Well, this second book wasn’t as exciting as the first, but it certainly had its moments. I think we’re working with a bunch of geniuses who have been disguised as lowly engineers, pilots and one bridge officer who’s never stood a bridge watch yet! Either that, or these people are extremely lucky in most every situation they find themselves.
Last time we read about Lieutenant Cole Jackson, he was heading to some fancy hospital to have his injured eye looked at. It had been injured back on the *Freedom* and he’d never had a chance to get it really looked at until now. This time he was supposed to see a specialist that everyone thought could work miracles. Yet, for Cole, he couldn’t! Cole had sat through hours and days of excruciating pain while this supposed “expert” tried everything to repair his eye. And nothing worked.
So, Cole started feeling sorry for himself and all those he had lost when on the *Hood*. He resigned his commission and went to an apartment to see if he could drown all his troubles in alcohol. His best friend, Sergei also took the opportunity to do some teaching at a local college, but at least he was doing something other than wallow in self-pity! That was the situation until Sergei got a copy of the resignation letter Cole had sent to Colonel Osaka. Col. Osaka had definitely rejected the resignation and had ordered Sergei to get the young Captain to his office on the double. So, Sergei had rounded up most of the old crew and they had made plans.
It seems that Col. Osaka wasn’t done with the crew of the “Hood”. No matter what shape Cole Jackson was in, he was going to straighten out and continue on with his war efforts just like everyone else. Osaka didn’t care how many friends Cole had lost or the circumstances; only that the mission he had been assigned got accomplished. And blowing up the *Hood* after destroying an entire Coven fleet had been mission accomplished. Now Col. Osaka had another mission for the enterprising Lieutenant and his supremely capable crew.
So, Sergei with the help of several others, dragged Cole Jackson out of his disgusting apartment, got him presentable and pushed him into Col. Osaka’s office. There Osaka told Jackson that his part of the war was far from over and he didn’t really care how many people Jackson was responsible for dying because everyone in uniform had that responsibility. What Col. Osaka wanted was for Jackson to continue accomplishing his mission as assigned so they could have some chance of winning the war against the Coven.
Col. Osaka gave Lieutenant Cole Jackson another mission. He was to take the remnants of his “Hood” crew along with some engineering students of his choice and get to an orbital station on Raziel Prime. There he was to begin putting back together various derelict starships that had been gathered in this fleet junkyard! Earth was loosing the war with the Coven and they were down to very few fighting starships. Osaka recognized what Jackson crew had done to get the *Hood* in fighting shape, barely, so he wanted more of the same kind of miracles. Raziel Prime was far behind the battlefront so there shouldn’t be any possibility of him and his crew running into a Coven fleet. Cole thought about this mission and figure that he and his crew could handle it and it might not also get everyone killed. He didn’t know if he could go through that again.
So, he gathered his crew and headed to Luna base for transport to Raziel Prime. That’s when everything started going wrong. Their original transport was supposed to be a dreadnaught, the *Resolute*, but while they were trying to get aboard, all the military vessels suddenly undocked from the station and headed out for some emergency reason. Lots of people were stranded including Cole Jackson and his crew. So, they had to find something else.
That something else turned out to be an old, very old training frigate called the *Farragut*. It had been used to train crews a long time ago and should have been mothballed and placed in storage by now. Yet here it was and it had a sunlight engine but no crew to work her. Still, Cole sent Sergei and his engineers aboard to see if it could get them to Raziel Prime and if so, to make ready to depart. This ship was small. The engineering room was just behind the bridge and the bridge wasn’t much more than a large closet. The only other problem is they didn’t have a pilot to fly this ship.
The task of finding a pilot when to Yeoman Stewart, she had a way of doing things like no other. Sure enough, she found a pilot although she was a civilian. And then she wasn’t sure how Captain Cole Jackson was going to react to having this pilot. But, she brought the pilot onto the bridge. When Cole Jackson turned around, he almost fell out of his chair. Standing before him was Anne, the stubborn Lieutenant on the “Hood”, who had saved his life at the last moment. But, Yeoman Stuart quickly introduced Beth Harris, Lieutenant Anne Flarity’s twin sister!
So, yeah, things like this are going to happen throughout this book. It’s one miracle after another. Someone always comes up with a “plan” that will solve their current problem. It doesn’t matter how bad a situation they are in, someone or something is going to be done at exactly the right time to solve the problem. That’s why I believe that Captain Jackson and all his crew men and women are closet geniuses and no one knows it. Oh, some things don’t work out for everyone, a lot more of Cole’s crew are going to get killed, but he will accomplish most of his mission or at least gets to the point where he can start the mission, but he’s not going to do it from space. No, this book takes place mostly on Raziel Prime and there are Coven on the ground with them.
I don’t mind the way this book allows everything to work out for the good guys. That’s the way we all want things to work, but it doesn’t happen that way in real life. But, this book and this series is for entertainment and it does an excellent job of doing that. Book 3, “Trinity”, is now available on Amazon and I’m adding it to my reading list, but not going to read it right now. I need something else for a while.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==