On Basilisk Station

yet how the operators of that drug lab realized your raid was coming, Major Isvarian?'

The NPA man's face tightened, and she knew he'd suddenly seen where she was headed, but he made himself answer in a level voice.

'No, Ma'am.'

'Then I'm very much afraid, gentlemen, that we have a problem,' she said quietly.

'Problem, Captain?' Papadapolous looked puzzled, and Honor turned towards him, but Isvarian raised a hand.

'May I, Captain?' he asked heavily, and Papadapolous looked across the table at him as she nodded.

'We screwed up, Nikos,' Isvarian sighed. 'To be more specific, I screwed up. We've got a security problem down there.'

'I don't understand, Sir.' Papadapolous glanced at Honor. 'Captain? How could anything the Medusans know about us materially affect our operations? Surely the technological gap is too extreme for them to realize the sort of threat our weapons represent.'

'As far as the natives are concerned, you're probably right, Major,' Honor said. 'But we have very good reason to believe the weapons we're so worried about were supplied to them by off-worlders, and those same off- worlders would appear to have information sources within the NPA or—more probably, in my opinion—within the NPA's civilian support structure. In either case, any pre-positioning of your people would tip them off as to what we're up to.'

'I follow that, Ma'am,' Papadapolous said with a frown, 'but I'm afraid I'm still not certain exactly what you're getting at. Wouldn't their knowledge serve as a deterrent against any open action?'

'Our problem is that we don't know what they're really after, Nikos,' Isvarian said. 'I know Dame Estelle thinks it's more than just money, and it looks like Captain Harrington agrees with her.' He shrugged. 'If both of them think that, I'm certainly not prepared to argue with them. But that means that knowing what we intend to do won't necessarily deter them at all—and it will give them the opportunity to adjust their own plans accordingly if they decide to go ahead.'

'But to what effect?' Papadapolous asked.

'We can't know that,' Honor cut in before Isvarian could reply. She nibbled on her lip for a moment, wondering how much to worry the Marine with. Clearly Papadapolous was concentrating—as he ought to be—on the tactical problem he faced. Equally clearly, he wasn't aware of the behind-the-scenes tension and maneuvering to pull Fearless's (and Honor's) teeth. Or, at least, not of how that might affect his own problems.

'One possibility is that we might scare them back underground,' she said finally, choosing her words with care. 'Presumably, they're up to something fairly involved, and certainly what we've seen so far suggests some very long-term planning. While our immediate objective has to be to prevent casualties and limit damage, a deterrent that's too effective may handicap our long-term objective of stopping them entirely, since we can't do anything to derail their ultimate intentions until they come into the open and try to implement them.' She started to add something more about her own possible time constraints, then decided against it.

Papadapolous watched her face with an attentive frown. He seemed quite aware that there was something she hadn't said, but she'd said enough to give him plenty of food for thought.

'I see,' he said after a moment. He gazed at his holo, eyes thoughtful, then looked back at Honor. 'Would you care to offer any suggestions, Ma'am?'

'Only one,' she said, and turned to McKeon. 'We've just agreed we can cut down on the inspection flights. Can we restrict them to just the boarding shuttles?'

'I don't see any reason why we couldn't,' McKeon said after a moment's consideration. 'It's what they were built for, after all.'

'In that case, I want all three of those pinnaces reassigned from the Government Compound to Fearless,' Honor told Isvarian. 'With all three of them available, we can land Major Papadapolous's entire force in a single assault drop.'

'And retain them all aboard ship without giving away our deployment plans in the meantime,' Isvarian said with a nod.

'Precisely. Major?'

'Well ...' Papadapolous seemed unaware he'd spoken as he peered back down at his display with puckered eyes, and she could almost see the thoughts racing through his brain. He started to speak again, only to pause once more, then nodded slowly.

'It's going to be messier, Ma'am,' he warned, 'and with all my people up here, there's going to be a lot more room for us to pick up on an incident late or bobble our coordination and let something through into the enclaves. That's what concerns me most, but we're not going to be able to integrate my squads with NPA formations without time for them to train in coordination with their parent units, either, so we're going to lose a lot of flexibility and responsiveness once we're down, too. Still, I think we can probably work something out.' He rubbed his jaw, still staring at the holo, then looked up at Isvarian.

'Can you stay aboard another day or so, Major? We're going to have to rethink the entire ops plan, and I'd really value your input.'

'I'll be happy to, Nikos.' Isvarian rose to join his study of the holo. 'And I'm not sure we'll lose quite as much flexibility as you think. We can still plan my people's original positions to tie into your eventual deployments, and maybe we can use First and Second Platoons as squad level reaction forces rather than trying for unit-by-unit integration.'

'That's what I was thinking,' Papadapolous agreed. 'And then—' He broke off and looked at Honor with a hint of apology. 'Sorry, Captain. The major and I can get into the nuts and bolts on our own time. I'll try to have a preliminary plan for you by the end of the day.'

'That will be fine, Major,' Honor told him. She rose and smiled at him and Isvarian. 'I'm still impressed, gentlemen, and I have every confidence your final solution will work out equally well.'

She gave them another smile and beckoned to McKeon. She and the exec walked out of the briefing room. Behind them, through the closing hatch, she saw the two officers they'd left behind hunched over the holo with their heads close together in earnest conversation.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Lieutenant Samuel Houston Webster hummed to himself as he worked his steady way through the mountain of routine signal traffic. Venerable and sacrosanct tradition required every communications officer to resent the paperwork his position entailed, but Webster was guiltily aware that he failed to measure up in that respect. There were days he resented the time it used up, yet the fact that he, alone of his ship's other officers, knew as much about Fearless's information flow as the captain tickled his ego. More than that, it was surprisingly difficult to resent anything he 'had' to do for Captain Harrington.

His fingers danced over his console with practiced ease, and a small corner of his mind occupied itself with other matters even as he kept an eagle eye on the secure traffic he was breaking down into clear. The Captain was good people, he told himself. That was about the strongest accolade in his vocabulary, and very few of his superiors ever earned it. Webster wasn't vain or arrogant, but he was entirely aware that the fortunate accident of his birth meant he was almost bound to become a senior officer himself someday. As such, he'd discovered that he had a tendency to look at his superiors of the moment through two sets of eyes. One belonged to the very junior officer he was, eager to learn from their greater experience and example, but the other belonged to the future flag officer he intended someday to be, and that second set of eyes was more critical than his cheerful exterior might suggest.

He'd been very disappointed in Lieutenant Commander McKeon, for example. If anyone on board should have seen what the Captain was up to and helped her achieve it, it was her exec. But McKeon seemed to have come around, and Webster had made a very careful note of the way the Captain had avoided climbing all over him before he did. There'd been times he'd been a little upset with her for not jerking McKeon up short, but the final