A Grand Tour

Orloff displayed his hand with a great sigh of relief. 'A full house, jacks over fives,' he said. 'Which beats your busted flush, I'm afraid, Sir Hakon!'

'It's not a busted flush,' Nessler said. 'It's complete to the ten of spades. A straight flush to the ten, which beats a full house. My pot, I believe.'

'Holy Savior!' a Melungeon officer said, crossing herself. 'He's right!'

Orloff's face went from red to a white as pale as if he'd been heart-shot. 'But I thought…' he gasped. He raised the top card on the deck. It was the jack of diamonds which he'd thought was in Nessler's hand.

Nessler stood up and stretched lithely. He didn't look drunk, or young, or foolish, any more. Mincio walked toward the card players, her face calm.

'I don't intend to break the game up now that I'm ahead,' Nessler said mildly. 'I'll give you a chance to win your money back, of course. But first we'll settle this pot. Table stakes, you'll remember.'

Orloff remained in his chair. The other two players rose and stepped quickly away, as though they'd been thrust back by bayonets.

'I'll give you my note,' Orloff whispered. He was staring at the cards on the table rather than attempting to meet the Manticoran's eyes.

'No, Sir,' Nessler said in a voice like a whiplash. 'You will settle your debt immediately like the gentleman I assumed you were. If you choose instead to affront my honor—'

He left the threat hanging. Half of Orloff's officers stared toward the scarred sand where Nessler had proved he could put a whole magazine through his opponent's right eye if he so chose.

'Actually, My Lord,' Mincio said, 'this may be all to the good. Why don't you rent Orloff's ship for a month or two in settlement of the debt?'

Orloff looked up, blinking as he tried to puzzle out the meaning of words which seemed perfectly clear in themselves.

'A good thought, Mincio,' Nessler said in easy agreement. They hadn't worked out the details of this exchange, but they knew one another well. 'That'll serve everybody's purpose.'

'But…' Orloff said. 'The Colonel Arabi? I cannot — the Colonel Arabi is a Duchy ship, I can't rent her to you, Sir Hakon.'

'As I understand it, Lord Orloff,' Mincio said musingly, 'your government put the ship at your disposal to facilitate your collection of Alphane artifacts. Is that so?'

Orloff swallowed. 'That is so, yes,' he said. His officers were all at a distance, staring at their captain as if he were a suicide beneath a high window.

'I'd say that renting the ship to Lord Nessler here was well within the mandate, then,' Mincio said. 'After all, old man, you can't collect many artifacts after your brains are splashed over a hectare or so of sand.'

Orloff lurched to his feet. Mincio thought he was going to say something. Instead the Melungeon turned and vomited. He sank to his knees, keeping his torso upright only by gripping the card table with one hand.

'Yes, all right,' he said in a slurred voice. 'The Colonel Arabi for a month. And we are quit.'

Nessler looked behind him to be sure that Rovald was recording the agreement. 'Very good,' he said. He picked up his winnings before Orloff managed to tip the table into the pool of vomit beside him. 'I suppose the cutter should be part of the deal, but I won't insist on that.'

He grinned brightly around the awestruck Melungeons. 'I think I'll use the pinnace from L'Imperieuse instead.'

* * *

A few artificial lights were already on in Kuepersburg as Nessler flew them home at a sedate pace. Days were short on Hope, but this one had vanished almost without Mincio's awareness.

She turned to the servants in the air car's back seat. 'Rovald,' she said, 'this was your win. A child could beat professionals at cards with your help.'

'Thank you, Ma'am,' Rovald said. The technician had been unusually stiff and withdrawn ever since Mincio silenced her so abruptly at the start of the game. At last she relaxed — to her usual stiff, withdrawn personality.

'You were both splendid,' Nessler said. He sighed. 'Now all I have to do is figure out how to get a light cruiser from Hope to Air with thirty-seven spacers and a very rusty astrogator.'

Mincio twisted around suddenly in her seat. Stabbing pains reminded her of how tense she'd been as she watched the progress of the card game. 'Surely you don't need to go to Air?' she said. 'I thought you were going to use the cruiser to frighten away the Peeps if they came here?'

'If we give the Peeps the initiative as well as all the other advantages…' Nessler said. He raised the air car to clear the walls of Singh's courtyard. 'Then they'll certainly destroy us. Based on what we've heard of the Dole Fleet, I'm hoping that if we attack and then retreat, they'll make an effort to avoid us thereafter.'

The air car wasn't stable enough to hover. Nessler brought them down in a rush, doing his best to control the bow's tendency to swing clockwise.

They hit and bounced. As the turbines spun down he added, 'The problem is getting there with a tenth the normal crew, of course.'

'You can have all the Melungeons working for you if you like, Sir,' Beresford said. 'Barring the officers, of course, which I don't think is much loss. I'll pass the word that they'll get a square meal every day. They'll trample each other to come along.'

Lalita and several household servants came into the courtyard to help if required. Nessler had started to climb out of the vehicle; he paused with his right leg over the side.

'Are you serious?' he said. 'I'll certainly do better than a meal a day if you are!'

'Sure you will, Sir,' Beresford said with a satisfied smirk. 'But I won't tell 'em that, because they wouldn't believe me. You just let me handle this, Sir.'

He hopped out of the air car and strolled to the front gate, his hands clasped at the back of his plump waistline. He was whistling.

Nessler watched the little man leave the compound. 'I'll be damned,' he muttered to Mincio as he finally got out of the vehicle. 'There's actually a chance this might work!'

* * *

The two ranks of Manticoran spacers in the Singh courtyard looked more professional than they had the last time Mincio had seen them. It wasn't just that they were well-fed and rested; those who'd lost their clothing with the L'Imperieuse had now turned local fabric into garments closely resembling the issue uniforms their fellows wore.

'This is a private venture,' Nessler said in a carrying tone. 'In a moment I will ask those of you who volunteer to board the Colonel Arabi with me to take a step forward.'

He spoke with the exaggerated precision that Mincio knew meant her pupil was nervous. It was easy even for her to forget that Sir Hakon Nessler, the self-assured youth with all the advantages, had never really felt he belonged anywhere except in his dreams of the distant past.

'I can't order anyone to come,' Nessler continued, 'because so far as I know my reserve commission is still inactive. Also, I'd like to say that we were going to Air to sort out the Peeps who murdered your fellows, but I can't honestly claim I see any great likelihood of success. The ship at our disposal is in wretched shape and has been virtually disarmed besides.'

Nessler cleared his throat. The spacers were silent and motionless, their faces yellowed by the courtyard lighting. Naval discipline, Mincio knew, but it still gave her a creepy feeling. It was like watching Nessler declaim to a tray of perch at a fishmonger's.

'Still,' Nessler said, 'a gentleman of Manticore does what he can. I'll make arrangements for those of you who choose to stay and—'

'Attention!' Harpe said from the right front of the double rank. 'On the word of command, all personnel will take one step forward!'

'Wait a minute!' cried Nessler, taken completely aback. 'Harpe, this has to be a free choice.'

'And so it is, Sir,' the Bosun said. 'Mine, as senior officer of this contingent until we put ourselves under your command.'