The Service of the Sword

out of the way, but he didn't slow down or even look back. She supposed it was possible that he'd never noticed her at all, but she couldn't quite keep herself from wondering if he'd seen her perfectly . . . and recognized her Grayson uniform.

Stop that, she scolded herself. Paranoia is the last thing you need right now! 

She got herself untangled from her baggage, resettled her high-peaked, visored cap on her head, and proceeded along the gallery.

I wonder if I should have reported him? If he really didn't see me, he needs to be jerked up short before he kills someone. And if he did see me, maybe he needs to be jerked up even shorter. But whatever he needs, I don't need to look like I'm whining about how terribly people are treating me.

Her internal debate continued as she made her way through the crowd, but it brought her no closer to an answer before she suddenly found herself at the station end of Gauntlet's boarding tube.

She felt her pace try to slow ever so slightly as the armed Marine sentry noted her approach, but she overrode the temptation sternly. Her heart seemed to flutter in her chest, with a surge of excitement she'd told herself firmly that she wasn't going to feel. After all, it wasn't as if this were the first time she'd reported for duty aboard a starship. There'd been all of those near-space training cruises from the Academy, not to mention the endless hours spent doing things like suit drill, both in simulators and under actual field conditions aboard Hephaestus or one of the training ships. This would be no different, she'd told herself.

Unfortunately, she'd lied. Worse, she admitted to herself, she'd known at the time that she was doing it. This was nothing at all like the near-space cruises, and it wouldn't have been even without High Admiral Matthews' personal little briefing.

She drew a deep breath and walked up to the sentry.

The Marine private saluted her, and she returned the formal courtesy with all the crispness her Saganami instructors had drilled into her.

'Midshipwoman Hearns to join the ship's company,' she announced, and extended the record chip with her official orders.

'Thank you, Ma'am,' the Marine replied, as he accepted the chip and slotted it into his memo board. The board's screen flickered alight, and he studied it for perhaps fifteen seconds, then punched the eject button. He extracted the chip and handed it back to her.

'You've been expected, Ma'am,' he informed her. 'The Executive Officer left instructions that you're to come aboard and report to her.'

'I see.' Abigail kept her tone as expressionless as her face, but something about it must have given away her flicker of trepidation. The sentry's posture never changed, but she thought she saw the faintest hint of a twinkle in his eye.

'If you'll report to the boat bay officer, he'll have someone take care of your locker and get you directed to Commander Watson, Ma'am.'

'Thank you, Private . . . Roth,' Abigail said, reading his nameplate and making less effort to keep her gratitude out of her voice this time.

'You're welcome, Ma'am.' The sentry came briefly back to attention, and Abigail nodded to him and launched herself into the tube's zero-gee.

After the hustle and bustle of Hephaestus' crowded galleries, Gauntlet's boat bay seemed almost quiet. Not quite, of course. There was always something going on in every boat bay aboard every warship in space, and Gauntlet's was no exception. Abigail could see at least two work parties engaged on routine maintenance tasks, and a Marine sergeant's voice sounded with less than dulcet patience as she put a squad through the formal evolutions of an honor guard. Still, there was something soothing about the sudden drop in energy levels and the press of bodies as Abigail landed neatly just outside the painted deck line which indicated where Gauntlet officially began and Hephaestus officially ended. She'd always wondered why the RMN bothered with that line. The Grayson Navy didn't. In the GSN, the shipboard end of a boarding tube belonged to the ship, and the outboard end of the tube belonged to the space station, which had always struck her as a far more sensible arrangement. But the Star Kingdom's navy had its own traditions, and this was one of them.

A junior-grade lieutenant with the identifying brassard of the boat bay officer of the deck looked at her, and Abigail saluted sharply.

'Permission to come aboard to join the ship's company, Sir!'

The lieutenant returned her salute, then held out a hand, and Abigail surrendered her orders again. The lieutenant spent a few more seconds glancing through them than Private Roth had. Then he popped the chip back out of his board and returned it.

'Permission granted, Ms. Hearns,' he told her, and Abigail felt an odd little flutter deep inside as she officially became a part of Gauntlet's crew.

'Thank you, Sir,' she said as she slipped the chip back into its folio and put both of them back into her tunic pocket. 'The tube sentry informed me that I'm supposed to report to the Executive Officer, Sir,' she continued respectfully.

'Yes, you are,' the BBOD agreed. He keyed his com and spoke into it. 'Chief Posner, our final snotty—' he smiled slightly at Abigail as he used the traditional slang for a midshipman '—has just come aboard. I understand that you've been awaiting her with bated breath?' He listened to something only he could hear over his unobtrusive ear bug and chuckled. 'Well, I thought that was what you said. At any rate, she's here. I think you'd better come collect her.' He listened again, then nodded. 'Good,' he said, and returned his full attention to Abigail.

'Chief Posner is Lieutenant Commander Abbott's senior noncom, Ms. Hearns,' he informed her. 'And since Commander Abbott is assistant tac officer, which makes him our OCTO, that means the chief is more or less in charge of our snotties. He'll see to it that you get where you need to be.'

'Thank you, Sir,' she repeated, and her spirits rose. She'd been even more braced against disaster than she'd realized in the wake of High Admiral Matthews' warnings, but so far things seemed to be going well.

'Wait over there by Lift Three,' the lieutenant told her, and flipped a casual wave at the indicated lift shaft. 'Chief Posner will be here to collect you shortly.'

'Yes, Sir,' Abigail said obediently and towed her locker across to the lifts.

'Welcome aboard, Ms. Hearns.'

Commander Linda Watson was a short, solidly built woman with dark hair but startlingly light-colored blue eyes. Abigail guessed that the commander had to be in her late forties or early fifties, although it was sometimes hard for Abigail to estimate the ages of prolong recipients. Graysons hadn't had much practice at that yet.

Watson had a brisk, no-nonsense manner which went well with her solid, well-muscled physique, and her voice was surprisingly deep for a woman. But she also had a pronounced Sphinxian accent, and Abigail felt herself warming to the exec almost instinctively as its crispness flowed over her like an echo of Lady Harrington's accent.

'Thank you, Commander,' she replied. She seemed to be thanking a lot of people today, she reflected.

'Don't let it go to your head,' Watson advised her dryly. 'We always welcome every snotty aboard. That's never stopped us from running them until they drop. And since there are only four of you aboard for this deployment, we'll have a lot more time to keep each of you running.'

She paused, but Abigail didn't know her well enough to risk responding to her possible humor.

'All snotties are equal in the eyes of God, Ms. Hearns,' Watson went on after a moment. 'The reason I invited you to drop by my office before you report to Snotty Row, however, is that not all snotties really are equal, however hard we try to make them that way. And, to be perfectly honest, you present some special problems. Of course,' she smiled a bit wryly, 'I suppose every middy presents some special problem in his or her own way.'

She folded her arms and leaned a hip back against her desk, cocking her head to one side as she contemplated Abigail.

'To be perfectly honest, I was strongly tempted to just toss you into the deep end. That's always been my rule of thumb in the past, but I've never had a foreign princess as a midshipwoman before.'