religious tolerance, Kas appointed her Environmental/Commissary Officer, responsible for the maintenance of living spaces, laundry, and food and beverage preparation.
Of the other twelve officers, nine were Lieutenants, with five to ten years’ service. Five of the nine were staff officers, including two Engineering officers, two Comp amp; Comm officers, and an Astrogator.
The other four were general line officers. Kas had served with two of them when they were Ensigns, fresh from the academy. He ignored their previous acquaintance, and assigned two of them to Gunnery and Fire Control under Raskin. One of the others went to Supply, and the last he assigned to Wansung as Assistant Operations and Helm Officer.
Finally Kas had three Lieutenants, Junior Grade. With two to four years’ Fleet service, they occupied the second-lowest rung on the officer ladder. Thankfully, Kas had been spared any Ensigns, though he was authorized to commission any NCO’s he found suitable. Two of the JG’s were assigned to Worshipful, and the last to Gunnery under Raskin.
By the time Kas had finished interviewing his officers, Starhopper was nearly ready to break orbit. He hurried to suit up and cross to her. He didn’t want to miss the opportunity to bid farewell to Lar Tennig and, of course, to Lady Jane.
The man-settled universe is a huge place, and attitudes toward male — female relationships run the gamut from the Glory, where extramarital physical contact of any type other than hand-holding is punishable by death for both parties, to places where nudity is common and sexual contact as casual as a handshake.
Lady Jane had been sharing his bed aboard Starhopper for some time, and Kas was fairly certain her mores were as liberal as his own, or nearly so. Still, he couldn’t avoid a sense of guilt and responsibility.
He was relieved when she seemed to take their separation with a reluctance and tinge of regret that matched his own slight wistfulness perfectly. He firmly quashed a constant urge to ask her to move aboard the Rekesh before Starhopper boosted. Once they began moving the cruiser back toward the Empire, there would probably be no chance to drop off passengers. He gave her the remaining cash Empire Intelligence had given him as compensation for their help, and promised to swear if asked that he had coerced their help. Finally, Ler-Traken was hovering around; trying to delicately tell his Commodore the ship was ready to boost and to get the Sheol off! and Kas could delay no longer.
Back aboard the Rekesh, Kas cursed as Starhopper was swallowed up almost immediately by the blackness of space. He didn’t even have the consolation of watching her fade into the distance. He sighed with regret and entered the airlock.
He had no chance to dwell on his loss, however. There was simply too much to do.
His most immediate problem was the habitability of the huge ship. With life support restored, blood, bits of flesh and even body parts that had been missed by the searchers had begun to rot. The stench was nearly unbearable, and permeated the entire ship. The only-partially-restored life support system was simply unable to cope with the problem.
Working parties had dispersed throughout the ship trying to clean up the mess. It was a nasty job, and the NCOs were forced to become increasingly rough to keep the ratings at work. Kas actually had to caution his officers to give the NCOs a loose rein, and to ‘not see’ many infractions.
But as he returned through the Rekesh ’s airlock and unsuited, he encountered one of the working parties, and noted they were all wearing breathing apparatus usually used for exploration work on worlds where harmful trace elements had to be filtered from the atmosphere. He asked the petty officer in charge of the party about the masks.
The man shrugged. “The Chief brought ‘em around to us a couple hours ago,” he replied. “Chief said Lieutenant Commander Worshipful got the supply officer to pull ‘em from stores.” He sighed. “Sure makes a difference, sir. It’s still a nasty job, but at least now we don’t haveta stop every few minutes to barf!”
Kas dismissed the man, and continued to his cabin. He was impressed. Not only had Worshipful thought of the breathers, she’d somehow managed to get an innerworld bigot like Ra-Lavon to pull and issue them without Kas’ signature on a dozen requisition forms. This was the best news he’d had since boarding the Rekesh. It seemed that at least one of his officers was on the ball. In fact, maybe two of them. He determined to find out how willingly Ra-Lavon had participated. Maybe the man wasn’t such a hopeless prig after all.
But the smell wasn’t the only problem aboard the huge ship. When he reached his cabin, he saw urgent messages from the head of the civilian contingent installing the new AI, his new Chief Astrogator, and, of course, Roi Tremling, his Chief Engineer. He sighed, and got ready for a long day. He sighed again. Okay, make that a longer day!
Chapter 13
Var Ler-Traken breathed a huge sigh of relief as Starhopper boosted for the jump point. He might not be aboard Harpy, but at least he had a ship — of sorts. And a mission — one that could turn out to be hazardous, despite Preslin’s assurances.
As Starhopper passed through the tedium that was Jump, Var pored over both the ship’s logs and the supplemental report Preslin had drafted after they’d reached the Rekesh ’s system. The memory crystal containing the supplemental report would be concealed when they reached Remor. It contained the true account of the outward journey. The official log, naturally, contained only the information that supported Starhopper ’s cover.
Var pushed the viewer aside and sat back. Kas Preslin seemed a competent skipper. He approved of Preslin’s actions with the hidden beacon, for instance. And even his own cursory contact with Lieutenant Edro Jans showed Preslin’s switch of his designator from line to staff to be wise.
But regardless of the Commodore’s opinion, he still had his doubts about the two civilians. The woman was obviously Preslin’s doxy. The Commodore had no business risking such a vital mission just because he was horny. But Var had no choice. He called Lady Jane to his cabin, and asked her to brief him on Remor.
She shrugged. “It’s a major trading hub for the whole region. Half the planet’s covered with warehouses. We shouldn’t attract a lot of attention.”
Var frowned. “What about customs?”
She shrugged again. “Not much of a problem. They dragged this huge asteroid into orbit around the planet and built the biggest orbital station in space on it-or, rather, in it. Ships aren’t permitted to ground. They have to dock at the station. Customs just inspects everything removed from the ship.”
“Including the people?”
She frowned. “Not really. I mean, they may have hidden scanners or something but all I’ve ever been asked for is my ship’s papers. They’re pretty informal.”
“Yes. That’s what the Commodore said.”
She merely looked at him for a moment. Then, “You don’t like me or trust me at all, do you, Captain?”
He shook his head. “I neither like nor dislike you, Mistress.” He shrugged. “In any case, my personal likes or dislikes are irrelevant. I’m simply transporting you in accordance with the Commodore’s orders. As for trusting you, No, mistress. Not a bit.”
She sighed. “I think we’ve proved our good intentions. We could have betrayed the Commodore several times on the trip out.”
It was his turn to sigh. “I’ve read the logs. At first, you were under pressure to survive. You’d have promised anything. Oh, I don’t think you’re Alliance agents. But I must consider the possibility that you helped the Commodore only until you could learn where the Rekesh was located. Now that you know where she is, and that she is salvageable, it would be easy for you to contact the Alliance ambassador on Remor and pass your information along. I think the Commodore’s actions with regard to you were… unwise.”
Suddenly she smiled. “You mean you wouldn’t have picked us up?”
He shook his head. “No, Mistress, I wouldn’t. If I’d been on a mission as important as that, I’d have taken no chances. The Commodore admits in his logs that he knew what he should have done. He made his decision despite that realization. I’m not sure he’d have made the same decision if you’d been a hairy, two — meter male.”
The smile widened. “So you think I worked my feminine wiles on the Commodore and seduced him from the Path of True Duty.” Var could hear the capitals in the final phrase.
