Two more long minutes passed. That counted for eight more transmissions and responses. At last, however, Armel stood up and threw his arms high. “C’est fini!”
I unlimbered my big arms and clapped a few for him.
Winslade stopped me irritably. “What now, Armel?”
He shrugged. “Now, you fly as you wish in this province. Do not behave trepidatiously, act as if you belong here. That is my best advice.”
Winslade tapped a skinny finger over his lips. “Hmm… Very well. Helm? Set course for Green World.”
Armel’s gloved hand came up, and he stepped toward us. “Perhaps that would be overly direct. Can you please not give away our intentions so quickly?”
“The last time I checked, the shortest distance between two points is still a straight line.”
“Yes, yes, but if there is another layer of scrutiny, you’ll be giving away our ultimate goal.”
Winslade frowned at him and put his hands on his narrow hips. “Another layer of scrutiny? Did you not just state that we could fly freely in this province from this moment on?”
Armel looked disgusted. “The Skay sentinels are fooled, yes. But there are also enforcer ships here in Province 926. Earth’s fleet performs that service back in our home province, and here, the task is being done by the Saurians.”
“I see… helm! Choose a random course ten degrees off Green World. Every two hours, shift the course again to another random heading, always ten degrees off.”
Armel nodded. “Simplistic, but it will probably be effective. I approve.”
“Good. Now, get off my bridge. All of you.”
Natasha, Armel and I were tossed off the bridge and then Gold Deck entirely. Graves immediately began pelting my tapper with requests for me to report back to the outer hull, but I ignored that for a few minutes.
“So… did you screw us, Armel?”
He looked at me with a puzzled expression. “Why would I do such a thing? I’m aboard this ship with you, am I not?”
“Yeah, but you could be planning on a stealth revive someplace else after we’re blown out of the sky.”
Armel laughed. “You’ve been talking to Claver too much. No one wanted to revive me on Earth the last time. Why would I push my luck by rolling the dice yet again?”
After a bit of thought, I decided he was right. He didn’t have a secret army of clones with revival machines stashed someplace. “Uh… okay. Thanks, then. We’ll fly to Green World and take out the trash.”
Natasha was anxious to get back to Graves and our assigned post. While I was talking to Armel, she managed to scuttle off at a trot. I let her go and continued my ambling pace. I didn’t see any reason to hurry back to that airless pocket between hulls.
Armel walked with me alone. We took our time. When we reached an open officer’s lounge, he gestured toward the entrance.
“Would you share a celebratory beverage, perhaps?”
“I would love to, but Graves already wants to kill me as it is.” I tilted my tapper in his direction. It was chock-full of unread, angry messages. They were all in red text, and some of them were blinking.
“I understand. Let me just say something before you go.”
“What’s that?”
His expression was an odd one. He didn’t meet my eye. “McGill, we’ve never been friends. We probably never will be. Let’s assume that to be the case. But, in this single instance, you’ve played the game fairly. That flogging back at Central—I didn’t care for the experience. But it did give your superiors an excuse to allow me to speak. That was your ultimate purpose, was it not?”
“Oh… wow. You figured me out, Armel. I thought I’d pulled a fast-one there.”
He smiled, accepting my bullshit without question. I’ve found that if you can lie while praising people, it’s much more likely to work.
“Yes, well, I do know you rather well. Anyway, as you’ve earned my favor, I would like you to consider something.”
“What’s that?”
“We’ve passed the sentinels. We’ll probably make it all the way to the target world without being attacked. That is what I’ve done for Earth today.”
“Yep. It was a job well done, too.”
“Yes, yes… but McGill… have you considered what this ship will do on the return journey?”
I blinked at him a few times. “Uh… what do you mean?”
“After we’ve attacked Green World—successfully or not—don’t you think that someone might notice?”
“Oh… they might at that.”
“Yes. I see now that the tiny wheels in your head are turning. I will say no more. Good day, McGill.”
With that, he pushed open the door to the officer’s lounge and headed straight for the bar. I watched him do this, but I didn’t really see it.
My eyes were unfocused. I was imagining the near future.
Once we started shooting, the jig would be up. No amount of sending happy-talk coded messages to the Skay sentinels would stop them from converging on us. They were machines, but they weren’t dumb. They would seek and destroy with a vengeance.
All of them.
After having this disturbing premonition, I considered marching back up to Gold Deck to warn Captain Merton and Winslade. But before my feet could take the first step, I experienced a few… after-thoughts.
I’d just gotten a big win with the brass today. Primus Graves still didn’t like me, but Winslade and the others probably thought I was a hero. That would all be unraveled if I brought them a big sack of unhappy thoughts too soon.
Sure, everyone knew that you weren’t supposed to shoot the messenger who brought you bad news. It wasn’t the fireman’s fault if your house burned down, after all.
But that’s not how people really operated. They did tend to shoot messengers who brought them news they didn’t like. In fact, people did
