A Grand Tour

on line.'

Beresford guided what appeared to be the last dozen Melungeons off the bridge. 'I hope they are, at any rate,' Nessler muttered. In a louder voice he said, 'Any sign of life from the Peeps, Harpe?'

'Dead as an asteroid, Sir,' the grizzled woman replied. 'I'll bet they're all asleep. Or drunk.'

She looked up from the console. 'You know, Captain,' she added diffidently, 'what with the condition of our ship, nobody'd be surprised if there was a short-circuit in the fire-control system…?'

'Carry on, Bosun!' Nessler snapped. 'If we're not in the plotted orbit in three minutes, I'll want to know the reason why.'

He turned. Softly he went on to Mincio. 'They may all be asleep, but we can't expect them to have disabled their automatic defense systems. And absolutely nothing that could happen to us would be worth the risk of bringing the League into this conflict on the Peeps' side.'

Beresford sauntered over to them, his duties as tour guide completed. 'I was wondering, Sir,' he asked. 'Why did they name the place Air? Did they come from a planet that didn't have any?'

'It was 'Ehre,' Honor, when the Teutonic Order named it,' Mincio explained. 'The League has a sub- regional headquarters here, so it's probably a little more lively than Hope. For the same reason there's not much in the way of Alphane remains, though.'

'I'll go down and give the League commander notice to order all combatant vessels to leave League sovereign territory within forty-eight T-hours,' Nessler said. 'That's proper under interstellar law, but heaven only knows what'll actually happen. Between the Dole Fleet and the sort of people the League sends to these parts…'

'No,' Mincio said. 'I'll deliver the notice; I dare say it's my duty as First Officer, isn't it? It'll give me a chance to wear my pretty new uniform.'

'Well, if you're sure, Mincio…' Nessler said.

'I'll set it out for you in your cabin, Commander,' Beresford said with an obsequiousness she'd never before heard from the man who was very clearly her employer's servant.

The Ajax shuddered as her impeller wedge went down. 'Braking into final orbit, Sir,' Harpe called loudly.

'Besides,' Mincio said. 'If the Peeps react the wrong way, the Ajax can much better spare my expertise than it can yours, Captain Nessler.'

* * *

Air's landing field was a little more prepossessing than that of Hope. The vessels sat on ceramacrete hardstands — most of them cracked to little more than gravel, but still better than Hope's dirt — and a solid-looking courtyard building stood on the field's western edge. The town of Dawtry, the planetary capital, lay in the near distance to the north and west. Mincio didn't see any air cars, but there was a respectable amount of motorized transport running on paved — mostly paved — roads.

The pinnace cooled with a chorus of pings, chings, and clanks that might even have been pleasant if Mincio hadn't been so nervous. One of the four Manticoran spacers escorting her muttered, 'That cutter's Peep, and that one's Peep, and I figure that big lighter—'

'Belt up, Dismore!' said Petty Officer Kapp, the detachment's leader. She added with a sniff, 'And you notice there's not an anchor watch on any of them? That's Peeps for you. Bone idle.'

'Right,' said Mincio. 'Two of you come with me while the others guard the boat.'

She strode toward the truck parked beside a cargo shuttle from an intrasystem freighter. A man in greasy coveralls was working on tubing exposed when a panel was removed from the vessel's stern.

'Excuse me, Sir!' Mincio called. If Kapp hadn't spoken she wouldn't have known to leave anyone with the pinnace. Dismore would probably have told her even if the petty officer had been too polite. 'Will you drive us to the League Liaison Office? We'll pay well.'

The mechanic turned with a puzzled expression. 'Why d'ye want to ride there?' he said. He gestured toward the building adjacent to the field. 'You could just about spit that far, couldn't you?'

'Ah,' said Mincio. 'Thank you.'

'I figured the damned thing was Port Control,' Dismore muttered, immediately making her feel better. 'I guess these hicks don't have anything so advanced as that.'

'Right,' Mincio said, turning on her heel and striding toward the building with what she hoped was a martial air. Dismore was on one side, Kapp on the other.

The spacers were armed. The guns were hunting weapons found while ransacking the Melungeon officers' compartments, but fortunately hunting on Melungeon involved weapons that would have been military-use-only in most other societies. Certainly no society Mincio found congenial would hunt goat-sized herbivores with heavy- caliber pulse rifles firing explosive projectiles like those which now equipped her escort.

A squad of Protectorate Gendarmes guarded the headquarters entrance. They didn't look alert, but they at least stood up when they saw an armed party approaching.

'Commander Mincio, Royal Manticoran Navy, to see the liaison officer ASAP!' Mincio said in her driest tone. She'd used it only once on Nessler, the time he translated a Latin passage referring to twenty, viginti, soldiers as 'virgin soldiers.'

'I don't have orders to admit anybody to see Flowker,' the leader of the gendarmes said. 'Maybe we'll mention it to him when we go off shift.'

Several of the underlings snickered. Mincio couldn't tell whether the fellow was angling for a bribe or simply being difficult because his own life wasn't what he wanted. A lot of people seemed to feel a need to pass the misery on. Nessler had filled her purse as she embarked in the pinnace. She didn't dare offer a bribe, though, because it would be out of keeping with her claimed authority.

'Listen, slime.' Mincio didn't shout, but her voice would have chipped stone. 'There's a dreadnought in orbit over you. Every moment you piss away is one less moment Officer Flowker has to make up his mind — and believe me, he's going to know who's responsible for that!'

The guard commander backed a step from what he thought was fury. Mincio would have described her emotion as closer to terror, fear that she'd fail in this crucial juncture and destroy the chances of those depending on her. She'd willingly accept a misunderstanding in her favor.

'Allen, take the Commander to Flowker's suite,' the fellow said to one of his underlings, this one female. He glared at the spacers. 'These other two stay, and they give up those guns.'

'Wanna bet, sonny?' Dismore said pleasantly.

Allen led Mincio across the courtyard at a brisk pace. She seemed to want to put as much distance as she could between herself and the two armed groups at the gate. Mincio didn't let herself think about that. Kapp and Dismore were more competent to handle their situation than she was, and she had enough concerns of her own.

The building — another League standard design, presumably — showed Moorish influences in its arches and coffered ceilings. Mincio could see people in offices to either side of the courtyard. Only half the desks were occupied, and nobody seemed to be doing any work.

There was only one door in the wall facing the outer gateway, and the pointed windows to either side were curtained. Allen opened the door; another gendarme looked up from the chair where she watched a pornographic hologram.

'Sarge says let this one see Flowker,' Allen said. 'But it's your business now.'

She turned and walked away, letting the door slam behind her. The interior guard hooked a thumb toward the portal beside her. 'Why should I care?' she said and went back to watching the imagery. One of the participants seemed to be an Old Earth aardvark.

Mincio thought of knocking on the door. It was plastic molded to look — when it was newer, at least — like heavy, iron-bound wood. She discarded the idea and simply shoved her way through.

Five people lounged on cushions in the room beyond. Three were women in filmy harem suits. They were pretty enough in a blowsy sort of way and were most probably locals. The heavy man being fed grapes by one of the women wore a sleeveless undershirt and the khaki trousers of the Protectorate Liaison Service: Officer Flowker by process of elimination.

The wasp-thin woman against the other wall was in a black Gendarmerie uniform with Major's collar