The Last Charge (The Nameless War Trilogy Book 3) by Edmond Barrett Page A

didn’t pause. The ward wasn’t large – it didn’t need to be. The reality was that in space combat, it was easier to get killed than it was to get wounded. Those who ended up here were in many ways the lucky ones. Lewis paused at the door to remove his cap and knocked before entering. Stepping around the door, he sighed.
    “You’re supposed to be in bed,” he said in a mild tone that might have surprised some of his subordinates.
    “I was uncomfortable,” his wife replied, looking up from her reader. “Of course I’m not comfortable in this bloody chair either. Did you get everything?”
    “Believe it or not I can manage the odd task without my staff officers,” he replied, passing over the bag. “How are you feeling?”
    “Better. Over of the worse of it the doctors say,” Laura replied as she rummaged through the bag, while Lewis pulled up the room’s other chair.  “But then in the next breath they say God forbid I insist on acting healthily.”
    Until its destruction, Admiral Laura Lewis had been the commanding officer of Junction Station. During its evacuation she’d been subject to smoke inhalation and on return trip to Earth, a predatory infection had taken advantage of the damage to her lungs. By the time they reached their home world, she’d had to be stretchered off the ship.
    “While I don’t object to a visit,” Laura commented, “I do understand you have other things on your plate at the moment.”
    “The understatement of the century,” Lewis replied dryly. “Admiral Fengzi and his staff are testing a number of new tactical deployments and, frankly, I needed to get out for a while.”
    “You don’t have much faith in Fengzi?”
    “Not at the best of times and this is far from the best of times. I thought things were bad eighteen months ago. Now though – the problem appears intractable,” Lewis admitted. “We can assume they don’t have the strength to make a direct assault – if they did it wouldn’t have taken them a year to break through the Junction Line. But they don’t need to. They can cut us off from Saturn and once they do, then it is just a matter of time.”
    Lewis shrugged to emphasise his point.
    “The media is claiming that fuel convoys will be run in,” Laura said.
    “Which proves again why journalism is reserved for people without the skills to make it in the fast food industry,” he replied sourly. “With their Faster Than Light sensors and FTL transmitters, they’ll only have put out a picket around Earth and Saturn to be aware of any move we make in virtual real time. We on the other hand will be dealing with the lags inherent to light speed transmissions. So sending out anything less than the entire fleet to escort one of those convoy’s guarantees that the convoy will be intercepted and we will suffer defeat in detail…”
    “And if you send out the entire fleet, that will leave Earth exposed,” Laura finished.
    “General Westenlake of Planetary Defence has admitted that without the fleet, the best they can hope to achieve is to slow them a little, bleed them a bit, but not stop them.”
    Lewis stopped as he stared into space. Long used to him, his wife let the silence stretch out.
    “Has any progress been made?” she eventually asked.
    “A little. The lighter units operating out of Rosa and Hydra are continuing to strike at the enemy supply lines. So far the Nameless don’t appear to be willing to take the time to destroy either of those bases. Not that they need to.”
    “This is no time for defeatism, Paul!” she exclaimed. “God knows there’s enough of that going around already!”
    The intensity of Laura’s statement was offset by a sudden fit of coughing. He hurriedly passed her a glass of water.
    “The problem and solution are what they always have been,” Lewis said after a long silence. “The Nameless can engage with missiles from far beyond plasma cannon range. Plus, given that they can jump a good deal deeper into a