No longer able to get mad at the man, Jason turned away.
'Admiral Richards, Captain Bondarevsky?'
Jason turned back to see a very young captain, wearing commando fatigues and barely out of his teens, in the doorway. Though the man was shorter than him by a good half a foot, and skinny as a rail, Jason could tell from his eyes that he was deadly.
'President Kruger is expecting you, sir, come on in.'
Jason nodded, grateful to be stepping out of the blazing heat of the twin suns and into the dark cool corridor. He followed the captain down into the below ground bunker, the captain leading him through the blast doors into Kruger's small and austere office. The captain withdrew, closing the door behind him.
Kruger looked up from his desk
'Care for a cold one?' and he motioned to a refrigerator.
'Don't mind if I do,' Richards said, and he went over to the refrige and pulled out a beer.
Jason looked at the Admiral angrily and then back at Kruger who sat behind his desk, smiling.
'Well, young captain, out with it.'
'We monitored that signal reporting the confirmed loss of Tarawa, Bannockburn, and Normandy,' he continued. 'Just who the hell do you think you are to do that?'
'Last time I checked I was president of the Landreich son. Just who the hell are you?'
'An officer in the . . .' he paused. He was, in fact, not an officer in Confederation at all but rather on leave, serving the Landreich forces.
'You are under my orders, young captain, and need you or not, I'll put your ass in the clink till this planet turns into an ice ball if you ever talk like that to me again.'
Jason stood silently, still seething with anger.
'How about that beer, Jason?' and Richards came back to his side, holding an open container.
Jason stared at Richards, expecting support, but Richards merely smiled.
'But the emergency decree. Three-ninety-fourA is mobilizing all fleet personnel, and that includes me and my ship,' Jason finally replied.
'Jason, we are officially listed as missing in action, presumed dead,' Richards replied, 'and I think our host intends to keep it that way.'
Jason looked back at Kruger.
'I have your carrier and the others,' Kruger replied. 'We can make this happen one of two ways, young sir. Either you continue to command your ship under Landreich colors or one of my people will. I'd rather have you do it. You know the ship better than anyone else, and besides that, you're damn good. You managed to bring her out in one piece.
'No thanks to you.'
Kruger smiled.
'You're here, aren't you? Therefore, any effort expended on my part to pull you out would have been a waste.'
Jason felt ready to explode again. He had made a fifteen day run out, pursued all the way to the frontier Bannockburn, the only Stealth light recon ship in the fleet was finally turned around and sent back on auto pilot with Paladin cramming into a light shuttle sent over from Tarawa. The momentary delay created by the supposed counter attack had gotten them through the final jump with a very angry Paladin cursing the entire universe over the loss of his ship,
He had not been able to snatch more than two hours' sleep at a stretch throughout the entire retreat and all he really wanted now was for someone at whom to vent his rage for being left out in the cold after doing his mission. A barroom brawl might even serve the bill, and then a good drink followed by a long sleep. And beyond that, there was still the pain of losing Hunter.
Richards, without waiting for the offer from Kruger, settled down on a sagging and thread bare sofa, which obviously doubled as Kruger's bed, and took a long pull on his beer.
'You know something, Kruger,' Richards said, 'I got holy hell over the fact that you hijacked that destroyer from my squadron and went gallivanting off.'
'Vance, that was thirty years ago.'
'Well, I got a reprimand in my file thanks to you, and wound up a desk jockey in intelligence.
'Consider that beer as payment then. You most likely would have had your butt blown off by now if I hadn't worked your transfer for you like that. There are very few old destroyer skippers floating around. Besides, last I heard you loved intelligence work.'
Richards chuckled and held up the container in salute and then looked back at Jason.
'Settle down, son, the old man did the right thing. He didn't have the assets to pull us out, it was that simple. You did a damn masterful job getting out on your own. So damn good I think Kruger here owes you a decoration.'
'I hereby award you the Order of Nova with diamonds and promote you to commodore,' Kruger said sarcastically. 'My adjutant will send you the award and paperwork when he gets the time. It's a nice looking piece of tin, you'll like it. Does that settle it?'
Jason could see that he wasn't going to win but still didn't know what to do.
'I want to rejoin the Confederation fleet with my ship.'
'Impossible,' Kruger snapped. 'I need you here, and here you're staying.'
'Look, son,' Richards said, suddenly serious. 'It's a ten day transit back to Earth at full speed. You'll arrive back to the inner worlds with just twenty fighters on board.'
'None,' Kruger growled. 'Most of them are mine anyhow, and I'm requisitioning the rest.'
'All right then, none, and no munitions, because even if Kruger did let you go I doubt he'd spare one IFF missile out of his stores to refit you.'
Kruger nodded and said nothing.
'The battle shaping up back there, wherever it is they're going to fight it, might already be over. Meanwhile, we can expect a major sortie by the Cats straight in here to pin us down. You could very well run from one action to the other and miss both. It's that simple.'
Jason had already heard the argument once before from Richards just before loading him into the Sabre for the trip from orbit down to the Hell Hole. He'd been too damn angry over the abandonment and then from the signal reporting him dead to think. He realized now he could no longer argue the point.
'Damn you,' he said quietly, looking back at Kruger. 'All right, you won. You've got me.'
'I'm so honored that you would volunteer to join me,' Kruger replied with false sincerity.
He took an old style printout report and held it up.
'This is our latest intelligence report. Three Kilrathi carriers are moving to the frontier and are expected to cross it momentarily, with an estimated eighteen escort ships. They're moving straight at Landreich and will make planetfall here in this system within eighteen hours.'
And your response.'
'Meet them and beat them, it's that simple.'
'Four escort carriers going head to head against three Kilrathi fleet carriers?' Jason asked. 'At best we've got a hundred fighters on board our ships.'
'Eighty seven.'
'They'll have over three hundred. We'll be frozen meat an hour after the action starts.'
'Do you have any better ideas?'
Jason looked at the President. Though he was still simmering with rage he could not help but wish that it had been Kruger who had been running the Confederation instead of Rodham. They wouldn't be in this mess now if it were.
'No, sir.'
'Then get back to your ship . We leave here in six hours.'
'What about the Confederation, sir, what's happening there?'
'The usual screw-up. The only positive sign is that Geoff is heading Third Fleet. They moved out five days ago, and have kept radio silence since.'
'Admiral Tolwyn commanding the Third? What about Banbridge?'
