Impulse by Dave Bara Page A

get.
    â€œWhat happened at Levant?” I asked.
    â€œIs this about the attack as a whole or about your girlfriend?” he said. I thought about that for a second.
    â€œBoth,” I said.
    â€œI’m under no obligation to tell you anything,” he snapped. I was ready with a response.
    â€œConsider it a courtesy that will help us to establish proper ‘boundaries,’” I said. He looked at me with disdain. Clearly this was a man who didn’t like being challenged. Nonetheless, he chose to reply.
    â€œYou saw your navy’s report, did you not?” he said.
    â€œI did.”
    â€œThen let me just say it was mostly accurate in its assessment,” he said. I waited for him to continue. When he didn’t I asked another question.
    â€œSo the displacement waves were generated by First Empire technology?”
    â€œUndoubtedly,” he responded. “And your government has good reason to be worried. This ship as it’s currently trimmed will have difficulty defeating that kind of defense. Zander is on a fool’s errand, and he may lose his ship in the process.”
    Now I wondered if I might have an ally after all. “If you were to intervene, or upgrade
Impulse
’s weapons and defensive capabilities—” I started. He quickly cut me off.
    â€œThere are limits, Commander, to what a Historian can do, let alone to what
I
am willing to do to save this ship. Now as to the matter of your secret orders—”
    This time I interrupted. “You know about that?” I said. He looked at me like I was a child.
    â€œWe gave you longwave and Lightship technology. Do you suppose that we don’t know how to use it in our own best interests?” he said. I had no answer to that. “It is possible, Mr. Cochrane, that your orders and my own
may
have some areas of overlapping interest. But don’t count on me for support. Am I clear?”
    â€œPerfectly,” I replied.
    â€œGood. One more thing to keep in mind.” His eyes bore down on me now. “You may have to be prepared to lose a battle to prevent a war, for the greater good. Even if it means disobeying direct orders from your commanding officers. Are you prepared for that?”
    It was the second time I’d been asked that question, and I didn’t like it any better this time than the first.
    â€œI’m prepared for that eventuality,” I said. Tralfane smiled. It was cold and cheerless.
    â€œThen I can see why your government picked you for this mission.” With that, the room went silent and our conversation appeared to be over. I started for the library door without another word.
    â€œDid you want to see the images of the attack on
Impulse
?” he said. That caught me by complete surprise. I half turned back to him and crossed my arms.
    â€œAre you trying to hurt me?” I asked. The Historian shook his head.
    â€œNo. I just thought you had a right to see it,” he said. I nodded and sat down at a reading terminal. After a few moments he brought up a video display. A chronometer ticked by in the lower right-hand corner. The video was grainy but detailed enough. It was undoubtedly from one of
Impulse
’s longscope cameras.
    I watched as a white-hot energy wave smothered a tiny shuttlecraft. It twisted and burned, tumbling out of control, tossed around like a dried leaf in the winter wind. Inside, twelve of my countrymen, one of them Lt. Natalie Decker, burned with the flame of a thousand suns unleashed upon them. The shuttle rolled on through space, second after agonizing second, until the tracking camera lost sight of it.
    Suddenly the visual display changed to show a camera view from the stern of
Impulse
, looking forward toward her baffle shields. Purple sprites rippled along the length of her body as her shielding kicked in, struggling to absorb the impact of the rogue wave. Ruptures opened along her leading edges and amidships, her Hoagland