Starwolf?”
“No, not until he killed the assassin. I knew that something was odd about him from the start, but I was too busy wanting him to be a Trader who would get me off-world.”
“Velmeran told me — briefly — of his exploits, although I suspect that he deemphasized certain points where you were concerned. Did you really believe that he would want you?”
“Oh, no!” Lenna insisted. “I’m not following after him now. He has been a good friend, but I cannot pretend to love him, and he has told me often enough that he has a mate of his own. I just wanted to see this ship.”
“You surely knew that you could not avoid detection for long.”
“I never meant to. I just thought that if I could get on board, you would have to keep me.”
“Oh?” Mayelna looked mildly surprised. “And do you have any idea what we should do with you?”
“Well, there seems to be a number of options,” the girl replied. “At the best, you might let me go along for the ride until you find a good place to leave me — preferably a Trader. At the worst, you’ll pitch me out the nearest airlock. But the way you’re building to speed, I know that you’re not going to take me back where you found me.”
Mayelna actually chuckled. “You think you know us very well.”
“No, Commander,” Lenna said. “I know your reputation, and I believe it. But I also know that it’s an act. You’re Starwolves and I’m of Trader stock, and that makes us first cousins at least. But that’s all that I can say in my defense. I knew that I was asking for trouble.”
Mayelna regarded her, not unkindly, for a moment, then turned to Velmeran.
Velmeran shrugged.
Mayelna considered that a moment before looking at Valthyrra, who nodded her camera in agreement. Consherra, for once, seemed to have no opinion to offer. At that moment the Methryn made a smooth transition into starflight.
“Well, it seems that you are going along for the ride,” Mayelna said at last. “Unfortunately, you picked a very bad time. We are in something of a hurry and we need to make the best time we possibly can, so you will have to sit there and take a few very high G’s. Consider that your punishment. After that, Consherra will show you to your cabin and indicate the areas of the ship you may visit. The Methryn really is not a warehouse of secrets, so any place you are told not to go is for your safety. Remember also that the deck plan of this ship looks like an explosion in a kite-string factory.”
“Thank you, Commander.” Lenna sighed in relief.
“Just behave yourself, if it is… humanly possible. Velmeran. Valthyrra. Shall we take a little walk?”
“Walk?” Valthyrra asked. “Walk? Who can walk?”
Mayelna sighed. “Just send one of your evil eyes to my cabin.”
Velmeran and the Commander descended the steps together, leaving Lenna to stare in helpless astonishment. She felt a disturbing sense of unreality as she sat pinned in her seat, gasping for breath under the burden of crushing forces while everyone else walked about in complete ease. The Starwolves had solved the problem of moving about under acceleration by adjusting the ship’s artificial gravity one step ahead of the G’s of acceleration, which would otherwise throw all loose objects toward the back of the ship.
“How did she get on board, anyway?” Velmeran asked as they made their way from the bridge.
“How else?” Mayelna asked in return. “She presented herself at a transport and asked to be brought to the ship. She looks enough like us that she looks remarkably like a Kelvessa pretending to be human. She told the pilot that she was Consherra — “
“Consherra?” Velmeran interrupted.
“Well, yes. I suspect that was the only name she knew to give. She probably learned just enough general information from you to give the right answers to a few questions. And there was a good measure of the old Kelvessan gullibility. The transport pilot just assumed that no one but a Starwolf would want aboard a Starwolf ship.”
“Gullibility?” Velmeran asked. “Such as how you not only pardoned her but gave her the run of the ship?”
“Blarney, they used to call it,” Mayelna mused. “There must have been more Irish settlers on that world than Scottish. Only an Irishman can use the plain truth like she does the way other men lie. We have a protective instinct, and she seems to have a talent for making the most of it. I seem to recall that you threw someone through a wall to protect her.”
“I did it because he was a Union agent sent to harass the Kanians, and because he pretended to be half Kelvessan,” Velmeran said defensively.
“And then I should pardon someone who pretends to be a real Starwolf?” Mayelna asked.
“It is a simple matter of intent. How did she give herself away?”
“G’s.” She shrugged and turned the corner, only to find herself face-to-face with one of Valthyrra’s remotes. She drew back.
“Hello,” Valthyrra said. “What is taking you so long?”
“We were talking,” Mayelna said curtly, and turned back to, Velmeran. “Where did you get that ridiculous idea of dressing up as a human, anyway?”
“That was your suggestion,” he reminded her.
“Was it?” She paused a moment to reflect. “Well, even good ideas can go wrong. As that may be, stowaways are the least of our worries now.”
Mayelna herded the two ahead of her, down the side corridor and into her own cabin. The door shut behind them, and it did not open again for several hours.
Lenna sank into the Commander’s seat like melting butter after half an unrelenting hour of acceleration. Her system was, in fact, designed for this type of stress, but it had been too long. Flying freight had not been enough to prepare her for this. Consherra was there immediately with a drink, a pill, and something to eat.
“Take this,” Consherra insisted, offering the pill and the drink. “Our medic Dyenlerra wants to find out if it will kill you.”
Lenna paused in the act of taking the pill to look at it closely. “Is this Starwolf medicine?”
“No, strictly for human consumption,” Consherra assured her. “You might be our first uninvited guest, but we pluck humans out of wrecks all the time. I also have bread and cheese.”
Lenna accepted the light meal and leaned back in the seat as she waited for her strength to return. Consherra had remained at her side nearly the entire time. Lenna could see now that she had been lucky to get away with pretending to be this girl for as long as she had.
“If that was holding back, what kind of G’s do you people normally take?” Lenna asked.
“In normal cruising, about the same,” Consherra explained. “When we are in a real hurry, we still hold off at about forty-five. That is about all we can take and still be able to move about easily. Emergency accelerations are something quite different. The most I have ever known was about one hundred and forty, and I was flying at the time.”
“Do you fly this ship often?” Lenna asked, rising unsteadily to peer over the front of the Commander’s console at the helm station on the middle bridge. “Are those manual controls retracted under the central monitor?”
“Of course. You can fly this ship like an overgrown fighter. Valthyrra flies herself for the most part, although I get to set runs from time to time. But I hardly ever touch the manual controls. I really spend most of my time assisting Mayelna and Velmeran in running this ship, not flying it.”
Lenna frowned. “I think that I would prefer a Trader, if you’ll pardon my saying so. I’m more interested in flying than giving orders.”
“I can understand that. How are you feeling?”
“Fairly good, actually,” she said, rising and stretching her arms. “I am getting a bit cold, though. I’ve done some serious sweating this morning, and not all of it from the G’s. You do keep this place a bit cool.”
“Did you bring a change of clothes?”
“I did come prepared for a wee bit of a stay,” Lenna remarked guardedly.
