time explaining the ship.”
A smile tugged at Kas’ mouth. “I remember. You caused quite a diplomatic disturbance, Commander. Excellent work.”
Ler-Traken nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
Kas made up his mind. An officer with command and battle experience was just what he needed. And Ler- Traken had not only been good enough to defeat a corvette with a frigate, but smart enough get boarders aboard a Glory ship. Glories were famous for setting booby traps to simultaneously suicide and destroy their enemies. When defeated in battle, they often tried to lure the enemy close aboard and trigger overload of the main fusactor.
“Commander,” he began, “How do you feel about outerworlders?”
Ler-Traken frowned. “I don’t understand, sir. What about them?”
“Do you have any problem with commanding a ship with a crew of them?”
The man shrugged. “Of course not, sir. I don’t care where they’re from. I only care how they perform.” He shot a glance at Kas. “Unless they’re planning to take a swing at me, of course.” he added grimly.
Kas winced, then put on a smile. “I think you’ll find they’re a good crew. I’m giving you Starhopper. I know what she looks like,” he added hurriedly as a scowl began to darken the handsome face, “but there’s a lot more there than meets the eye.” He shrugged. “Much of the success of this mission is going to depend upon you and Starhopper. You’re going to have to function as my eyes and ears. I can’t even move Rekesh until you go let the diplomats know to begin negotiating passage for her through other systems’ space.”
The big man nodded. “I guess that means I’ll be warping out almost immediately.” He looked pleased now, his annoyance abated by a new command and a mission.
Kas nodded. “Yes, but you’ll still be ‘undercover’, pretending to be a trader, until the cookie pushers can negotiate passage for two Empire warships. And you can’t go to the system we’d originally planned. There’s an Alliance base there, and I barely managed to lie my way through. Naturally, you can’t show up in ‘my’ ship.
“So, you’ll go to the next-closest system with an Empire consulate, a place called ‘Remor’.” He shrugged. “I don’t know anything about it, but my resident expert tells me you needn’t worry about strict customs inspections.” He smiled. “’Laid back’ was the term she used. I gather that means things are pretty loose there — or at least, informal.”
Ler-Traken frowned. “‘Resident expert’… does that mean someone who knows more about the area than Fleet Intelligence? I hope?”
Kas grinned. “Much more. She and her crewman are traders, born and raised out here. You’ll be meeting them. In fact, you’ll be dropping them off on Remor. We sort of rescued them from a Glory corvette, and they’ve been quite a help in getting us out here alive.”
Ler-Traken’s frown deepened. “You’re saddling me with civilians, sir? What about when we get to this Remor? What’s to keep them from turning us all in? For all we know, there’s a big reward for Starhopper and her crew.”
Kas’ grin faded and he nodded. “True. But I’m certain they won’t betray us. They’re Alliance citizens, but Remor isn’t an Alliance system. They’re also known to have helped us when they could have betrayed us. I doubt they’d be considered heroes by the Alliance.” He shrugged. “Besides, I know them now. I trust her — them.” His tone held an element of finality.
Ler-Traken’s frown remained, but he nodded firmly. “Yes, sir. I guess the trip out here was pretty interesting.”
Kas’ grin was back. “I’m not sure ‘interesting’ is the word I’d use, but it certainly wasn’t boring.” He straightened. “Now, Captain, There is one other thing I want to mention before you get busy. Starhopper ’s crew. They’re all outies, as I mentioned. But more importantly, they’ve spent the last several months struggling to hide the fact they were military, to appear to be traders. They’ve worked hard, and they’re very convincing, which will help on Remor. But of course, once you leave there, you’ll need to reimpose the military manners and courtesies to which you’re accustomed.” He fidgeted and flushed. “I guess what I’m doing is suggesting that you consider that when you see lapses. I…”
“Are you ordering me to relax my insistence on military conduct, sir?” The tone was carefully neutral.
Kas shook his head violently. “No! I… ah, Sheol. I guess I was. Even though I know better than to tell a captain how to run his ship. My apologies, Captain. Of, course; you’ll do as you think best. Just consider it an advance explanation of any lapses that might occur.”
