On Basilisk Station

'I think you're right, Chris.' He looked down at the bearing ring on the glasses' mount, then raised his wrist com to his mouth. 'Hiro?'

'Here, Skipper,' Yammata's voice came down from the pinnace hovering overhead.

'I think Rodgers has spotted it. Take a look at that ridge to the north, bearing—' he looked back at the ring '—zero-one-eight true from this relay.'

'Just a sec, Skipper.' The pinnace shifted slightly, and Yammata came back up on the com almost instantly. 'Tell Chris he's got good eyes, Skip. That's it, all right.'

'Good.' Tremaine gave the NPA man a tight nod of approval, then looked back up at the pinnace. 'Have Ruth pick us up, and let's get over there.'

'Aye, aye, Sir. We're on it.'

'Major Papadapolous, Ma'am,' McKeon said, and stood aside as Captain Nikos Papadapolous, Royal Manticoran Marines, marched into Honor's briefing room.

There could be only one 'captain' aboard a ship of war, where any uncertainty over who someone was referring to in the midst of a critical situation could be fatal, so Papadapolous received the courtesy promotion to avoid that confusion. And he looked every centimeter a major, despite his captain's insignia, like someone who'd just stepped out of a recruiting poster, as he paused inside the hatch. Barney Isvarian was a real major, but far less spruce-looking. In point of fact, he looked like hell. He'd had exactly no sleep in the twenty-nine hours since sixty- one of his best friends were killed or wounded, and Honor was fairly positive he hadn't even changed his clothes.

Papadapolous glanced at the NPA major and clicked to attention, but there was a dubious look in his eyes. The Marine was dark, despite his auburn hair, with quick, alert eyes, and he moved with an assurance just short of cockiness and the limber power of the RMMC's strenuous physical training program. He was probably all spring steel and leather and dangerous as a kodiak max, just like the poster said, Honor thought sardonically, but he looked like an untested recruit beside Isvarian's stained and weary experience.

'You sent for me, Captain?' he said.

'I did. Sit down, Major.' Honor pointed to an empty chair, and Papadapolous sat neatly, looking alertly back and forth between his superiors.

'Have you read that report I sent you?' Honor asked, and he nodded. 'Good. I've asked Major Isvarian here to give you any additional background you require.'

'Require for what, Ma'am?' Papadapolous asked when she paused.

'For the formulation of a response plan, Major, in the event of an attack on the Delta enclaves by Medusans armed with similar weapons.'

'Oh?' Papadapolous furrowed his brow for a moment, then shrugged. 'I'll get right on it, Ma'am, but I don't see any problems.'

He smiled, but his smile faded as the Captain looked back at him expressionlessly. He glanced sideways at Isvarian and stiffened, for the NPA major wasn't expressionless at all. His bloodshot eyes looked right through the Marine with something too close to contempt for Papadapolous's comfort, and he turned defensively back to Honor.

'I'm afraid I can't quite share your confidence, Major,' she said calmly. 'I think the threat may be somewhat more serious than you believe.'

'Ma'am,' Papadapolous said crisply, 'I still have ninety-three Marines aboard ship. I have battle armor for a full platoon—thirty-five men and women—with pulse rifles and heavy weapons for the remainder of the company. We can handle any bunch of Stilties armed with flintlocks.' He stopped, jaw clenched, and added another 'Ma'am' almost as an afterthought.

'Bullshit.' The single flat, cold word came not from Honor but from Barney Isvarian, and Papadapolous flushed as he glared at the older man.

'I beg your pardon, Sir?' he said in a voice of ice.

'I said `bullshit,'' Isvarian replied, equally coldly. 'You'll go down there, and you'll look pretty, and you'll beat the holy living hell out of any single bunch of Medusans you come across, and that'll be fucking all you do while the nomads eat the rest of the off-worlders for breakfast!'

Papadapolous's face went as white as it had been red. To his credit, at least half his anger was at hearing such language in his commanding officer's presence—but only half, and he glared at the haggard, unshaven Isvarian's wrinkled uniform.

'Major, my people are Marines. If you know anything about Marines, then you know we do our job.'

His clipped voice made no effort to hide his own contempt, and Honor started to raise an intervening hand. But Isvarian lurched to his feet before she got it up, and she let it fall back into her lap as he leaned towards Papadapolous.

'Let me tell you something about Marines, Sonny!' the NPA man spat. 'I know all about them, believe me. I know you're brave, loyal, trustworthy and honest.' The bitter derision in his voice could have stripped paint from the bulkheads. 'I know you can knock a kodiak max on his ass at two klicks with a pulse rifle. I know you can pick a single gnat out of a cloud of 'em with a plasma gun and strangle hexapumas with your bare hands. I even know your battle armor gives you the strength of ten because your heart is pure! But this ain't no boarding action, `Major' Papadapolous, and it's no field exercise, either. This is for real, and your people don't have the least damned idea what they're fucking around with down there!'

Papadapolous sucked in an angry breath, but this time Honor did raise her hand before he could speak.

'Major Papadapolous.' Her cool soprano wrenched him around to face her, and she smiled faintly. 'Perhaps you aren't aware that before joining the NPA, Major Isvarian was a Marine.' Papadapolous twitched in shock, and her smile grew. 'In point of fact, he served in the Corps for almost fifteen years, completing his final tour as command sergeant major for the Marine detachment on Saganami Island.'

Papadapolous looked back at Isvarian and swallowed his hot retort. The Saganami Marines were chosen from the elite of the corps. They made up the training and security detachments at the Naval Academy, serving as both examples and challenges for the midshipman who might one day aspire to command Marines, and they were there because they were the best. The very best.

'Major,' he said quietly, 'I ... apologize.' He met the older man's red-rimmed eyes unflinchingly, and the NPA man slumped back into his chair.

'Oh, hell.' Isvarian waved a hand vaguely and flopped back into his chair. 'Not your fault, Major. And I shouldn't have popped off that way.' He rubbed his forehead and blinked wearily. 'But all the same, you don't have any idea what you're getting into down there.'

'Perhaps not, Sir,' Papadapolous said, his voice much more level as he recognized the exhaustion and pain behind the NPA major's swaying belligerence. 'In fact, you're right. I spoke without thinking. If you have any advice to offer, I would be most grateful to hear it, Major.'

'Well, all right, then.' Isvarian managed a tired, lop-sided grin. 'The thing is, we don't have any idea how many of those rifles are out there or what the nomads are planning to do with them. But you might want to bear this in mind, Major Papadapolous. We've fitted that thing with a standard butt stock and test-fired it. It's got a kick you won't believe, but Sharon Koenig was right—it's also got an effective aimed range of somewhere over two hundred meters. It could use better sights, but a single hit will kill an unarmored human being at that range with no trouble at all.'

He leaned back in his chair and inhaled deeply.

'The problem is that your people can undoubtedly trash any of them you see, but you won't see them unless they want you to. Not in the bush. A Medusan nomad could crawl across a pool table without your seeing him if he didn't want you to. And while your body armor may protect you, it won't protect any unarmored civilians.'

'Yes, Sir,' Papadapolous said even more quietly. 'But is it really likely that we'll see some sort of mass uprising?'

'We don't know. Frankly, I doubt it, but that doesn't mean we won't. If it's only a series of small-scale incidents, then my people can probably handle it, but someone's been dumping mekoha