
T'Mar was at his desk in the Consulate dispensary, handling what was left of a day's worth of filework, when the 'call waiting' block began to blink in blue in the lower right corner of his vid screen.
Blinking red would have indicated an emergency; an injury or an illness. Blue was for intraoffice communications. It was probably just more of the bureaucratic garbage he'd encountered since taking the Consulate job.
T'Mar sighed and let it blink as he finished cataloging the last few emigrant examination forms, then tapped the blinking block with a forefinger.
"Yes?"
The face on the screen was that of L'Nis, secretary to the Consul, herself. Her expression as she turned to face the vid screen made T'Mar wonder what he'd done.
"Your presence is required in the Consul's office," she said. "Immediately."
No greeting and no goodbye. She simply clicked off.
T'Mar sat gazing thoughtfully at the screen for a moment. Was he in trouble of some sort? He couldn't imagine what he might have done to deserve so terse a summons. He'd only been on the planet for two weeks. Less, really. Twelve days.
He mentally reviewed his work. Except for a few departees that he'd flagged as questionable and marked for further examinations, things had been rather routine.
Certainly, it would have meant that a few people would have to delay their travel plans for a few days, but it was his job to screen Eiranian travelers, and because he was the new guy, he'd gone strictly by the book all the way.
Maybe one of those travelers had friends in high places and had bitched about being delayed. Was he about to become a diplomatic sacrifice, fired for having done his job too well?
There was an air of tense confusion in the hallways. As he passed one office, someone asked what was going on. He shook his head, shrugged, and kept walking.
The Consul's huge office was packed with people when he arrived and squeezed into the room. When the big doors shut, Consul L'Tan stood up and one of her aides called the room to attention.
She was a tall, solid-looking, reasonably attractive woman in her mid-forties, and her commanding demeanor was almost tangible. She had short hair and a jacket and skirt ensemble that could have been a uniform if it had only been the right color.
Lady L'Tan was an appointee from one of the outworlds, he remembered. Retired military. Probably just putting in a few more years of government service to enhance her pension. Not retired long enough to know how to relate very well to civilian employees, in his opinion.
More than one staffer had filed a grievance against her during her few months as Consul, and he suspected that each grievance was at least nominally deserved. He also expected that nothing short of a criminal offense would oust her. She had friends in very high places or she wouldn't be in the Consulate's big chair at all.
After a moment of waiting for the assembly to finish quieting down, the Consul said, "Quiet!" and slammed a palm flat on her desk.
Her palm made a sound like a shot and her voice was one that had trained combat troops. The room immediately fell silent.
"I have some bad news, people. I've been quietly informed that we may - that's may - find ourselves in the midst of a religious revolution within two days. In case some of you are wondering, this situation is not my fault."
She grinned wryly for a moment as the polite laughter subsided.
"Evacuation preparations begin tonight. Families first, then personnel. By the book all the way. I want everybody inside the compound and ready to go by dawn. Some of you are military reservists and you may be active duty again by tomorrow, so get your affairs in order, just in case. That's it. Everyone not a department head may now go back to work and wait for orders. It's business as usual until I receive confirmation. By the way, no one is to leave the compound without permission or to mention anything about this to anyone who is not of this Consulate's people."
T'Mar knew that Eirania had been a marginally civilized colony world for over two hundred cycles, supplying mostly a single energy-rich ore to the rest of the Confederated Worlds, and that the current regime had a penchant for modernization.
He had also known of the local religiously oriented revolutionary movement, but no one had thought it to be capable of much more than acts of terrorism and rhetoric-laden anti-everything speeches.
Without a family to consider and with no other instructions, T'Mar joined many others in the Consulate's dining hall to wait for further word. He found the atmosphere anxious and stifling, so he retired to his room to pack.
T'Mar was awakened well before dawn by the fire alarm and someone running down the hall, beating on doors. He quickly dressed and grabbed his two bags and joined the throng in the hallway.
Before he could reach the stairwell, a military guard there shouted, "There's no fire! No fire! We're evacuating the building! Use the elevators!"
He could hear - and feel - explosions occurring elsewhere within the building as he trotted along the hallway with a small group of fellow evacuees.
T'Mar turned with the others and headed back down the hallway. At the elevators there were other military guards who were separating people from their luggage.
"One bag!" someone shouted. "Damn it, you people had the lecture and you know better! One bag! Essentials only! Hurry up!"
T'Mar asked one of them what was going on as he shuffled a few things of supreme importance to him into one bag. The soldier had no time to talk. He was having to prod some people into cooperating with the 'one bag' requirement.
The Captain yelled, "When an elevator arrives, you're either ready or you aren't. If you're not, all of your luggage stays here when you go."
At the other end of the long hallway, an object thrown from the stairwell bounced off a wall and rattlingly rolled across the floor a short distance toward them.
The soldier at the stairwell shouted, "Grenade! Grenade! Get down!" then he jumped down the stairs. Rifle fire and a scream, then silence, came from the stairwell.
T'Mar dropped flat, then kicked the backs of the nearby legs of a woman who simply stood staring at the grenade. She managed to catch herself to a degree when she fell, but she fell pretty hard, anyway.
The grenade was nearly fifty feet away. It exploded with a deafening 'bang', and some of those who'd been too slow to duck were hit by shrapnel.
Two of the military people at the outskirts of the small crowd quickly piled up some luggage for cover and aimed their weapons down the hallway. They were quickly joined by the other two and T'Mar and some of the others also piled up luggage to form a low wall.
The first Eiranians who appeared were mowed down, but others quickly replaced them. Screaming and firing at the group of escapees, the Eiranians flooded the other end of the hallway and then began the long run to reach their quarry.
Although dozens fell to fire from the Captain's guard team, dozens more hurdled the bodies of the fallen and rushed forward. Another grenade landed near T'Mar.
He sidearm threw it back at the attackers, and it sailed over the heads of those in front to detonate somewhere in the midst of the horde. Those injured or stunned were shoved aside or trampled by others who rushed forward.
The gunfire was savagely intense for a few moments. Anyone foolish enough to even raise their heads too high above the luggage-revetment were cut down almost instantly.
The luggage-wall didn't fare well against the gunfire. One of the soldiers soundlessly fell away from his firing position; some of his head was gone. The other soldiers continued firing rapidly at the onrushing horde as one of the Consulate employees pulled the body away and took his place at the barrier.
The Eiranians were having to climb over their fallen comrades in order to continue their attack. This made those who did so easy targets, but there were so many of them that the Consulate guards were running low on ammunition.
T'Mar opened the belt pouches of the dead guard and handed one of the four magazines he found to each of the men at the luggage wall, then went back to trying to help the wounded.
The elevator on the left chimed and its doors opened. Those who could do so scrambled to get into it. Many were cut down by gunfire, but several made it inside.
A fallen man's leg kept the doors from closing, and someone in the elevator tried to shove the body back out, but new holes appeared on the doors and the body, and the man fell away from his efforts.
Apparently one or more of the attackers decided to focus his fire on the open elevator. The opening and closing doors were speckled with holes from top to bottom and there was silence in the elevator.
One of the women on the floor near T'Mar had been hit in the arm. T'Mar pulled her with him as he crawled toward the other elevator doors. When that elevator arrived, he shoved her inside as soon as the doors opened, tossed his bag into the doorway to keep it open, and looked for others to pull into the elevator.
Another woman was pulling a man toward the doors and T'Mar crawled to help them, risking a quick look at the situation beyond the luggage wall. A grenade slammed into his chest and bounced to the floor a few feet away.
The Guard Captain dove to grab it and tossed it back at the onrushing horde, but his action cost him dearly. Several rounds struck his chest and head and he fell back to lie still.
The grenade went off just down the hall, killing and wounding untold numbers of the advancing revolutionaries, but it also ripped a large gap in far end of the luggage wall.
Neither of the soldiers at the wall was firing and the remaining soldier was screaming about his eyes as he tried to sit up. He was flayed by incoming fire.
T'Mar slithered backwards into the elevator as rounds dug up the floor in front of his face, then tried to see if he could reach the woman. She lay staring and still, so he looked for anyone else nearby.
A man who seemed otherwise unable to move reached with his good arm for one of the rifles and shoved it into the elevator with a grin that might have been no more than a rictus of agony at the effort.
"That's...my...wife in there. Help her...?"
T'Mar nodded and pulled the rifle completely into the elevator.
Another grenade landed, and the man reached for it and struggled to tumble it back over what was left of the luggage wall. T'Mar frantically yanked his bag out of the elevator's doorway and hunkered against a sidewall as the doors closed.
The doors had closed and the elevator had begun its descent when an explosion buckled the tops of the doors inward. The elevator halted with a grinding jerk, then something near the top of the doorway loudly ripped free and descent continued.
The woman in the elevator made a small gasping sound, then toppled slowly to her right and lay still. T'Mar hurried to her and found that she'd been hit in the back, as well. Of the fifty or so people who had been massed to escape, he alone had survived.
He didn't know where he was going, other than down, and he didn't know what sort of reception awaited him when the elevator stopped. T'Mar picked up the rifle and dropped the magazine out. He could see that it contained at least four rounds.
T'Mar slapped the magazine back into the rifle and propped it on top of his bag to aim it at the door from a prone position.
When the elevator stopped, the doors had trouble opening, but they slid back enough that he was able to shove his bag into the gap. As he scooted forward to reposition his rifle's muzzle slightly beyond the doors, he quickly scanned outside to see where he was and who might be waiting for him.
He saw nothing in the poorly lighted area beyond the door. No one. Easing forward a bit, he peered as far as he dared to each side. He was in the lowest level of the Consulate; the vehicle storage area.
When he continued to see and hear nothing, he eased the bag forward and slid himself through the doors behind it. The doors immediately closed and the elevator began moving upward. Nowhere to retreat.
T'Mar cautiously stood up, looked around again, then picked up his bag and headed toward the line of flitters. He knew how to operate one of the big, boxy vehicles well enough to at least get the hell away from the building. The problem would be getting it out of the building.
The big door at the surface end of the ramp was closed, of course. Whether it would require human operation or not he didn't know. Ordinarily an incoming or outgoing flitter would identify itself and that would be enough, but with all the...
A harsh whisper came from his left.
"Stop right there. Put the rifle down. Set it on your bag."
T'Mar froze. As the adrenalin pumped hard through him, he considered...
"Don't," said the voice. "I can take your head off at this range."
A woman? He glanced left and saw her shadowy outline where she aimed at him over the cowling of a flitter, not fifty feet away. It was a shot that he felt he could have made easily, and he hadn't touched a rifle in two years. She'd have to be a very poor shot to miss.
"You're with the Consulate," he said. "So am I."
T'Mar lowered the rifle on his bag, then stood back up. The woman stepped from the shadows and approached him cautiously to within ten feet or so. She wore a military dress uniform and had Captain's bars on her collar and an energy rifle in her hands that was aimed at him. Except for the E-rifle, he noted, she was rather attractive.
"Name?" she asked.
"T'Mar-Sen. I work here. Emigrations and dispensary."
"Prove it. One hand only. The other stays up."
T'mar reached into his shirt pocket carefully for his Consulate ID tag and held it out to her.
"On the floor. Slide it over here."
He did so, kneeling to slide the tag to her. She stopped it with her foot. After kneeling to pick it up and checking his picture with his face, she slid it back to him and stood up, still covering him.
"How'd you get your hands on a guard's rifle?"
He told her in fair detail what had happened on the fourth floor. She nodded, gazed at him silently for another couple of moments, then let the muzzle of her rifle drop.
She said, "They jammed all communications and flooded the place with troops. That report sounded military. What rank were you and what did you do?"
"Sergeant-6. Medic, gunner, clerk, and ambulance driver. Who are you?"
"Captain L'Sil. Communications. What's left in that rifle?"
"Four rounds. Maybe five."
"We only carry those indoors. I have two of these E-rifles. The other one's in that flitter behind me. Can you pilot a flitter?"
"Yes."
"Good. You take one and I'll take one and maybe one of us will get to the docks."
T'Mar pointed at the garage entrance. The big blast doors were shut.
"What about those doors?"
"Blast doors are made to keep things out. If they won't open automatically, we'll send one of the flitters at them at full speed. They'll open."
She was about to say more, but a sound at the other end of the garage made her almost dive back behind a flitter. T'Mar grabbed his bag and rifle and followed her as quickly as possible.
They watched anxiously as someone emerged from the doorway, keeping low, and scooted behind a pillar. Seconds later, the figure quietly ran to the shelter of another pillar. After a short time, the figure moved to the next pillar in line.
Both T'Mar and L'Sil silently kept their rifles aimed at the figure as it grew closer.
"T'Mar," whispered L'Sil, "I've got him. You cover the door. Where there's one, there may be more. Hold your fire for the moment. They've rushed groups into everywhere else. These may be some of our people."
He nodded and covered the door. Sure enough, another dark figure slipped to the first pillar, then to the second, as the first figure continued forward. As the figure advanced again, he saw that she was a woman and tapped L'Sil's shoulder.
"The revolutionaries are religious fanatics. They don't have any female troops."
"I know," said L'Sil. She raised her voice slightly and said, "Hold it right there, please. Identify yourselves."
There was silence for a moment, then a soft chuckle.
"Please? You first," said the woman. "Who are you?"
"Captain L'Sil, Lady L'Tan. I recognize your voice."
"Then show yourself. Please."
L'Sil stepped out from behind the flitter, her rifle at port arms. From behind the pillar stepped the imposingly tall form of Lady L'Tan, Head of the Consulate. Her rifle was not at port arms until after she'd taken a good look at L'Sil.
"Good to see you, Captain. Who's your friend?"
T'mar said, "T'Mar-Sen, ma'am. I work in your dispensary."
L'Sil said, "He's ex-military, ma'am. Medic and gunner."
"Nobody's ex-military today, Captain. Glad you're both here. We'll need fifteen flitters linked to convoy. I have a hundred and fifty or so passengers with me."
She turned and waved behind her, then said, "Corporal L'Kes, bring them down here. Hurry."
The other figure stepped from behind her pillar and said, "Yes, ma'am," then headed back to the stairwell.
L'Sil said, "A hundred and fifty? That'll take at least twenty flitters, ma'am."
"Most of them are women and children, Captain. There'd have been more, but the bastards tossed grenades into the auditorium. Enough talk. Get the flitters linked and ready to go while we bring them down here."
L'Sil ran from flitter to flitter, keying them in sequence and accepting default convoy parameters. The flitters lifted, one by one, and lined up behind each other.
Moments later, the garage was filled with running children, herded along by their mothers and teachers, and half a dozen wounded men and women.
L'Tan said, "Everybody get on a flitter, sit down, and shut up! T'Mar! L'Sil! Put as many as possible on the flitters and start in the middle of the line. The two flitters on each end stay empty, and the third one from the front is my command flitter. At least one adult in each flitter. T'Mar and L'Sil, you're flying with me."
T'Mar yelled acknowledgment and waved, then set about packing people tightly into each flitter. L'Sil finished starting flitters and came back to help. As soon as everybody was aboard, L'Tan stepped over to start a non-convoy flitter and aimed it at the doors, then jumped aboard the command flitter with T'Mar and L'Sil.
L'Tan pointed at the lone flitter and yelled, "Everybody! We'll follow that flit out of here and head to the docks to board the Alliance. We should be in the air less than five minutes."
L'Tan stabbed the remote activation pad and the lone flitter headed past them for the blast doors under full power. She counted to two, then stabbed the pad again. Children and some of the adults screamed as the entire convoy launched forward and gathered speed as it streamed toward the tiny-seeming blast doors.
The first flitter slammed into the doors like a huge fist, jettisoning its engine module on impact and crumpling into a wad of metal as it shoved the the left door completely out of its track and twisted the right door backward in a severe lean toward the outside.
The right door might have continued to lean if it had been blown inward, but there was nothing to brace it, and it fell flat only a split second before the lead flitter of the convoy passed over it.
Surprisingly, there was only sporadic fire from the ground as the convoy arched upward at half the speed of sound. L'Tan had expected much worse, and had expected to see other flitters above the Consulate to prevent flying escapes.
There were only three such flitters, and they were caught completely off-guard, losing valuable seconds as they maneuvered to chase the convoy.
L'Tan grinned at T'Mar and L'Sil.
"They thought they had the place bottled up and might have to chase down a couple of stragglers. Those are civilian flitters. They can't catch us, but knock 'em down anyway."
As L'Sil and T'Mar picked off the pilots of the Eiranian flitters, L'Tan tapped on her pad and one flitter from each end of the convoy unlinked to take up positions perhaps a mile to each side of the convoy.
