Shar looked at me skeptically. “How long do you think you can get away with that ‘fat old trader captain’ nonsense?”
I grinned. “Hopefully, long enough to end this ‘Admiral’ nonsense and make it true again.”
His skeptical look didn’t change. “This is Shar you’re talking to, remember? You love every minute of this ‘Admiral nonsense.’ And you’re damned good at it.”
My face grew warm. “C’mon,” I growled, “Let’s go write up a message that’ll keep me out of trouble with Cord.”
Several hours later, I found myself staring into the glowing eye of the camera. “People of Gamma,” I began. “I am Vice Admiral Val Kedron of the Rim Worlds Fleet. It is my great pleasure to be able to inform you that today; the Rim Worlds fleet attacked and captured the Empire Fleet battle cruiser Relentless. Relentless is the ship that has been holding you prisoner and hostage.
“Unfortunately,” I continued, “time and battle damage prevent me from visiting Gamma to deliver this happy message in person, and the distance from the battle site to the planet creates a time lag that prevents two-way communication. By the time your reply to this message reaches my present location, we will be gone. I sincerely regret the impersonality of this one-way announcement, but I’m afraid that I have no choice in the matter. I hope that those of you with broadcast facilities will distribute this message to the people of Gamma.
“I doubt that Admiral Jonas can spare the forces to again menace Gamma. We expect him to concentrate his forces at Haven. He has lost two destroyers and a battle cruiser. He is in retreat, and soon, we will pay him a visit at Haven and put an end to this treason and mutiny.” I sighed before I continued, “I’m sure that Viceroy Cord will soon be in contact with you. But now, I must be on my way. There is much to be done. Thank you for your kind attention.”
The glowing eye faded, revealing Shar standing behind it, grinning like an idiot. He put his palms together and raised them to his cheek. “My Heeeero!” He gushed in falsetto.
I shot him a threatening look. “One of these days you’ll go too far, and I’ll forget that I’m just a fat old trader captain in an admiral suit.”
The message sent, we finished cleaning up the loose ends of the battle, and returned to Bolt Hole.
Cord was delighted with the results of the battle, but not as happy with what had occurred afterward.
“Admiral,” he fretted, “You purposely avoided going to Gamma. Your return here wasn’t that urgent.”
I made no apologies. “Sir, if I’d gone to Gamma, It would have been days before we could get away again. Probably longer, once Valkyrie ’s crew got liberty on-planet. I had no intention of being trucked around as the duty hero for a week or so.”
He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Admiral, you’re an excellent battle commander, but you have absolutely no concept of the political side of an Admiral’s job.” He waved a hand to signal a change of subject. “Now, tell me about this rim tramp that got cut up, but didn’t blow up.”
I shrugged. “Yes. It was too bad. She was Lubyloo, the ship that took Wil Tor’s commando to Thaeron. A good ship and a good crew.”
Cord was staring at me. “Have you no sense of history, Admiral? I want you to immediately send a rim tramp with a load of boats to recover that ship, and transport it to Gamma.”
I frowned. “Why? She’s damaged beyond economic repair; in fact, I’m not sure repair is even possible.”
He sighed. “Someday that hulk will form the centerpiece of a museum devoted to the rim worlds’ struggle for independence. For now, I want every possible honor rendered.”
In the end, we sent two rim tramps. While mining boats maneuvered the hulk of Lubyloo toward Gamma, the two tramps provided an honor guard.
When they reached Gamma, the boats lowered the hulk to the surface, flanked by the two tramps. Then the boats moved back and landed facing outward, to form a guarding circle around Lubyloo.
The whole thing was broadcast live planet-wide, and the landing field was crowded with thousands of onlookers, since Cord had sent along a tape that had been transmitted to Gamma even before the tramps had located Lubyloo. Cord’s instructions were remarkable.
He began by telling of Lubyloo ’s part in the commando raid on Thaeron, then her participation in the attack on Relentless, and her fatal damage.
