Lt. Leary, Commanding by David Drake
Lt. Leary, Commanding by David Drake
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
WHAT’S UP, DOCK?
“Tanais control to RCN vessel,” an agitated voice said after more than the normal lag for communications over a 70,000 mile separation. “We have no information regarding your arrival here. You are not approved for landing. I repeat, you are not approved for landing! You must land on Strymon and get authorization from the Fleet Office before you can land here. Tanais control over.”
Daniel Leary frowned, the expression of an RCN officer and Cinnabar nobleman who’d just been told what to do by wogs. “Tanais control, this is RCN, I repeat, RCN, vessel Princess Cecile,” Leary said. “Your response is not satisfactory. Be advised that I intend to dock my vessel at Tanais Base in accordance with Strymon’s treaty obligations to the Republic of Cinnabar. Over!”
His hand reached for a red button set into the material of the console. Before he touched it, General Quarters chimed through the corvette; Lt. Mon in the Battle Direction had been a hair quicker than his captain.
“RCN vessel, wait please,” said the controller. He sounded as though he was on the verge of a coronary or a nervous breakdown. “Please wait. Tanais out . . . ah, over.”
Daniel switched his display to a real-time image of Tanais. His ship’s course had already brought her within the forts’ interlocking orbits. Tanais Base was a scrawl within the moon’s ice sheet, visible from diffracted light.
“RCS Princess Cecile, this is Tanais control,” said a new voice: male, forceful, very determined. “Return to the challenge point immediately and stay there until you have authorization to close. You are in a restricted area at a time of national emergency. Return to the challenge point or we will fire! Tanais over!”
Good God, there was a heavy battle squadron down there! Not in the base proper but on the ice on the side of Tanais which eternally faced Getica.
“Tanais Base, we’re withdrawing immediately!” Leary said as his fingers typed preset emergency codes. “I repeat, RCS Princess Cecile is withdrawing immedia—”
“Daniel,” said Adele’s voice over the intercom. She didn’t sound nervous but her tone was as joyless as a slaughterhouse. “Base Command has just ordered the forts to open fire on us.”
BAEN BOOKS by DAVID DRAKE
The RCN Series
With the Lightnings
Lt. Leary, Commanding
Hammer’s Slammers
The Tank Lords
Caught in the Crossfire
The Butcher’s Bill
The Sharp End
Independent Novels and Collections
The Dragon Lord
Birds of Prey
Northworld Trilogy
Redliners
Starline
All the Way to the Gallows
The Belisarius series:
(with Eric Flint)
An Oblique Approach
In the Heart of Darkness
Destiny’s Shield
Fortune’s Stroke
The Tide of Victory (forthcoming)
The General series:
(With S.M. Stirling)
The Forge
The Chosen
The Reformer
The Undesired Princess and The Enchanted Bunny
(with L. Sprague de Camp)
Lest Darkness Fall and To Bring the Light
(with L. Sprague de Camp)
Armageddon
(edited with Billie Sue Mosiman)
Foreign Legions (created by David Drake)
DEDICATION
To my webmaster, cybrarian Karen Zimmerman,
who wasn’t the model for Adele Mundy,
but might have been if I’d met her sooner.
(Of course, we’d have to work on her pistol shooting.)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I guess one could say “the usual suspects” by this point.
Mark L. Van Name and Allyn Vogel took care of the series of computer events. (Did you know that files can become cross-linked on your hard drive? Well, at any rate, they could on mine.)
Dan Breen continues in curmudgeonly excellence as my first reader. There could be no better person for insights and scholarship.
When I’m working, I take up a lot of room and am frequently less than cheerful. I’m working most of the time. My wife, Jo, sticks with me; I really appreciate the fact.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I’m using English and Metric weights and measures throughout Lt. Leary, Commanding, as I did in With the Lightnings. I wouldn’t bother mentioning this, but the decision seems to concern some people. I’m doing it for the same reason that I’m writing the novel in English instead of inventing a language for the characters of future millennia to speak.