T'Mar said, "The Alliance is probably under attack, too. What's she going to think of our convoy? We can't call them, L'Tan."
L'Tan picked up her rifle and set it to lowest power and widest dispersal.
"I can flash a distress code at them with this. Their Tactical people will see it on their boards. Have I missed anything?"
T'Mar shook his head. L'Sil said, "I hope not."
As they approached the half-mile wide ball that was the Alliance, they could see that she was, indeed, under attack. L'Tan set the convoy to circle at a distance and began flashing code with her rifle. After two orbits, she set the rifle down.
"They want to take the Alliance in one piece, but I think they're getting worried," she said, pointing at the flit's screen. "Three more flitters are inbound at thirty miles. Two armored vehicles are approaching from the city. Watch this."
She detailed one the side-following flitters to strike the armored vehicles. As it descended in a rather flat trajectory, it took a punishing amount of fire from below, but since its trajectory had already been set and its engines turned off, the armored vehicles might as well have been shooting at a huge falling rock.
The flitter - hampered not at all by ground fire - impacted on the lead armored vehicle at nearly twice the speed of sound. One gigantic blast and then a smaller one from the second armored vehicle obliterated the immediate area and deeply cratered the road to the docks.
L'Tan seemed to come to a decision as she gazed at the sensor screen.
"You two get everybody aboard the Alliance. I'll try to squash some of this ground fire, then see about the incoming flitters. I don't think they'll come into range of the Alliance's guns, but it's hard to be sure with religious crazies. As soon as all of our flitters are empty, send them up to me."
She brought the remaining side-following flitter to within a few inches of their convoy flitter, slowed all the flitters considerably, and fought the slipstream as she carefully stepped across the small gap.
Tapping her pad, L'Tan took control of the lead and tail empty flitters and made them form up on hers, then turned control of the convoy over to L'Sil. With a wave, she aimed her four flitters at the scene below.
Two men entrenched with a heavy E-rifle behind some machinery looked up in time to see their doom approaching. L'Tan let the other flitters fly over the building as she took her own into the narrow chasm between the building and the machinery without slowing down in the least.
The two men tried to bring their gun around to aim at her, but it was far too late for that. The nose and fuselage of L'Tan's flitter literally flattened the two revolutionaries against the machinery and the ground. The broad trail of sparks that had followed her through the narrow passage was only briefly interrupted.
"She's crazy!" said L'Sil. "It's a wonder she has any flitter left. Why the hell didn't she use one of the empty ones for that maneuver?"
T'Mar quietly said, "She needed the personal touch. They've really pissed her off this morning."
L'Sil looked at him oddly, then turned to watch L'Tan.
T'Mar said nothing else as he watched L'Tan climb out of her attack.
L'Tan banked to aim at another pair of attackers, but they'd seen what had happened to her first targets. When the nose of her flitter came at them, they dropped their weapons and fled.
Using the other flitters as cover around her, L'Tan stopped long enough to hop down and grab their rifles, then nosed back into the sky. She quickly programmed one flitter to remain between her and the incoming flitters and the other two to stay between her and the ground forces, then began picking off the attackers by leaning out and firing down at them between the flitters below her.
Many of the attackers tried to knock her out of the sky, but many fled, as well. L'Tan kept firing until one rifle was exhausted, then she threw it at a pair of the men below. One of the men had the misfortune to be where the rifle landed.
As L'Tan held most of the attackers' attention, L'Sil guided the convoy in close to the Alliance and ordered everyone into the big ship as several lower ports opened for them. Using the flitters as cover, they raced toward the open portals.
T'Mar stayed aboard the command flitter and fired back until nothing happened when he tapped the trigger button. He quickly threw the rifle away and picked up L'Sil's rifle, risking a glance at her progress toward the ship.
Four of the adults had been hit, as well as several of the children. However good a plan, there were just too many people running for the ship, and some were bound to fall prey to the beams lancing toward them from the docks.
L'Sil scrambled among the runners to see if any of the wounded were still alive. Only one child still lived; a boy had been hit in the leg. She grabbed his arm and hoisted him up to keep him moving toward the ship, but the boy soon collapsed.
T'Mar fired a few more times at a couple of carelessly exposed targets, set the flitters for a ten-second delay before lifting, then jumped off and ran to help L'Sil haul the boy to the Alliance. He grabbed the boy's other arm as he passed them and the two of them literally dragged the small boy aboard the ship at a dead run.
T'Mar didn't know the rank of the man who met them in the bay, but the man turned to a wall intercom and calmly said, "The children are aboard. Close all ports. All batteries open fire. Clean the area. Repeat: Clean the area."
The lighter guns of the Alliance had only been fighting a holding action in order to allow time for Consulate personnel to find a way to safety. The daylight outside the viewports suddenly became about ten times brighter as the great ship's big batteries opened up at the dock and surrounding hostiles at point-blank range.
The guns fired for only a few moments, then were still. T'Mar watched the vid screen on the wall clear and refocus itself. For thousands of paces around the ship, T'Mar saw nothing taller than a few inches. Concrete and steel structures were gone, and what hadn't vaporized had melted and run like hot wax.
A huge chunk of the sea wall that had sheltered revolutionaries from Alliance's smaller weapons' fire was missing altogether, along with the revolutionaries that had been hunkered behind it. A thousand feet or so of the raised-platform docking station had disappeared in all directions in the holocaust.
There was hardly any debris; energy weapons tend to leave little behind. The officer patted the bulkhead and softly said, "Thank you, ma'am," then he walked over to L'Sil.
"Any more flitters coming in, Captain? Is the flitter pilot coming back down here or is he thinking of saving us all by himself?"
L'Sil said, "The pilot is Lady L'Tan. She's in one of the flitters that flew our defense and she told us to send the flitters up to her when they were empty. I don't know what she's doing now."
The guy's eyes widened momentarily, then he rushed to the intercom and said, "Captain! I think Stardancer is in one of the flitters upstairs!"
"Stardancer? But she's... Are you sure?!"
"Sure enough, sir. The name's right. Communications are still jammed. We can't tell her to get back down here."
"Damn. Secure the bay and get back to the bridge."
"But, sir..."
"Move it! Tac says there's a shielded nuke on the way. We're clearing port now."
T'Mar saw the ground move away and realized that 'clearing port' meant to lift off. A shielded nuke? That meant that the energy weapons of the Alliance wouldn't be able to touch it until it was too damned close.
L'Sil ran to catch the officer and grabbed his shirt as she screamed at him.
"You can't leave her out there!"
The officer said, "I can't do anything about it, either. Let go of me, Captain."
An amplified voice filled the hall and the docking bay.
"All hands, brace for impact in two minutes, forty seconds."
The officer said, "Get your people flat on the deck and find something to hang onto. I have to go now."
He ungently disconnected her hands from his shirt and stepped into one of the lifts, then was gone. L'Sil ran back to the horde of children in the bay.
"Down! Flat! Everybody down now!"
L'Tan saw the incoming object on her flitter's screen and realized what it had to be. The flitters above were maintaining their distance from the Alliance; if they'd had any ideas about closing in, they'd have lost them instantly when the big guns wiped the oceanfront clean for nearly a mile in all directions.
L'Tan brought up the nav computer screen and tapped out a request for coordinates for interceptions according to data available, which was still sketchy at best.
After programming her flitters and sending them on their way, she headed in exactly the opposite direction at maximum speed. There would be a nuclear explosion, whether one of her flitters blew the nuke or the nuke hit the Alliance. She didn't truly expect to outrun the blast, but it seemed worth a try.
On the bridge of the Alliance, Captain T'Var said, "Tac, send our heaviest probe at the missile. Set it to self-destruct one mile from target."
"Yes, sir. It may not be enough to breach the shield, sir."
"I know. Will you have time to load and launch a second probe?"
"No, sir. I'll barely have time to get this one out there."
A moment later, the Tac commander said, "Captain, Stardancer just sent a dozen flitters at the nuke and turned tail. She and the others are going better than Mach 4 in both directions."
"Thank you, Commander. She's one step ahead of us."
"Probe launched, Captain."
The Captain turned to his helm officer and said, "Follow her. Put the Alliance between her and the nuke and get us in close to her as fast as possible. I know what she's doing."
The Ensign set the course as ordered, then asked, "Pardon, Captain, but what can a bunch of flitters do? That nuke is going to swat them out of the way and keep coming at us. They won't even slow it down, sir."
"Those are military flitters, Ensign. Civilian flits can't even do Mach 2, and they don't have a destruct code to keep them out of enemy hands. What's more, their engines are designed to haul tons, not just instrument packages. Her flitters have a chance against that nuke's shield. Now, you just get us in so tight she can kiss our hull. Let me worry about the other stuff and keep trying to contact her. Maybe when we're closer we can cut through the jamming."
"Yes, sir."
The Ensign had the Alliance within ten feet of L'Tan's flitter when the string of flitters well behind them began exploding, one after the other, as their small fusion engines went critical. The seventh one caught the incoming missile and the probe in its explosion.
The probe simply disappeared in the flitter explosion. The missile's shields glowed with resistance, then collapsed, which triggered its own explosion.
L'Tan had turned her flitter nose-up and plastered it to the leading surface of the Alliance, then turned its fields up to maximum opacity.
She then flattened her seat and watched her screen as her string of flitters began detonating in the path of the oncoming missile.
Flitters eight, nine, ten, and eleven exploded in the path of the much larger nuclear blast that instantly expanded around them and annihilated numbers twelve and thirteen before those flitters could self-destruct.
Maybe the smaller blasts of the others even served to slightly blunt the devastating force that overtook the Alliance and the flitter she was trying to protect.
"Stardancer, Stardancer, respond, please. Stardan..."
"I hear you, Alliance. Stop yelling. Call me later if we have one."
The sky brightened beyond the display capabilities of L'Tan's vid screen and she imagined that she could see it happen around the flitter, as well, although she knew that was virtually impossible through her protective field.
Seconds later the shockwave that was transmitted through the Alliance's hull kicked the flitter off the hull in a high arc. It was all that the flitter's automatic systems could do to cushion the blow enough to keep her passenger alive as the flitter tried to regain control and slow down.
One by one those systems burned out, sacrificing themselves for their pilot, until all that was left was the tiny reserve system intended for basic life support.
As the flitter fell from the sky, the reserve computer came on-line, saw that controlled flight was beyond hope, and estimated when to deploy the remaining power in a field effect, opting to simply try to cushion the impact of landing.
The Alliance had been above fifty thousand feet and climbing fast when the nuke exploded. The massive ship was knocked back down to ten thousand feet in the blink of an eye.
Her power, previously altogether engaged in lifting, automatically rerouted itself to the gargantuan task of engaging a protective field throughout the ship's interior to safeguard her crew.
As the stasis effect faded, the helmsman snapped to and scanned his board, noting that all engines were into the danger zone as the ship struggled to save itself and its crew.
"Nine thousand feet, sir. We're still going down. Eight thousand. Seven. Six. Five thousand feet. Sir, she's lifting again! Six thousand. Seven. Eight."
The Ensign checked his boards again and said, "Captain, the flitter is gone!"
"Worry about us first, Ensign. In thirty years of service, I've never heard a ship ring like a bell before. Damage report?"
"None of the sensors on the nuke side are working at all, sir. We won't know until we can go out there. Internal sensors are reading dangerously high levels of radiation three decks deep on that side. Sixty-one dead or missing in quadrant three so far..."
"Ensign! I can't use that right now. Can we stay in the air? What else is coming at us? Give me the other stuff when we've got time for it."
"Yes, sir. Engines are undamaged. Clear skies. No other launches detected."
"Fine! Now, where's Stardancer?"
"Twenty-eight miles ahead at fifty thousand and falling, sir."
"Get us there now, Ensign."
"Anticipated, Captain. We're at our best possible atmospheric speed now, sir."
"Get us there in ten seconds, Ensign. Get us under her."
The Ensign paled slightly and turned to look at his Captain.
"Ten seconds?! Inside an atmosphere? That's against..."
The Captain drew his sidearm, pointed it at the helmsman, and said, "I won't tell you again, Ensign. Under her, right now."
Six seconds later the Captain said, "Good. Excellent. Extend a field through the ship's axis and let her down easy on the hull."
He tapped the Q2 button on his console.
"Two! Get topside quick for a flitter pilot. She just saved our lives. Let me know as soon as she's inside. We're going up from here."
"I'm already on it, sir. I saw what you were doing and opened bay two. I'll have the flitter inside in a few seconds."
T'Var said, "Good job, Two," and tapped his console again.
"Sickbay, get a crash team to quad bay two. Expect high radiation levels. If that pilot dies, you may as well jump off while you're up there and save me some trouble."
"Yes, sir. Leaving now. Tac said that Stardancer was here."
"You heard right. We're probably alive because of her."
He punched sickbay and the bridge recorder off at the same time and turned back to face the helmsman.
"That's how it works, Ensign. I say it and you do it. If you ever question me during combat again, I'll shoot you and run your board myself until your replacement arrives. Do you understand me?"
The Ensign said, "Yes, sir."
"What's a Captain's first duty, son?"
"I... ah... The ship, sir?"
"That's right. It's the same as yours, Ensign. The ship. I'm not going to order you to do something that can't be fixed later. I'm also not going to mention our little incident in the log unless you make me."
"Sir?"
"You may think that you may want to mention what just happened between us when we get clear of all this. If you do, your career will be over. Nobody will want a rat on their deck and I'll damned well make a new career of ending your career if you threaten mine. That's as simple as it gets, Ensign. What's your answer?"
The Ensign looked at the Tac officer, who simply stared back at him with a stone face. No sympathy there. He looked back at the Captain.
"I don't think I'll be talking about it, sir."
"Good. Ensign, those rules about atmospheric speeds were written six decades ago to prevent a ship's externals from being ripped off at high speeds. We'd just lost any externals to the nuke, and I flatly didn't care if other bits of us fell off. The people below are dead; they were killed by their own damned nuke."
The Captain gazed steadily at the Ensign as he punched the bridge recorder button again and said, "... And damn it, I wish they'd put this recorder button on the side, or somedamnwhere completely away from all the others. Thanks for noticing that the light was off, Ensign. They ought to move that, too, maybe - oh, let's see, now - how about to where the guy who sits in the damned chair can see it, too? Wouldn't that be a great idea?"
"Uh... Yes, sir. I guess so, sir."
"Damned right. Damn all half-assed dimwit designers who don't have to live with their screwups. Check the regs later and see if there's any reason we can't redesign this console a little. The next guy can get his own damned chair."
"Uh, yes, sir," said the Ensign, smiling broadly. "First chance I get, sir."
"Good, son. Real good. Now get us into high orbit and contact HQ."
L'Tan woke the first time in a darkened room. The smell told her she was in a medical facility, but she had no idea whose facility.
Oh, well, I'm alive. That's a plus.
Ancillary medications helped her go back to sleep.
The room was still darkened the second time she woke, but she had an urge that couldn't be ignored. After discovering to her horror that her legs didn't seem to work, she groped painfully for a light on the stand by the bed.
She tried to draw a breath to yell for help, but that proved to be a mistake. A pain lanced through her back and into her chest that left her gasping tearfully.
Finding no light and no way to call for assistance, she simply started pushing things off the table every fifteen seconds or so. The water pitcher hit hard enough to make some noise and bounced satisfactorily. She was about to push the table, itself, over when the door opened and a nurse poked her head in cautiously.
She turned on the lights and said, "There's a call button clipped to your pillow."
"Didn't find it," croaked L'Tan. "Help me up. I need to use the bathroom."
"No," said the nurse, approaching the bed. "Stay put and I'll get you a bedpan."
"I don't want to use a pan."
The nurse started to lift the sheet to place the bedpan. L'Tan swatted at it.
"I told you I don't want to use a damned pan."
"And I told you that you aren't getting out of bed. Now let me do my job before you have wet sheets."
The two women glared at each other for a couple of moments, but L'Tan's urge grew implacable, so she gave in to the nurse.
A few minutes later, feeling vastly relieved, L'Tan said, "Sorry I gave you a hard time. If I couldn't see my legs, I couldn't be sure I had any. Half the reason I wanted to get up was to prove to myself that I'm not crippled."
"I've seen it before. Let me see if I can find a doctor, now that you're awake."
The nurse marched out in that quick-step style that all nurses seem to adopt sooner or later. A couple of minutes passed before a man walked into the room.
Smiling broadly, he said, "Well, hello," - he consulted his chart, then continued unctuously - "Patient 491586. I'm your doctor. How are we this evening?"
