pilot would have missed that ship. I have been waiting for you to retire since I put you in Velmeran's pack two years ago. If it is too much for you to admit to yourself, then you force me to decide for you.'
'Commander, it is not fair!' Keth declared in anger, although he did not look up and Mayelna wondered if he might cry. The most bitter lies can be those a person tells himself.
'No, it is not fair,' Mayelna agreed. 'The great scheme of life seems to have no respect for a three-hundred- year career. Nature has no respect for seniority. Do you think that I do not understand what this means to you? Flying was my life, all that I ever cared about. I have not seen the inside of a fighter in the eighteen years since I came up to the bridge. Day after day I sit in that chair and watch this ship fly herself and nothing hurts me more than to see the packs go out, knowing that I will never fly again. I was young and strong the night Valthyrra called me to the bridge. But I have grown old, sitting in that chair while the packs fly without me. And I do not much like to think about it, because I feel like I have lost something that has been very important and dear to me forever. Every day that passes is a treasure lost.'
She paused, rubbing her nose absently as she sat back. Then, noticing Keth staring at her, she crossed both sets of arms. 'Do not get me wrong. I know that tending the bridge is very important, and I am proud to do it. The fact is, I am of more use to this ship on the bridge than in a fighter. And I quite intend to stay there another thirty years. But I will retire, when the time comes, and Velmeran is going to have to follow me up there. And yet, Great Spirit of Space help him, he will still be very, very young when that time comes, and flying is no less his life than it was mine.'
Keth laughed softly. 'So that is the great secret! Valthyrra would blow her breakers if she knew.'
'I imagine that she knows already. I would spare him that fate, and yet I know that it has to be.' Mayelna shook her head regretfully. 'This is the talk that I should be having with him, if I had the courage. At least I will have an end to the problem you represent.'
'I will be your instructor,' Keth agreed, still reluctant. 'We are, as you point out, slaves to duty. I am of more use to this ship teaching others to fly than I would be in a pack, certainly more use than I would be retired. I should be glad for the few more years that you are willing to give me. Someday I may even feel grateful.'
'Just now, I am sure, you only feel that you have lost something rather than gained,' she agreed. 'Go move your things down to the instruction bay and start setting things in order. And, if you are smart, you will act like this was your idea as much as anyone's.'
Keth smiled as he rose to leave. 'Thank you, Commander.'
He passed Valthyrra on the way out. She paused a moment to watch him, twisting the remote's long neck around backward, before she drifted on into the office.
Mayelna sat back in her chair, watching the machine closely.
'I take it that matters progressed smoothly,' Valthyrra said.
'Very well, indeed,' Mayelna said. 'Your timing seems to be as accurate as always.'
'No, my timing seems to be rather off of late,' Valthyrra said, refusing to be teased. 'Are you so spiteful that you are actually encouraging Velmeran to join this special tactics team?'
'Velmeran thought that you were trying to get rid of him, arranging for him to go with Dveyella.'
'Why would I want to get rid of him?'
'Because he is too young to suddenly be so popular, and he is causing dissension among the older pilots. I just wanted to show him that you have no such plan. If you had a mouth, it would have been gaping.'
'Then I quite forgive you,' Valthyrra said contritely. 'You know, he might have been right… about the older pilots. But they gave a very bad showing of themselves, and they have only themselves to blame.'
'Just in time for Velmeran to move ahead through the gap of their own incompetence?' Mayelna asked. 'Either your timing is very good, or you are about the luckiest ship in the heavens.'
'Not so lucky, in the long run,' Valthyrra said. 'Velmeran is probably going to leave us. My schemes have backfired.'
Mayelna raised an inquiring brow. 'Are you sure of that?'
'No, not absolutely. Dveyella knows why he must stay.'
'And she will give him back to you?'
'No, it is not that simple. Dveyella and Velmeran are very much in love, and they are about as well-matched a pair as I have ever seen. She is going to be making him aware of that very soon now.'
9
The approach of a Starwolf carrier on a Union planet was an event similar in some respects to an all-out attack, since no one was ever certain that it was not. The big ships would suddenly drop out of starflight halfway into system, hurtling vast and silent into an orbit of their own choosing with no regard for shipping lanes or frantic station controllers. As a rule they maintained com silence unless they had instructions of their own to impart, although they revealed themselves fully to scanners — mostly to insure that all traffic would get out of their way — looming like a mountain on screen.
For the Starwolves, this was a venture into enemy territory, and all this bluff was to insure that they would be left well alone. Their reputation was their strongest defensive weapon, and they guarded it carefully. Freighters scattered in their paths, while ships at station all but shook in their moorings. Union warships discreetly withdrew like predators chased away from their kill by something they did not dare fight. The Union had curious loopholes in its laws to excuse the transgressions of Starwolves, who did not legally exist and so could not be held accountable for breaking laws. It was an uneasy truce at best, and one the Union hated with a passion. But at least they kept their stations.
The fact that Vinthra was sector capital only made the situation all the more dangerous. Sector capitals were the true inner worlds of the Union; they were the Union, in a very real sense, the bare handful of planets that decided policy for their vast economic empire. There was, at any time, a fleet ready in this system large and strong enough to stand against a Starwolf carrier. Not that they could hope to defeat one of the big ships, but they could drive one away. But the inner worlds were also the homes of the Commanders who would decide if they would fight, and they did not want such destruction brought down upon their own worlds and stations.
Nor was such a world a place for port leave. Starwolves were welcome in the fringe worlds; the black fighters chased away the invasion forces and broke the trade monopolies that could drain a planet dry. But the populations of the inner worlds lived well on the profits of their trade monopolies. Understandably, they did not appreciate Starwolf interference with what they considered their just reward. But the Starwolves did not have to fear greatly, as long as they were cautious. Unioners were generally prudent, and they knew that their unwelcome visitors would level a port, not in vengeance but in stern warning, if any of their number came to harm.
All in all, it was a dangerous and fairly ridiculous situation that neither side liked. The Union did not want wolf carriers in its system, but there was no alternative but to endure it. The Starwolves would have preferred to avoid the inner worlds, but they had to come to the sector capitals to sell their 'salvage'.
It was not a good place for a young crewmember to take his first port leave. And Velmeran had no desire to take a pack of seven young pilots into the glorified cavern of port Vannkarn. Kanis would have been a better choice, since no one could have gotten into trouble in a place like that. He doubted that any of his students had the discretion to avoid trouble, or even the experience to recognize real trouble if they saw it. And with two-thirds of the ship's crew restricted to ship, they could be too deep in the avenues of Vannkarn for help to find them if they needed it.
His one assurance was that they were armored and armed, as dangerous as a Kandian spark dragon and as hard to kill as a Selvan land crab. So he reflected as Dveyella sealed the last opening of his new armor and, much to his relief, opened the front plate to turn on the cooling. He noticed Dveyella staring at the cover plate as she closed it, and he bent his head forward to look.
'Blast scoring,' he muttered in disgust. 'Am I to be sent out looking dented and disheveled?'
'It gives you the mean and seasoned look of an old warrior,' Dveyella told him. 'Would you rather wear your old armor?'
'No. But they could have at least put on a new cover plate when they changed out the controls.'
