The Shadow of Saganami

And God knew someone had to keep the works wound up and running. But neither of them could quite understand why someone would deliberately choose to be a glorified mechanic.

'So,' Aikawa said after moment, his lips pursed, 'with you and me, that makes four in Snotty Row? Two each of the male and female persuasions?'

'Yeah,' Helen said again, but she was frowning slightly. 'I think there's one more, though. I didn't recognize the name-Rizzo or d'Arezzo.' She shrugged. 'Something like that.'

'Paulo d'Arezzo? Little guy, only four or five centimeters taller'n I am?'

'Don't know. Far as I know, I've never even met him.'

'I think I have, once,' Aikawa said as the two of them turned down another hallway and the crowd got even denser, packing tighter together as the corridor narrowed. 'If he's who I think he is, he's an electronics weenie. Pretty good one, too.' Helen looked a question at him, and shrugged. 'I only met him in passing, but Jeff Timberlake worked a tactical problem in the final sims last term with d'Arezzo as his EW officer. Jeff said he was a damned good EWO.'

'Sounds promising,' Helen said judiciously.

'So that's it? Five of us?

'Counting you,' she agreed as they squeezed their way along. 'And as far as I know. But the assignment list wasn't complete when I got my orders. They told me there'd be at least one more snotty, but they didn't know who at that point. I guess that's the slot they dropped you into. Speaking of which, how did you get your assignment changed?'

'Hey, I was telling the truth for once!' he protested. 'All I know is that Herschiser called me into her office this morning and told me my orders had been changed. I think they actually swapped me out with someone else who was assigned to Hexapuma .'

'Oh?' She cocked her head at him. 'And do you happen to have any idea who 'someone else' was? I hope it wasn't Ragnhild!'

'As a matter of fact, I do know. And it wasn't Ragnhild,' Aikawa said, and she looked down at him sharply. His voice sounded much less amused than it had, and he shrugged as she frowned a silent question at him. 'That's why I was asking who else was assigned,' he said. ''Cause I didn't bounce anybody you just mentioned. Unless my usual sources fail me, the guy I did bounce was Bashanova.'

'Bashanova?' Helen grimaced, as much in irritation at herself for repeating Aikawa like some witless parrot as anything else, but she wasn't sure she cared for the implications of that name. Kenneth Bashanova wasn't exactly beloved by either her or Aikawa. Or, for that matter, by at least ninety-nine percent of the people unfortunate enough to know him. Not that he cared particularly. The fourth son of an earl and the grandson of a duke had no need to concern himself with all of the little people clustered about his ankles.

If Aikawa's last-minute reassignment to HMS Hexapuma had saved her from making her midshipwoman's cruise trapped aboard the same ship as Kenneth Bashanova, she was devoutly grateful. He was poisonous enough with anyone, but his sort of aristocrat despised Gryphon Highlanders-like Helen-as much as Highlanders despised them, and he'd gone out of his way to step on her... once.

But whatever she thought of him, and however grateful she might be for his departure, Bashanova wasn't the sort of person who was involved in random last-minute changes. If he'd been reassigned to another ship, it was because someone had pulled strings to make that happen. Which might explain why the midshipman assignments to Hexapuma had been 'incomplete' last night. And it also posed an interesting question. Had he been shifted to Intransigent because of some special opportunity waiting for anyone fortunate enough to make her snotty cruise aboard her? Or had he been shifted to get him away from Hexapuma ?

'You haven't heard anything about Hexapuma that I haven't, have you?' she asked after a moment, and Aikawa chuckled.

'Two great minds with but a single thought, I see.' He shook his head. 'Nope. First thing to cross my mind was why the Noble Rodent had wanted out of Hexapuma , so I asked around.'

'And?'

'And I couldn't find out anything to explain it. Heck, for that matter, I'd think even Bashanova would have wanted to stay put!'

'Why?' Helen asked, and Aikawa.

'Don't you have any 'informed sources'?'

'Hey, I'm the one who knew who else was assigned aboard her, smartass! And just because the 'faxes broke the story about my old man, don't go around thinking I'm some kind of spook. One spy per family's enough, thank you. Although, come to think of it, Lars is showing some signs of interest. Berry and I certainly never did, though!'

'Then how come she wound up up to her... eyebrows in all that business on Erewhon and Congo?' he demanded.

'Torch, not Congo,' she corrected. 'Congo's the system name; the planet is Torch. And I still haven't figured out how all that worked. But I'll tell you this much-it wasn't because Berry was playing spy!' Her snort of disdain was little short of magnificent. 'Berry's the sanest person in the entire Star Kingdom. Well, was, anyway. No way was she playing Junior Spook with Daddy-as if he'd've let her, even if she'd wanted to! I'm sure one of them will get around to explaining that whole business to me one of these days, but I already know that much.'

Actually, she knew a good bit more, but a lot of what she knew was most definitely not for public distribution.

'None of which,' she went on more pointedly, 'has any particular bearing on whether I have or haven't cultivated the same band of sneaks and informants you have. So instead of looking exasperated, suppose you tell me what's so special about Hexapuma besides the fact that she's a brand-new ship.'

'Nothing in particular, I suppose. Except, perhaps, for her captain, that is.' His tone was so elaborately casual that she considered throttling him, but then he laughed. 'All right, I'll come clean. It just happens, Helen, that Hexapuma's newly assigned skipper is one Captain Aivars Terekhov. The Hyacinth Terekhov.'

Helen's eyes widened. She didn't need Aikawa to tell her who Aivars Terekhov was. Everyone knew his record, just as everyone knew about the Manticore Cross he'd won for the Battle of Hyacinth.

'Wait a minute.' She came to a complete stop, looking down at Aikawa with a perplexed expression. 'Terekhov. Isn't he some sort of distant relative of Bashanova's?'

'Yeah, but just some kind of twelfth cousin or something. Worth remembering if you want something from him, but otherwise-?' Aikawa shrugged and grimaced. He was from the capital planet of Manticore, not Gryphon, but his attitude towards the more self-important (and self-absorbed) members of the Manticoran aristocracy was as contemptuous as any Highlander's.

'But if they're related, why in the world would Bashanova want to be reassigned out of Hexapuma ? I'd think his family would want him to make his snotty cruise under a relative-especially one in command of a brand, shiny new heavy cruiser. It's the way their minds work.'

'Unless there's been some sort of family falling out,' Aikawa suggested. 'If Terekhov's feuding with the rest of the family-and from what I know about the Noble Rodent's immediate relatives, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if someone like Terekhov couldn't stand them-maybe Daddy Rat would feel better keeping his adorable little son out of the line of fire. Or,' he shrugged, 'it may be that there's something special about Intransigent that I haven't been able to find out about-yet. It's just as possible the Noble Rodent's trying to cop an inside advantage as that he's trying to avoid some sort of problem, you know.'

'I suppose,' she said doubtfully, tugging her locker back into motion as she started off down the shuttle pad guideline once more. And Aikawa did have a point, she conceded. But even as she told herself that, she knew her metaphysical ears were straining for the sound of a falling shoe.

* * *

HMSS Hephaestus was always crowded, especially now. With the abrupt, disastrous resumption of the war with Haven, the largest single shipyard the Navy owned was running at well over