"We're in a lot of pain, our doctor thinks our name is a number, and we can't get out of bed. Evening?"
"Evening. Your second evening with us, in fact. We feel rather priveleged to have you aboard, Lady L'Tan."
"Well, good for you. Why don't my legs work?"
The doctor pulled the only chair in the room next to the bed and sat down.
"You have a bruise about the size and shape of a flitter seat on your back. Your spine was stretched, strained, and battered senseless, but nothing's broken. We think that your numbness is probably only temporary."
L'Tan held back tears and croaked, "Probably? Wonderful. Anything else?"
The doctor took her hand, kissed the back of it, and said, "Yes, ma'am. Quite a lot, really. You saved everyone aboard, and we're profoundly grateful to you."
L'Tan just stared at him, her tears momentarily forgotten. No one but foppish dignitaries had kissed her hand for more than a decade. This man looked as if he didn't make such gestures casually.
"Uh... Well, you're welcome. Would it be possible to see the Captain?"
The doctor grinned hugely.
"The Captain has been hounding me day and night to be told the moment you wake up. I could probably have him here in five minutes or less, but maybe you'd like a few minutes to freshen up first? I'll send in the nurse to help."
He almost dashed out of the room.
'Help?' wondered L'Tan. 'What kind of help..?'
She found out what kind of help. It quickly became a major, painful effort simply to lift her arms above her chest repeatedly. The nurse helped her brush her teeth and comb her hair, then asked if she'd like a touch of makeup. L'Tan laughed aloud at that.
"This isn't a date. Let's skip the makeup."
"In that case, I think you're ready to meet the Captain. Do you need the pan again, or anything like that?"
"No, thanks. Captains aren't that scary to me. I'm ready. Bring him in."
The nurse left and moments later a balding, middle-aged man whose face looked a bit older than his years walked in. He strode to the bed, his hand extended to her, and she tried to conceal the ache in her arm when she took it.
"Hello, Stardancer. We thought we'd seen the last of you when you took that desk job. Thanks for saving my ship, by the way."
"Oh, you're quite welcome, T'Var. Did I really save the Alliance, or would you have managed without me?"
T'Var shook his head and grinned.
"Our own best hope was an exploding probe, so skip the modesty, please. We're battered and burned, but still flying, L'Tan. Quad three is beyond salvage. It's radioactive scrap. My Tac man thinks that the extra twenty miles you gave us made all the difference, so I hope you're ready for some adulation later."
"Not really. It hurts to even shake hands with someone. Maybe much later. Where are we?"
Captain T'Var turned the chair slightly and sat down tiredly.
"We're in high orbit around Eirania. They've made a few efforts to hit us, but the Alliance can handle whatever other primitive crap they can toss up here. Shield generators are heavy gadgets; they can't put a shielded missile all the way up here that we can't easily avoid. HQ told us to stay put for now, but didn't say why. No ships are to leave Eirania. They're being sanctioned."
"They could field other ships for station duty and they know you took heavy damage, so there must be another reason we're still here, T'Var."
"I'm sure there is, but they didn't mention it."
"Speculate for me. What do you think would make them keep you here?"
"One thing, obviously; we're able to keep any ships from leaving, but none have tried to leave. Not even the commercial ones."
L'Tan considered matters for a moment.
"Do you have any Eiranians on board? Any at all?"
"None. The last one left the Alliance an hour before all hell broke loose. He was that brother-in-law to their Defense Minister."
"Did any of them leave anything behind? Have you searched their quarters thoroughly?"
"No. They were quartered in quad three, and three took all the radiation and damage from the nuke. If they left anything in there, it's cooked by now. What are you getting at, L'Tan?"
L'Tan debated whether to tell him what she knew, then decided that he was the man on the spot and deserved to know as much as reasonably possible.
"The Eiranians are suspected of developing new pathogens, T'Var. The kinds used in germ warfare. That's one of the reasons I was assigned to the Consulate. We were trying to find out if the suspicions had any merit."
The Captain sat very still for a moment. "And..?"
"A few of our people came up with a few things, but nothing solid."
T'Var frowned as he added things up.
"That makes it sound as if HQ is keeping us here to see if we're infected. We're as quarantined as the planet."
"Probably. It would make sense to do that, wouldn't it? Telling you about a plague on an open comm channel could start a panic, and you have to assume that no comm channel is truly secure. Have you contacted anyone other than HQ?"
Captain T'Var stood up and reached to touch her hand again.
"No, but I'm about to. Is there anything you need, L'Tan? Anything I can send down here? Anyone you want to talk to?"
"Nothing I can think of at the moment, T'Var. I'd like to see the two who flew with me, though. T'Mar and L'Sil."
"I'll have them delivered shortly, Stardancer. Thank you for everything."
She smiled at him and he left for the bridge at a brisk pace. Soon afterwards, she heard the ship-wide intercom.
"Captain L'Sil and T'Mar, report to the bridge as soon as possible."
The message was repeated once, then the intercom was silent. Fifteen minutes or so later, there was a knock on her door.
"Come in."
T'Mar and L'Sil entered almost cautiously, then L'Sil stood at attention and saluted.
She asked, "You wanted to see us, ma'am?"
"At ease, Captain. I just wanted to thank you two for your support."
T'Mar said, "Uh, well, okay, I guess. I can't remember helping much, though."
"I said 'support'. You were there to take over if needed. That's help of another sort, and no less valuable than any other kind. It left me free to move."
She had to pause to let an agonizing twinge pass, then said, "T'Mar, if I remember correctly, you were screening Eiranians in the dispensary. True?"
"True."
"Did you find reasons to reject any?"
"Not reject them, no. I put a few on hold for further examination."
"Why?"
"Something didn't look right in their specimens. Some kind of residue. It wasn't on the stop list, but I couldn't identify it, so I passed them on to the lab."
"I want you to get with the doctors here and be specific about what you know. And what you don't know, in this case. I think the Eiranians were up to something involving pathogens. This is entirely unofficial at present, of course, but I'd appreciate your cooperation, T'Mar."
T'Mar grinned and said, "If you'll tell me why you're called Stardancer..?"
"That's a cheap trade. I used to be a fighter pilot. That was my call sign. I'm surprised that someone hasn't told you before now."
T'Mar said, "I asked a few people. Evidently the wrong people. They didn't know."
L'Tan laughed. "I guess it's been too long ago for this crew. This was my ship, twenty years ago. Or, rather, I was stationed aboard her for five years. They refitted her after the peace accords and now she's basically a heavily-armed diplomatic ferry."
L'Sil asked, "Wasn't that about the time of the Adaran pirate wars?"
L'Tan nodded. "It was. People who weren't there to experience it called it a 'police action'. We were there, and we called it a damned war. We chased pirates from star system to star system for over two years. It would have gone on longer if Adar hadn't capitulated and called their ships back."
T'Mar asked, "But how did you get the name 'Stardancer'?"
L'tan looked thoughtful. "We used to deploy fighters from secondary ships. The Adarans ambushed us near a binary star. Tore us up pretty badly. I led three of them on a deranged chase long enough for the others to break free, but I was too far away to expect any help in time to do any good. My comm system was out, anyway. I was on my own."
She took a sip of water and continued, "So I climbed into the storage locker behind the pilot's compartment and used my nav computer to trigger the ejection system. The Adarans saw the escape pod blasting away and thought I was finished. They turned around and headed back."
L'Sil was shocked.
"They didn't try to pick up your escape pod?"
L'Tan shook her head.
"Pirates don't give a damn about such polite customs. Without a seat, I used some of the exposed wiring to tie myself in and flew the ship on my knees for ten minutes until I caught up with them. They were in tight formation and they weren't expecting trouble. When the one in the middle exploded, he took the other two with him."
When she didn't say anything more for a moment, T'Mar prompted, "But you still haven't said how you got the name."
L'Tan grinned. "Oh. Right. Well, I was nearly out of fuel and headed toward the binary near Adara. There were no planets near the binary; nowhere to set down and nothing to orbit, and I couldn't slow down. Things looked kind of grim for a while. Then it occurred to me that I might be able to create a figure-eight sort of orbit between the stars. Circle one, then let the other take me, then back again. My nav computer worked out the details and I used the last of my fuel establishing a fast orbital track. Then I sat out there for two days until the Alliance found me."
L'Sil looked confused. "I don't quite understand how they could have found you without your comm system."
"They followed the escape pod's signal and found an empty pod. That was a definite first for them." She grinned again. "When I figured they'd had time enough to locate the pod, I fired a torpedo back the way I'd come every time I reached an orbital apex. Torpedoes that can't find their target call for instructions. They picked up the torpedoes and traced them back to me."
T'Mar began, "But..."
"I'm getting to that. They found me slingshotting around and between the two stars. When they were close enough to hear my suit comm, the Tac officer asked if he could have the next dance. Everybody called me 'Stardancer' after that."
"That's it? Just because some guy asked you for a dance?"
"Well, I'm so sorry, T'Mar, but that's all there was to it. The name stuck."
L'Sil said, "Wow. Over two days in a lifesuit. I'll bet you were glad to see them."
"I was a nasty mess by that time. I'd have been glad to see pirates again."
"Well, hell," said T'Mar. "I guess I expected something a little more dramatic. Still, a deal's a deal. I'll get with the lab for you."
L'Sil looked to see if he was serious. L'Tan laughed.
"I like you. You aren't afraid of me. Yet."
"Oh, I'm plenty afraid of you, ma'am. I saw what you did to suppress fire at the docks. You just about ground the walls and floor of that flitter down to nothing. I just don't think fear would make any difference, so I'm ignoring it."
L'Tan laughed again, then winced as the pain lashed her back.
"That's... Very... Reasonable of you, T'Mar... Thanks for coming down, both of you. I'm feeling much better."
L'Sil said, "Oh, I can see that. Maybe we'd better go before we kill you."
The doctor rushed in and shouldered his way between T'Mar and L'Sil to check the vid screen by the bed. He tapped in a code that released a quieting dose of painkillers into L'Tan and stepped back.
"My desk monitors screamed," he said. "I'm surprised that you didn't. I'm chasing your two friends out of here for now."
L'Tan said, "I'm all right now. They can stay, doctor."
The doctor swiveled the monitor screen to face her and said, "See this line? They leave. You stay. That's it. Thanks to you we have a tomorrow, and that's when they can come back in here. Besides, you'll be asleep soon from the stuff I just gave you. Everybody out. Now."
Over the next two days the Captain tried to scrounge information from nearby worlds without appearing to be doing so, but his efforts yielded nothing useable. Some of the worlds nearby failed to even respond to his calls.
T'Mar unloaded all he could remember on the medlab techs about his reasons for red-flagging Eiranian visa applicants and also yielded no quantifiable results.
L'Sil found herself employed as L'Tan's aide, which seemed at first to mean not much more than someone to fetch and carry, but as soon as L'Tan was able to function on a lower level of medication, she began asking for information that L'Sil had to dig out of archives and assemble.
For all their efforts, by the end of the week they had little more than when they'd started. The information required simply wasn't forthcoming from any source on the ship, and tempers were beginning to fray from frustration.
Then, on the sixth day after the Consulate attack, some news finally arrived from nearby Erek. People were dying in vast numbers, all over the planet. People of all ages and races were suddenly and simply collapsing, and nobody had any idea what was killing them or how to stop it.
A few tried to escape by leaving the planet, but their efforts only allowed them to die in space. HQ issued orders to destroy any ships that failed to respond to hails, and the Alliance unfortunately had occasion to act on those orders eight times during the next two days.
The comm board was silent for most of the seventh day, then a man's voice said, "Alliance, this is Station Commander T'Ran. Come in, please."
The Captain nodded to the Tac officer, who punched the comm button. A haggard-looking man in his forties appeared on the bulkhead screen.
"Captain T'Var, here, Commander T'Ran. Go ahead."
"Captain T'Var, this is a deliberately unsecure communication, intended to be overheard by the Eiranians, because they either refuse to answer our calls or are unable to do so. You are to remain near Eirania until relieved and to prevent all vessels from leaving that planet by any means necessary. The Eiranians appear to be directly and deliberately responsible for an attack on the Confederation."
The bridge crew of the Alliance simply stared at one another.
Captain T'Var said, "I'll have to confirm this transmission, Commander. Is there anything more you can tell us?"
The Commander's face changed to one of malevolent fury, but his words were as uninflected as before.
"Only that an investigation is underway and that - if the Eiranians are found to be guilty in this matter - you will receive new orders. That is all. Please confirm this transmission at your earliest convenience, Captain."
"I will, Commander. Thank you."
The Commander broke the connection and Captain T'Var suddenly realized that he was perched on the edge of his chair. He stood and straightened his uniform.
"That message doesn't leave this bridge yet, people. Tac Commander, you have the conn. You heard the man. Nobody leaves the planet. Get that confirmation on a secure channel and route it to my ready room, please."
T'Var reviewed his ship's available data concerning Eirania for half an hour or so before the Tac officer signaled and said, "HQ is on the horn, Captain. They'd like a word with you."
"Put them through, Tac. Make a secure copy, Command eyes only."
"Yes, sir. Putting them through now."
T'Var's vid screen's 'incoming' box lit up and he closed his review of Eiranian data to take the call.
"Captain T'Var here."
Admiral T'Pel delivered the message this time. He sat stiffly and read from something on his desk, looking up now and then into the recorder.
"Hello, T'Var. I have a lot of people to call, so I'll keep this as short as possible. A virus has been released that has effectively eliminated over ninety percent of the populations of our Confederated Worlds in the space of only a few days. Samples have been collected and lab results have yet to determine the source, but it is suspected - only suspected, at the present time - that this virus was created and distributed by the Eiranians."
The man on screen paused to clear his throat and continued, "We cannot do more than sanction Eirania as a preventive measure until it is known for certain that they, indeed, perpetrated this horrible plague. You are to take no action other than total containment of the planet until their guilt is proven."
He paused again and took a cue from someone out of visual range.
Nodding to whomever had cued him, he said, "This message was to contain a current listing of all affected worlds. It has become the opinion of myself and others that such information should not be released to crews of military vessels until it is known beyond a shadow of a doubt who is responsible for this atrocity and a course of action decided upon."
'Well, damn,' thought T'Var. 'That's not going to help matters any more than telling them would have.'
"I'm sorry that I don't have more information for you, Captain T'Var. Truly I am. But in the interest of justice, I cannot stress strongly enough that we cannot act on a matter of this magnitude without being absolutely sure. For now, your only duty is to contain the planet, but you may do so by any necessary means in order to absolutely prevent any vessel of any sort from leaving Eirania. That is all, Captain T'Var."
Admiral T'Pel rubbed his eyes and looked back into the recorder for a quiet moment, then said, "By the way, T'Var, I'm very glad to see that you and your crew are healthy. Please try to remain so. Those of us in space appear... Uhm, those of us in space appear to be all that's left of our various peoples."
The Admiral shook his head slightly and added, "T'Pel out."
The message ended and the screen blanked. T'Var sat staring at the screen for some time before he called the Tac officer.
"I want a meeting of all key personnel, Tac. All people from all shifts. One hour from now. I'll be in sickbay if you need me."
L'Sil was on an errand when T'Var reached sickbay. The nurse was nowhere in sight and the doctor was using the nursing station desk.
The doctor looked up from his work and said, "Hello, Captain."
"How is she? I need to see her for a little while."
"She's doing fine, Captain. In another week or so it will probably be safe to let her out of bed."
"Good," said T'Var. He pointed at the monitoring devices and asked, "You think she can survive without those for a little while?"
The doctor shrugged and said, "Sure. They're mostly for my benefit, anyway. I can monitor a dozen patients at once from here."
"Then turn it off. Where's your nurse?"
"Probably talking to her boyfriend in the sci-lab next door. She's at lunch."
"Good. Turn those things off, I said. Then come with me."
The doctor was startled by the order and its tone. T'Var watched him turn off the equipment, then headed for L'Tan's room. The doctor hurried to follow him.
Once inside L'Tan's room, the Captain asked, "Can anyone hear us in here? I have something to say that shouldn't be heard outside this room."
"Nobody can hear us, Captain."
T'Var sighed and turned to L'Tan.
"Consul L'Tan, HQ says that the Eiranians may have let a virus loose on the Confederation. Ninety percent casualties. Hundreds of worlds. Billions dead. I'm not letting this news out, yet, because we don't need to have the crew coming apart at the seams."
The doctor's knees failed him and he sagged into the chair.
"No. Not 'casualties', Captain. There are no wounded. The report should have used the word 'mortality'. What about Talira? My family..?"
