'Velmeran's pack is shorthanded,' Valthyrra pointed out, as if some automatic relay had failed to note that the argument was over. She turned her camera pod to Dveyella. 'My drone reports that the Union carrier is approaching its predicted port. I should have all the information I can get for you coming within the next few hours.'
'If you would care to shed that armor, my first officer wid show you to your rooms,' Mayelna said, her behavior improving quickly as her good humor returned. 'If Valthyrra has your luggage ready.'
'Coming!' Valthyrra announced. A remote, a small flat-topped freight carrier, emerged from the other side of the transport, piled with boxes and bags as it rolled off toward the lift. Mayelna quickly took Velmeran by the arm and led him on ahead of the others. Consherra flinched when she saw that; Mayelna might not be able to stop this — indeed she had not really even tried — but she would certainly lecture him long and hard until it was done, and then start over by pointing out his mistakes. She did not notice Dveyella until the pilot fell in beside her.
'I seem to have walked into the middle of something.'
'Oh, do not let those two bother you,' Consherra assured her. 'Unfortunately, this is an old argument. Can you keep a secret?'
'Better than you.'
Consherra smiled. 'I am hoping that the end justifies the means. To put it simply, Valthyrra wants Velmeran for Commander-designate, and Mayelna refuses to name him. Velmeran gained quite a beginning of a reputation as a capable leader during our last battle. Now Valthyrra is obviously contriving to help him win as much favor as she can, so that Mayelna will have no reason not to approve the appointment.'
'Ah, I see. Well, I have no objection to my part in this game, so long as Velmeran delivers as promised.'
'Do you doubt?'
'If I doubted, he would not be going,' Dveyella replied casually, although she obviously meant it. 'But why should your Commander question his abilities?'
'It has nothing to do with his abilities,' Consherra replied. 'Commander Mayelna is his mother.'
'Oh!' Dveyella exclaimed with a look of both comprehension and horrified dismay.
As soon as she was settied into her cabin, Dveyeda asked Velmeran to meet her as soon as he could, in full armor, on a high observation platform in the left holding bay. She did not tell him what she had in mind, but he could guess easily enough; she meant to teach him what she could of the special tricks he would need to know for this mission. Velmeran found her already waiting on the platform, leaning with her upper set of arms on the rail, her lower arms braced wide as she stared down into the depths of the vast bay.
'You know, we Kelvessan are truly amazing fighting machines in our own right,' she began almost absentiy. 'I have been told that we can be over a hundred times stronger than an ordinary human of the same size, and our reflexes are thousands of times faster. And yet most of us know little of just how much we can do. For the purposes of today's exercise, Valthyrra Methryn has consented to turn off the buffer fields in this bay. Let me begin with a simple demonstration.'
With that she casually leaped over the rading. Velmeran was not caught by surprise; he had figured out what she intended to do, and watched with interest. The static field that took the place of gravity was only a fair substitute for the real thing. It seemed like one standard gravity only to stationary objects, but decreased as objects moved faster relative to the motion of the ship. An ordinary human could have easily taken a fall of five meters. But Dveyella was jumping nearly the entire height of the bay, almost one hundred and fifty meters. As easily as she landed, it might have been only two.
Velmeran followed without waiting to be asked. The long fall was not so bad as he had anticipated, for it gave him time to prepare for his landing. Since he had the strength to kick open an airlock, he wisely allowed his legs to catch him. He landed almost gently, just slightly off-balanced by the top-heavy burden of his armor.
'Very good,' Dveyella remarked. 'That is about the most that you should ever try to jump under one real standard gravity. Remember that it is not how far you jump, but how hard you hit that limits you. Higher gravity decreases the height you can jump.'
'What is the most I should be able to take?'
'Oh, you should be able to survive an impact speed of three hundred kilometers per-hour or more,' she said, looking him over. 'And by survive, I mean that you should be able to pick yourself up and continue on without pain. You can endure more, but it will hurt. We do have our limits, one of them being our suits. Do you know that we can actually take more stress than our armor? Well, what goes down must often come back up.'
Dveyella indicated a docking tube about fifteen meters to Velmeran's left and thirty straight up. She jumped from where she stood. Her body rigid and her arms spread wide for balance, she seemed almost to be flying for the long moment that she was in the air. She caught hold of the edge of the tube and flipped herself atop in a graceful move. Velmeran, knowing that he lacked the experience for anything that elaborate, made a much simpler leap from almost directly below the tube. He overshot by nearly ten meters, but arched gently over to land in the very middle of the tube.
'Well, you made it on your first try,' Dveyella remarked. 'Most people need a little practice to be able to jump that far. You seem to have a natural talent for this.'
'Talent has less to do with it than common sense,' Velmeran answered as he peered over the edge. 'The easiest way is always the surest.'
'Words to live by,' Dveyella agreed. 'That is why I jumped at an angle, showing you one of my fanciest tricks from the start. Most people would have tried to do it the hard way, and they learn their limitations very quickly.'
'I prefer to face my limitations from the cautious side. I like surprises as well as anyone, but a limitation becomes a failing when it catches you by surprise.'
Dveyella laughed. 'That is the lecture that I was supposed to be giving you. Is there anything you do not know?'
'I just indicated that there is,' Velmeran said. 'All this business is new to me. Is it very likely that we will have to fight?'
Dveyella shrugged and sat down on the machinery that joined the docking tube to the wall. 'That depends upon how chance works for us. Sometimes everything goes as smoothly as you could want. Other times everything seems to go wrong. Usually it falls somewhere in between.'
'What about my armor and my fighter?' he asked. 'Will they be good enough for what I need?'
'I have already requested a new suit for both of us,' Dveyella said, glancing down at the burnt scoring on her lower right arm that could only be bolt flash from a deflected hit. 'There is really nothing better than ordinary flight armor, since anything sturdier would also be heavier. Our fighters are exactly the same, since we use the same auxiliary guns and other accessories as we need. Your fighter will be good enough, as long as she is in prime condition. How long have you had her?'
Velmeran shrugged. 'As long as I have been flying.'
Dveyella only sat and stared at him.
'She has never taken a hit or had a major breakdown in any component,' he continued, somewhat defensively. 'I consider her as good as the day she was built.'
Dveyella could only assume that either the ship must be getting shabby or else he had not been using it all that long. She suspected the latter, and now she was sure of it. 'Velmeran, how old are you?'
'Twenty-five.'
'And you already lead a pack?'
'Because I am about the best pilot on this ship.'
Dveyella laughed. 'At least you believe in being straightforward about it!'
Velmeran only shrugged. 'I have no false vanity. I cannot take credit for being what I was designed to be. My mother was the best pilot that this ship has seen for some time.'
'And your father?' Dveyella asked.
He shrugged again. 'Mayelna has never seen fit to enlighten me. But I do not doubt that my father was… worthy, considering how discriminating she can be. Do not worry about me. I know what I can do and what I cannot do.'
Dveyella shook her head slowly. 'I still cannot help but think that I have been flying twice as long as you have been alive. But Valthyrra Methryn does recommend you highly.'
