Hammer and Crucible by Cameron Cooper (easy books to read txt) 📗

Lyth turned to her. “It couldn’t happen beyond the array, either.” His tone sounded as though he was anxious for her to believe him. “Not anymore.”

“Why not anymore?” I asked.

“Because you are here,” Lyth said simply.

“What, we outrank any other humans because we’re sitting in you?” Dalton asked.

“You outrank any other human orders, because that was what I was ordered to do,” Lyth said. “I was to imprint your voices and follow your instructions.”

“All of us?” Juliyana said. “How did this person even know where we would be? We didn’t know.”

“We knew for the eighteen hours we were in the hole,” I said. “None of this makes sense and right now I’m too hungry to care. So I repeat my original question, Dalton. Why is your crush status so weak?”

Dalton sat back against the high bench once more. “What do you care?” He closed his eyes.

“I care, because you’re on this ship and I have no idea where we’re heading—”

“Greater New Hamburg,” Lyth slid in.

“—or what will face us when we emerge from the gate,” I finished, with a hand palm up to Lyth, silently telling him to stow his comments. “If we have to dodge another carrier or, stars save us, a dreadnought, then you’re going to feel it.”

“Hell, Danny, I didn’t know you cared,” Dalton drawled.

“I care that you won’t be a bit of use to me in that situation, and that you’ll die before I have my answers.”

“Is there a medical AI on the ship, Lyth?” Juliyana asked him. She was phrasing her questions as if the Lyth appendage was not the ship itself. Hell, we were all referring to it as “him”.

“An up to date one,” I amended.

“The AI has been updated in the last fifteen seconds, since you made your first enquiry,” Lyth told Juliyana. “It has the sum total of human biology and medical knowledge at its disposal and is waiting to assess Gabriel, as soon as he is ready.”

Dalton opened his eyes. “I am not sick. I have no intention of being prodded.”

“There’s something wrong with you,” I said. “I want the active status of everyone on this ship before we emerge from the gates. I already know Juliyana’s.”

Dalton didn’t move. “You left the Rangers forty years ago, but you’re still giving orders.”

“Then consider it a request with imperatives attached,” I told him.

“This is my ship,” Dalton began, sitting up once more.

“I think Lyth would disagree with you.” Juliyana’s tone was serene. Her hand was beneath the table, out of sight.

“Actually,” Lyth said, his tone conciliatory, “Colonel Andela outranks you, Major Dalton.”

“And Lyth did call you a passenger,” I pointed out sweetly.

“He called all of us guests,” Dalton shot back, his long finger stabbing the tabletop, next to his untouched sandwich.

“He is taking my orders, and I outrank you,” I replied.

“He’s taking my orders, too,” Dalton growled. He looked at Lyth. “Right? The mystery man told you to follow our orders.”

Lyth nodded. “Only, someone must command the crew of the ship, and—”

“Now we’re crew?” Juliyana said, dismay on her face.

Lyth looked surprised, then upset. “Are you not crew? Will you…leave me?”

“Oh for crying out loud,” I breathed. “A heartbroken ship is the last thing we need. Lyth, snap out of it. Juliyana isn’t going anywhere for a while. Dalton, if you’re not going to eat that sandwich, push it here. Then shove your male ego out the airlock and go with Lyth. Submit to whatever diagnostics the medical AI deems necessary so you don’t keel over next time the ship yaws.”

He didn’t move.

“I mean it, Major. Move your ass,” I added, keeping my face immobile and giving away none of the tension in my gut. Juliyana was vibrating with the same wariness. Gabriel Dalton had been a brilliant soldier on the field of battle—smart and relentless. He would persist against overwhelming odds, never giving up. It was a quality which couldn’t be trained into soldiers and I had learned to spot it in soldiers under my command and foster their natural skills with enhanced training.

So Dalton was physically dangerous. I needed to clip his maverick streak right now. He’d spent forty years living outside a chain of command and had to get used to it once more.

Dalton opened his mouth to say something. By the tightness of his jaw and the heat in his eyes, he wasn’t about to salute me and obey.

“Don’t be a fool,” I raged at him. “If you haven’t figured it out already, this ship is something we’ve never seen before. It’s advanced well beyond anything even the Rangers have got. The medical AI has to be of the same caliber. Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of the resource?”

Dalton closed his mouth. His eyes still glinted with anger.

“I judge you’ve spent forty years running under assumed IDs, scrounging for a living,” I said. “You’ve learned to grasp opportunities as they swing by, or you would never have walked onto the Lythion. Don’t turn this chance away because you don’t like who is telling you to take it.”

I kept my gaze steady, drilling into his.

Dalton broke first. His gaze shifted from mine. “Makes sense,” he said gruffly. He shoved the plate of sandwich at me and got to his feet. “Come on, bot-boy. Show me where to go.”

Lyth glanced at Juliyana, clearly torn about leaving her company.

I rolled my eyes.

Then Lyth split himself in two and formed two three-quarter scale versions of himself. One stayed beside Juliyana. The other stepped in front of Dalton. “This way,” it told him and headed for the exit of the galley.

When the door shut, I dropped my fork and gave a great gusty sigh.

Juliyana considered me. “Guess you’re the captain then, Captain.” She put her knife on the table and turned her attention back to her meal.

“Danny will do,” I replied, as evenly as I could. I sighed. “And now my curry is cold.”

Lyth printed a fresh half portion of curry for me and recycled the