"I wasn't told which planets in particular were affected."
The doctor lapsed into stunned silence. His hands seemed to flutter before him for a moment, then lay still in his lap. T'Var touched his shoulder to get his attention.
"Can you hold on for a while? I may need your services."
"I... "
Even as he stared up at T'Var, the doctor's eyes seemed to unfocus again. T'Var placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently.
"L'Tan, how are you taking this news?"
"Not well at all, but better than the doctor, I think."
"Good. I may need some off-bridge help soon. The job's yours."
"What kind of help? I'm kind of stuck here, T'Var."
"Well, for one thing, I may need a conscience in the near future. Do you have one you can lend me if mine goes off-line?"
"I'm not sure yet. This hasn't really soaked in yet for you, either, has it? You're preparing for when it hits bottom, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"And when it does?"
"The Alliance can sterilize a planet the size of Eirania. I'm not sure I'll be able to hear those who oppose that idea."
"You're already hearing them. You're worried that you may stop listening."
"Yes."
"T'Var, if those bastards really did this, do you think I'd try to stop you?"
"I don't know. Would you?"
"I really don't know yet. Still want my input?"
"Yes."
"You've got it, then."
T'Var nodded and glanced down at the doctor.
"I let the doctor in on this to give him time to get past it, if he can. We'll have our hands full when the crew finds out, and I'll need him functional by then. That's one way you can help me right now, Stardancer; by trying to help him. I'd best get back to the bridge, now."
L'Tan nodded and T'Var left the room. The doctor was still staring at the foot of the bed. L'Tan wondered what he was seeing that his eyes weren't. After a few minutes, he simply leaned forward and let his head rest on the bed. L'Tan put her hand on the back of his head and hoped that she'd be strong enough to be of some comfort to him.
T'Var walked into the briefing room and found it packed. He scanned the small crowd for a moment, giving them time to quiet down, and noted that all were present.
Pulling his chair away from the table, T'Var sat down and waved at the others to do so. Once all were seated, he began speaking to them.
"People, our present mission is to keep anyone from leaving Eirania by any means necessary. That is our only mission at the moment. There's a high probability that anyone trying to leave the planet will be infected with a deadly disease; a disease for which we have no cure. For that reason, we will not be capturing vessels. We will be destroying them. If anyone here feels that he or she cannot go along with these orders, speak up."
When no one moved or spoke, T'Var said, "Good. Meeting adjourned."
T'Mar walked out of the next-door lab and almost ran into L'Sil in the hallway. He walked with her to L'Tan's room, noticing along the way that something was different about the nurse's station, but not immediately realizing exactly what.
Looking around for the doctor or the nurse, he excused himself and went back to take another look at the nurse's station as L'Sil knocked on Stardancer's door and was told to come in. That was odd, too. L'Tan's door hadn't been closed any other time that he'd visited sickbay.
Once he'd walked behind the desk in the nurse's station, he realized instantly what was missing. Noise. None of the monitoring equipment was operating. He tapped the on button and the system came to life.
"...with a pathogen," L'Tan was saying.
"That's impossible," said L'Sil. "It has to be. Nobody could do something like that."
"The Eiranians are religious fanatics, Captain. They can do anydamnedthing and find a way to rationalize it. There's even a passage in their holy book that commands them to kill all infidels. Until now, they haven't had the means to do a thorough job of it, that's all."
"I just can't believe it. I'm sorry, L'Tan, but it's just too much to accept."
"Accept that it's a possibility, L'Sil. We may all have to deal with it very soon. Where's T'Mar?"
T'Mar tapped the intercom button.
"I'm at the nurse's station. Someone turned off your hardware, ma'am. I just turned it back on."
"How much did you hear?"
"Not much. Biowarfare. Likely the Eiranians behind it."
"Come in here, T'Mar, and turn off that hardware before you leave. It was off for a reason. Is the nurse back yet?"
"No."
"Then do something to keep that stuff off, will you? Disable it."
"Where's the doctor?"
"In here. Just do it, T'Mar, then come in here."
He looked around and underneath the equipment and finally decided that yanking out the power cord would be the best way. It didn't pull free of the box, so he tied the end around one of the stand's legs and put his foot on the cord. It took almost his entire weight before it broke. T'Mar caught himself before he could topple the stand and headed for L'Tan's room.
A few minutes later he had the rest of the story as far as it was known. His reaction was to bring two more chairs into L'Tan's room - one for L'Sil, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, and one for himself. They sat on either side of the doctor in silence as she reiterated the situation for him.
T'Mar asked, "So what's likely to be the next move? Will the Captain be ordered to do anything more than keep Eirania isolated?"
"Probably not," said L'Tan. "Not until a course of action is decided upon and more ships arrive. You two are handling this better than I expected."
Her gaze fell on L'Sil, who shrugged.
"I'm a fifth-generation shipbrat. Until I joined the service, I'd never been dirtside anywhere. What's happened is terrible, but, truthfully, it hasn't really happened to me. In a personal sense, that is. Sorry if that seems callous."
"Well, we're going to need some callous people, so stay that way. How about you, T'Mar?"
"I was orphaned at age thirty-one. No other family. I've moved around a lot, so I don't have a lot of close friends. Like she said, it hasn't really happened to me, personally."
L'Tan nodded. The doctor stood up and glared at L'Sil and T'Mar for a moment, then spoke softly.
"Well, aren't you people just too damned lucky?"
He turned and strode toward the door.
L'Tan raised her voice and said, "Stop right there, doctor."
The doctor stopped with his hand on the door and glared back at her.
L'Tan said, "Yes, they are lucky not to have lost close relatives and friends. And so are we, because those aboard who will take this hard will need people like them to get through this."
The doctor glared, but said nothing. After a moment, he opened the door and left the room.
"T'Mar," said L'Tan, "You're the one who joined us from Danar, aren't you?"
"Yes."
L'Tan gazed hard at him for a moment.
"I was there for a while some time ago. There aren't many reasons to go to Danar, are there? Even as a government employee. The whole planet is almost one big desert. Did you happen to work with or for a man named T'Kal?"
"I'm not at liberty to discuss my work on Danar."
L'Tan nodded again.
"L'Sil, I need a word alone with T'Mar. Would you see if you can find us a bit of lunch?"
L'Sil's expression was one of startlement at being excluded, but she said, "Yes, ma'am," then left the room.
"Now," said L'Tan, "Let's get something straight, T'Mar. I don't give a damn what you were doing on Danar. Chances are that Danar and a lot of other worlds are history, now, anyway. But if you were working for T'Kal, I want to know why one of our Confederation's spies took a job pushing papers in my Consulate without my knowledge."
After a moment, T'Mar shrugged.
"You're right. It doesn't really matter now. The case we were working came apart at the seams when one group of smugglers tried to take over another group's turf. One of the takeover group's people recognized me. We'd been stationed at the same base ten years before. About that time I tossed a grenade, then ran for it. Barely made it to the embassy ahead of them. Most of them were arrested. T'Kal needed a safe and readily available place to stash his star witness for a few months until the trial, so someone found me a job in your offices."
L'Sil laughed shortly and said, "Safe. I guess we've learned how little that word means lately. Who can I contact to verify you, T'Mar? Is T'Mar your real name? We have to assume that T'Kal isn't available."
"T'Mar is my name. The Comm officer can find out who's left to contact if you have enough pull to make someone to talk to you."
L'Tan smiled slightly and said, "Don't get defensive, T'Mar. You may be assigned to me by tomorrow. That's why I need to know a little more about you."
"Assigned to do what? The Consulate is history. Eirania may be history shortly, too, when word gets out."
"Maybe nobody is who or what they seemed to be, T'Mar. Why do you think I was stationed on Eirania? They could have put a dozen others there, instead, and any one of them would have paid off someone's political debt."
T'Mar shrugged again and grinned as he said, "If you can dig up what you want to know about me, you probably do have pull enough to get me reassigned to you. In the meantime, since I was working for you, anyway, I guess I'll just keep working for you until the home office says otherwise. Will that do?"
"That'll do just fine, thanks. Of course, when you do your own checking on me, you could suggest the reassignment."
"I could, at that. May as well, since it doesn't appear that any of us will be leaving the Alliance any time soon."
L'Sil returned with a cart from the dining hall that contained four trays of food.
"The doctor didn't want his, but if I leave it, he may change his mind later. Did you and T'Mar finish your business, or should I plan on leaving again right after lunch?"
L'Tan said, "We're through for now. It turns out that he isn't just a file clerk, L'Sil. I can't give you details, but you're to consider him your equal in rank and station for the time being."
L'Sil glanced at T'Mar and then back at L'Tan.
"Yes, ma'am."
"I've been thinking," said L'Tan. "Assuming that the Eiranians released the virus, either they have a vaccine and have used it or they never planned for the virus to reach Eirania. Since we'd be talking about trying to secretly vaccinate about three billion people, it seems likely to me that they never intended to have to deal with the virus at home. How would they accomplish that?"
L'Sil said, "They detonated a nuke over their largest port city in an attempt to hit the Alliance. I'm not sure they'd give a damn about using the virus if their top people were inoculated first."
T'Mar said, "It would be a highly infectious, short-lived virus that would require a live host in order to propagate itself. Convince some people to all become martyrs on the same date, put them where you want them, and then wait a few weeks or months before you move your people in. But the idea that they'd release the virus on their own planet doesn't add up when you consider the amazingly high birth rate on Erania over the last two decades."
L'Sil looked questioningly at him.
"That's right," he said. "They dropped the age of marriage to twelve about twenty-two years ago, right after their civil war ended, and then started propagandizing to get every eligible woman married and pregnant. It's been a breeding frenzy. Today, about a third of the population is made up of young people who have been subjected to heavy religious indoctrination all their lives, and who'd be ready to die for any religious cause their leaders throw up. They probably sent a few to each world on their list. What's a few hundred out of a billion?"
"Do you really believe that?" asked L'Sil. "That they've been planning this attack for two decades without someone finding out about it somehow?"
"I don't have to believe it," said T'Mar. "I'm just speculating. A billion or so people could take over hundreds of freshly-empty worlds."
"It makes sense to me," said L'Tan. "They thoroughly isolated themselves after their civil war, and their post-war population almost doubled in one generation. You never see Eiranians anywhere but on Eirania unless they're diplomatic types or students. There is no tourism on Eirania; you can't even get a visa unless you're on business. They send ore out in trade for food, money, and goods they can't make themselves, and that's about the sum total of their contact with other worlds."
"That just means they're isolationists," said L'Sil, "Not that they're responsible for what's happened. For all we know, someone else did it and deliberately left them untouched so that it would look as if they were responsible."
L'Tan gave her a moderately exasperated look and said, "That's why there's an investigation instead of a lynch mob. That's why Captain T'Var was told to do nothing for the moment. Now, for the purposes of this discussion, L'Sil, we will assume that the Eiranians will be found guilty and base our speculations on that assumption. Clear?"
L'Sil nodded and said, "Yes, ma'am."
After a moment, L'Tan said, "Obviously, there was a revolution, but not the kind I was warned to expect. Some of the brass had the idea that the theocracy might be pulled down and replaced by something a bit more democratic. I wonder why they bothered to overrun the Consulate? They didn't seem at all interested in taking hostages."
"To prevent communications, maybe," said T'Mar. "I heard explosions downstairs when the evacuation began, and they damned sure took the place over quickly. They didn't want anyone leaving the planet, and they were willing to wipe out a city to try to stop the Alliance from leaving. Maybe they weren't sure they had all communications jammed."
"Assuming that their virus release happened about the same time as our evacuation," said L'Tan, "Or even before then, our communications wouldn't have been that important to them. There's something we haven't thought of yet."
"What's that?" asked L'Sil.
"Damned if I know," said a grinning L'Tan. "Like I said, we haven't thought of it yet."
"Maybe we have, after all," said T'Mar. "The virus seems to have needed six days or so to work. The militaries of a hundred worlds could have their fleets at Eirania in two days or less. Some of them wouldn't have wanted to wait for an investigation."
L'Sil said, "There's nothing to stop them from coming now. Why aren't they here? Why are we alone out here?"
L'Tan said, "Some of them are probably ghost fleets by now, if they were in orbits that allowed shuttling to and from the surface. Anyone returning from a visit to the surface or an infected ship could have brought the virus aboard."
T'Mar had a thought and asked, "If the ones I flagged were carriers, why weren't we infected? I interviewed them and examined them, yet here we are, presumably whole and healthy."
"You're better equipped to figure that out than I am," said L'Tan. "Maybe the virus had two stages of development."
"Then it would have had those two stages later, on the planets, and that would have slowed the spread. That doesn't quite work, L'Tan. What if they encapsulated the virus in something else...? Something that would have dissolved after a few days? That would have given the carriers time to get where they were going."
"Well, maybe they just smuggled it in their luggage," said L'Sil, in an irritated tone. "Maybe they got to a planet and took a pill. Why the hell are we trying to figure out how they did it? Shouldn't we be thinking about what comes next?"
L'Tan and T'Mar gazed at her for a couple of moments, surprised at her outburst. L'Sil shook her head and put her hands to her temples.
"Sorry," she said. "I'll shut up now."
"No," said L'Tan. "You have a right to an opinion, Captain..."
The hallway alarm went off, startling everyone into silence, then the intercom blared, "Battle stations. All hands to battle stations."
"Oh, what now?" asked L'Tan. "You two try to find out what's going on. I'll wait right here."
T'Mar glanced at her, saw her grin, and returned it.
"Yeah, you do that, ma'am. We wouldn't want you to break a nail climbing out of bed, would we?"
L'Sil stared at him in shock.
"T'Mar! She's the Consul! You can't talk to her like that!"
T'Mar just grinned at her and shook his head, then headed for the door. L'Tan also shook her head and waved to get L'Sil's attention.
"Loosen up, Captain. I made a joke. So did he. Now, go find out what's going on."
Until T'Mar introduced L'Sil and himself as 'Consul L'Tan's aides', they were refused admittance to the bridge. Once they were inside, T'Var spotted them and told them to remain by the door and out of the way.
"Tac, what are they sending us?"
"Over a hundred vessels are launching, Captain. Most are fighter craft. The ones coming right at us are nuke missiles. It'll take them half an hour to get here. Seven, so far. They appear to be set for proximity or contact. I can start blowing them anytime you give the word."
T'Var nodded. "Hold that thought, Tac. We'll take on the missiles later. Launch our fighters and use battery two on theirs for now. Comm, let HQ know what's happening. Take the tactical feed from Tac and route it to them in bursts, and tight-beam it so the Eiranians won't know about it. Tac, will the nukes follow us?"
"I'd say that they'll coast out here, then try to adjust course until their fuel runs out."
"Good. Let's find out. If they will, we're going to send them back where they came from. Helm, when they stop boosting, take us around them and see if they change course. If they do, try to head us in close to the atmosphere without losing them."
"Yes, sir. No problem. Their missiles are antiques."
Captain T'Var loudly slapped the side of his chair, startling everyone on the bridge. He met the Conn Ensign's eyes for a moment.
"I don't want to hear that word again from anyone. One of those missiles almost vaporized us a few days ago, Ensign. You didn't sound so confident at the time, as I remember. Just keep us well clear of them, please, but lead them if they'll follow."
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."
"Trace the guidance signals back to the planet, Tac. As soon as the missiles are turned around, I want you to hit the source with battery one. Wipe it out, and if any more crop up, wipe those, too. Those bastards aren't going to be able to blow their own missiles to save themselves."
"Captain," said T'Mar.
Without looking around, T'Var said, "I'm kind of busy, T'Mar. You're only in here to observe."
"I'm observing, Captain, but I don't see Eirania's moon. Where is it? Why did they choose this particular moment to strike?"
"Have no fear, T'Mar. The moon isn't missing. It's behind us. Tac?"
"I've been scanning globally. Nothing there but the moon, sir."
"Get a visual," said T'Mar. "Sensors can be fooled."
Tac responded, "By the Eiranians? T'Mar, we have the best..."
T'Var said, "Do it, Tac. T'Mar, don't issue orders on my bridge."
"Sorry, Captain. It's just that this setup stinks and I don't know why, yet."
"Tac? Anything?"
"Nothing back there, sir."
"Are the missiles following us?"
"Yes, sir. Fighters are making contact, sir."
"Comm. Get me Gold group."
The Comm officer tapped up the Gold flight leader, who put the call on hold for a moment as he cleared his area. The computer picked out six of the incoming Eiranian fighters and fired a missile at each.
