Free Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Turmoil by Ryan Krauter Page A

request.
    "Captain
Sosus," came the brisk reply a second later.
    "It's the
Priman Commander," Loren began in a false deep voice, "I'd like to
surrender."
    "That's great
news," Cory replied cheerfully.  "Come on in so I can smack you
around first."  The door chirped and unlocked, sliding into the bulkhead
so Loren could enter.
    He found Cory at a
small desk on the outer bulkhead, the same one he'd spent so much time at.  She
looked up and smiled at him, then got up to greet him.
    "Love what
you've done with the place, Cory," Loren began with a smile as she
rearranged the two chairs in front of her desk and indicated Loren could take a
seat.  She sat across from him in the other chair and waited for him to
continue.
    "You dirtied up
the place pretty well, Loren," she said with a grin and she swept her gaze
over her quarters.  Actually, her and Merritt's quarters.  "I doubt you
got your deposit back."
    "I told them to
put it on my tab," Loren replied.  He heard some noise from the small
bathroom and looked at Cory.  "Merritt's around?"
    She nodded.
    "So how's the
honeymoon going?"
    "Well,"
she began with false exasperation, "we didn't get to see much, and then
there was this slave-driver of a captain who said we had to get back aboard
because the ship was leaving..."
    "Like you'd
allow yourself to be left out of a fight," Loren countered.
    "How well you
know me," Cory replied.  "Merritt's headed back to the hangar to get
the Vipers all checked out for action.  You know, now I can order him to do
things to me, uh, I mean for me, as both his CAG and his wife.  It's a
win-win."
    Loren made a
horrified face.  "I just got a partial visual of Merritt, and it will
haunt me forever, you know that."
    "I heard
that," called Merritt from through the bedroom, and a few seconds later he
emerged dressed in his flight suit.
    "I'm still
sending you the bill for my therapy," Loren said as he got up to shake
Merritt's outstretched hand.  He indicated the seat he'd just vacated, and
Merritt took it.  "In any case, I have something that will keep you two
busy for a while."  He retrieved a small data chip from one of the breast
pockets of his uniform and passed it to Cory.  "Overall, the government
down there is still quiet about its official position on this whole Priman
invasion mess, but before we left the surface the Lemurian military requested
some joint training exercises with us.  They have a half dozen destroyers
in-system, probably a generation or so behind our own Pulsar class, but it's
all they've ever needed for pirates and local criminals.  There's a few
squadrons of fighters as well, but they're all surface based, both on-planet
and on their moon.  That chip has all the data and some maneuvering
strategies.  I'd like you to get something put together for the fighters; the
Captain and I will be getting a plan together for their fleet."
    "So we don't
know if they're going to fight, surrender, or evac?" Merritt asked.
    "I'm really not
sure," Loren admitted.  "At this point, maybe a little of
everything.   Captain Elco put in a call to stage the transports Confed has
offered to a few hours' distance outside the system.  If people start asking to
leave, we can help them pretty quickly.  The hang-up is how much people can
take with them.  Anybody with a Galactic Bank account can get their money anywhere,
so personal wealth isn ’ t a
big problem, but of course people really can't take much in the way of material
possessions.  With the planet's population, we're looking at fifty round trips
for each full load of twenty transports.  About a two day round trip from here
to the planet we've been using to stage displaced persons, and we're talking
three months to evac the planet before accounting for private ships, space
liners, corporate cargo haulers, that sort of thing, which will help draw those
numbers down."
    "They'll never
make it," Merritt said softly.  "Where's this planet you were talking
about?"
    "Some rock