The Mind Field by Blaze Ward

what triggered the Unification War.
    Javier wasn’t sure. He was kind of sketchy on that history anyway. After all, it was just about 650 years ago. And the Battle of A’Nacia was nearly 600 years ago, at the other end of the Unification War.
    The Shepherds had faded, down the centuries, until they were only a few small monasteries tucked in out of the way places that were too damned cold and frowned on gambling and drinking. Silly people didn’t understand what made human organizations successful.
    For luck, Javier touched the painting. He spun in place and scanned the hallway, correlating naval architecture with what he had learned in school.
    Skinsuits didn’t allow it, or he would have cracked his knuckles.
    “Right,” he said, mostly to Sykora. She and Ilan Yu were the only two looking at him, anyway. “Bridge at that end. Two cabins right behind it on one side, office and stores on the other. Wardroom and Rec room behind the hallway, most likely. Big engineering section back there.”
    “Recommendations?” Sykora asked. There was no doubt she was in charge here. None. Devil take the hindmost if you asked her.
    “We have power,” Javier replied. “Heat would be nice, and I want to see if the environmental system is up to handling a dozen people.” He smiled extra evil at Ilan. “You’ll get to practice on a very old system.”
    “Joy,” Ilan replied with a tired sarcasm. Still, it was his job, and he was pretty good at it over on Storm Gauntlet . This should be a much less complicated system to fix up.
    “Very good,” Sykora decided. “Drone first, then pathfinders, then me. Civilians behind that and one guarding the rear.”
    Javier shrugged, pretty sure he and Ilan were the civilians. Still, let the gun bunnies absorb any incoming fire. Better that way. He pushed a button and let Suvi take point. She would protect him better than Sykora. She’d already proven that.
    So he ambled along. Sykora’s Skinsuit just emphasized how nice her butt was. He could follow her around, pretending to pay attention to the remote, while Suvi was actually doing all the work. Too bad the rest of the Dragoon was so much less fun.
    The words on the door didn’t really catch his attention. It was just another one of the side doors headed back to engineering. There were a lot of them. Turned out the ship was a little longer than he had expected. Or had smaller rooms.
    After a beat, his brain clicked. Cryonics Lab .
    “Oh, crap,” he whispered, forgetting that he was arm’s length from a keyed–up, heavily–armed lunatic.
    She spun in place and drew her pistol in one motion, even before he could say anything to stop her.
    Next thing he knew, she had it pointed between him and Ilan, safety off, prepared to unleash complete mayhem. Or what she probably called Tuesday.
    “What?” she whispered hard at him. There was nobody to shoot. She sounded disappointed.
    Rather than speak, Javier stuck out one hand and touched the little brass plate next to the door. He tapped it twice for emphasis.
    “You don’t suppose…” He let the rest of the sentence trail off into the surf of its own accord.
    “How old did you say this ship was?” she asked, standing a little more erect and holstering the weapon. She was no longer eye level with him.
    He looked up and shrugged. “The design dates back about five centuries or so. I’d have to look at the deck plate on the bridge for her actual keel date.”
    He thought about it for a few seconds. “Really freaking long ago.”
    She looked at him hard. Javier nearly jumped in surprise when she shrugged back at him. “Anyone in there isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. Let’s get engineering ship–shape.”
    Hopefully, she wasn’t relaxing around him. He’d have to do something stupid, or personal, or both, if that happened. Little miss amazon ramrod never relaxed. He would bet money she slept at attention, although he had no intention of ever finding out.
    “Move it,