The tiny missiles were launched at extremely high speed by high-intensity field bursts within the launch tubes. As soon as they were clear of the fighter, they received their targeting information from the fighter's computer and corrected course as necessary using small thrusters.
Once the missiles had a target lock, their own propulsion systems continued to accelerate them at their targets at ever increasing speed. Six bright blossoms came into being thirty miles ahead of Gold leader's fighter.
"Gold one. I was busy, sir. Go ahead."
"Are they putting up much of a fight, Gold one?"
"They can't, sir. Their fighters and weapons are twenty years behind ours. I don't know why these guys are up here. They have to know they don't stand a chance in hell."
"Gold one, our civilian advisor thinks that something's not right. So do I."
"Our what..? Yes, sir. What do you want me..."
An explosion brightened the sky, then another. Someone screamed that she couldn't see.
Many more such explosions and smaller ones dotted the space around Eirania, but there were no more screams.
At length, a woman's tense, but contained voice said, "Green three. Do not engage them at close range. Do not engage them. Take them out at ten miles or more. They were nukes, Captain. Green one and two are gone and I'm nearly blind. I'm going to autopilot. My computer has guidance and fire control...Now."
T'Var said, "Thank you, Green three. Keep station and we'll pick you up later."
"Captain, Gold one. There's something behind you off your Q3, but I can't get a reading on it. I thought it was a smudge on my screen, but it moves. Repeat: Check your Q3, about three thousand miles out."
Tac said, "Nothing on screen. Nothing on visual."
Captain T'Var said, "Assume the worst, Tac. Launch a drone. Helm, hard right, half speed."
The Ensign at the helm console instantly jabbed one of the bigger buttons in the center of his panel and shoved a throttle slide forward.
"Hard right, half speed, sir."
Tac said, "Drone away, sir. We're losing the missiles. They can't keep up with our course change."
"We'll come back for them. Put the drone on screen four."
T'Mar watched screen four, as did the others. For long moments, nothing but Eirania's moon on a background of stars was visible, then the drone's proximity alarm sounded and it altered course to intercept the stranger.
"Incoming," said Tac in a calm voice. "Damn. The computer still can't see it, sir. I can't get a firing solution on it. Sir, it's coming at us a lot faster than those missiles if it came all the way from the moon."
"Helm, put us between the missiles and the planet. Tac, blow a few of the missiles in a direct path between us and the drone. When it passes through their residue, maybe we'll get a look at it in time to duck. Helm, when Tac says go, take us hard left at full speed."
"Yes, sir!" the Ensign almost yelled. His right hand was poised tensely above the directional pads and his left was resting on the throttle slide.
Screen one blossomed stark white as three of the missiles exploded, then tuned itself back to a view of the moon and stars. Almost instantly, something rushed through the periphery of one of the perfectly globular blast spheres.
"Now!" yelled Tac, pressing three buttons at once.
The helmsman's fingers jammed hard on the control pad as his other hand shoved the throttle slide fully forward.
The abrupt sideways motion nearly overcame the inertial compensators, but the ship's computer didn't quite consider the situation an emergency, so it didn't engage the stasis fields.
T'Mar found himself pinned flat to the wall by the course change and L'Sil almost sailed through the air at him, barely maintaining herself upright. He managed to catch her well enough to avoid injury to either of them.
The incoming missile couldn't change course fast enough, so it detonated. A blast that dwarfed those of the missiles far above swelled outward as if reaching for the still-accelerating Alliance.
Screen one whitened again. When the picture came back, it was very poor, grainy and streaked, as the sensors struggled to function.
The shock wave caught up with the Alliance at twenty-six miles and shoved it hard another ten miles. It happened so quickly that the computer barely had time to deploy blanketing stasis fields throughout the ship.
When the stasis field released him, the Tac officer pressed a series of buttons and a view of space returned to the screen, but it was at a slightly different angle than before.
"They just baked our other side, sir. All external sensors and cameras gone from quad one. I've managed to put quad four back online. The missile apparently decided that we were getting away."
"Thank you, Tac. Apparently we did get away. Gold one, you saved our asses. Can you see anything else coming at us?"
"Negative, sir. I'll let you know if anybody sees anything unusual at all. That was a good move, Tac, but don't let it go to your head."
"Not to worry, Gold one. Get back to work or I'll write you up for loitering. I'm not as lenient as Captain T'Var."
"Oh, dearie me, we can't have that. Hey, don't forget about those other missles, Tac. They're still looking for you, you know."
T'Var said, "Enough. Back to work, both of you. Helm, get us back to leading those missiles back where they came from before they run out of fuel."
"Yes, sir."
A few minutes later, the last of the missiles had exhausted its fuel and all of them were plummeting toward the planet's surface.
"Take us up, helm. Tac, locate Green three and and scan for any vessels the fighters may have missed. They have priority now. Gold one, did you get them all?"
"We think so, sir. The computer says one hundred and thirty-seven."
"Keep looking. Tac, how does that match your first count?"
"Short, sir. Comp says three are missing."
"Were any of them close enough to any of the explosions?"
"Checking. Two, sir. One still unaccounted for. The tactical comp is looking for it now."
"Everybody, we're one short. Find it. We'll pick up Green three and join the search. Tac, keep that drone out there for a while. See if you can figure out how something as big as that missile made itself invisible. Helm, let's go get Green three."
T'Var punched a button on his chair and screen two showed a view of the planet's surface. For long seconds, nothing unusual happened, then four bright blossoms appeared on the surface.
"Tac, can you track the trajectory of that big missile back to its origin?"
"I've been working on that, sir. It appears to have been launched from their moon about twenty-eight hours prior to the launch of the other missiles."
"When you're sure you have it, tell Gold one to take his group and have a look at that moon as soon as he's refreshed. We don't need any more surprises. He's to destroy any man-made structures he finds."
"Yes, sir."
Majestic musroom clouds formed below them that extended to the edge of the atmosphere, broadening at their tops to almost completely obliterate the screen's view of the continent directly below.
"Captain, this is quad four. We're bringing Green three aboard now. She'll be in sickbay in a few minutes."
T'Var's eyes never left the nuclear panorama as he said, "Thank you, Q four. I'll head down there as soon as possible."
As the clouds below continued to spread and began to drift slightly, the Captain rose from his chair and started toward the bridge doors.
Tac said, "Found him. The fighter's on course for the moon, sir. Engine off, no energy signature at all. He's shut down everything, even life support."
He put the fleeing craft on screen one and enhanced the view.
T'Var quietly said, "Hit him, Tac."
"Yes, sir."
Tac gave the computer the command to fire and battery two brightened the sky with two lancing beams. The fighter blossomed and ceased to exist.
T'Var reached to tap the chair's console and the screen blinked off.
"T'Mar, L'Sil. Come with me," he said, heading for the doors.
Instead of taking the intra-ship shuttle, T'Var opted to walk. For quite a while he said nothing as T'Mar and L'Sil almost had to double-time to keep up with him.
T'Var noticed that L'Sil was having trouble keeping pace and slowed down a bit.
"Sorry," he said. "T'Mar, how did you know something was wrong?"
"I didn't know it. Not at first. I just felt it, then, but it makes sense now. In my Consulate job, I took note of their religious holidays so I could plan for some time off. Today begins one of those holidays. Eight is a sacred number to them, but there were only seven missiles coming up. Everything was happening in front of us on a grand scale, apparently a massed attack, but it didn't take long to see that the fighters had no chance at all against us. Then it occurred to me that a surprise attack was used to found their current regime. What they used on us was a modified infantry tactic, T'Var."
"Infantry?"
T'Mar nodded.
"Attack your enemy's armored vehicle to get his attention while a tube team gets behind him. When the enemy has been suckered into position, your cannon opens up on them. We've probably screwed up their plans pretty well, since we're still here and they're out all that hardware."
"Plus their missiles turning back on them," said L'Sil. "Why didn't you just lead them into orbit? We haven't been ordered to retaliate. At least, not yet."
"I don't like being shot at," said T'Var. "Sending the missiles back to their owners seemed appropriate."
"Those missiles probably killed a lot of innocent people, Captain."
T'Var stared at her for a moment.
"Well, Captain L'Sil," he said, "We had orders to wait for the Consulate people and not interfere in what was thought to be a local matter. We watched foreigners of all types being dragged through the streets and dismembered by happy, chanting mobs. People were dancing around waving body parts. Men, women, and children were throwing cobblestones at anyone their leaders pointed to. People were looting bodies and..."
"Enough, please," said L'Sil. "I get your point. You obviously don't believe there are any innocents down there."
In a tone so low it was threatening, T'Var said, "I'll decide when I've said enough, Captain L'Sil. They attacked the Consulate at the same time they attacked us. Of nearly a thousand people we were waiting for, only your group arrived. Then the crazy bastards tried to nuke us out of the sky right on top of their biggest coastal city, not concerned in the least that millions of their own people would die whether they hit us or not."
He stopped talking for a moment and took a deep breath, then said, "Captain L'Sil, I'd have been happy to sterilize Eirania before anyone ever mentioned a virus attack. All that was missing were orders to do so."
He turned to T'Mar and asked, "And you, T'Mar? Do you have any objections to the way I handled things?"
T'Mar shrugged and said, "Nope. No complaints. They were shooting at me, too, you know."
They'd reached L'Tan's room. T'Mar opened the door and held it as the others entered. L'Tan, sitting up in the bed, saw their expressions and ventured a guess.
"We're still alive, so it's a little too late for that borrowed conscience, isn't it?"
"Yes," said T'Var. "You're aware of what happened?"
L'Tan used both hands to sweep her hair back, then said, "I can guess. The Eiranians attacked us and you retaliated?"
In a disapproving tone, L'Sil said, "He sent their nuclear missiles back at them."
"While saving us from a sneak attack that was almost successful," said T'Mar. "Give credit where it's due, L'Sil."
"I'm simply pointing out that there were other options," said L'Sil.
L'Tan caught the look of irritation on T'Var's face and said, "No more pointing, L'Sil. Can we anticipate their next move, T'Var?"
"If they come up with something else, I can only assume that it will be unpleasant and that it will be aimed at us."
"Have you told any of the crew about the virus attack?"
"I've informed my key personnel that we're containing Eirania due to a threat of disease. I haven't told them yet that most of their home worlds may have been wiped out."
"When do you plan to tell them the whole story?" asked L'Tan.
"I'm still considering that."
A knock at the door silenced the conversation. The doctor poked his head in the room and said, "Captain. A call."
T'Var asked the doctor to wait the others, then excused himself and went to the nurse's station.
Tapping the console's 'receive' button, he said, "T'Var here."
The Tac officer said, "Sir, HQ is calling. Your eyes only. Do you want it sent down there?"
"I'm alone, Tac. Go ahead."
The screen displayed Admiral T'Pel's tired, grim expression. He began without the traditional communication pleasantries.
"Captain T'Var, it's confirmed. On every affected world, the outbreaks began in educational centers. Eirania used students and their families as carriers."
"On affected worlds? Then there are unaffected worlds?"
"Yes. Apparently nine of their carriers failed to arrive at their destinations. Three worlds never received the virus. The passenger liner that would have delivered the infected Eiranians crashed during an emergency landing on Leimar's moon."
T'Var received the news in stunned silence.
Only three worlds left out of four hundred?
"T'Var?"
T'Var shook himself out of his daze and said, "Yes, sir."
"You'll have company within a couple of days. A goodly number of the remaining commanders waited only for confirmation before independently sending what's left of their fleets to Eirania. Ours was one of them, commanded by Admiral T'Bar."
T'Var nodded. "Orders, sir?"
Admiral T'Pel rubbed his face with his hands and sighed.
"You're to join our fleet when it arrives. Just so you know, those orders come from our council, not from me alone."
After a moment, T'Var said, "I understand, sir."
The Admiral appeared to have something more on his mind, but he abruptly shook his head slightly and said, "That's all. Goodbye and good luck," before tapping off the connection.
T'Var tapped the console and said, "Tac, the fleet is arriving soon. The council put T'Bar in charge of the battle group."
"T'Bar? Sir, they only let him out of his cage for truly special occasions. What's going on?"
"Can't say yet. Just meet and greet and call me when he calls us. He may decide to drop in, so give the bridge a wipe. After I've had a talk with him, I'll give the crew a full briefing."
"Yes, sir."
T'Var walked into L'Tan's room without bothering to knock.
"L'Tan, the council seems to have agreed on a course of action. Admiral T'Bar is going to be here in a few days."
L'Tan gazed steadily at him for a moment, then said, "I see. I suppose it's too much to hope for that he wouldn't feel a need to visit with me. He's perhaps the most boorish, overbearing man I've ever met."
T'Var laughed and said, "I know what you mean, L'Tan. I'd damn sure rather he wouldn't visit me, too."
L'Sil stood up, shocked.
"You're talking about an Admiral! The highest ranking..."
L'Tan irritatedly said, "Sit down, shut up, and don't pop off like that again. We know who and what he is better than you do, L'Sil. He made his rank by being the council's hatchet man, and that information isn't exactly a secret anywhere in the known universe."
Equally shocked by L'Tan's words, L'Sil sat back down.
T'Mar sat silent during the ensuing conversation between T'Var and L'Tan. They said nothing that he hadn't extrapolated for himself the moment T'Bar's name had been mentioned. Only the method of execution had been in question as of that moment.
T'Var wrapped up by saying that he'd brief everyone aboard with a ship-wide announcement as soon as he'd spoken with T'Bar, then he left the room.
L'Tan clapped her hands to break the mood, then sat up, pulled her sheet away and swiveled her legs to hang over the side of the bed. She pulled several electrodes off her neck and back and tossed them on the bed.
"Hated having those things stuck to me. We have things to do and life will go on, with or without the Eiranians. T'Mar, keep an eye on me, here, will you?"
T'Mar got up to take her arm as she carefully levered herself to her feet. L'Sil gasped and bolted from her chair to grasp her other arm, but her intention was altogether opposite L'Tan's.
"Lady L'Tan! You shouldn't be out of bed! The doctor said..."
"The doctor is more of an old woman than I am, L'Sil. For that matter, so are you. If you aren't going to help me, let go of my arm."
"But, ma'am..."
"That's it. L'Sil, I realize you mean well, but you're being a hindrance. Sit down. Now."
L'Sil let go of L'Tan's arm, but stood stiffly next to her and said, "I can't let you do this, ma'am."
"You can't stop me, either, so go get my clothes from the closet. T'Mar, let go and let's see how I do before I get too far from a padded surface."
T'Mar released her arm and watched L'Tan extend her arms for balance as she lifted her left leg, bent at the knee. When her thigh was perpendicular to her body, she slowly lowered the leg and raised her right leg in the same manner.
T'Mar watched her for excessive shakiness or signs of pain, but all he saw was about as much instability as anyone would harbor while standing on one leg. As she raised her right leg, he noted how the sleek material of her nightgown contoured itself to he lines of her hips and thigh.
That's where he was looking when L'Tan asked, "Well? What do you think?"
T'Mar glanced up from her legs to her face and said, "I think you have damned fine legs, ma'am. How do you keep yourself so fit?"
L'Tan laughed. L'Sil, predictably, gasped again and reddened considerably. L'Tan looked at L'Sil's reaction, then laughed again. She turned to face T'Mar.
"Thanks. I needed that. What I meant was, how am I doing?"
"Oh, that. Well, you're out of bed and standing up. Can you walk, too?"
L'Tan took a few careful steps along the bed and back again.
"I'm not hurting yet, but I'd probably better take it easy for a while. Things feel okay, but they feel a little different, too. That's as well as I can explain it. Where are my clothes, Captain?"
L'Sil startled, then hurried to the closet. The doctor walked in without knocking and stopped dead in the doorway.
"Don't say a word, doctor. I've had enough bedrest and bedpans."
"Uh, so I see." He pointed to the electrodes on the bed and added, "The monitor was very upset when it thought you'd died."
He went to her, leaned over to press a couple of points on the small of her back, and asked, "Did that hurt?"
"Not much. A twinge. If it starts hurting without your help, I'll ask T'Mar to give me a backrub, okay? I'm getting out of here, doctor."
The doctor stood up and said, "I can't agree with that decision, but I can give you something to take if you experience more serious discomfort. I can also arrange you some new quarters. Two bedrooms, because I want someone with you at all times for the next two weeks, at least."
With a meaningful grin, he added, "You'll find out why when you've been on your feet for a while."
With that, he headed for the door. As L'Sil laid L'Tan's clothes on the bed, L'Tan said, "Thank you."
Both L'Sil and the doctor answered, "You're welcome," then glanced at each other.
