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Rising Thunder

David Weber
Chapters (35)
  1. Chapter One
  2. Chapter Two
  3. Chapter Three
  4. Chapter Four
  5. Chapter Five
  6. Chapter Six
  7. Chapter Seven
  8. Chapter Eight
  9. Chapter Nine
  10. Chapter Ten
  11. Chapter Eleven
  12. Chapter Twelve
  13. Chapter Thirteen
  14. Chapter Fourteen
  15. Chapter Fifteen
  16. Chapter Sixteen
  17. Chapter Seventeen
  18. Chapter Eighteen
  19. Chapter Nineteen
  20. Chapter Twenty
  21. Chapter Twenty-One
  22. Chapter Twenty-Two
  23. Chapter Twenty-Three
  24. Chapter Twenty-Four
  25. Chapter Twenty-Five
  26. Chapter Twenty-Six
  27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  28. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  29. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  30. Chapter Thirty
  31. Chapter Thirty-One
  32. Chapter Thirty-Two
  33. Chapter Thirty-Three
  34. Chapter Thirty-Four
  35. Chapter Thirty-Five

A Rising Thunder-ARC

David Weber

Advance Reader Copy

Unproofed

Baen

BAEN BOOKS by DAVID WEBER

HONOR HARRINGTON:

On Basilisk Station

Honor Among Enemies

The Honor of the Queen

In Enemy Hands

The Short Victorious War

Echoes of Honor

Field of Dishonor

Ashes of Victory

Flag in Exile

War of Honor

At All Costs

Mission of Honor

HONORVERSE:

Crown of Slaves (with Eric Flint)

Torch of Freedom (with Eric Flint)

The Shadow of Saganami

Storm from the Shadows

EDITED BY DAVID WEBER:

More than Honor

Changer of Worlds

Worlds of Honor

The Service of the Sword

Mutineers' Moon

The Armageddon Inheritance

Heirs of Empire

Empire from the Ashes

In Fury Born

The Apocalypse Troll

The Excalibur Alternative

Bolos!

Old Soldiers

Oath of Swords

The War God's Own

Wind Rider's Oath

WITH STEVE WHITE:

Crusade

The Shiva Option

In Death Ground

Insurrection

The Stars At War

The Stars At War II

WITH ERIC FLINT:

1633

1634: The Baltic War

Torch of Freedom

WITH JOHN RINGO:

March Upcountry

March to the Sea

March to the Stars

We Few

WITH LINDA EVANS:

Hell's Gate

Hell Hath No Fury

A Rising Thunder

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by David Weber

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN 13: 978-1-4516-3806-6

Cover art by David Mattingly

First printing, March 2012

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

March 1922 Post Diaspora

“I’d rather not go there, but if we have to, we might as well go all the way.”

—Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore

Chapter One

Chapter One

“Get your goddamned ships the hell out of my space!”

The burly, dark-haired man on Commander Pang Yau-pau’s com was red-faced and snarling, and Pang took a firm a grip on his own temper.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Commodore Chalker,” he replied as courteously as the circumstances permitted. “My orders are to protect Manticoran vessels passing through this terminus on their way home to Manticoran space.”

“I don’t give a damn about your ‘orders,’ Commander!” Commodore Jeremy Chalker spat back. His six destroyers were 2.4 million kilometers—eight light-seconds—from Pang’s cruiser, and one might have thought it would be difficult to maintain a properly infuriated conversation over such a distance, especially with the delays light-speed transmissions built into its exchanges. Chalker seemed able to manage it quite handily, however. “You’re in violation of my star system’s sovereignty, you’ve evicted Solarian Astro Control personnel from their duty stations, and I want your ass gone!”

“Sir, it’s not my intention to violate anyone’s sovereignty,” Pang replied, choosing to let the rather thornier question of the Solly traffic controllers lie. “My sole interest at this time is the protection of the Star Empire’s merchant vessels.”

Sixteen more seconds ticked past, and then—