David Weber - A Rising Thunder

A Rising Thunder-ARC

David Weber

Advance Reader Copy

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BAEN BOOKS by DAVID WEBER

HONOR HARRINGTON:

On Basilisk Station

Honor Among Enemies

The Honor of the Queen

In Enemy Hands

The Short Victorious War

Echoes of Honor

Field of Dishonor

Ashes of Victory

Flag in Exile

War of Honor

At All Costs

Mission of Honor

HONORVERSE:

Crown of Slaves (with Eric Flint)

Torch of Freedom (with Eric Flint)

The Shadow of Saganami

Storm from the Shadows

EDITED BY DAVID WEBER:

More than Honor

Changer of Worlds

Worlds of Honor

The Service of the Sword

Mutineers' Moon

The Armageddon Inheritance

Heirs of Empire

Empire from the Ashes

In Fury Born

The Apocalypse Troll

The Excalibur Alternative

Bolos!

Old Soldiers

Oath of Swords

The War God's Own

Wind Rider's Oath

WITH STEVE WHITE:

Crusade

The Shiva Option

In Death Ground

Insurrection

The Stars At War

The Stars At War II

WITH ERIC FLINT:

1633

1634: The Baltic War

Torch of Freedom

WITH JOHN RINGO:

March Upcountry

March to the Sea

March to the Stars

We Few

WITH LINDA EVANS:

Hell's Gate

Hell Hath No Fury

A Rising Thunder

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.

Copyright 2012 by David Weber

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, NY 10471

www.baen.com

ISBN 13: 978-1-4516-3806-6

Cover art by David Mattingly

First printing, March 2012

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

March 1922 Post Diaspora

Id rather not go there, but if we have to, we might as well go all the way.

Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore

Chapter One

Get your goddamned ships the hell out of my space!

The burly, dark-haired man on Commander Pang Yau-paus com was red-faced and snarling, and Pang took a firm a grip on his own temper.

Im afraid thats not possible, Commodore Chalker, he replied as courteously as the circumstances permitted. My orders are to protect Manticoran vessels passing through this terminus on their way home to Manticoran space.

I dont give a damn about your orders, Commander! Commodore Jeremy Chalker spat back. His six destroyers were 2.4 million kilometerseight light-secondsfrom Pangs cruiser, and one might have thought it would be difficult to maintain a properly infuriated conversation over such a distance, especially with the delays light-speed transmissions built into its exchanges. Chalker seemed able to manage it quite handily, however. Youre in violation of my star systems sovereignty, youve evicted Solarian Astro Control personnel from their duty stations, and I want your ass gone!

Sir, its not my intention to violate anyones sovereignty, Pang replied, choosing to let the rather thornier question of the Solly traffic controllers lie. My sole interest at this time is the protection of the Star Empires merchant vessels.

Sixteen more seconds ticked past, and then

Shut your mouth, return control of this terminus to the personnel whose control stations youve illegally seized, and turn your ass around now, or I will by God open fire on the next fucking Manty freighter I see!

Pang Yau-paus normally mild brown eyes hardened, and he inhaled deeply.

Skipper, a quiet voice said.

The single word couldnt have been more respectful, yet it was edged with warning, and Pang hit the mute button and glanced at the smaller screen deployed from the base of his command chair. Lieutenant Commander Myra Sadowski, his executive officer looked back at him from it.

I know hes a pain in the ass, she continued in that same quiet voice, but were supposed to do this without making any more waves than we have to. If you hand this guy his head the way you want tothe way he deserves, for that matterI think it would probably come under the heading of at least a ripple or two.

Myra, Pang reflected, had a point. There was, however, a time and a place for everything. For that matter, the Admiralty hadnt sent Pang and HMS Onyx to the Nolan Terminus to let someone like Jeremy Chalker make that sort of threat.

No, they didnt, another corner of the commanders brain told him. At the same time, I dont suppose its too hard to understand why hes so pissed off. Not that it makes me like him any better.

At the moment, Onyx, her sister ship Smilodon, the Roland-class destroyer Tornado and the much older destroyer Othello were over six hundred and fifty light-years from the Manticore Binary System and barely two hundred light-years from the Sol System. It was not a particularly huge force to have wandering around so deep in increasingly hostile territory, as Pang was only too well aware. In fact, Nolan was a protectorate system of the Solarian League, and Chalker was an SLN officer, the senior Frontier Fleet officer present. He looked old for his rank, which suggested a certain lack of familial connections within the SLN, although he must have at least some influence to have ended up with the Nolan command. The systems proximity to the Nolan Terminus of the Nolan-Katharina Hyper Bridge was what had brought it to the Office of Frontier Securitys attention a hundred-odd T-years ago, and the local OFS and Frontier Fleet officers had been raking off a comfortable percentage of the terminus user fees ever since. Judging from the reaction of the SLN captain whod commanded the OFS-installed terminus traffic control staff when Pang ordered him to turn his control stations over to Manticoran personnel, another chunk of those fees had probably been finding its way into his pockets, as well. Precious little of that revenue had ended up in Nolan itself, at any rate.

Well, at least this time we can be pretty confident were not hurting some innocent third-party star systems revenue stream, he thought. And its not like were planning to keep the terminusjust now, anyway. Well give it back to them when Im sure weve gotten all our ships safely through it. And if someone like Chalker takes one in the bank account in the meantime, Im sure Ill be able to live with my regret somehow.

Of course, Pang never doubted that the rest of theSolarian League Navy was going to be just as infuriated as Chalker by Manticores arrogance in seizing control of Solarian-claimed termini even temporarily. What was going to happen when Lacon Two kicked in hardly bore thinking upon, although anyone who really thought not executing Lacon Two was going to make one bit of difference to the Sollies was probably smoking things he shouldnt.

Im not the one making the waves, he told Sadowski out loud, then glanced across Onyxs command deck at Lieutenant Commander Jack Frazier, his tactical officer.

I hope were not going to have any business for you, Guns, he said. If we do, I want to hold the damage to a minimum.

Youre thinking in terms of something more like what Admiral Gold Peak did at New Tuscany than what she did at Spindle, Sir?