Free The Iron Admiral: Deception by Greta van Der Rol Page A

ship almost dwarfed the station. A similar vessel hung in orbit close by. The two ptorix battleships, both eight kilometers long from tip to stern, curved layers on top of each other, horn-like appendages and tentacles sweeping into space. In contrast to the Confederacy Fleet’s matte black, these
    ships sported swirling designs in deep purples and violets, the ptorix colors of anger and aggression.
    Allysha switched toProserpine’s visual log and found the exact moment when the ship transferred out of shift space well within the Qito Jossur system.
    Proserpinecame out fast. Jossur hung ahead, a blue-green ball streaked brown and white. The military space station blazed with light. She recognized two docked ships as frigates. One battleship was tethered
    on the far side of the station away from the planet. The second battleship drifted close by.
    Proserpinehurtled on, hardly slowing. Jossur grew rapidly larger. According to the Confederacy ship’s vector, she would pass the planet with the space station—and the planet—to starboard. The image showed the target; the battleship attached to the space station.
    The missiles launched. The ptorix battleship’s shields weren’t even up.Proserpine powered past. The images now came from-rear mounted sensors. The target ruptured. The second battleship had also been hit. Explosions bloomed soundlessly; one, two, three, four, five, six along the length of her hull. All of them were candles in comparison with the massive internal detonation that burst the space ship open.
    The
    one tethered to the space station seemed to be out of control, its vector altered by the force of the attack. The footage ended asProserpine transferred out of the system.
    Allysha’s head dropped. Saahren had told her the truth. But if this was the truth, everything she’d ever heard on Carnessa about the attack was false. One more test. Images could be altered, but the maintenance logs couldn’t lie. Allysha looked for the shift drive figures and the sub-light data. Dates and times and velocity.
     
    She didn’t know the details but what Erascu had told her made sense. How long hadProserpine and Intrepid been in the Qito Jossur system and at what speed? As a comparison, she found another trip whereProserpine had gone into orbit. He was right. Both ships had simply passed through the system.
    They hardly slowed down and beyond the planet, they moved to transfer back to shift space.
    Allysha’s mind whirled with questions. Okay, Saahren’s version of the events at Qito Jossur was true.
    But Xanthor himself had given a public lecture in Shernish, decrying the Confederacy Fleet for having bombarded a planet. Xanthor wouldn’t have lied. Not Xanthor. He’d been almost an uncle to her, all her
    life. She’d spent hours at his house, played with his children, learned about ptorix culture from him. Like her father had been, he was a professor at Shernish University, committed to developing better understanding between humans and ptorix. And yet, he must have either lied, or he’d been convinced in some way that the ptorix version of events was true. So many other questions nagged. Had Saahren really sent Anxhou’s son, Admiral Xendo, back home or had Xendo died in the fire-fight at Forenisi?
    More to the point, was Saahren’s attack on Jossur justified? He said the planet was a legitimate military target—but he would, wouldn’t he? Planetary bombardment or not, billions of Tors died along with her father. Maybe he even planned that the battleship would hit the space station and bring them both down on the planet, so it looked like an accident. And then there was the greater issue. The Tors said the citizens of Forenisi wanted to return to the Imperial fold, while the humans said they wanted to be part of the Confederacy. Even if she could find answers to all the questions, even if she accepted that her father had been a legitimate casualty of war, it didn’t really change anything.
    Saahren was