by Ian Douglas
If they could train the pilots, the wrecked fighter squadrons might be replaced as well.
“You know,” Gray said slowly, “Koenig’s got to have something else up his sleeve. I can’t imagine him handing over command to Giraurd and meekly going home.”
“They say the Senate wants him to be president.”
“Yeah, they wanted that before and he turned them down cold. I wonder what the son of a bitch has in mind?”
Alexander Koenig, Gray knew, thought in layers upon hidden layers. Since his return to the carrier, Gray had heard dozens of rumors, some of it wild scuttlebutt, but some things . . .
Yeah, he’d heard the rumors about Giraurd taking over, of course, and that the fleet would be going home. There were rumors that a peace deal was in the works with the Sh’daar, rumors that the Turusch had surrendered, rumors that the enemy was massing near Earth, preparing to invade.
Gray didn’t believe any of that.
But he’d also heard from Donovan and Carstairs that Marines had boarded the radioactive hulk of Al–01 and discovered working Turusch computers and data cells, with information about Turusch bases and facilities across this entire stretch of the Milky Way galaxy.
Might that be true?
Something quickened inside.
Gray felt little allegiance to Earth, less to the Confederation. With a start, he realized that his loyalty lay with the battlegroup, with the America, and with CBG–18’s commander, Alexander Koenig.
He didn’t think the old man would be turning around and heading back to Earth anytime soon.
He would be headed outbound, deeper into a hostile galaxy, seeking to end the threat to Earth and Humankind’s way of life once and for all.
And Gray felt a rising surge of excitement, knowing that when the Star Carrier America boosted for deep and enemy-held space, he would be with her too, headed outbound.
Admiral’s Office, TC/USNA CVS America
Alphekka System
1450 hours, TFT
Admiral Koenig was not quite alone in his office. The electronic ghost of Karyn Mendelson was there as well. As always . . .
“It’s very pretty,” she said.
“It may be the single most important piece of intelligence we’ve gathered in this damned war,” Koenig replied. “We’ve been fighting blind until now.”
The projection glowed in the holo-display field above Koenig’s desk. It didn’t show the entire galaxy, but enough was there to show gleaming stardust from the ragged outer fringe of one spiral arm in to the densely packed core. A mental interface allowed him to single out stars and star groups and have them identified, to bring up regional and district capitals, to show the individual zones controlled by myriad alien star-faring species, to reveal their routes for trade and exploration.
It even showed the Sh’daar capital, a name shaped by Agletsch phonemes as Daar Sha’ng’lamyd.
It showed the Galactic Empire, or a part of it—a third, perhaps. The data had been recovered from the Turusch equivalent of a computer network on Al–01, converted to a format intelligible to human systems, and translated. The two Agletsch had earned their keep with that one; he still didn’t know if they were knowingly passing data on to the enemy, but they’d made up for it, big-time, by helping with the electronic conversion to something America’s AIs could work with.
“They’re calling it the Encyclopedia Galactica,” Koenig said. “After something in an old work of fiction about a galactic empire.”
“And how is this going to help us win a war?” Karyn asked. “For that matter, how is it going to keep Giraurd and the Senate off your back?”
“Knowledge is always power, Karyn.”
“Granted. And what this knowledge shows is just how many races and fleets and trillions of enemy soldiers there are out there, getting ready to bring us down. Alex . . . how are you going to take them on? . . .”
“It shows us, Karyn, where we’re going next.”
And the milky glow of the galaxy map illuminated his smile.
About the Author
IAN DOUGLAS is the author of the popular military SF series The Heritage Trilogy, The Legacy Trilogy, and The Inheritance Trilogy. A former naval corpsman, he lives in Pennsylvania.
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By Ian Douglas
Star Carrier
EARTH STRIKE
CENTER of GRAVITY
And the Galactic Marines Series
The Inheritance Trilogy
STAR STRIKE
GALACTIC CORPS
SEMPER HUMAN
The Legacy Trilogy
STAR CORPS
BATTLESPACE
STAR MARINES
The Heritage Trilogy
SEMPER Mars
LUNA MARINE
EUROPA STRIKE
Credits
Cover art by Gregory Bridges
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
CENTER OF GRAVITY. Copyright © 2011 by William H. Keith, Jr. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition March 2011 ISBN: 9780062064172
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