The doctor then continued out of the room. L'Sil stood near L'Tan, wringing her hands gently. L'Tan noticed the unconscious act and turned to face her.
"L'Sil, are you familiar with the comm systems on this ship?"
"Yes, ma'am. I trained on them and we had the same equipment in the Consulate."
"Good. We're about to enter into something that will leave an indelible mark on the Confederation and all who participate. I'll tell the Captain that I've released you to join his crew. Please keep me posted on any new or unusual developments as they occur."
L'Sil's expression morphed from concern to shock at her dismissal from L'Tan's service as she heard L'Tan's request to be kept informed.
"Then you aren't exactly... Uhm... Letting me go?"
"Yes, I am, L'Sil. I have to, if I'm going to have eyes and ears on the bridge. You'll be far more important to me as an observer than an aide."
L'Tan leaned slightly toward L'Sil and added, "This won't fool the Captain for even a moment, of course. He'll put you to work knowing full well that I sent you to keep an eye on things for me, but I think he'll be happy to gain a new crewmember who doesn't have to be trained to run a comm board."
L'Sil brightened slightly and nodded. She wasn't fooled, either, but she realized that this was perhaps the gentlest way L'Tan could have chosen to let her go.
"Yes, ma'am," she said. "I believe I do understand. Should I leave now?"
"Not yet."
L'Tan pulled her into an embrace that lasted a few moments, patted L'Sil's shoulder as she released her, then said, "Now you can go. Thanks for your help and your concern, L'Sil."
L'Sil was slightly flustered, but she managed, "Yes, ma'am," before she turned to leave the room.
L'Tan watched her go. As the door closed, she heard T'Mar ask, "What about me?"
Turning to face him, L'Tan asked, "Are you feeling left out? Want a hug, too?"
T'Mar looked her up and down once and said, "I'm sure I'd enjoy one of your hugs, L'Tan, but I was referring to whether or not I'd be reassigned, too."
"Not unless you want to be. I'm weak as a kitten and sore as a boil already, T'Mar. I just didn't want her to see it. She'd start squeaking again."
She let herself down gently into one of the chairs and sighed.
"Hell, I don't particularly want you or anyone else to see it, either, but I'm not in a position to refuse all assistance at the moment. Besides, I saw the look in your eyes while you were staring at my legs. That look felt good, T'Mar."
She watched his reaction to her words flit across his face.
"Don't misunderstand me. I'm not keeping you simply as a potential bedmate, or even assuming that you'd go for that idea. I'm expecting to need assistance in a number of ways, once I'm out of this hospital room and functioning again. What do you say, T'Mar?"
T'Mar looked at the way the nightgown outlined her legs and figure and the way light shimmered on her shoulders and his eyes found their way to hers.
"I'd say that what was just an interim job seems to have become a real blessing, L'Tan."
"Thank you. I've never been called a blessing before. I'm going to need a hot shower before I put on new clothes. Spongebaths just don't seem quite complete to me."
"I'd be happy to scrub your back, but the door doesn't have a lock."
L'Tan smiled. "Shove the bed in front of the door and just scrub gently, T'Mar. Very gently."
He nodded sagely and lifted a finger as if to punctuate her words.
"Right. Gently. Very gently. I can do that."
L'Tan laughed again as T'Mar pulled, then pushed the bed so that it was endwise to the door. He toed the wheel locks down and turned to her.
L'Tan put her hands together and lifted her arms above her head, wiggled her fingers at him, and said, "I'll need some help getting out of this gown."
T'Mar doubted that, but was smart enough to keep his doubts to himself. He grasped the hem and gathered the gown upward until it was a double-handful of fabric around her shoulders, then lifted it over her head and completely off her.
L'Tan kept her arms together above her head and smiled at him.
"Still think I'm a blessing, T'Mar?"
T'Mar's gaze began at her eyes and ranged to her ankles, then returned to her face. She was almost his height and proportionately well-structured, solid without being scrawny.
"Oh, definitely," he said. "Without a doubt."
He tossed her nightgown on the bed and began removing his clothes, tossing them on the bed, as well. L'Tan smilingly watched as he undressed.
When they were both naked, she led the way to the shower.
Warm, slick, wet, and wonderful, thought L'Tan. She moved slightly to let the hot water pound on her shoulders and neck.
"I haven't been able to take a shower since the day the Consulate fell, T'Mar. I haven't felt really clean for that long. Do you think we can use up all the soap?"
"Maybe not, but we can try. Up against the wall, milady. I have a loofa and I know how to use it."
"Indeed," she said, turning to put her hands on the wall. "Okay, ready. Just listen for screams. Even the water hitting my back seems to hurt a little."
He looked at the faint bruising still remaining from her ordeal and said, "I'll be careful."
T'Mar began with her hair, standing to one side and using the time to let the hot water spray work on her back. Tilting her head back to rinse her hair, he leaned to kiss her upturned lips, then went back to work.
"You've done this before," said L'Tan, in a slightly accusing tone.
"Once or twice," admitted T'Mar. "But they were all no more than practice for this moment with you, of course."
L'Tan laughed and moved to let the hot water hit her neck. Tilting her head back had made the muscles complain slightly. She rolled her head to try to loosen them and said, "Oh, of course. Well, at least I can expect a competent job of it, right?"
"Definitely, ma'am. I paid lots of attention in class and I'm known for enthusiasm."
"I can see that. Uhm, well, I can feel it nudging my hip, anyway."
"Um-hm. See? You inspire me. I'm about to do your back. Relax."
T'Mar poured some shampoo on the loofa and gave her back a soft swipe with it to see how she'd take it. L'Tan stiffened in anticipation at first, but soon relaxed in the absence of additional pain.
After a few minutes of stroking her back, T'Mar moved to her arms and then her legs, using long, luxuriating strokes of the loofa and his hands and plenty of soap. As he returned upward along her legs, he let the loofa wander enough to draw a gasp from her, then moved further upward to wash her belly and breasts.
"I think I'm pretty clean now, don't you?"
T'Mar said, "Probably," and moved to stand directly behind her and let his member slide between her legs. "Are you saying that you're ready to get out?"
L'Tan looked down at the tip of his tool protruding slightly from between her legs and moved a bit further back from the wall to accommodate him.
"No," she said softly. "I'm not ready to get out."
As he began a long, slow slide into her, he kissed her back softly, then her shoulders, and then her neck. L'Tan couldn't quite turn her head far enough, so he kissed her ear and her cheek and finished his plunge into her.
"I hope you aren't in a hurry," he said. "I don't like to rush these things."
L'Tan drew the nails of her right hand gently up his thigh and said, "Mmmm... No, don't hurry. I've had so much to do these past few months... Ooooo... That I've been neglecting some things."
T'Mar kissed the back of her neck and said, "Well, now you have no excuse to neglect those things."
L'Tan chuckled softly. "I guess not. You fill a woman pretty well, sir. It may be hard to imagine taking a shower without your help from now on."
"Don't even try. I'm an aide, right? So, I'm aiding you."
L'Tan laughed aloud and asked, "Is that what we're going to call it?"
"Ab-so-lutely. You're already among my favorite employers ever, miLady. In a little while you're going to be at the very top of that list."
She laughed again and said, "Well, I think I can guess when that will be. Oooo..! Good spot, there. A very good spot. Do it again that way."
He repeated the motion a few times and was rewarded. L'Tan came hard, almost losing her balance. They staggered for a moment, and keeping them upright caused T'Mar to lose his concentration. Events got away from him.
"Oh, damn. Sorry," he said. "It's that time..."
L'Tan shoved back as he shoved forward and the two were locked together as T'Mar's orgasm came upon him and she found herself in the throes of a second one.
Some moments later they had eased themselves to the floor, still enjoined, and he gave up the last of himself into her. When he'd ceased bucking within her and had begun to grow smaller, L'Tan disengaged herself and turned around on her knees.
She kissed him warmly and fully, then sat back on the shower floor and leaned against the wall.
"You look pretty wonderful wet," said T'Mar.
He leaned to kiss the inside of her knee and stroke her legs.
"You say the nicest things," said L'Tan. "That feels good, what you're doing to my legs."
"It's supposed to. That's why I'm doing it. Don't want you to lose interest."
L'Tan laughed sharply, then she tensed and, with a hissing breath, arched slightly away from the wall.
"Not likely," she said between clenched teeth. "Not likely. But I have to be careful about laughing like that, so stop making me do it."
She was grinning when she said it, but seeing her pain, T'Mar decided to take the suggestion seriously for the moment.
"Why don't you turn around and let the water hit your back for a while, L'Tan? I'll rub a little and maybe we can help you get better a little faster."
She slowly and carefully did as he suggested, arranging herself under the spray. T'Mar gently kneaded her back and shoulders, now and then leaning to kiss the area under his fingers.
"Better?"
"Better," she said. "Much better, actually. I'm going to hate to leave this hot shower for the cold, dry world outside."
"Then don't think about it until you have to. There's no shortage of hot water and I don't have anywhere else to be today. Besides, there's a shower in your new quarters. We can move you and your stuff in and put you right back in to soak some more."
"We may have to," she said. "I want to be free of this pain and stiffness as soon as possible."
For all her talk of how good the shower felt, it wasn't long before L'Tan asked T'Mar to steady her and rose to her feet. They finished washing and dried each other and headed into the hospital room to dress.
T'Mar pushed the bed back against the wall as L'Tan held tubes and electrical lines clear, then they gathered her belongings and walked to the nurse's station. The nurse clucked like a hen for a bit as she signed L'Tan out and gave her the pain medication the doctor had set out for her.
"Thank you," said L'Tan. "I know how you feel about this, but you must know how I feel about escaping that bed. I feel as if I'm getting out of a prison."
The nurse smiled and nodded and touched L'Tan's arm.
"You just be sure to come back and see us if you need to. Before you really need to would be even better, of course. Prevention is always best. I've already seen to your new quarters. Deck 34, suite 10. Three rooms and a bath and what they laughingly call a kitchen on Confederation ships. I've left passcoding the door to you."
They thanked the nurse and set off in search of their new abode. Three decks toward the interior and what - to L'Tan - seemed like miles of walking later, they found themselves in the proper corridor.
"I think they design these ships to force the crews to exercise," said L'Tan. "There's no straight line to anywhere on foot."
"Could be you're right. Maybe the same people design quick-serve restaurants where the air conditioning is always too high or too low. It feels great when you first walk in and order, but about the time you're finishing your food, you're ready to go outside and stop shivering or sweating."
L'Tan stopped walking and stared at him for a moment.
"They do, don't they..? They really do do that. Damn. As often as I've ducked into one of those places on the way to somewhere or other, I've never realized that before."
T'Mar grinned at her.
"People aren't supposed to realize it; they're just supposed to eat and leave so the table's open for the next customer. You probably never lingered inside one long enough to really notice, anyway, L'Tan. You don't strike me as a lingerer."
"Hmm. Guess I'm not, really. I tend to eat and run. Damn, though. The little things that don't quite occur to you... Hey, wait a minute. How is it you noticed?"
"They were perfectly excusable circumstances, I assure you. The weather changed while a few of us were at lunch. We had to wait for the rain to stop. By then, the windows were fogged over and everyone was shivering."
"Uh, huh. Okay, then. Just so you aren't a lingerer when you aren't lingering over me... Lingering over me is acceptable, just so you know."
"Got it. Linger over L'Tan." He looked at her questioningly. "Whenever possible?"
"Good thinking. Add that to your mental note. Where are we, anyway?"
"Deck 34 and room..." he looked around and appended, "Six on the left. Seven on the right. Not much farther."
He grinned and asked, "Can you make it? Do you want me to carry you?"
"No, I don't want carried. I do want to get there soon, though. I had no idea how tough a simple walk would be."
They resumed walking, found room ten, and tapped the door pad to enter. Nothing happened; the door remained closed. T'Mar tapped it again. It refused to budge.
"We didn't have doors like these when I was aboard," said L'Tan. "They used to use magnetic cards."
T'Mar used the intercom to call sickbay.
"I didn't passcode the door," said the nurse. "Oh, wait! I'm sorry! I've been aboard so long I'd forgotten. Try 123456. That's what comes with all of the doors."
He did so. The door requested a name for its log. He looked at L'Tan.
"L'Tan," she said, pressing the 'enter' key.
"Name of second occupant?"
"T'Mar," said L'Tan.
"Name of third occupant?"
"No other occupants." She pressed 'enter'.
"Name of third occupant?" repeated the door.
The nurse said, "Press zero and the 'enter' key."
L'Tan did so. Against her expectations, the door remained closed.
"I'm about to kick this damned door open," said L'Tan.
"That would put you back in sickbay," said the nurse. "The door's tougher than you are at the moment. Try pressing 'enter', instead."
L'Tan pressed 'enter'. The door asked, "Name?"
"L'Tan."
The door hissed open for her. She said, "Thank you. That did it," and walked into the room.
T'Mar also thanked the nurse and clicked off the intercom, then started to walk through the door. It hissed shut and asked, "Name?"
L'Tan's muffled voice said, "I don't believe this shit."
T'Mar grinned and said, "T'Mar."
The door remained closed. His grin faded.
"Try again," said L'Tan.
"T'Mar," said T'Mar.
Nothing happened.
"You try it, L'Tan."
L'Tan said, "T'Mar."
The door opened, but at T'Mar's approach, it closed and said, "Your voice and phyisiology does not match the name as recorded."
L'Tan swore and said, "T'Mar!"
The door opened again and L'Tan put her foot against the leading edge of it, waving at T'Mar.
"Hurry up and get in here!"
T'Mar grinningly ambled into the room, gazing down at her foot pointedly.
"It was all I could think of," said L'Tan. "I'm tired to the bone and damned tired of dealing with this door."
T'Mar nodded and pressed the intercom's service button.
"Maintenance. Corporal L'Soi speaking."
"T'Mar, in 3410. We need to know how to reprogram the door's second name entry."
"That room was issued to a L'Tan. Is she there?"
"I'm here," said L'Tan.
"Is this man authorized to be in your room, ma'am?"
"Yes. He's my aide."
"Your what, ma'am?"
L'Tan was stiff and glaring as she moved to within inches of the wall speaker and said in a voice of iron, "Look it up later, Corporal. The answer is yes. He is authorized and I'm too tired to take much more. Now how do we reset it?"
The woman instructed them step-by-step and the results worked. T'Mar thanked her and apologized for his 'Commanding Officer's' poor spirits, explaining that she'd just been released from the ship's hospital. He quickly added in a confidential tone that back injuries frequently cause people to become cranky.
When he'd clicked off, L'Tan asked, "What was all that for?"
"I called you my CO so that she'd know that you were a somebody. I told her you were just out of the hospital so she'd maybe not think of you as a harpie, and I told her you'd had a back injury so she wouldn't think you were in there for mental reasons."
"Mental reasons?!"
"Yeah, well, her first impression of you was bound to be less than ideal, and we don't want to alienate the help, do we? Alienate one and you alienate all of them. You know that if you do that, the best you can hope for is grudging, minimal cooperation."
L'Tan looked sharply at him for a moment.
"Maybe it's time to take one of those pain pills," she said. "Now that I think of it, I was kind of snappish with her."
When she glanced up at T'Mar, he raised both hands and said, "I didn't agree or disagree, did I? I'm just trying to survive, here, ma'am."
L'Tan sighed and went to the right-hand bedroom. She prodded the bed to test its resistance, then carefully sat down and sighed again, but the change of position made her sit very upright and still for some moments. She slowly let her breath out between clenched teeth and drew another.
"Let me have a glass of water, T'Mar. I'll take a pill, then maybe I'd better lie down for a while."
"Want another shower to loosen things up? I can go fish for information on the bridge or something while you soak."
"No," she said, fluttering a hand at him without otherwise moving, "No shower. No nothing. I really think I should just take a pill, get flat, and stay that way for a while. That's a good idea, though. You see what you can turn up on the bridge."
T'Mar opened the vial shook a pill into her hand, then went to the sink to get her a glass of water. After L'Tan had taken the pill, she held his arm and used it for support as she lowered herself into the bed.
"I hope I don't feel like this tomorrow," she said.
"Sometimes using your body makes it feel better later. I'll bring some dinner back here for us and then you can get some sleep. The bridge can wait a little while."
She nodded. "Good. Thank you, T'Mar. I told you I might need some real help."
"That you did. Let's get you undressed and under the covers."
"I can manage."
"Sure you could, but I'd enjoy getting you naked again, and you hurt enough without having to get up again. Just lie there and relax."
L'Tan laughed softly.
"Lie there and relax. Where have I heard that before?"