Ler-Traken nodded. “Yes, sir. But have you considered that a tight ship might be the best way to minimize those lapses and get them back to their military selves?” Kas looked thoughtful, and Ler-Traken continued, “Don’t worry, Commodore. I’ll try to base my opinion of the crew on their efficiency, not any minor lapses in military courtesy.”
Kas sighed with relief. “Thank you, Captain. Believe me; it wasn’t easy to try to break their military conditioning. I just hope it’ll be easier to restore it.”
The two set to planning Starhopper ’s mission, and by the time they were finished, Kas had relaxed considerably. Yes, there would be problems with Tremling and To-Ling, but hopefully those problems would involve their personalities rather than their effectiveness. He was certain he could count on Ler-Traken. And his first impressions of young Wansung were largely favorable despite his early false steps. Inner-versus outer-world attitudes had been developing and hardening Empire-wide for a number of years. It wasn’t unreasonable for the man to assume Kas would have strong feelings on the subject.
He sighed deeply, then began calling in his six Lieutenant Commanders. They would serve as Department Heads aboard Rekesh, though those were normally Commanders’ billets. Three of them were staff, and only three were line.
Below the command level, the most responsibility would undoubtedly rest with Til Be’Rak, a strikingly attractive redhead, and the senior Astrogation staff officer aboard. Despite her name, Be’Rak was an innerworlder. Kas’ interview showed her to be friendly, outgoing and gregarious. Her seductive appearance and smiling manner made her easy to underestimate and dismiss, but Kas knew that she had to be highly competent for Captain Froud to have drafted her for such an essential position.
Wor Sha-Tren was an Engineering staff officer. Rough edged and surly, he made an exasperated Kas wonder what it was about the engineering specialty that attracted misfits and malcontents. Sha-Tren was from a wealthy innerworld family, and considered his assignment to Rekesh a betrayal of an “arrangement” his family had made permitting him to stay on Prime. After only a few minutes, a seething Kas dismissed the abrasive officer to the care of Tremling.
Vol Ra-Lavon was no big improvement. Kas’ only Supply staff officer, Ra-Lavon stated in the first few moments of their conversation “with all due respect” that he felt Kas should have been shot for assaulting an innerworld Admiral. Kas was unsure whether the man was more upset that Lu-Jenks had been an Admiral or that he’d been an innerworlder. With no real choice, Kas appointed Ra-Lavon Admin as well as Supply Officer. But Kas was afraid the man would become one of his biggest problems.
Coincidentally, all of his line Lieutenant Commanders were outerworlders.
Senior among them was Con Vertring. Vertring had two years’ experience as Executive Officer of a corvette. He seemed competent, if a bit of a ‘book’ officer. He seemed to go to great lengths to mimic innerworld manners, even to the extent of denigrating outerworlders. Kas appointed him Assistant Operations officer.
Bru Raskin seemed the extreme opposite of Vertring. Indeed, the man seemed a veritable cartoon of an outerworlder. He seemed to enjoy using the coarsest of outerworld mannerisms to scandalize and irritate innerworlders, whom he considered effete snobs. At first Kas wondered how such a coarse loudmouth had attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander, but he learned that Raskin had never been stationed on an inner world. Kas seemed to remember the man’s fitness reports hadn’t been particularly good in any area except gunnery. With crossed fingers and desperate hopes, Kas appointed him Gunnery Officer.
Kas had purposely saved Lordsgrace Worshipful for last. A small, rather voluptuous brunette, she was one of the three that had served with Kas before. Worshipful’s parents had been defectors from the Glory. Kas had known her casually, and knew she was very sensitive about this. In compensation, she had always been very vocal about her contempt for the Glory, and indeed for anyone with religious beliefs. When he’d known her as a junior Lieutenant, she had always seemed to be on a crusade to prove herself as good as the best of the others. Kas had a few reservations about her attitudes toward her more devout colleagues, but he knew that her relentless drive to excel had made her an outstanding officer, if somewhat stiff and formal. After giving her some pointed hints about
