Honor Among Enemies

'May I ask what you're going to do with them, My Lady?'

'Hm?' Honor looked up at him, then smiled briefly. 'I'm not going to space them, if that's what you mean, not unless we find something really ugly in their files, anyway.'

'I didn't think you would, My Lady. But in that case, what will you do with them?'

'Well,' Honor turned her chair to face him and waved for him to sit on the couch, 'I think I'll turn them over to the local Silesian authorities. There's no real fleet base here in Walther, but they do maintain a small customs station. They'll have the facilities to deal with them.'

'And their ship, My Lady?'

'That we'll probably scuttle after we've vacuumed its computers,' she said with a shrug. 'It's the only way, short of actually executing them, to be sure they don't get it back.'

'Get it back, My Lady? I thought you said you'd hand them over to the authorities.'

'I will,' Honor said dryly, 'but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll stay turned over.' LaFollet looked puzzled, and she sighed. 'The Confederacy's a sewer, Andrew. Oh, the ordinary people in it are probably as decent as you'll find most places, but what passes for a government is riddled with corruption. I wouldn't be surprised if our gallant pirate has some sort of arrangement with the Walther System's governor.'

'You're joking!' LaFollet sounded shocked.

'I wish I were,' she said, and laughed humorlessly at his expression. 'I found it almost as hard to believe as you do on my first deployment out here, Andrew. But then I captured the same crew twice... and they were a darned sight nastier customers than this fellow. I'd handed them over to the local governor and he'd assured me they'd be dealt with; eleven months later they had a new ship and I caught them looting an Andy freighter in the very same star system.'

'Sweet Tester,' LaFollet murmured, and shook himself like a dog throwing off water.

'That's one reason I wanted to put the fear of God into that sorry scum.' Honor twitched her head at the hatch through which the prisoner had vanished. 'If he does get turned loose, I want him to sweat bullets every time he even thinks about going after another merchie. And that's also why I'm going to tell him and his entire crew one more thing before I hand them over.'

'What's that, My Lady?' LaFollet asked curiously.

'One free pass is all they get,' Honor said grimly. 'The next time I see them, every one of them will go out the lock with a pulser dart in his or her head.'

LaFollet stared at her, and his face paled at the absolute sincerity in her expression.

'Does that shock you, Andrew?' she asked gently. He hesitated a moment, then nodded, and she sighed sadly. 'Well, it bothers me, too,' she admitted, 'but don't let that fellows sad sack look fool you. He's a pirate, and pirates aren't glamorous. They're thieves and killers. That other crew I told you about?' She quirked an eyebrow, and LaFollet nodded. 'The second time I captured them, they'd just finished killing nineteen people,' she said flatly. 'Nineteen people whose only 'offense' was to have something they wanted, and who'd have been alive if I'd executed them the first time I got my hands on them.' She shook her head, and her eyes were cold as space. 'I'll give the locals one chance to deal with their own garbage, Andrew. Corrupt or not, this is their space, and I owe them that much. But one chance is all they get on my watch.'

Chapter SEVENTEEN

MacGuiness stacked the dessert dishes on his tray and poured fresh coffee for Honor’s guests, then refilled her own cocoa cup.

'Will there be anything else, Milady?' he asked, and she shook her head.

'We can manage, Mac. Just leave the coffee pot where these barbarians can get at it.'

'Yes, Milady.' The stewards voice was respectful as ever, but he shot his captain a moderately reproving glance, then disappeared into his pantry.

''Barbarian' may be just a bit strong, Ma'am,' Rafe Cardones protested with a grin.

'Nonsense,' Honor replied briskly. 'Any truly cultivated palate realizes how completely cocoa outclasses coffee as a beverage of choice. Anyone but a barbarian knows that.'

'I see.' Cardones glanced at his fellow diners, then smiled sweetly. 'Tell me, Ma'am, did you see that article in the Landing Times about Her Majesty's favorite coffee blend?'

Honor spluttered into her cocoa, and a soft chorus of laughter went up around the table. She set down her cup and mopped her lips with her napkin, then beetled her eyebrows at her exec.

'Officers who score on their COs have short and grisly careers, Mr. Cardones,' she informed him.

'That's all right, Ma'am. At least cocoa drinking isn't as revolting as chewing gum.'

'You really are riding for a fall, aren't you?' Susan Hibson observed. The exec grinned, and she reached into a tunic pocket to extract a pack of gum. She carefully unwrapped a stick, put it in her mouth, and chewed slowly, sea-green eyes gleaming challengingly. Cardones shuddered but forbore to take up the challenge, and another laugh circled the table.

Honor leaned back and crossed her legs. Tonight’s dinner was by way of a celebration of their first victory, and she was glad to see the relaxed atmosphere. With the exception of Harold Tschu and John Kanehama, all her senior officers had assembled in the comfortable dining cabin Wayfarers civilian designers had provided for her captain. Kanehama had the bridge watch, but Tschu had planned to attend until a last-minute problem with Fusion One prevented him from being present. It didn't sound serious, but Tschu, like Honor, believed in getting the jump on problems while they were still minor. 'How did it go dirtside, Ma'am?' Jennifer Hughes asked, and Honor frowned.

'Smoothly enough, on the surface, anyway.'

''On the surface', Ma'am?' Hughes repeated, and Honor shrugged.

'Governor Hagen took the lot of them into custody with thanks, but he seemed just a little eager to see the last of us.' Honor toyed with her cocoa cup and glanced at Major Hibson. She and the Marine had delivered their prisoners to the system governor in chains, and she knew Hibson shared her own suspicions. Of course, Susan didn't have the advantage of a treecat. She couldn't have sensed the pirate captain's enormous relief at seeing the governor... which wasn't exactly what might have been expected of a man who anticipated being punished.

'He was certainly that, Ma'am,' Hibson agreed now. She grimaced. 'He seemed a bit put out with your decision to blow up their ship, too. Did you notice?'

'I did, indeed,' Honor replied. Governor Hagen had made noises about commissioning the pirate vessel as a customs patrol ship, and 'a bit put out' considerably understated his reaction to her refusal to turn it over. She contemplated her cup a moment longer, then shrugged. 'Well, it's not the first time, now is it? I'm afraid I can live with the good governor's unhappiness. And at least we're certain we won't see their ship again.'

'Will you really let me shoot them if we pick them up again, Ma'am?' Honor nodded, her expression momentarily bleak. 'Good,' the major said quietly.

At less than a hundred sixty centimeters, Susan Hibson was a petite woman, but there was nothing soft in her eyes or finely chiseled features. She was a Marine to her toenails, and Marines didn't like pirates. Honor suspected that had something to do with the fact that Marine boarding parties were so often first to witness the human wreckage raiders left behind.

'Personally,' she said after a moment, 'I'd just as soon not shoot anyone, Susan. But if it's the only way to really take them out of circulation, I don't see what choice we have. At least we can be sure they have a fair trial before they're executed. And from a pragmatic perspective, it may convince the next batch we pick up that we mean it.'

'Like a vaccination, Milady,' Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Angela Ryder put in from her place at the foot of the table. Ryder was as dark-haired as Hibson, with a thin, studious face. She was also a bit absent-minded and tended to prefer a white smock to proper uniform, but she was a first-class physician. 'I don't like killing people,