T'Mar kissed one of her now-uncovered breasts and solemnly said, "I really don't think I want to know that, ma'am. I just want to continue to delude myself that I'm your first."
L'Tan laughed again, then groaned.
"Oh... Oh, damn... I asked you not to do that," she hissed.
T'Mar didn't answer as he worked her blouse off her shoulders and arms, then went to work on her uniform slacks. He hung her clothes in the closet and returned to the bed. L'Tan had already pulled the covers up and shoved the pillow to one side.
"Flat," she said. "Absolutely flat seems to feel best at the moment."
"Try to stay awake for half an hour or so. I'll go get dinner now."
She nodded and shut her eyes. It seemed like only moments had passed until he was standing by her bed again, holding a covered tray of food.
"That was quick," she murmured.
"It was almost an hour. I had to backtrack twice to find the dining hall, then convince someone to let me take a couple of trays out."
"I told you this ship was designed by a fitness fanatic."
T'Mar looked at her outline under the cover and said, "You should know. I've seen you as you really are, remember? A hardbody like you would have designed this ship the same way, I'll bet."
She grinned up at him as he popped open a couple of drink boxes.
"You think so, do you? Well, maybe so. And I wouldn't have made it any easier to find things. Having to ask for directions all the time helps new crewpeople meet old crewpeople and keeps visiting politicians dependent on their guides."
T'mar could see that L'Tan was having a lot of trouble keeping her eyes open as she finished eating. He gathered up trays and utensils, set them on the dining table, and returned to the bed.
"Need anything before I go? I'm going to take the trays back, as promised, and check in with Comm to see if anyone at the home office remembers me. I also want them to know that I've already found another place to be so that they won't arbitrarily reassign me."
L'Tan smiled sleepily and said, "If they try to reassign you, quit. I'll hire you."
"Sounds good to me," he said, stroking her hand. "Back in a while."
He kissed her and pulled her covers up, then picked up the trays and headed for the door. Not far along the corridor he encountered Captain T'Var.
"Hello, T'Mar. I'm on my way to see L'Tan. How is she?"
"Asleep," said T'Var. "I was on my way to see you about getting a message to someone."
"We aren't handling any personals at the moment, T'Mar. I've decided to let T'Bar's mission statement address convey the bad news to the crew and save my energy for helping my people through this."
T'Mar nodded. "Good plan. It isn't a personal message, Captain. Who's handling Confederation counterintelligence ops at the moment? I need to let them know that I'm still alive and on what's left of the Consulate staff. You can screen the message, if you want."
T'Var stepped back a half a pace and eyed him for a moment.
"Does L'Tan know you're a spook?"
"Yes. Since this afternoon and before she released L'Sil to you."
"Too bad she's asleep. This is something I'd like to verify."
T'Mar smiled slightly and said, "No problem. You can call HQ to verify me and tell them I'm still on the job. That would cover both of our interests."
The Captain kept his gaze on T'Mar as he lifted his comm pad and said, "Computer, scan room 3410. Report."
"Room 3410 contains one adult female named L'Tan."
"Condition of L'Tan?"
"She is asleep."
"Are there other registered users of that room?"
"One other, Captain. T'Mar-Sen, listed as her aide."
T'Var pursed his lips thoughtfully and tapped off the comm pad.
"I see."
"Maybe you do," said T'Mar. "Maybe not. I was hiding as a Consulate clerk until a court date. The case I was working is probably literally a dead issue. Now I'm working directly for L'Tan, unless my office has something more important for me to do. Nothing spooky about it, T'Var. L'Tan needs help for a while, so I'm helping."
"Why did she let L'Sil go? Did you have anything to do with that?"
T'Mar shook his head.
"No, not a thing. L'Tan had her own reasons for doing that. L'Sil meant well, but... Well, she was becoming an irritant, I think. L'Tan doesn't like obvious, overweening concern any better than being ill."
T'Var almost said, "I see," again, but he stopped himself.
"I'm going back to the bridge. Take that stuff to the dining hall and then report to me. We'll see what HQ has to say about you."
"Will do. See you in a little while."
T'Mar watched T'Var stride back the way he'd come and wondered why the Captain had been so disgruntled to find a counterintelligence operative on board. He'd run into people before who simply didn't like the concept of spying, but nobody'd yet found a way to do without intelligence gathering.
When he reached the bridge, Captain T'Var waved him over to his chair and handed him a disk.
"You check out with HQ, T'Mar. They said for you to stay with L'Tan for the time being. Someone named L'Sal says hello. Girlfriend?"
"A long time ago, she was. I hope her husband made it. They've only been married a few months."
"Uhm. Sorry. She didn't seem to be upset, though. Maybe he's on the station with her."
"Could be. They're both with the agency. Anything else? Anything for L'Tan?"
"It's on the disk with your message."
T'Mar nodded. "Should I wake her, or let her sleep?"
"Let her sleep. It's good news, by the way. Her daughter was way the hell out in sector seventeen on a science mission."
"Good news, indeed. She never mentioned having a daughter. I guess she knew that the girl had a good chance to survive and put her worries on a shelf during all this other stuff. She's a tough lady."
T'Var laughed and said, "You have no idea, T'Mar. She once took on four enemy fighters alone to keep them from attacking a colony. She took out two of them, but the others ripped her fighter to shreds and she crashed on a mountainside. Her action gave the colony time to repair their sabotaged generator. The last two enemy fighters were making their attack run just as the field was reestablished, and they splattered themselves against it."
"Enemy? As in 'pirates'?"
"As in pirates. They were after a shipment of food and supplies and the plan was to hijack the freighters, but someone saw them coming. Their man on the inside took care of the field generator, but they weren't counting on a Confed fighter pilot visiting her family."
T'Mar looked thoughtful. "Uhm... If I recall correctly, pilots aren't supposed to use their craft for personal transportation, T'Var. How did she get away with that?"
T'Var grinned and said, "She got away with nothing, T'Mar. We simply scheduled some maintenance work for her fighter, then let her take it for a test flight. There was a glitch in the nav computer, so she landed at the colony to fix it."
"'We' scheduled her maintenance work, huh? I see. And the ship just happened to be near Lora at the time, and she just happened to have a nav glitch near her home town."
T'Var's gaze narrowed.
"How did you know that the colony world was Lora? For that matter, why would you know something like that?"
T'Mar raised his hands placatingly.
"Relax, Captain, sir. When I was sent to the Consulate, I studied a bit about all the top people there. I'd do the same if I were sent to work with you."
A small light flashed on T'Var's chair. He looked up to see his Tac officer looking back at him.
"Sir, we're being painted with what appears to be a targeting laser, but it's flashing code at us."
"Where's it coming from and what are they saying?"
"It's a distress call, sir, repeated over and over, but it's in a code that we haven't used for more than twenty years. It's coming from the northern continent. Whoever is sending the code is signing himself '97B'."
T'Mar said, "That may be from before our militaries combined. It's the old land forces occupational code for a counterintelligence specialist or investigator."
T'Var gave him a sharp glance and said, "Tac, I assume you have the source of the signal pinpointed?"
"Yes, sir. A small town three hundred miles north of the capitol."
"Can we answer him?"
"Not without our signal being noticed by all the wrong people, sir. It looks as if he's using a much-enhanced targeting laser."
T'Var thought a moment, then said, "It would have to be, to reach us out here. I can't think that he'd be signaling us without hope of reply. Assume that he only has a telescope. What can we do to acknowledge the signal?"
T'Mar said, "If he's really one of us from back then, he was trained to double-click his comm unit to acknowledge if he couldn't speak without being overheard. Opaque the ship's field twice quickly and see what happens."
"Tac, try it," said T'Var.
When the opaquing effect occurred, all incoming light was trapped or routed around the ship, rendering the ship a black spot on a black background.
Moments later, Tac said, "The signal has changed, sir. Thirty... children... seven... adults... from... consulate... need... help. Now the message is repeating, sir."
"Make us blink at him again, Tac."
"Done, sir. Message is changing again. Nine... seven... b... out... That's it, sir. The laser's gone."
T'Var nodded to the watching Tac officer and silently sat back in his command chair, drumming his fingers on the chair's arm console. After a moment, he poised a finger over his comm unit, then appeared to cancel that motion.
"Have Gold, Green, and Blue commanders meet me in my office," he said.
"T'Kin's group is still two men short, sir."
"T'Kin's been returned to duty? Good. Tell him he's Green leader now and have him report to my ready room with Gold, then get him two more birds and pilots from Red group. T'Mar, you're L'Tan's eyes and ears for this meeting, unless you want to go wake her and bring her up here."
"I wouldn't be her eyes and ears long if I let her sleep through this meeting, Captain. Where's your ready room?"
T'Var pointed at the door to the ready room and said, "Half an hour."
T'Mar nodded and left the bridge. He woke L'Tan a few minutes later and briefed her as he helped her dress. She broke one of the pain pills in two and took one of the halves with a swallow of water, then dropped the other half in a pocket.
"How do you feel?" he asked.
"Groggy. Tired. Sore. I'll walk it off on the way, though. What do you think, T'Mar? Is it real, or a ruse?"
"Could be either, but what would they gain by this kind of a ruse?"
"Time, maybe. A delay. They undoubtedly know of the council's response."
"Then they must know that T'Bar's leading that response. This won't slow him down unless the council orders him to stand by."
L'Tan took a swig of mouthwash, swirled it around, and spat it into the sink.
"Let's say it's real," she said, handing the bottle to him and rinsing her face.
"Okay. It's real," said T'Mar, reaching to put the bottle back. "Now what?"
"Now we figure out what's on T'Var's mind."
"He called his flight leaders in, so he's thinking of trying to rescue them. How would he do that without risking the ship?"
"Put them on another ship and keep them isolated."
T'Mar said, "We don't have another ship. All we have is fighters."
"So we steal another ship while we're dirtside. Between us, we can probably fly anything ever made."
"You're assuming we're going along?"
L'Tan smiled and said, "I'm sure we can make Captain T'Var see the logic of it."
"Why do you want to go back down there?"
"I wasn't finished. Are you coming along?"
"Only because you're going. Ready?"
"I'm just waiting for you."
As they left the room, T'Mar said, "You know they're going to say you aren't up to it and try to argue you out of it."
L'Tan grinned and said, "They won't when they see us jogging into the room."
"We're going to jog, huh?"
"We are. We're going to wait for someone to enter the bridge, then jog in behind them and over to the ready room."
And so it went. They lingered - apparently talking - near a corridor intersection until someone approached the bridge doors, then loped in behind and past the startled crewman, raising eyebrows all over the bridge.
T'Var saw them coming and wasn't fooled for a moment. T'Mar might have jogged in if he'd been a bit late in arriving, but not L'Tan. She'd have simply marched across the bridge as if the meeting wouldn't dare start without her.
The doctor, however, stared at her in open-mouthed shock. She put a finger to her lips and shook her head in full view of everyone at the table.
"Not a word, doctor. I'm fine."
He stood up, about to speak, anyway.
T'Var said, "Hold that thought, doctor. Sit down, please, everybody. Gold leader is Commander T'Ren, Green is Commander T'Kin, and Blue is Commander L'Nil. Everybody knows the doctor. This is L'Tan, the fabled Stardancer, and this is her aide, T'Mar. Tac, show us where they are down there."
Once all had been seated, the Tac officer tapped up a map on the tabletop and introduced them to various points of interest on the planet's northern continent.
"Most of you will attack bases. Some will deploy to protect the rescue. Precise coordinates will be in your nav computers; all any of you have to do is get back here in one piece."
T'Var said, "We're open to comments at this point. Our first thought was to use all the fighters. Each one has a space behind the pilot's seat. But that would keep the groups in the area and on the ground too long."
L'Tan said, "We could steal a ship at the local port."
The others were grinning at L'Tan as T'Var asked, "We?"
L'Tan said, "Yes. 'We.' While everybody else keeps the Eiranians busy, drop us at the local port. We'll pick out something suitable."
"Would you care to tell me why I wouldn't prefer to detail a couple of my own pilots for that part of this mission?"
"Because we're volunteering and we'll need all the fighters for cover and none of your pilots have much time in big stuff. I have. How about you, T'Mar?"
"Troop transports, freighters, and armed escort vessels. If we grab something from the local military or police vehicle pool, we won't need special passcodes."
Commander T'Ren spoke in a flat tone.
"Captain, I'm sure we've all thought of this, but those people could be no more than a means of getting the virus aboard the Alliance."
"They won't be coming aboard the Alliance, T'Ren. Not for at least two weeks, and maybe longer. They'll stay aboard whatever ship T'Mar and L'Tan can grab and make the best of it until we decide that they're clean."
T'Ren nodded. "That would seem to mean that Stardancer and T'Mar are going to be stuck on that ship with them."
"That's exactly what it means."
T'Ren, at a loss for words, simply nodded again and looked at L'Tan and T'Mar.
T'Var looked around the table, then said, "If there are no other comments, let's work something out and get this thing underway. After Admiral T'Bar gets here, we'll need his permission before we can take a leak, and he may not agree that this mission is a worthwhile risk."
Two hours later they had a flexible plan that all thought would work and the meeting ended.
"Talk it over some more," said T'Var. "Sleep on it. See if you can find any weak spots. If nobody comes up with anything insurmountable, we'll launch on schedule. In the meantime, I'll begin laying the groundwork. L'Tan and T'Mar, come with me to the bridge."
Once all were seated and Tac was back at his board, T'Var said, "This is going to have to ring with sincerity, Tac, so I want you to tell me that you have discovered that more than two hundred of our people are being held in their Metara prison, in the southern hemisphere."
"Sure, Captain. I've discovered that more than two hundred of our people are being held in their Metara prison, in the southern hemisphere."
"Good. Now, T'Mar, tell me that you have confirmed that report."
T'Mar grinned. "I have confirmed Tac's report, Captain."
"Excellent. If they analyze the transmission, they'll find nothing but truth. Are they still jamming communications, Tac?"
"No, sir. They stopped jamming after we got away."
"Good. First tell me that it will be at least two days before we can repair comm damage and contact the Confederation, then open a link to Eirania for me, Tac."
"Sir, it will be at least two days before we can repair comm damage and contact the Confederation."
Several moments later, the Tac officer said, "No answer from Eirania, Captain."
"Then we'll send the message on all frequencies and see if they answer after they hear what I have to say."
Tac pressed some buttons and said, "Ready. Talk to screen one, sir."
T'Var cleared his throat and began, "Government of Eirania, this is Captain T'Var of the Confederated ship Alliance. My TAC officer has reported that you are holding more than two hundred Confederation people in Metara prison. That report has been verified by a member of our intelligence community. This message will be repeated every five minutes until someone in authority answers."
Tac clicked off the transmission when T'Var glanced his way and nodded.
The helmsman said, "Sir, I was told that..."
"Quiet, Ensign," said T'Var, "There will be no discussion of this matter. No questions or answers until it has been resolved."
Less than ten minutes passed before the Eiranians responded. At T'Var's command and Tac's press of a button, the face of the Eiranian Defense Minister appeared on screen two.
"Captain T'Var, I am M'hed..."
T'Var let him get just that far before interrupting.
"We know who you are, Minister M'hed, and I'm not prepared to engage in much conversation. What we want to know is why, after slaughtering everyone else, you would choose to take any prisoners at all. What do you want from us?"
For a moment, M'hed looked truly confused, but he straightened his face and said, "We have no such prisoners. Your information is false."
T'Var sat very still for several beats, then stood up and took a step toward the screen, his face grim.
"I expected you to deny their existence, but I am not inclined toward patience, M'hed. In lieu of orders to the contrary, I will act as I see fit to remove any of our people now in your hands from your hands, and in my present mood, my methods may very closely resemble your own. I warn you to let nothing happen to any of our people until we have come to an agreement for their repatriation."
Turning to face the Tac officer, he asked, "Tac, you said it would be two days before we can contact the Confederation, correct?"
"Yes, sir, I did."
T'Var returned his gaze to M'hed and said, "Two days, M'hed. Your weapons can't even reach us. You'll have no hope at all against the Confederation fleet. Consider your options most carefully before you respond."
The Eiranian Defense Minister's face became an unreadable, malevolent mask as he drew himself up as stiffly as possible.
"To the best of my knowledge, we are holding no prisoners. We will recontact you if we choose to do so, Captain T'Var. M'hed out."
The picture disappeared on screen one. T'Var stood gazing at the empty screen for a moment, then said, "Tac, you have the conn. T'Mar and L'Tan, let's take a walk."
It was no coincidence that T'Var headed them in the direction of 3410, and not long after they left the bridge, T'Var said, "L'Tan, I'm not sure you should go."
