me. Your message is understood and we’ll take shelter. All wormhole stations were occupied by the enemy, so far as we can tell. We’ll stand by for any further—” His eyes darted to the other display again. “I can see your missile has been fired. We’ve got to halt our countdown and get all our spare rations and gear out of the hard shelter, so good luck to you and yours. We’ll remain standing by.”
Martinez smiled. The tiny radiation shelter on a lifeboat was designed to hold the crew in very close quarters during a solar flare emergency, not a very likely occurrence in the vicinity of a brown dwarf like Protipanu. Apparently Severin had been using his shelter as a butler’s pantry.
There was quite enough time to clear the shelter out.Illustrious ‘s missile had to counter the momentum imparted to it by the squadron before it could begin to claw its way toward its target, and everyone involved was going to have plenty of warning, even the Naxids.
Martinez called up his weapons plots, and let the computers calculate trajectories for a moment. Then he turned to Michi.
“My lady squadcom,” he said, “Station Three is clean across the system and it’s probably too early to start shooting at it. But we can most likely take out Station One before the Naxid squadron learns the missiles are on the way and takes effective countermeasures. The station is relatively close to us, and if the enemy are where Severin says they are, they won’t have time to fire countermissiles. They’re going to have to use lasers, and at that range, if our missile is jinking, they’ll have to be very lucky to hit it.”
Michi nodded. “Transmit the order, then. Let’s make it two missiles, just in case.”
Martinez contacted Husayn again and gave the order. There might be enough warning, he thought, for the Naxids to escape through the wormhole if they had a lifeboat like Severin’s, and then he wondered at his squeamishness at killing the station crews. They were rebels, of course, and deserved death almost by definition. At Hone-bar his orders had killed thousands of enemy, and it hadn’t occurred to him to hesitate. Yet something in him shrank at the thought of the crews’ helplessness, at the fact that they’d see their death coming for hours in which they could do little but watch their oncoming extinction.
So, he asked himself, he would feel better about killing them if they could only shoot back? There did not seem a high survival value attached to this strategy. The entire empire had been built on using massive force against helpless populations, and was now convulsed by a civil war in which thousands, millions, even billions could die. Martinez told himself that he should get used to it.
Lady Michi didn’t seem troubled by these considerations. She unbuckled her webbing and rolled her cage forward to plant her feet on the deck.
“It doesn’t look as if anything very exciting is going to happen for several hours,” she said. “I’m going to stretch my legs and get something to eat. Lieutenant Coen,” to the signals lieutenant, “tell the squadron that this would be a good time to feed crews in shifts.” She looked at Martinez. “Monitor the situation till I return, Captain Martinez. Let me know if there’s any change.”
“Very good, my lady.”
He let the thoughts go and busied himself with his displays. Over the next couple of hours flights of vehicles winked into existence on the screens as theIllustrious radars began to confirm elements of what Severin had told them. Severin’s data indicated these were all decoys, though their behavior didn’t prove anything one way or another.
Before Lady Michi returned, Station 2 was engulfed by an antimatter fireball. Martinez decided that this didn’t qualify as sufficiently exciting news to disturb her, though he reported it verbally, half an hour later, when she returned.
“Thank you,” she said, showing little interest. “Anything else?”
Martinez showed her the displays. “The Naxid squadron should be realizing we exist about now.” He looked at her. “Do you suppose they’ve been ordered to Zanshaa, to meet the advance from Magaria? Or to Seizho to block the hypothetical escape of our hypothetical Home Fleet? If that’s the case, we may just exchange places like a couple of dancers and then go about our business.”
Lady Michi seemed intrigued by this idea. “When will we find out?”
“They’ll burn past Aratiri in twenty minutes or so. Either they’ll carry on toward Wormhole Two, or swing toward Pelomatan after us, but we’re not going to get to see what they do for a hundred or so minutes after that.”
“Interesting.” She put a hand on her acceleration cage and lowered herself into her couch. “Have we heard from Mr. Severin?”
“No, my lady, but he was well outside the deadly range of the blast.”
“I want to put him in for a decoration. Freezing out here for five months was a brave and noteworthy thing, and he did it on his own initiative.”
“Yes, my lady.” Martinez considered this. “But how are we going to let the Fleet know of the recommendation? We’ll be out of touch for months. Severin may have to carry his own recommendation home with him.”
Michi frowned. “That won’t look good, will it? Showing up at the Seizho ring station and saying, ‘By the way, I’ve earned a medal’?” She let go of the acceleration cage and let the couch swing to its neutral, reclined position. Somewhere a bearing squeaked. She pulled down her displays to the locked position in front of her.
“Well then,” she said. “Since the Exploration Service is under Fleet control for the duration of the war, we may as well take advantage of the fact. Inform Mr. Severin that he’s just received a field promotion to full lieutenant.” She turned to her signals lieutenants. “Li, call up the appropriate document. I’ll sign it and send a facsimile to Severin.”
Martinez watched this display of privilege and patronage with surprise and a degree of awe. Severin was a commoner, and commoners were rare in the officer corps. Rarer still was a field promotion. Martinez didn’t think there had been one in centuries.
Martinez triggered his comm display. “Mr. Severin,” he said, “this is Captain Martinez. Squadron Commander Chen wishes me to inform you that in return for your gallantry and enterprise you have just received a field promotion to full lieutenant.” Thegallantry and enterprise was his own addition, but he thought it sounded good.
He smiled. “Allow me to be the first to call you ‘my lord.’ Your lieutenancy is very well deserved. Have a pleasant return journey. End transmission.”
He raised his head from his displays and saw Lady Michi smiling at him. “Why don’t you take a break?” she said. “I’ll let you know what the Naxids do around Aratiri.”
“Very good, my lady. Thank you.”
He unwebbed and got to his feet, and as soon as he began to move realized how badly he’d stiffened from his hours on the couch. He hobbled toward the door, and as he went he slaved the tactical screen to his sleeve display.
No sense in being out of touch.
Severin turned to his crew. “Would any of you care to be thesecond person to address me as ‘my lord?’” he asked.
There followed a moment of profound stillness.
“Right,” Severin said. “Let’s get on with the diagnostics, then.”
Though Severin hoped the radiation hadn’t touched the crew in their little shelter, some stray gamma ray from the destruction of Station 2 might have damaged the lifeboat’s electronics, and so a check was clearly in order.
As the diagnostic programs ticked along, Severin considered how his future had just changed. The Exploration Service was small, and he’d just made the leap to its elite—and furthermore, the rank carried even more weight now that the service had been militarized. He could now give orders to Fleet personnel—he could give orders to Fleetofficers, provided he outranked them, and as a full lieutenant he now outranked all sublieutenants and full lieutenants with less than—he checked the chronometer—two minutes’ seniority.
He could give orders toPeers. And despite lieutenants being called “my lord” as a traditional courtesy, he wasn’t a lord, and wasn’t ever going to be.
He wondered how the lords were going to like that.
Maybe I won’t be invited to their lawn parties, he thought. Though he suspected the situation was going to be
