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Chelsea Handler Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (epub
Brit Brinson [Dia of the Dead Dia of the Dead (epub)
Cody Goodfellow [Radiant Dawn Radiant Dawn (epub)
Cate Tiernan [Immortal Belove Immortal Beloved (epub)
C J Busby [Deep Amber 01] Deep Amber (retail) (epub)
Carl Ashmore [Time Hunters 01 The Time Hunters (epub)
Drew Hayes [Super Powereds 02 Super Powereds Year 2 (epub) i
Beth Harbison [Shoe Addict 02 Secrets of a Shoe Addict (epub)
Cara Lynn Shultz [Dark World The Dark World (retail) (epub)
Change Of Mind Robert Reed

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.“Now that that’s over,” said the Monarch, handing the Sword of State to one of his knights, among several here as witnesses, “we can get on to the next piece of business.”This time Sean knelt, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling a small box from it.He opened the box, revealing a ring set with perfect diamonds and emeralds.“Duchess Coventry,” he said, taking her right hand in his left.“Will you marry me?”“I’m not sure,” she said with a mischievous smile.“This Duchess thing may suit me better.” She laughed a bit at the expression on Sean’s face.“Of course I’ll marry you, you dolt.”“She is already learning how to act like a wife,” said the Prime Minister, Countess Haruko Kawasaki, and the entire room erupted in laughter.Sean slid the ring on her finger, then stood up and led the way to the doors to the chamber, and the waiting press.This was the part Jennifer was not looking forward to.At least they had not been permitted into the chamber during the ceremony.Only high government officials and personal friends of the Emperor had been allowed to attend.She took a last look at the people in the room, a smile coming to her lips as she saw Cornelius’ wife, Devera, and his adopted daughter, Rebecca.Cornelius, newly knighted, was too busy with Officer Candidate School for something this minor to interrupt.And then they were through the doors, among the scores of floating cameras that followed their every move.Newsies were in their faces, asking questions, some more personal than Jennifer wanted to answer.Five minutes, she thought.That’s what Sean had promised would be the limit.The killer question came before the end of minute three.“Do you really think, with your common genetics, that you can give the Emperor an appropriate heir?” asked the woman with the disapproving expression.The tag on her blouse said she was a reporter for a local Capitulum news syndicate, which sent their reports to hundreds of out of system outlets.Jennifer felt the tears coming, and Sean stepped in front of her and glared at the reporter.“The interviews are over,” he said with a forceful manner.“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.My press secretary will answer any further questions.”Sean put a hand on her arm and led her through the crowd of reporters, who had parted like a sea before the Imperial Secret Service agents who moved them.Jennifer found herself on a comfortable old couch in a sitting room, sobbing, not really sure how she had gotten there.Sean sat next to her, holding her in his arms.She drew in a breath and looked into the face of the man she loved.“There’s the rub, your Majesty,” she said, sorry immediately for using that term as she saw her lover wince.“I will never be acceptable to the people.Nor will any heir I produce.”“You let me worry about that,” said the Emperor, holding her tight.“There are ways around the genetics.We can have the child engineered to have all the Imperial genes.”“But will it be mine?” asked the young women, hanging her head.She knew there was no answer to that question, and she was grateful that Sean didn’t try to provide one they both would know for a lie.* * *Sean looked at the ship in the viewer with growing excitement as the shuttle made its approach.He could have walked aboard through one of the ship’s wormhole gates, the one that was configured as a passenger portal while the vessel was not prepared for combat.But it’s such a good view coming in from the outside, he thought, marveling at the vessel that would be his flagship for the coming campaigns.“She looks different,” said the Emperor, zooming the viewer in on the ship.“The Bureau of Ships decided to make a few changes on the craft,” said Captain Javier Montoya, the commander of the Dreadnought.“It added some mass to her, and now she tops out at twenty-seven million tons.”“Making her the largest warship in human space, including those of our enemy,” said Sean after a moment’s thought.Dreadnought seems like such an awkward term, though.If I remember my history correctly, Dreadnoughts came before the big battleships of the twentieth century Earth fleets.But then again, super duper battleship sounds kind of awkward as well.So what in the hell do we call the next bigger class of ships.That would not be a problem for quite some time, but there were sure to be bigger, more powerful ships coming out of the yards of all the major powers before this war was over.If we make it to that point.Barely visible on the viewer behind the massive ship were four more just like her, all that would be available for this operation.There would be more coming out of the yards, but the completion date for the next five was six months in the future.He put that thought out of his mind and concentrated on the toys he had to play with now.“When will the skins be deployed?” he asked the Captain as he looked at the ship to his front.The shuttle started to loop up over the Augustine I, the first of her name.Sean made note of the six laser rings, two more than carried by a regular battleship, each with thirty percent more power, giving her almost twice the light amp firepower of a fifteen million ton warship.He knew that there were six matter antimatter reactors onboard, each only seventy percent of the capacity of a battleship’s or superbattleship’s.Still, those six gave her two point one times the energy generation of a battleship, or one point one times the power profile per weight.And losing one reactor was not as big a deal as it was in the smaller ships, with their two units.“We hope to begin deployment by the end of the week,” said the Captain, a frown on his face.“I know, Captain,” said the Monarch, putting an arm around the man’s shoulder.“But think of the expression on the faces of the Cacas when they see what we have planned.”The Captain smiled at that, shaking his head.Sean knew it sounded like a mad scheme.But if it worked, it would go down as a stroke of genius.If not? Then Sean might find himself a figurehead or the rest of a very short war, if he survived.The hangar deck was also oversized.Maybe not in the same category as those on carriers.Still, the deck stretched ahead over two hundred and fifty meters, with a width of one hundred.And it was only one of eight aboard the ship, which also doubled as a strike carrier with forty-eight attack fighters aboard.The shuttle came through the cold plasma field and into the hangar that was completely empty, all of its vessels moved to others to make space for the receiving ceremony.As soon as the shuttle made it through the entrance the thick armored doors of the hangar started to close.Most times the doors would stay open while the ship was in port.The cold plasma shield was normally enough for safety.But not to the babysitters of my Imperial ass, thought Sean, watching the huge doors close behind the shuttle.The shuttle touched down with a light thump, just as the hangar doors closed with a vibration through the deck plates.Sean walked down the short ramp from the shuttle to deck, following the head of his Marine security detail, who was checking out everything on the deck of the hangar.My God, thought Sean, looking at the man [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]