Honor Among Enemies

Angela Ryder looked up as another rescue party staggered into sickbay. She and her sole remaining assistant had just amputated Susan Hibson’s right leg and had no time to spare from their desperate, losing fight to save Sergeant Major Hallowell’s life, but Yoshiro Tatsumi was there in an instant, bending over the writhing, skinsuited woman the party carried.

It was a miracle sickbay had retained pressure. The surgeons were working on backup power only, and Ryder refused to let herself think about what happened when that power ran out. Anyone she saved would only die later. She knew that, but she was a physician. Her enemy wore no uniform, and she would fight him to the last ditch.

'Well, whatever they did to us, we must've hit them just as hard,' Cardones said wearily, and Honor nodded. They'd done what they could for their wounded, and she and Rafe had tried every sensor in an effort to find the Peep battlecruiser. None of the systems they'd tried still worked, but Rafe was right. If the Peeps weren't at least as badly hurt as Wayfarer, they would already have finished her off.

Not that she needed much 'finishing.' Honor shook herself, then reached up as Nimitz stirred on her shoulder. The 'cat twisted, and she felt his pain and confusion. But she also felt him reaching out to her, and to Samantha. She sensed his terrible surge of relief as he realized both of them were still alive, and he clung more firmly to the grab ring as he poured that relief into her.

But for now, she had to determine the condition of her shattered command, and how...?

'Captain Harrington, this is Lewis in DCC,' a voice said over her suit com. 'Captain Harrington, please reply.'

'Lewis?' Honor shook herself. 'Captain here, DCC. Go.'

'Aye, Ma'am.' The relief in Ginger’s voice was as vast as Nimitz's, and she paused just a moment before she continued. 'Ma'am, I've been contacting each station by suit com,' she said, and her tone was flat now. 'So far, less than twenty percent have responded. What we know so far is that Fusion One's gone, but Fusion Two is still on-line. Environmental is a total write-off. Main Hyper took a direct hit, and we've lost the generator. Both Warshawski sails are down, and Impeller One and Impeller Two are both badly damaged. We may be able to get a few beta nodes back in each ring, if we can find anyone for repair parties, but not the sails. Artificial gravity's also out, the Bosun's trying to get down there for a look. I won't know if we can get it back until I hear from her, but it doesn't look good. As nearly as I can tell, all sensors are out. We've got one operational graser in the port broadside, and a single tube to starboard, but no sidewall, no radiation fields, and no particle shielding. The hull's a mess. Without a survey, I'm not sure we've got enough frame integrity left to stand up to the drive even if we can get the impellers back. Sickbay still has pressure and backup power, and I've got some people trying to restore main power to it. Flight Ops is totaled, but both pinnaces are intact, and we've got a pilot for both of them, one'll need a replacement flight engineer, though.'

The voice on Honor's com paused, hesitated, and then resumed quietly. 'The head count from the people reporting in is under a hundred and fifty, Ma'am. I think that's pessimistic, but it's the only hard number I have now.' Ginger cleared her throat. 'That's my report so far, Captain. Sorry its not complete, but we're working on it.'

Honor’s eyes were wide with astonishment. It was incredible. A senior chief, and one who'd been jumped from a mere second-class tech less than six months before, had somehow managed to pull together all that information entirely on her own initiative. Anguish for the death toll Ginger had reported twisted deep within her, but it only confirmed what she'd already guessed, and she couldn't let it paralyze her.

'Don't apologize, Ginger,' she said, unable to see the other's flush of pleasure as she used her first name. 'I can hardly believe you've already managed so much. Stay with it, and keep Commander Cardones informed in parallel with me. First priority is getting sickbay's power restored and making sure nothing happens to its atmospheric integrity.'

'Aye, aye, Ma'am. We're on it.' Honor turned to Cardones, and the exec shook his head grimly, then leaned forward until their helmets touched.

'We've had it, Skipper,' he said quietly, letting the contact of their helmets carry his voice to keep it off the com. 'With no generator and no sails, we're dead, even assuming we could get enough life support back to take us anywhere.'

'Agreed.' Honor spoke softly, her face wrung with pain. 'On the other hand, we may as well keep our people busy.' He nodded, and she went on. 'See what you can do to organize a repair party from up here. Try to get into the central lift trunks. They don't have power, but they're the only way we're going to be able to get people into contact with one another. Check for compartments that are still pressure-tight, then I want you and MacBride to take over on the rescue parties. I want everyone who's still alive found. It may not matter in the long run, but I won't have any of my people trapped alone and dying in some compartment somewhere.'

'Yes, Ma'am.' Cardones nodded again and pulled their helmets apart, and Honor switched com channels to one she hadn't yet had the courage to try.

'Mac?' she said hesitantly, and some of the anguish leached out of her face as a voice replied.

'I'm here, Ma'am. I'm afraid your quarters are a mess, but I've checked the life-support module. Samantha seems to be all right, but I can't be sure. She's curled up on the floor and won't look up when I tap the view port.'

'Harry Tschu's dead, Mac,' she said softly. 'All we can do for now is leave her in peace, but I want you to stay with her. I want her to know someone's there.'

'Understood, Ma'am,' he said quietly.

'I'll get back to you,' Honor promised, then changed channels once more, this time to the all-hands frequency, and her voice was strong and calm when she spoke again. 'All right, people, this is the Captain,' she told the shattered remnants of her crew. 'We're in bad shape, but we're still here. Work your way towards Deck Zero-Zero. We'll assemble there and work back out on SAR and damage survey. Anyone wounded or trapped in a compartment, report by com to Senior Chief Lewis in DCC or to Search and Rescue. Don't worry. We'll get you out. Captain, clear.'

She switched her transmitter off and looked around her command deck once more, wondering what she could do once she did get them all out.

But nothing came to her.

'That's it, Skipper.' Annabelle Ward's voice was hushed. 'I don't know what happened, but both impeller signatures went off the plot almost simultaneously.'

'We didn't just lose the range?'

'No, Ma'am. They just... vanished.'

Fuchien looked at Sukowski. It was possible one or both of the other ships had survived, but both had clearly lost their drives, and that was a bad sign.

'Skipper, we don't have anything at all on sensors,' her exec pointed out in the low voice, of a man who hated what he heard himself saying, and Fuchien nodded. Lady Harrington's orders had been clear, and she and Wayfarer had bought Artemis the chance to escape. But Artemis was also the only ship which knew what had happened to Wayfarer and the Peep battlecruiser, or, at least, where it had happened.

'We can't leave,' someone said, and Fuchien turned in shock, for it was Klaus Hauptman. Her employer faced her, his face gaunt and his eyes haunted, but there was something behind the shame in them now. He shook his head, then looked at the other officers on her bridge, and at his daughter, and went on in a quiet, almost humble tone none of them had ever heard.

'I... haven't handled this well. If I hadn't held Artemis in New Berlin for the freighters, we would've crossed the rift up in the epsilon bands, and the Peeps never would have seen us. As for the way I spoke to Lady Harrington...'

He paused and shook his head again, and his voice was a bit stronger when he resumed.

'But that's beside the point now. We know where Wayfarer went off the plot, and we know what her vector was. If there's anyone left alive aboard her, or aboard the Peep, I suppose, we're the only people who can help them.'