from the jails and slums of a dozen Empire worlds.
“Now, I’m sure that most of you can carry off that story — but not if you’re wearing a Fleet ident disk. Yes, I’ll give you my personal word that your ident disk will be returned. Believe me; I’m no happier than you about taking mine off. We’re sure to be searched at least once. So mine will be hidden with yours.”
Once again, Kas was impressed with the caliber of fleet personnel. Only half a dozen refused to enter the cold sleep cabinets, and were hurriedly replaced with other volunteers.
Kas was getting nervous. The last of the volunteers were being shunted into the cold sleep cabinets, liftoff was fast approaching. Kas still had no replacement for Bol Evers.
Provisioning was nearly complete and liftoff only twenty hours away when Kas was summoned to Starhopper ’s personnel lock. A youngish man lounged there, in the ill-fitting uniform of a Lieutenant Commander. As Kas approached, he straightened, and awarded Kas a sloppy salute. “You’d be Commodore Preslin, I’m thinkin’,” he drawled. “I’m Rom Reffel. Cap’n Froud sent me over.” He proffered an official envelope.
Kas looked him up and down, clamping down on his surging anger at the man’s casual manner. Rom was short, and powerfully built. His uniform was wrinkled and creased, as though just pulled from a suitcase. But it was clean and in good repair. He was clean shaven, and his hair neat and clean. Finally, Kas took the envelope. The note inside was handwritten, and signed “Froud.” “Commodore,” it began:
This will introduce Lieutenant Commander Rom Reffel, Empire Fleet Reserve. With you lifting soon, I thought it unwise to send his entire service record, but to summarize: Reffel was on active duty for some fifteen years, culminating in an assignment as Executive Officer of Ranger, a Destroyer. He resigned, and for the past five years has served as purser on an independent trader. He is familiar with rim space and a number of the independents. He is also unmilitary and insubordinate; but he’s the best we’re likely to get. His commission has been reactivated for this mission. Good luck.
Kas crumpled the note and again regarded the man. His anger was cooling, and he barked a laugh at himself. He was getting angry because a man who was supposed to pose as a civilian was acting unmilitary. “Come along, Rom,” he growled, and led him aboard.
After talking with Reffel, Kas was happier. The man might not be a book officer, but he certainly knew DIN class traders, and was familiar with quite a number of the independent systems.
Kas briefed Rom on the mission, and told him to change his uniform for a plain shipsuit.
Rom relaxed with a huge sigh. “I’ll tell ya, Skipper, when Cap’n Froud tol’ me I’d be posin’ as a civilian aboard a DIN class wi’ a fleet crew, I wasn’t too happy. Th’ Fleet ain’t much good at cloak ‘n dagger. If yer’ve an outie crew, and if this ship is any example, we’ve a chance. Long as your outies c’n resist marchin’ ‘n salutin’ ‘n all!”
Kas smiled. “I don’t know if they’ll ever be as unmilitary as you are, Rom, but they’re working on it.”
Rom returned Kas’ grin. “Yar, well, It’us the military folderol that run me out. Seems as soon as some people gets a little braid on ‘em, they turns inter parade ground sojers! Long as yer don’t ‘spect that from me, I can be good at m’job. Yer’ll see!”
Kas’s smile widened to a delighted grin. Their chances of pulling off the deception had just doubled. “We lift in just under twenty hours. Change out of that uniform, and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the crew. Most of our lading is complete, but you’ll want to look over the manifests and stowage yourself. Let me know if anything doesn’t look right, or just doesn’t ring true. Once we boost we’ll have three days to our first jump point to get things straightened out.”
Chapter 3
They lifted on schedule. Once the course to the jump point was laid in, the crew used the three days on inertial drive to begin the delicate process of getting acquainted. The others were taken a bit aback by Rom’s manner, but by the time they reached the jump point, most seemed comfortable with it. The always cheerful Gran Telker was even beginning to ape Rom’s casual manner.
