Falcone Strike by Christopher Nuttall Page A

would probably satisfy the grown-ups in the Opposition. I wasn’t expecting the king to have his say.”
    Kat frowned. “They’re sending me on a dangerous mission,” she pointed out. The king had told her to keep their private conversation to herself, after all. “I don’t think it will be particularly safe .”
    Her father snorted. “Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not keen to take command again.”
    “I can’t,” Kat said. The orders had made it clear that Operation Knife would be dangerous, but she had no intention of refusing them. “And it will certainly look like I’ve been punished by being sent to a distant base, if the truth doesn’t leak out.”
    “It won’t,” her father said. “That armchair admiral might not be able to keep a secret if his life depended on it, but the Leader of the Opposition knows which side his bread is buttered on. As far as anyone will know, you’ve been sent to one of those bases where disgraced officers go to drink themselves to death.”
    “Yes, father,” Kat said.
    “I wasn’t expecting the king to join the conversation,” her father said, again. “And for him to exert his authority in such a manner . . . it’s odd, to say the least.”
    Kat nodded. “Maybe he thought I was in real trouble,” she said. “Or maybe he just doesn’t like anyone trying to push around one of his officers.”
    “Could be,” her father said. He sighed. “You’re a genuine war hero, Katherine, whether you recognize it or not. Having you here, drumming up support for the war, was always a good use of your talents. There are other starship commanders, but relatively few heroes .”
    “I could name a dozen others who deserve the Royal Lion without even trying,” Kat said sharply. “I’m not that special.”
    Her father looked her in the eye. “Our system was designed to handle one planet, one star system,” he said. “Expanding to include a number of other worlds, especially several that had different systems of government, was always going to put a strain on our society. Your XO, for example, might well have risen to command years ago if our system hadn’t been focused on aristocrats and those with powerful patrons. If we’d had time to adapt to the influx, we might well have coped admirably . . . but right now, we have to fight a war. That’s one of the reasons so many senior officers were prepared to throw you under the shuttlecraft. They really didn’t have time to fight another political battle.”
    Kat winced. “I’m sorry . . .”
    “So you should be,” her father said, shortly. He looked her in the eye. “We need this war to end soon, Katherine, and the only way we can end it is through victory. Eat your breakfast, then . . . good luck.”
    Kat nodded. Her father had never been given to emotional displays, not to her. She’d always been the youngest child, the baby of the family . . . and the one who saw her father the least. To see him now, to see him regularly, felt odd. She pushed the thought aside sharply. She’d chosen a career that ensured she would only see her family while she was on shore leave, if they happened to be on the same planet as she was. There was no point in mourning, now, over what she could never have had.
    Her father ate his breakfast in silence, then rose and left her alone. Kat felt strange, almost abandoned, in the giant dining hall; it was so empty, as now she was used to crowds. She finished her breakfast, collected her bag from her room, and walked down to the shuttlepad, halfwishing she’d had a chance to say good-bye to her mother before she left. But her mother was out, socializing, something she did every day. Kat shook her head, wondering just how someone could spend their lives in High Society without their brains turning to mush, then walked onto the shuttlepad and into the waiting shuttle.
    “Captain Falcone,” the shuttle pilot said. Her implants pinged, warning her they were being probed, her