understanding?”
“No,” he agreed simply. “It might not be fair to ask you to stand up to that thing one more time. If cannon fodder would get the job done, I would send those fossils I have to keep around as resident experts.
“I keep running away?” Tarrel asked.
“You do have to survive long enough to learn something.
And that is very much the point. I’m going to give you a small convoy of old ships, anything we can find in a hurry that is nothing but scrap. We can have those slaved to your navigational system so that they will fly in formation around your own battleship, and then we’ll send you to locate the area where that thing was last known to be. When it starts nibbling away at your convoy, you’ll know that you’ve made contact and you have a few moments to attempt communications. If they don’t answer, then you get the hell out.”
“You seem to believe that this is not Starwolves.”
Lake shook his head. “Starwolves don’t behave like that. They can be damned dangerous, especially if they catch you doing something they don’t like. But they do live by certain rules of their own making. I can’t say that I really give you much hope of success, but we might learn something more by provoking another attack. If they don’t talk, and if you don’t find some way to fight them, then find yourself some Starwolves and discover what they have to say on the subject.”
“If the Starwolves really are behind this, that would be looking for more trouble than I could handle,” Tarrel reminded him.
“Yes, I know that,” Lake agreed. “Those are the chances we have to take. If this situation is as desperate as I suspect— as you seem to suspect — I would even be willing to make an alliance with the Starwolves against this new threat.”
“The Sector Families are not going to like that.”
“Perhaps not,” he agreed. “And they will have to accept certain restrictions upon their ambitions, to appease the Starwolves. But, if they want to stay in business, they will just have to accept it. I know how to sell the idea to them, so no trouble there. I’m speaking to you this candidly now, so that you will understand my own plans enough to act as my agent when you leave here. You might well find yourself in the role of diplomat, either with these new attackers or the Starwolves, and the alliances you make could save or destroy the Union. I want you to feel free to do whatever it takes.”
“You could go with me,” Tarrel pointed out.
“I wish I could. The fact is, I’m about to do the Union itself a dirty trick, and you have to help me. If I try to go, Councilor Debray will want to know why, and end up replacing me with a professional diplomat. That person will be under direct orders to guard the Union’s dignity and commercial interests at any cost, not realizing that the cost would be those very things they want to protect. There’s more going on here than you know. Things are a lot more serious.”
“What do you mean?” Tarrel asked plainly.
“No mention was made of this during the council — most of those idiots don’t even know yet — but there have been five known attacks just like the one you saw, most of them worse,” Lake explained. “You just happen to be the first witness to survive. That’s why I can say with great certainty that the Starwolves probably are not behind this. Someone is systematically destroying all traffic, all the stations, even the satellites, every piece of hardware we have in space, system by system. If Starwolves were resorting to such dire tactics, they would be trying to force us to surrender before they destroy our spaceflight capabilities completely. And under those circumstances, they would want us to know that they were the ones doing this to us.” Tarrel frowned. “I don’t believe that you were going to tell me all this at first.”
“I’m not supposed to. I just don’t see how you can do what I need for you to accomplish without knowing it. So, will you take the job?”
Captain Tarrel looked profoundly surprised. “Oh, I suppose I just didn’t understand. I didn’t know that I had any options. I thought that this was an order. You know, the things that you senior officers tell underlings to do and you expect done no matter what.”
“I know about orders. I just want to know that you are devoted to this mission. ”
“And what if I say that I don’t want to volunteer?” she asked, but Lake was not inclined to humor her. She hurried on, “I’ll do it, of course. And you can trust me to do my best. That’s the only way to bring myself and my crew out of this alive.”
“I’ll have your drones standing by within the next twelve hours. I’ve already sent crews aboard your ship to repair her damage and make some necessary modifications. Is there anything special you expect to need?”
“Can I get Carthaginian painted before we go out?” “You’re likely to need it more when you get back.”
“Then paint it again,” Tarrel insisted. “I don’t want to present my ship to Starwolves looking like a tramp.”
Lake considered that briefly. “All right, you get your paint.
Who knows what might impress Starwolves? They eat prodigiously, and they seem to like furry little animals and other cute things. People who have talked to them say that they are never what you would expect, that they can be intelligent, gentle and in many ways rather innocent. Other than that, I really don’t know what I can tell you.”
“I’m really not worried about the Starwolves, as long as I can get their attention before they scorch my ship. It’s the things I can’t see that worry me more.”
Captain Tarrel returned to her ship a couple of hours later, having argued with the refitting crew about the installation of external missile racks on Carthaginian’s hull. Getting that had taken some persuasion on her part, since the battleship already carried four dozen missiles in internal bays, and also because the crew chief had been reluctant to give additional ordnance to a ship on a diplomatic mission, and possibly also from reluctance to give weapons to a ship that was likely doomed anyway. But Tarrel wanted weapons that she could use without betraying her intentions by opening bays or powering up a system. Any trick that she might have up her sleeve would be a great help, considering the disadvantage she was at already.
She found that her crew had shrunk considerably in one respect, and grown somewhat in others. She found herself with only three complete bridge crews, a basic maintenance crew and a handful of other necessary specialists. Lake, forever frugal, had left her with just enough to keep her ship running while risking the fewest lives possible. Her crew had expanded by one, a rather clever but harmless-looking young man, wearing the insignias of an executive officer, whom she found sitting in her chair. Since she already had a second-in-command, the rank of executive officer could mean just about anything from mission commander to special advisor or observer. She decided that he was going to be an observer, and he had better not observe anything from her chair ever again.
“And just who are you?” she asked sharply as she checked the progress reports on the ship’s refitting.
“Lieutenant Commander Walter Pesca, reporting as ordered,” he responded briskly, affording her a very snappy salute.
Oh, the bright and eager type. “Why are you on board my ship, Mister?”
“I was recommended as an advisor. I’m an alien contact specialist with extensive training in linguistics. If you find new aliens, I’m supposed to learn how to talk to them and try to guess whether they are telling the truth. If we end up talking to Starwolves, I’m supposed to try to figure out their language so that we can eavesdrop on them. Sector Commander Lake thought that you might find me useful.”
“You might be useful,” she agreed guardedly, “but you are not a command officer. And only command officers can sit in my chair.”
“I won’t forget, Captain.”
“Since you were sitting in my chair, do you know what happened to my first officer?” Tarrel asked.
“Right behind you, Captain,” Chagin said, coming up behind her at that moment. “I was just down checking the installation of the missile racks you wanted.”
“You know, those missile racks are not really a very good idea,” Pesca remarked brightly, pleased to be helpful.
Tarrel glanced at him. “I found this person in my chair.” Pesca looked very nervous. “There didn’t seem to be a senior officer on the bridge.”
