For Love and Glory

more.”

“Very well. Carry on.” Valen laughed. “Don’t forget to fix yourselves a bite to eat now and then.” He switched off.

He wouldn’t crack a joke here, would he? Unless—

It shivered through Lissa. She rose. “Esker,” she said, “would you analyze one or two of those red stars?”

The physicist blinked. “Huh? Why, they’re just dim red dwarfs, late M types, milady. You’d need amplification to see any that are more than three or four light-years off.”

“Please. I have a notion about them.”

“But—”

Lissa put command in her voice. “I have a notion. You can do it quickly, can’t you?”

“Well, yes. Automated spectroscopy.” With visible resentment, Esker squinted into a finder and operated controls on a box.

“Hasn’t it struck you odd that we’ve got this many around us?” Lissa asked. “Not that I’ve seen any except the closest, as you said, but they imply plenty more.”

“Red dwarfs are much the commonest kind of star, milady,” Tessa ventured. “They often occur together.”

“I know,” Lissa answered. “These, though, aren’t enough to be a proper cluster, are they?” Of the usual sort, that is.

She saw how Esker stiffened where he stood. Did he see what she was driving at? He stuck to his task regardless, until he could look up and announce: “This specimen is extremely metal-poor. As much so as any I’ve ever seen described. Ancient—” His features congealed. “Shall we survey the rest?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary.” Lissa touched the intercom. “Captain Valen, I can tell you what we have found.”

An astonished-sounding hiss bespoke Orichalc’s presence at the other end. “Then do,” the man said slowly.

Victory responded. “This is the remains of a globular cluster. Old, old, formed almost at the beginning, first- generation stars, when hardly any atoms heavier than lithium existed. Probably drifted in here from the galactic halo. All the big suns in it went supernova ages ago. The lesser ones evolved into red giants, sank down to white dwarfs, radiated away that energy too. Only the smallest and feeblest are still on the main sequence. Everything else is clinkers, cold and black, or at most emitting so little it’s well-nigh lost in the cosmic background. Maybe a few neutron stars give off pulsar beams yet, but weak, and none happen to be pointed at us. More likely, I’d guess, they’re also dead. Cinders, embers, ashes; let’s get out of here.”

Air whispered.

“The radio waves?” Valen asked. She heard the strain.

“Beacons,” she said. “What else? You’d need them to find your way around in this gloom. The debris may not be closely packed by planetside standards, but the risk of collision would be appreciable, especially when you hyperjump, if you didn’t know where objects are. A higher risk would be coming out of a jump too deep in a gravity well, and blowing your engine.

“Somebody finds it worthwhile to mine the cluster. The ancient supernovae must have plated certain smaller bodies with a rich layer of rare isotopes. I daresay it’s a Skleron enterprise. This sort of thing fits what I’ve read about them.”

Lissa glanced around. The three assistants had retreated toward the bulkheads. They looked alarmed. Esker stood his ground, legs wide apart, shoulders forward, hands flexing at his sides. Lips had drawn away from teeth. Word by word, he spat, “You knew about this. You did not take us to our goal.”

“I will, when your team is ready to cope,” Valen replied coldly. “Congratulations, Milady Windholm. I didn’t expect my little puzzle would be solved this fast. Maybe I should arrange another practice session. Though it won’t be as informative when you’ve been forewarned, will it?”

“You swinesucker,” Esker said. “You smug, white-bellied snotfink. If you think you and your lizard bedmate are fit to command men—”

“Enough. Silence, or I’ll order up the robots and put you in confinement. Go back to your duties.”

Her exultation had vanished from Lissa. It was as if the frozen darkness outboard reached in to touch her. “Captain,” she said, “you and I had better hold a conference.”

He hesitated. “Immediately,” she said.

The response came flat. “Very well. The ship has things under control.” Aside from the people, she thought.

She turned the intercom off. “That’s right, milady,” Esker snarled. “Give him his bucketful right back in his mouth. You’ve got the rank to do it.”

“Have a care,” she said into the smoldering eyes. “Without discipline, we’re done for.”

Striding the corridors, she worked off some tension and arranged some words. At the back of awareness, she was glad of the acceleration. Weightlessness made faces go puffy and unattractive.

XVI

Given Dagmar’s omnipresence, the captain need seldom occupy his own viewglobe. Lissa found him in his cabin. The ship must have announced her arrival to him, for the door retracted as she approached it and stood waiting. “Come in, please,” he invited. She heard the tension in his voice, saw it in visage and stance.

Orichalc uncurled on the deck. “Best I betake myself elsewhere,” he said.

“No, I want to speak with you too,” Lissa answered.

The head shook, solemnly imitating a human negation. “Not at present, honored one. Later, if you still wish. I shall be in my quarters.” Holding the trans in delicate hands, the long body slipped past her. The door closed behind it.

Lissa stared after. “Why?” she asked. “If he meets Esker along the way, there’ll likely be an unpleasant scene.”

“Susaians read emotions,” Valen reminded her. “Orichalc must deem we’ll do better alone.” His tone sharpened. “As for Esker, I’m bloody sick of his insolence. Maybe you can warn him. If he pushes me further, I just might give him twenty-four hours of sensory deprivation, and hope to teach him some manners.”

Yes, she thought, his type is bound to grate on yours. I should have foreseen. Well, it’s up to me to set matters right—or, at any rate, make them endurable.

Returning to him, her glance traversed the cabin. It was larger than the sleeping cubicles, but mainly because it contained a desk, a four-screen terminal with associated keyboards, and access to a tiny bathroom. Otherwise it was monkishly austere, the bunk made up drumhead tight. His garb was a plain white coverall and slipshoes.

“Be seated, milady.” He gestured at the single chair. When she took it, he half settled on the desk. His smile was forced. “Seated because I suppose we’d better allow our groundlubbers another thirty minutes or so of weight to get their stuff properly stowed.”

Nor did she sit at ease. She compelled herself to meet his gaze and say, “I know Esker can be difficult, but he is able. On balance, I judged him the best person readily available for his tasks. I did not anticipate—Valen, I must insist you show the understanding, the, the kind of leadership I thought you would.”

His reply was low, almost subdued, but stubborn. “What have I done wrong?”

“This trick you played on us, with Orichalc’s connivance. I mean to reprimand him as well. Frankly, I feel insulted. But it’s the scientists whom you’ve wronged most.”

“Milady, did you really think we’d be wise to plunge straight to an unknown destination without a single trial run? Now it’s proven that we need a training period, if not a complete shakedown cruise.”

“You know perfectly well, doctrine is that the moment we spot something we’re not sure we can handle, we hyperjump away.”

“We may not be able to, on half a second’s notice.”