to make this deal.”
Kas frowned. “Then you think it’s safe for us to follow orders — that we won’t be met by a battle group and blown to emm-cee squared.”
She smiled grimly. “Where Ta-Lank’s involved, there’re no guarantees, sir. However, if he’s made a deal, he will go through with it. The only thing Ta-Lank has to sell is his reputation for honoring his word and his deals.
“Besides, I don’t think Rajos IX would make a deal with Ta-Lank involving the murder of Fleet people. Ta- Lank has no honor, but the Emperor certainly does.”
Kas nodded. “I agree. And Grand Admiral Pankin would resign before giving such an order, even if he thought he could find crews willing to carry it out.”
Ler-Traken snorted. “Oh, I think he could find the crews. All he’d have to tell them is that we’re plague ships.”
Kas shrugged. “Perhaps. But I still think he’d resign before giving an order like that.”
To-Ling nodded. “I agree. Anyway, it seems we have no option but to obey our orders.”
Ler-Traken snorted again. “Wrong. There is one option that has not been mentioned. We could send Starhopper to To-Han and negotiate with the Alliance.”
To-Ling sprang to her feet. “Traitor!” she hissed. “How could you even suggest such a thing?”
“Sit down, Commander,” Kas said mildly. “Captain Ler-Traken is right. It is an alternative, and should be considered. I asked for suggestions, and it is your duty to advise me. Besides, I don’t think the Captain was advocating that course of action. Were you, Captain?”
Ler-Traken’s face split into a grin. “No, sir. However, it is an option, and needed to be discussed. And rejected.”
Kas nodded. “I agree. Even if I ordered it, I doubt we would be able to get enough of the crew to agree to even fly the Rekesh there. And we really do not want to touch off another mutiny.
“So don’t worry, Commander. We’re not going to commit treason.”
To-Ling sat back down, a puzzled expression on her face. “So, what are we going to do, sir?”
Kas shrugged. “I guess we’re going to follow our orders, Commander.”
They sent for charts, and the three pored over them.
Finally, Kas straightened and stretched. “They’re sure sending us the long way around. I think some idiot just drew an arc around man-settled space, and decided that should be our course.”
“D’you think they’ve negotiated passage, Commodore? Or are we still likely to have to fight our way through?”
Kas shook his head. “I don’t know. A lot of this course lies through unclaimed space. I’m sure they have negotiated passage through those areas that are claimed. But you will notice we go nowhere near the Glory. That means they haven’t signed onto any free passage agreements. Moreover, they aren’t the only independent without discernable morals. I wouldn’t trust Maximum Leader S’ran T’kando of Libertad as far as I could throw him.”
Ler-Traken snorted. “That wouldn’t be far. He must mass 200 kilos in a one-gee field!”
Kas shot him a quick grin. “I know. The point is that there are k'nith in this pond, and by now they know our route. Moreover, T’Kando and the Glory’s Council of Elders, among others, aren’t going to let a little thing like a plague keep them from getting their hands on a battle cruiser. A schoolchild could plot this course backward and locate this system. Sheol, a Glory battle group could be heading for this system right now.”
The two Commanders exchanged troubled glances as Kas continued. “And as you, Captain Ler-Traken, learned, we can’t expect to be met and escorted by a fully armed battle group. Therefore, we cannot relax. In fact, any time we’re in normal space, we’ll have to be at full alert. The only time we’ll be able to relax will be during Jump, when we’re supralight.”
Ler-Traken straightened. “Are we going to full alert now, Commodore? If so, I need to get back…”
His voice trailed off as Kas shook his head. “Not yet, Captain. We still have the detection buoy at the jump point. We’ll have at least two days’ warning if anyone shows up here.” He shook his head again. “No, I’d rather concentrate on getting Rekesh ready to get underway.”
He turned to To-Ling. “How long, Commander? I know the new nav comp has been installed. Have the files been downloaded?”
To-Ling nodded. “Being done as we speak, sir. We had to wait for Starhopper to get back, since her nav comp contained the data.
“The only other holdup is the AI. The tech in charge told me this morning that it should be ready to activate in a day or two — at least for testing.”
Kas frowned. “We don’t have time for fancy testing. Tell the… no, I’ll tell him. They can debug the damned thing in Jump. We’ve got to get out of here!” He paused as a thought struck him. “One other thing, Commander. I will want to talk with those civilian techs. I want to see if they can rig controls so that three or four gunners can control most or all of our weapons systems.”
To-Ling frowned. “Is that possible, Commodore? I mean, the weapons control stations are scattered throughout the ship so a few lucky hits can’t disable them all.”
Kas shrugged. “True. But we have to take the chance. And those techs’ lives are on the line, too. Sheol!” He continued, “I don’t know if it can be done. But in this case, unless we can centralize the weapons controls, we’ll only be able to use half or less of Rekesh ’s weapons.” He shrugged. “With only a tenth of a crew, we still can’t beat much of a battle group. But we can damned well let them know they’ve been in a fight!”
“May I make a suggestion, Commodore?”
Kas turned to To-Ling. Irritation tinged his tone. “Of course, Commander. That’s what we’re here for.”
She flushed slightly. “Yes, sir. Sorry. Uh, well, I was just thinking. We are so short-handed that if we are attacked by any decent-sized battle group, we’re going to lose, fancy controls or not. It would be bad enough if the Glory got their hands on the Rekesh. How about we at least get rid of those two planet-busters? Send ‘em into the sun, or something? I mean, just as a precaution.”
Kas shuddered at the mental image of a Rekesh in the hands of the Glory, launching a planet-buster at Prime. “You have a good idea there, Commander. But can we do it safely?”
To-Ling frowned. “What do you mean, sir?”
“Well,” Kas replied, “Planet-busters are matter/antimatter bombs. Pure Emm-Cee squared. Is there any chance two of them might actually be powerful enough to affect this system’s sun?”
To-ling looked troubled. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Ler-Traken snorted. “What difference does it make? It’s an uninhabited system. It doesn’t even have planets in the liquid water belt. I mean, if we toss ‘em into the sun just as we’re Jumping, it won’t matter if the damned star goes nova!”
“Good point, Captain,” Kas replied. “Commander, Get with Lieutenant Commander Raskin and start working on orbits to launch both planet-busters into the sun. And plan a schedule that won’t let them hit the photosphere until we’re nearly at the jump point.”
She winced, but nodded. Obviously, Raskin’s purposely-coarse manners bothered the innerworlder.
Kas sighed. “Well, fighting or not, we’ve got a very long trip ahead of us.”
“Very long, indeed, sir.” Ler-Traken shook his head. “It’s not going to be easy keeping morale up.” He smiled faintly. “Even mine.”
Kas grinned. “Nor mine.” the grin faded. “But you’re right,” he continued more seriously. “We already have morale problems, with the nasty cleanup and rigid discipline we’ve been enforcing.”
To-Ling shrugged. “We don’t have to tell them everything, sir. In fact, we don’t have to tell them anything.”
Kas shook his head. “I don’t work that way, Commander. Besides, I don’t think we could get away with it. “Oh, we could pretend nothing is wrong for awhile. Only the Astrogators and senior officers would have to know.
“But Fleet people aren’t stupid. Before long, crewmembers would begin to wonder why all our recal stops were in uninhabited systems and why they weren’t getting liberty. Even before that, there would be questions about why we hadn’t reprovisioned — why they still had to eat reconstituted ship’s rations. Sooner or later, probably sooner, we’d be forced to tell them.”
To-Ling frowned. “So what do we tell them, sir?”
“The truth, Commander. Almost all of it.”