Toj Kray seemed a bit perturbed by Rom’s manner, but since the chief engineer was so taciturn, the signs were subtle. Kas noticed that Rom seemed to have recognized Toj’s reaction, and was making an effort to thaw the husky Bulworther.
The introverted Edro Jans several times fled from Rom’s manner and wit; but Kas noticed that when the innerworlder wasn’t looking, Edro’s gaze was one of envy.
The only possible trouble point was Tera Fauss. Rom’s irreverent comments about the empire and the fleet and his casual manner seemed to constantly irritate her. Kas kept a close eye on her, and was unsurprised when she appeared at his cabin door six hours before jump.
Her face was red and she was quivering with anger. “Captain, I know this is an undercover mission,” she began, “but we shouldn’t have to tolerate that man’s lack of respect for the service!”
Kas didn’t have to ask who that man was. “I don’t see a problem, Tera. He’s acting like an innerworlder signing onto an outie trader would act. I suspect that he’s going to be the most convincing of us all.”
“But it’s not right,” she persisted in an urgent tone. “You may be right about him being convincing, but there’s no one here to convince. We’re all Fleet officers. It’s not right for him to be making jokes about the Empire and the Fleet.”
Kas shook his head. “You’re wrong, Tera. We can’t relax and fall back into fleet behaviors just because we’re between jumps. We’ve got to act our parts all the time, or we risk a slip. A slip could get us and those three hundred fifty people in the hold killed, and turn a battle cruiser loose on settled space.”
He shrugged. “I know how you feel. As an outie, I had to make sure that my military bearing was better than everyone else’s. I’ve stood ramrod straight and marched everywhere since I was in my teens. Trader captains don’t have a military bearing. I‘m having to learn to slump and stroll instead of marching. Rom is a terrible example of a Fleet officer. That’s why he’s perfect for this mission.”
Tera was unconvinced. “But… It’s not right!”
Kas sighed. “I’m afraid it is right, at least here and now. I wish all of us found it as easy as Rom does. Once we get back, he’ll go back to inactive status, and you won’t have to be concerned about his effect on the Fleet’s reputation. For now, I’d suggest you start trying to be as unmilitary as he is.”
Tera left in a huff, but when he next noticed her, she was watching Rom with a thoughtful expression.
As they approached their first jump point, Kas, Tera and Rom huddled over the nav comp to work out their course.
“We could make it there in nine very long jumps,” Tera announced. “But with the comps we’ve got, that introduces too much possibility for error. We don’t want to emerge from jump inside a star.”
Kas shuddered. “The shortest route takes us through three of the Glory’s systems.”
Rom nodded. “Yar. Y’don’t wanna do that. The Glory pickets all jump points with military ships manned by Swords of the Lord. Ever’ ship is searched from sensor array to drive tubes.”
Kas raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t think the Glory would have that much of a smuggling problem.”
Rom shrugged. “It ain’t smugglin’ they’re worried about, Skipper. Oh, they look for contraband, but mostly they’re searchin’ for anything heretical or blasphemous. You’d be surprised what they consider blasphemous. They burn blasphemers,” he added.
Kas shook his head and sighed. “All right. I’d already decided to avoid the Glory systems if possible.”
Between them, they mapped out a course that would take them to the Rekesh in twelve jumps. Only three of the jumps would be into Empire space though, and while they avoided the Glory, they would pass through systems belonging to six of the Independents, and two belonging to the Alliance.
Kas also had Rom look over Starhopper ’s papers for inconsistencies. There shouldn’t be any. There really was a Starhopper. She had been trading actively for almost a century, until she had the misfortune to blow an inertial drive coil at the edge of an empire system. She limped into port several months late. By the time her crew finished paying delivery penalties, there weren’t enough funds left to pay for repair. Empire Intelligence had covertly bought her for unpaid port fees. Some tinkering with serial numbers and Kas’ imitation Starhopper had genuine papers and a genuine history.
The only real risk came from the papers documenting Starhopper ’s charter by Farterra to recruit and transport 350 cold sleep colonists for a planet referred to as Turow’s World.
