Honor Among Enemies

'Clear, Senior Chief,' the SBA half-whispered, and she stalked out of the sickbay.

'...so that's the story, Bosun. Neither one of them will tell me a thing, but I know it wasn't any simple fall.'

Sally MacBride tipped back her chair and surveyed the furious young senior chief with level brown eyes. Ginger Lewis had been admitted to the close-knit fraternity of Wayfarer's senior petty officers less than a month earlier, but MacBride liked what she'd seen of her so far. Lewis was conscientious, hardworking, and firm with her people, but she'd managed to avoid turning into a little tin god to hide any sense of insecurity in her new position. That was the one thing MacBride had most feared when the Old Lady announced Maxwell’s and Lewis' promotions. Now she wondered if she should have worried about something else, for she recognized the outrage in the younger woman's eyes. A petty officer who didn't care what happened to her people was useless, but one who let fury govern her actions was almost worse.

'Sit,' she said finally, pointing at the only other chair in her cubbyhole office. She waited until her visitor obeyed, then let her own chair rock back upright. 'All right,' she said crisply, 'you've told me what you think happened.' Ginger opened her mouth, but a raised hand stopped her before she could speak. 'I didn't say you were wrong, I only said that so far it's a case of what you think happened. Is there anything inaccurate about that statement?'

Ginger clamped her teeth together, then inhaled sharply and shook her head.

'That's what I thought. Now, it just happens that Lieutenant Holmes has already spoken to me,' MacBride went on, 'and that I've already spoken to Master-at-Arms Thomas. My own theory, and the Lieutenant's, is the same as yours. Unfortunately, the evidence isn't conclusive. Lieutenant Holmes can tell us that, in his expert opinion, Wanderman's injuries aren't the result of a fall, but he can't prove it. If Wanderman himself won't tell us they aren't, there isn't anything official that we can do.'

'But he's scared, Bosun,' Ginger protested. Her voice was softer, with an edge of pain in it, and she looked at MacBride appealingly. 'He's a kid on his first deployment, and he's scared to death of whoever did this. That's why he won't tell me anything.'

'Maybe you're right. For that matter, maybe I've got a few suspicions of my own about who might have done this.' Ginger's eyes sharpened, but MacBride went on levelly. 'Mr. Thomas and I will talk to Wanderman in the morning. We'll try to get him to open up. But if he won't, and if Tatsumi won't, then our hands are tied. And if our hands are tied, so are yours.'

'What do you mean?' Ginger’s question came out just a bit too sharply.

'I mean, Senior Chief Lewis, that you are not going to play vigilante or masked avenger in my ship,' MacBride said flatly. 'I know you and Wanderman trained together. For that matter, I know you think of him as a kid brother. Well, he's not. He's an acting petty officer, and you're a senior chief. You're not children, and this isn't a game. It's his duty to tell us what happened, and he's a good kid. It may take a while, but I think, eventually, he will tell us. In the meantime, however, you aren't his older sister, or his nurse, and you will refrain from taking any action outside official channels.'

'But...' Ginger began, only to choke herself off as MacBride glared at her.

'I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, Senior Chief,' she said coldly. 'I approve of your concern and sense of responsibility. Those are good things, and they go with your grade. But there's a time to push, and a time not to push. There's also a time to step outside channels and a time to make damned sure you don't. You've brought it to my attention, exactly as you're supposed to. If you can convince Wanderman to tell us something more, good. But aside from that, you will leave this matter in my hands. Is that clear, Senior Chief Lewis?'

'Yes, Bosun,' Ginger said stiffly.

'Good. Then you'd better be going. I believe you go on watch in forty minutes.'

Sally MacBride watched the younger woman stalk out of her office and sighed. As she'd hinted to Ginger, she had a very strong suspicion as to what had happened, and she blamed herself for it. Not that it was all her fault, but she should have run Steilman out of Wayfarer's company the instant she saw his name on the roster. She hadn't, and she wondered how much of that had been pride. She'd kicked him into line once, after all, and she'd been certain she could do it again. For that matter, she was still certain of it... she just hadn't counted on what it was likely to cost someone else, and she should have, especially after his original run-in with Wanderman.

She frowned at her blank terminal. She'd kept an eye on Steilman, but he seemed to have developed a greater degree of animal cunning since their previous cruise together. Of course, he was ten T-years older, as well, and somehow he'd managed to survive all those years without landing in the stockade. That should have told her something right there, yet she still couldn't understand how he'd gotten to Wanderman without her knowing about it. Unless Ginger Lewis' suspicions were correct, that was. Most of Wayfarer's company was as good as any MacBride had ever served with, but there was a small group of genuine troublemakers. So far, she and Master-at-Arms Thomas had managed to keep them in check, or thought they had. Now she had her doubts, and she pursed her lips as she shuffled through her mental index of names and faces.

Coulter, she thought. He was in on it. He and Steilman were both in Engineering. She and Lieutenant Commander Tschu had split them up as best they could, but they were still on the same watch in different sections. That gave them too much time to get their heads together off duty, and it was probable they'd managed to bring in a few more like-minded souls. Elizabeth Showforth, for example. She was running with Steilman, and she was just as bad, in her own way. Then there were Stennis and Illyushin.

MacBride growled to herself. People like Steilman and Showforth sickened her, but they knew how to generate fear, and the inexperience of most of their crewmates would give them more scope for their efforts. Too many of Wayfarer's company were too damned young, without the grit to stand up for themselves. She'd already been picking up rumors of petty thefts and intimidation, but she'd thought it was being held in check and expected the situation to improve as the newbies found their feet.

Given the escalation of what had happened to Wanderman, however, it seemed she'd been wrong. And if the youngster wouldn't come forward and admit what had happened, she couldn't take any official action, which would only increase Steilman's stature with his cronies and make the situation still worse.

Sally MacBride didn't like her own conclusions. She knew she could squash Steilman and his bunch like bugs if she had to, but that would mean a full-scale investigation. It would include a crew-wide crackdown, and the consequences for morale and the sense of solidarity she'd been nurturing might be extreme. Yet if something wasn't done, the canker coming up from below would have the same effect.

She pondered for another few moments, then nodded. As she'd told Lewis, there was a time not to push... but there was also a time to push. Lewis was too new in her grade to do that sort of thing, and MacBride couldn't do it herself without making it too obvious that she was doing so. But there were other people who could make their presence felt.

She punched a code into her com.

'Com Center,' a voice said, and she smiled thinly.

'This is the Bosun. I need to see Senior Chief Harkness. Find him and ask him to come to my office, would you?'

Chapter TWENTY-ONE

'What do we have here?' Captain (JG) Samuel Webster murmured, as much to himself as to Scheherazade's tac officer.

'Don't know, Skip.' Commander Hernando shook his head. 'They're coming in on a fairly standard intercept vector, but there's two of them. That's outside the profile for freelancers. And see this?' He tapped a command into his console, and the estimated power figures on the Bogey One's impeller wedge blinked. 'That's awful high for his observed accel, Skipper. Puts him in at least the heavy cruiser range, and the same holds true for his buddy.'

'Wonderful.'

Webster sat back and scratched his craggy chin. It wasn't supposed to be this complicated, he reflected,