Free Virtues of War by Bennett R. Coles Page B

times as chaff and flares roared from their launchers. Somebody behind him screamed.
    “Unknown vessel,” he repeated, “this is Terran Warship Eagle-One. Break off your approach or I will fire upon you.”
    A tiny voice at the back of his mind reminded him that a Hawk didn’t really rate being called a warship, and more importantly this research bird didn’t carry any weapons. Jack ignored it, activated his hunt controls, and swept into a diving attack vector, calculating when to release flares so he could hit the target as he passed. A hand grabbed the back of his seat. Helena pulled herself, wide-eyed and sweating, into Jack’s view.
    “What the hell are you doing?”
    Jack didn’t take his eyes off the target. “Unknown vessel came at us on a collision course, no response to hails, lit us up with possible fire-control radar. I’m warning him off.”
    Helena sputtered something incoherent. Jack looked at his flight controls and refined his timing for the flare launch. The enemy craft broke away suddenly and increased speed. Jack confirmed that it was heading away from
Neil Armstrong
and pulled back from his attack. It seemed like his bluff had worked, and since he didn’t actually have any weapons, there was no sense in pushing his luck.
    Helena was staring at him with something that looked almost like fear. It took her a long moment to find her voice.
    “What did you just do?”
    Jack didn’t bother repeating his previous tactical report. He sensed that Helena’s question was of a much larger nature.
    “Uhh, I defended the ship.”
    “Against what? That was a civilian craft you just buzzed.”
    This wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. “Actually, they buzzed us.”
    “Did they? Or were we just two ships crossing in the same area of space?”
    Jack considered, and realized with a sinking heart that he’d been too busy lamenting his reconstructed face to pay attention.
    “I don’t know,” he admitted, “but they shone a fire-control radar at us.”
    Helena’s face went blank for a moment. “How can you tell?”
    He pointed at the EM alarm. Helena’s eyes followed but she clearly didn’t understand. Amanda appeared on Jack’s other side, holding a bandage to her blood-matted hair.
    “The equipment’s zeroized from all the shaking,” she said. “It’s going to take a few hours to reset.”
    Helena smacked a hand against Jack’s seat. “
Dammit
.” She rubbed her eyes and exhaled slowly. “Okay, hot-shot, you’ve ruined the day’s work, caused injuries, and probably scared the hell out of some local. Take us back to the ship.”
    Jack obliged with a sinking heart, locking in on
Armstrong
’s beacon. He looked back to see if Amanda was all right, but she’d retreated to the very after end of the cabin. His flight controls, now at full power, showed the unknown craft still racing away at high speed, and as the adrenaline rush began to ease, he wondered just how badly he’d screwed up.
    * * *
    “I think you did exactly the right thing.”
    Jack looked up from his glass of water, surprised. Thomas Kane had listened silently during his entire recounting of the incident, moving from his seat only moments ago to collect some of the fresh dessert that had just been laid out by the cooks. He spoke over his shoulder.
    He took a sip, glancing around the wardroom to ensure Thomas was speaking to him.
    “Really?”
    “Absolutely.” His calm baritone voice was as reassuring as ever.
    “I figured I just flashed back to war-mode, and overreacted.”
    “Maybe.”
    “But that’s not so good when we’re in our home system, on a peaceful science mission.”
    Thomas strolled back from the duff table, a plate of dessert in each hand. “You did absolutely the right thing, Jack. Just in absolutely the wrong place.” His easy smile robbed the words of malice. “Terra’s been cleared of the last of the rebels, and the Fleet is camped out at the remaining jump gates, but things are still pretty