He followed his introduction with a series of instructions calculated to transform Lubyloo from a mass of scrap metal to a sector treasure. He instructed that an honor guard be recruited. Lubyloo was to be manned by at least two people at all times, and her colors were to be raised and lowered at the appropriate times.
Her fusactors were to be powered down to the minimum required to provide lighting, heat and cooling, but were not to be permitted to go cold. Thus, Lubyloo would remain on the active list of the rim fleet. Along with the rim tramp escort, Cord had sent a ‘conservator’, whose job it was to inventory and remove the crew’s personal belongings for presentation to their next of kin. Then he was to evaluate Lubyloo and figure out a way to permit visitors to tour the hulk without chancing the pilfering of someday-priceless artifacts.
In this message, Cord also coined the term by which the armed tramps have been identified ever since: Privateer.
For over a week, people crowded the landing field trying to catch a long-range look at the heroic wreck. The encircling mining boats kept them at a respectful distance. There was really little to see, but the crowd never seemed to diminish much.
When she was finally opened for tours, people streamed through her by the thousand. Collection points had been strategically placed at entrance and exit, and in less than a month, nearly a million crowns had been raised for construction of a Lubyloo museum.
Meanwhile, back at Bolt Hole, there was much discussion of our next move. Only six weeks remained until our carefully timed attack on Nemesis could be mounted.
Cord and Bendo wanted to attack the base on Thaeron. Shar and I thought it would be a waste of time, resources, and most importantly, lives.
“But we could cut off his supply line,” Bendo protested.
I shrugged. “He’s not dependent on that supply line. He’s been provisioning by requisitioning supplies on Haven, and he hasn’t been using any ammunition, aside from some for infantry weapons for his marines. When he does use his ammo, it’ll be against us. He won’t be able to restock. If we beat Jonas at Haven, we can simply go to Thaeron, announce that fact, and accept their surrender. No loss of life or ships. I see nothing to be gained by attacking a fortified system.”
“And it is heavily fortified,” Shar added. “Everything from command-detonated mines to heavily fortified moons. It would take a full-scale attack, and even then, we might not win. Why fight an unnecessary battle?”
In the end, we didn’t attack Thaeron, but I’m not convinced that we were persuasive. I suspect it had more to do with the relatively short lead-time to our attack on Nemesis and her companions. We were busy with plans and preparations for nearly the entire six weeks.
Finally, all was in readiness, and Cord ran out of patience.
He sighed. “All right, Admiral, are you going to tell me about it? I mean, I understand classified information, but I think I have a ‘need to know’.”
I nodded. “Yes, sir, but I wasn’t sure about your staff. The last rim tramp left this afternoon, and no one else will be leaving this system until ‘R Day’. I can tell you now.
“As soon as Jonas’ ships settled into a predictable orbit, a dozen boats and a single rim tramp went into action. The boats selected four asteroids of at least a kilometer in one measurement, and began nudging them into an orbit that will slingshot them around the sun and into a collision course with Jonas’s ships’ orbits.”
Cord looked incredulous. “That’s it?” He said, “You’re guiding kilometer-sized rocks into positions where they could hit Haven? Are you insane? Even a minuscule error could wipe out all life on the planet!”
I shook my head. “No, sir. You see, the boats stayed with the rocks. They’re making constant corrections to insure that doesn’t happen, as well as accelerating the rocks. The rim tramp is following along on minimal power and hiding behind one of the asteroids, so as to avoid detection. But we had to be able to rotate boat pilots. It’ll be just over six months from the time they launched the rocks until they cross Haven’s orbit, still guided. We’ll launch our attack just before that time.”
“I see. And what’s to keep Jonas from simply moving out of the way? Those rocks will mass far too much to be moved.”
“Actually, not much,” I admitted. “But they’ll be approaching from behind Haven, if we’ve timed it right. Of
