Honor Among Enemies

'counter offensive' against the Confederacy.'

'These people actually believe he can do that?' Jourdain asked skeptically, and Sukowski shrugged.

'I can't tell you that. At the moment, they're pirates; Warnecke still has connections somewhere in the Confederacy willing to dispose of loot for him, and they're doing all right for themselves, despite the way they operate. At least some of them do seem to think they're building up to take back the Chalice, though others sound more like they're just humoring a lunatic. But for the moment, he's got them in line, and from what one or two of them were saying, his contacts are about ready to start supplying him with additional ships, as well.'

'I don't like the sound of that,' MacMurtree muttered.

'Neither do I,' Caslet agreed, and looked at Jourdain. 'Nor, I'm certain, will Citizen Admiral Giscard or Citizen Commissioner Pritchart. We thought Warnecke was dead, so I don't have detailed information on him. But what I do have suggests he's the sort who'd see the chance to capture a regular warship as a way to add to his 'navy.''

'Surely you're not suggesting he could threaten us,' Jourdain protested.

'Don't underestimate these people just because they're animals, Sir. Granted, the Confederacy Navy is incompetent, but Warnecke did hold them off for over a T-year, and got himself out when it finally fell apart. The ship we just took was as heavily armed as one of our Bastogne— class destroyers. He may have others even more powerful, and if he swarms us one at a time, he could take out even a battlecruiser with enough of them.'

'The Citizen Commander's right, Sir,' MacMurtree put in. Jourdain looked at her, and she shrugged. 'I doubt Warnecke could capture one of our units in useable condition, but that doesn't mean he won't try to. And it won't matter to our people whether their ship is destroyed or taken. They'll be just as dead either way.'

'And none of that even considers what kind of atrocities these people are going to be committing in the meantime,' Caslet added.

'Point taken, Citizen Commander.' Jourdain plucked at his lower lip and looked at Sukowski again. 'You don't have any idea where this planet they've taken over is, Captain?'

'I'm afraid not, Sir,' the Manticoran said heavily. 'All I know is that they were working their way back to base.'

'That's something,' Caslet murmured. 'We know where they were a few weeks ago, and we know where they are now. That gives us a general direction, anyway.' He scratched his eyebrow. 'Were these people operating solo, Captain?'

'They were the whole time we were aboard, but from the scuttlebutt, they expected to meet up with at least two or three other ships fairly soon. I'm not sure where, but there's supposed to be a convoy coming into Posnan sometime in the next month or so, and they figure they've got the muscle to take out the escorts.'

'In that case, they probably do have some fairly powerful units, Skipper,' MacMurtree pointed out in a worried voice, and Caslet nodded.

'I assume, Captain Sukowski, that we're talking about a Manticoran convoy?' he asked gently. Sukowski said nothing, only looked uncomfortable, and the citizen commander nodded. 'Forgive me. I shouldn't have pressed you on that, but I doubt even Warnecke would take on a heavily escorted convoy. The only people running escort out here at all are you and the Andies, and you're stretched a lot thinner than the IAN.'

He gnawed on his thumbnail for a moment, then nodded again to Sukowski.

'All right, Captain. Thank you very much. You've been of great assistance, and I think I can speak for my superiors when I say we'll do our best to find and destroy the rest of these vermin. For now, why don't you go on back to sickbay and get some rest? Commander Hurlman's going to need you when she wakes up again.'

'You're right.' Sukowski pushed himself to his feet and looked at the three Peeps, then held out his hand to Caslet. 'Thank you,' he said simply, crushing the citizen commanders hand, then turned and left. The Marine outside the briefing room took him in tow as the hatch closed behind him, and Caslet turned to the other two.

'It's a damned good thing Sukowski and Hurlman were aboard,' he said grimly. 'At least we know something now.'

'Perhaps their computers will tell us more,' Jourdain said hopefully, but MacMurtree shook her head.

'Sorry, Sir. I got an update from Simonson just before Captain Sukowski joined us. They did manage a data dump on the main system, but that bridge hit blew their astrogation section to hell. We've got a lot of information on their ship and its operations, and their 'captains' log tells us where they've been, but it refers to their base simply as 'Base,' with no astro references.'

'So we ask the crew,' Jourdain said, and smiled coldly.

'I think if we offer not to shoot the one who tells us where 'Base' is, someone will come forward.'

'We can try, Sir,' Caslet sighed, 'but now that Sukowski's told us who's behind this, something that didn't make much sense to me before is starting to seem a lot more believable.' Jourdain looked a question at him, and the citizen commander shrugged. 'These people are actually working under operational security. I think that's why the log never refers to their base system by name. It may also explain why the noncommissioned crew doesn't seem to have any idea where it is. Most of their officers had already been detached to handle prize ships, and their astrogator, captain, and exec were all killed when the bridge lost pressure. No one among the survivors seems to know, and what they don't know...'

'...they can't tell us, even to save their miserable lives,' Jourdain finished disgustedly.

'Exactly.' Caslet rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, then punched a command into his terminal, summoning a holographic star map. He tapped additional commands, highlighting certain systems, then leaned back and whistled tunelessly as he studied his handiwork.

'You have an idea, Citizen Commander?' Jourdain asked after a moment.

'A couple of them, actually, Sir,' Caslet admitted. 'Look. We first picked up their trail here in Arendscheldt, then followed them straight to Sharon’s Star, right?' Jourdain nodded, and Caslet gestured to two more stars. 'Well, according to their captain's log, the last two places they tried before Arendscheldt were Sigma and Hera. Before that they took a prize in Creswell, that's why they didn't have the personnel to man Erewhon, they'd used up their surplus crewmen in Creswell, after failing to hit anything in Slocum. You see? They're coming around in an arc, and Sukowski said they meant to rendezvous before hitting a Posnan-bound convoy. I'd guess that means they were heading for either Magyar or Schiller as their next stop. It may also suggest that their base lies down here to the southwest somewhere, but that's a lot more problematical.'

'Um.' Jourdain studied the chart in turn for several seconds, then nodded. 'All right, I follow your logic so far, Citizen Commander, but where is it taking you?'

'Schiller,' Caslet replied with a smile. 'Magyar's well below Schiller, which puts it a good twenty light-years closer to us than Schiller. If it weren't for Sukowski, that would make Magyar seem more likely as these peoples next objective, but Schiller's elevation places it closer to Posnan, and if we head straight there, we may get there soon enough to pick off another singleton who can tell us where their base is.'

'And if they get there in strength first?' Jourdain asked just a bit frostily.

'I'm not feeling particularly suicidal, Sir,' Caslet said mildly. 'If they're present in strength, there's no way I'd tangle with them without a very pressing reason. But the other thing that makes Schiller more attractive to me than Magyar is that we have a trade legation there, and the attache has a dispatch boat. If we pass our information to her, she can use that boat to alert Citizen Admiral Giscard even more quickly than we could.'

'True,' Jourdain murmured, then nodded. 'A very good point, Citizen Commander.'

'Then do I have your permission to proceed to Schiller?'

'Yes, I think you do,' Jourdain agreed.

'Thank you, Sir.' Caslet looked at MacMurtree. 'You heard the Citizen Commissioner, Allison. Tell Simonson to finish up as quickly as she can, then get the demolition charges planted. I want to pull out within the next two hours.'