyssey One 5: Warrior King for Free Online

screen burst into blue, silver, and white light.
    “The Odysseus ,” Kian said with a twist of his lips. “Return our colors and signal my welcome to Captain Weston and his crew.”
    “Shall I transmit safe passage through the defenses?”
    Kian shook his head. “Confirm their challenge response with the admiral first. Procedure.”
    “Yes Captain.”
     
    ►►►
     
    AEV Odysseus , Ranquil Orbit
     
    ► “Who’s the pilot?” Eric asked as he walked the deck toward the intra-atmospheric shuttle.
    “Major McQuarrie, sir,” his aide, Lieutenant Lyssa Myriano, answered.
    “Don’t know him. Good?”
    “Marine aviator, decorated. He was never shot down over Beijing,” she replied, her tone slightly amused.
    Eric shot Lyssa an arch look. “Most lieutenants would be wary of tweaking their captain so casually.”
    “Yes sir,” she said primly.
    Eric smiled a little ruefully. “Good to have you with us on this one, Lyssa. When I saw you’d re-upped, I knew I wanted you on the Odysseus .”
    “Good to be here, sir.”
    The first time he’d met Lyssa had been in Central Park. It hadn’t really been a good time for either of them, as she had been an NYPD officer and he had been firing off a multikiloton alien weapon. Gun laws hadn’t been high on either of their minds at the time, however, and he was happy to have her in the service once more.
    We need every good hand we can get.
    A lot of good people had died during the Drasin event, which was hard to call an invasion considering the Drasin were almost more of a force of nature than an army. After the long battle was over, though, recruitment levels went through the roof. The Alliance Black Navy had far more people applying now than it had ships to crew.
    That was going to change, and soon. For now, the Heroics still had priority for crew selection—within reason—despite the higher demand across the fleet. Eric hadn’t hesitated when it came to selecting his crew, or his new aide.
    He and Lyssa stepped onto the shuttle, dropping into the heavily bolstered seats and strapping in tight.
    “Admiral Tanner is unassuming,” he said casually. “He comes across more like a grunt than an officer, right up until you see how his people treat him. Show respect, but don’t dance around. He’ll answer questions straight if you ask them straight.”
    “Yes sir,” Lyssa answered. “And the Elders?”
    “They’re . . . different.” Frankly, he didn’t know how to describe the likes of Elder Corusc. “Think . . . realistic pacifists,” he said finally. “ Very uninterested in conflict of any type, but not to the point of cultural suicide. Not sure how they’d deal with any threat below Drasin levels, honestly.”
    “That’s not comforting.”
    Eric shrugged as the turbines on the shuttle whined to life. “That’s the universe in which we live, Lieutenant. Deal with it.”
    “Yes sir.”
    They shifted as the shuttle was pulled out of its lockdown position and moved into the ready one slot for launch. Clearance took only a few moments. Then the turbines’ whine climbed to a roar as Eric and Lyssa were slammed to the side of their seats by acceleration as the shuttle flung itself out into the void.
     
    ►►►
     
    IBC Piar Cohn , Deep Black
     
    ► At maximum nonmilitary cruise, the Piar Cohn barreled through space at just over a thousand lights. That wasn’t the fastest speed in the Empire, but it was respectable, and in a pinch Aymes knew his ship could pull another two hundred without overly stressing the wave-generation system. More than that and there was a fair to good chance of them blowing something irreplaceable and never seeing home again.
    He was standing in the forward officers’ lounge, one of the few places on the ship that offered a “view,” such as it was. The thickly armored screens ahead of him were transparent, so he could look out at the visible moving stars, all blueshifted as the Cohn raced toward them.
    Occasionally,