"Why not?"
"For one thing, you're as pale as a ghost. Is it pain, fatigue, or both?"
"Both, and the condition is temporary. I'll be fine by the time I have to fly anything, T'Var. If I'm not, T'Mar will pilot and I'll take an extra pill, but I'm going."
T'Var stopped walking and lightly grabbed her elbow.
"You'll go if I okay it, L'Tan. If I don't like what I see in the morning, I won't risk a damned thing on your ego and you'll stay right here."
L'Tan glared at him coldly for a moment.
"This isn't simply ego, Captain T'Var. This is a matter of getting some of our people away from those religious psychopaths. That, and plain damned vengeance for all the people they killed. I'll be in a restraint field in a fighter and whatever ship we steal. I won't feel a damned thing until the mission is over."
"I know how badly you want to do this, but I'm not convinced, L'Tan. The doctor will look you over in the morning, then we'll talk about it again."
T'Mar said, "I'll be with her. She'll be fine."
T'Var cast a flat gaze on T'Mar and said, "You're still a ghost to me, T'Mar. I can see you and talk to you, but I still don't know what you really are yet. Nobody would tell me a damned thing about you; they just left you attached to L'Tan."
"Then there's probably nothing I can do to ease your mind, Captain."
L'Tan asked, "You called someone about T'Mar? Who?"
"HQ. They confirmed that he's one of our spooks, but that's all."
"So? Why isn't that good enough for you?"
T'Var simply glared at them for a few moments, then his glare softened and he grinned slightly as he said, "Right. He is one of our spooks, after all."
T'Mar said, "Well, that vote of total confidence will look good in my resume."
L'Tan chuckled and said, "I'll put mine in to balance things a bit."
T'Mar nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. That might help."
At the door to room 3410, T'Var said, "Just in case I decide to let you two go along, try to be ready on time, okay?"
Without waiting for comments or agreements, he turned and walked away.
L'Tan said, "If I can walk and breathe, he'll let me go."
"Only because he knows he'd never hear the end of it, I think. Let's get you into a hot bath, then into bed. I'll be getting you up an hour early to soak you again and rub you down. If you look like this tomorrow, he'll ground you, L'Tan."
She snapped, "Are you my aide or my mother?"
"T'Mar," he said to the door. Once they were inside, he said, "You can't fire your mother, L'Tan. I guess that makes me just an aide. Only an aide. Merely an aide, and one who wants his boss in good working order when the shooting starts, so we're going to peel you, soak you, and sleep. Tomorrow could turn out to be a busy day."
L'Tan slipped out of her blouse and skirt and sat on the bed as T'Mar undressed.
"You're pretty bossy for an aide. I may have to fire you."
"I'm not worried. You won't fire me until you've found someone better."
"Um," said L'Tan, with an uplifted finger. "Good point. But, my, we're very proud of ourselves, aren't we?"
"Just stating a fact, ma'am. I'm here because someone else couldn't quite be what you wanted, although that may only have been an issue of gender. Now, let's get you wet and lose some more of that bruise."
L'Tan ran a hand up his thigh and said, "And if I want a bit more than a rubdown, what then?"
T'Mar grinned and said, "Find a way to call it therapy and I'll do it, ma'am."
She grasped his protrusion and grinned back at him as she squeezed it.
"It's therapy because I say it is, and I want some therapy now, sir. The shower can wait a little while."
"Ah, well... Since you put it that way..."
L'Tan kept her grip on him as she lay back on the bed.
"And since I won't let go until I get my way..."
T'Mar stretched out beside her and kissed her, then began her therapy by lightly kissing his way down to her thighs. He found her damply ready for him and paused to look up at her.
"You've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you?"
"A little while," said L'Tan with a small smile. "Only a little while."
"Well, then, you must have come up with some ideas about how you'd like things to proceed, so why don't I just turn the event over to you and see how you handle it? Maybe I'll learn something."
"Lie back. The first thing you may as well know now is that I like to be on top most times."
T'Mar lay flat on his back and said, "Gee, lady. I never would have guessed..."
With a grin, L'Tan rolled over to straddle him and leaned to kiss him, then guided him into herself. When she was fully impaled, she kissed him again and sat back upright.
"Sometimes..." she said, beginning a posting motion, "Sometimes a woman just wants... To get down to the basics. We can be as impatient as any man."
"When the mood strikes," said T'Mar.
"Exactly. When the mood strikes, and it struck me when I thought about our last shower. Actually, I've thought about our last shower quite a lot."
T'Mar ran his fingers down her arms and said, "Must have been that backrub, right? I'm good at backrubs."
L'Tan grinned down at him as she worked, watching his fingers continue to trail their tingling course along her thighs.
"Sure," she said, "It must have been the backrub. Keep doing that, will you?"
"Planned to. Got nothing else to do with you on top, you know."
She laughed and said, "You don't feel underemployed to me at the moment."
"Well, I guess that's the true test of things, isn't it? Take a break, there, and lean forward. I have an urge to nibble on your neck and shoulders."
"Such a demanding man," she said, leaning for him.
T'Mar lightly licked her shoulder and said, "Strictly a matter of taste, ma'am. There's more to a woman than most men realize, I think."
L'Tan giggled softly, startling him. She didn't seem the giggling type. Placing her nose almost on his, she asked, "But you think that you realize how much more there is, do you?"
He nodded and gave her an innocent sort of look. "Sure. Well, I like to think so, anyway. At least, I like to think that I'm on the right path to discover how much more there is."
She snickered and wiggled her hips.
"You poor, bravely intrepid seeker of wisdom. I'll try to be gentle with you."
L'Tan pushed herself back upright and sat looking down at him for a moment, then wiggled her hips again and stretched her arms out to each side.
"How's your back?" asked T'Mar.
"That's what I was just testing," she said. "Well, kind of. I don't seem to hurt at all right now."
"Are you going to tell the doctor how I cured you?"
L'Tan laughed. "No, I'm not going to tell him how you cured me, and neither are you."
T'Mar shook his head slightly.
"Selfish woman. Healing knowledge should be shared."
She slapped his thigh lightly and said, "Not this time. You're actually fun to be with, T'Mar. Men are usually only interested in getting on, getting off, and getting off. I haven't met too many who like to play and don't seem concerned about when their time will come, so to speak."
T'Mar shrugged, such as he could while lying on his back.
"Creating a good time is as important as getting laid, and I like being up and inside more than going off and sliding out. I guess I have priorities, ma'am."
L'Tan laughed again and said, "Every time you say something that ends in 'ma'am', you sound like an overly polite country boy."
"Manners will tell, they say."
"Tell what?"
"Damned if I know. I always wondered that, myself."
She giggled again, ending it with an "Oooo..." as some small motion touched something just right within her. That caused her to become somewhat more serious about things. Her posting became firmer and quicker.
T'Mar just lay there and admired her as she worked herself up to her climax. In due course, her motions became almost strenuous and she muttered something that he didn't quite catch.
"Huhm?"
"I said, 'Now would be a good time'."
"Ah. Yes. Sorry. I'll see what I can do, ma'am."
"Oh, shut up. No funnies while I'm working, here."
"Yes, ma'am. No funnies. Got it."
She chuckled, then shrieked softly, then groaned.
"Now, dammit!"
T'Mar hadn't been quite ready, but he released himself to her command in the matter, and a few strokes later he felt the tingling begin that heralded his own orgasm. Women know when a man is about to let go.
L'Tan almost slammed herself down upon him a few times to draw it out of him, and T'Mar felt an urge to tell her to be careful, but then it was upon them both, and neither of them had anything articulate to say for some moments.
L'Tan froze and grasped his thighs as he filled her, her nails digging into his skin solidly enough to leave rows of crescents when she finally released him. They remained locked together until he had no more to give, relaxing only when the sensations began to fade.
She lay flat on his chest and breathed deeply for a few moments, then kissed his shoulder and let herself roll off him, her finger to her lips to indicate silence. He respected her wish and simply lay there trying to catch his own breath.
After a few moments, he rose and went to the bathroom, returning with a hand towel that he placed between her thighs. Her legs clamped around it and she rolled on her side to face him as he got back into the bed.
"Showerinnamorning," she mumbled.
By the time he'd leaned to kiss her, L'Tan was asleep. T'Mar pulled the covers over her and then himself, then turned out the lights.
There was time in the morning for a long, hot shower and a quick breakfast, then L'Tan and T'Mar headed for the bridge. In the briefing room, wing leaders Gold, Green, and Blue were studying a couple of maps with T'Var. T'Mar followed L'Tan closely as she strode into the room and stopped by the table.
"Before anyone asks, I'm fine," she said.
"You'll still get the doctor's approval first," said T'Var. "Go. Now. I don't want to start this briefing until I hear from him. T'Mar, you stay here."
L'Tan saw that he wasn't going to budge. She turned on her heel and walked back out of the room, muttering something unkind about the Captain. T'Mar looked at T'Var and grinned.
"She's not hiding anything, T'Var. She's fine this morning."
"I hope so. No tricks, T'Mar. No heavy medications. I'll have both your asses if you try to fake it."
T'Mar shook his head and said, "No tricks; just a hot shower and a rubdown this morning. The bruising is almost completely gone, T'Var. She'll be fine."
"Like I said, I hope so. Now let's talk about you. When's the last time you piloted a fighter?"
"Two years ago. Same model as yours."
"Can you put one down without power?"
T'Mar nodded. "If I have to, yes."
"You'll have to. We'll modify the signature of one of the fighters to match theirs. You'll fake a hit and deadstick land at the local port. L'Tan will fly cover until you can get into one of the ships."
"I may have a better idea. Are you willing to hear it?"
"Go."
"Do you still have L'Tan's flitter in bay two? If so, don't waste a fighter. Tow it down to the surface and let me take it from there. We can put a smoker on one side and fake damage. That flitter's already been through hell, so it'll look the part, and I can set it to destruct. That'll clear the field after we get the other ship."
Gold leader said, "Sounds good to me, sir. We're down two fighters as it is."
T'Var nodded. "Okay, we'll use the flitter. Got any other ideas, T'Mar?"
"Just one. L'Tan, in the flitter with me, dressed all in black like most of their women wear, armed to the teeth to back me up while I get us into the other ship. Someone else can fly cover."
"We'll discuss it if it turns out that she's going along."
"Whether she goes or not, I'd still like the backup."
"I can ask for a volunteer. Anything else?"
"No, not at the moment."
T'Mar sat down at the table and studied the town in which he'd be landing the stolen ship. The building housing the targeting laser - and presumably the refugees - had been outlined in red.
T'Var's pad beeped. He saw who was calling and said, "Excuse me, group," then walked to his command chair. A few moments later, he returned to the briefing room and keyed the monitor screen to corridor two.
The picture snapped into being; L'Tan was heading back to the bridge, her long legs carrying her in quick strides that many men would have trouble matching. Her expression one of determination.
"The doctor passed her, just barely," said T'Var. "Now it's my turn."
For some moments they watched her unwavering passage through the corridor, then T'Var tapped off the display as she approached the bridge doors. T'Mar and the others looked at him.
T'Var shrugged and said, "She looks fit enough to me."
As L'Tan entered the briefing room, T'Var waved her to a seat before she could speak, and said, "There's been a change. We're using your flitter and you're now playing the role of a native girl."
Whatever L'Tan had been about to say became, "A what?"
"You'll be T'Mar's on-site cover while he steals a ship. You'll be dressed as one of their women. Your flitter will make an emergency landing, you'll run to one of the other ships for shelter, and you'll blow the flitter on the way out."
L'Tan absorbed the change, considered it for a moment, then said, "Okay."
"T'Ren," said T'Var, "You're in charge of making the flitter read as one of theirs. People, we have the technological upper hand, but don't get too cocky. Two or three of their fighters can take down one of ours, and when they see you coming, they're going to launch everything at you."
He called up a view of the surface that included both continents and tapped a spot on the northern continent.
"The refugees are here. We have no way to signal them to be ready to go and no idea of their condition, so we have to allow as much as fifteen minutes for pickup."
Blue team leader L'Nil cleared her throat and asked, "When do we go?"
T'Var said, "1100 hours, L'Nil. It will be 0400 in the strike zones. Okay, people. T'Ren will finish the briefing. I'm going to see how Tac's coming along with our plans for suppressive fire. Their main forces are concealed underground and heavily shielded, but they'll have to come out to intercept you. When they do, they'll have to drop their shields, and that's when we're going to pound them."
T'Var left the room and all eyes came to rest on T'Ren. The rest of the briefing was quick enough.
"You all know what you're to do," said T'Ren. "We gather again at 1030 hours on the launch deck. Dismissed."
"That's it?" asked L'Tan.
T'Ren stopped near the door. He looked back at her with a smile and patted his top right jacket pocket.
"Well, there really isn't anything more to tell about the mission, but I have some of my poetry with me, if you'd like to hear some of it."
There was a sharp laugh and a groan.
"Oh, no, please, not the poetry," said L'Nil.
"I'm hurt," said T'Ren, doing his best to appear so.
"Get over it," said, L'Nil. "You're a pilot, not a poet."
"Maybe it's just that you have trouble understanding complex..."
"Complex?" she interrupted. "Complex? Try another word, Gold leader. My stuff is complex. The stuff you write is incomprehensible."
T'Kin rose from his seat, leaned toward T'Mar and whispered, "This is not a new discussion. I'm getting out of here."
T'Mar and L'Tan followed him past the arguing flight leaders and out the door.
An hour later, T'Ren took them to see the flitter that been rescued with T'Lan.
"It's back in perfect running order," he said. "We've torn a large flap of the back open so the insulation can burn visibly, but we decided against adding a smoke device. Only the forward portion of the flitter will be shielded, to give the impression of battle damage and to protect you two."
Pointing to the console, he said, "Toggle this switch to the left to make the flitter read as one of our fighters. To the right, it will read as a civilian transport vehicle."
He then pointed to a drone craft lying in the cargo bed of the flitter.
"You'll switch off your fighter identity and release this drone. It will continue to follow me and cover your absence from the formation. When you get closer to the port, where the Eiranians can see us, one of us will fire at you, putting a shot through the insulation flap to set it afire."
L'Tan asked, "Won't it look a little odd if you don't continue on to shoot up the port?"
"We'll start a run, hit a few of the outlying ships, and then be called away to assist elsewhere. Each of you take one of these."
T'Ren handed each of them a coin-sized device.
"It's pressure-activated," he said. "Squeeze it hard enough to dent the center and it will send a distress signal for about ten minutes."
Examining the device, T'Mar asked, "What's the range?"
"They'll be able to hear it on the Alliance."
L'Tan nodded. "Good enough."
"By the way, Stardancer," T'Ren said with a grin, fingering the heavy black clothing she was wearing, "Nice outfit. Where's your veil?"
"In my pocket, right next to the stunner I may have to use on you. Speaking of personal weapons, where are they?"
"Go to the arms room and draw what you think you'll need, then report back here. T'Var has final say, but he'll probably go along with your choices."
As they walked to the arms room, L'Tan asked, "What's your preference? Rifles or pistols?"
"Grenades," said T'Mar. "Most shootouts happen at close range. When you shoot, the other guy sees your flash. If you use a grenade, that's not a problem. Second choice would be an E-rifle. If I can see it, I can hit it."
"I prefer rifles, too, but we'll need something concealable, so get yourself a pistol. No reason you can't have both."
"Well, yes, ma'am. Aren't we bossy today?"
L'Tan glanced up sharply at his tone.
T'Mar grinned and said, "No sweat. I'd planned on taking a rifle, a pistol, and six grenades, if they have the new, smaller ones."
"Why so many?"
"They can open locked doors, too, and clear the area inside a ship before we go in. I'm just not a trusting soul, I guess."
Each of them signed out a rifle, a pistol, and six of the small grenades, then they headed back to the flitter. T'Var and the pilots were gathered around or on it, sitting or standing as they chatted about the mission.
"Fifteen minutes to go," said T'Ren.
T'Var stood up and said, "I'd better get back to the bridge. We're going to target their known underground fighter facilities and try to blow them when their shields drop between their first and second launches. Even if we miss the first volley, it will knock down a lot of the fighters in the first wave, and the second volley should seal the openings or make them difficult to use. The light batteries will knock down as many fighters as possible, but cycle time is six seconds, so a few will get through. Stay alert and stay out of our target zones."
The group broke up as the Captain left. With a few waves and good wishes, the others headed for their fighters as T'Mar and L'Tan boarded the flitter and took their seats. T'Mar turned the flitter on and put the shields up.
T'Ren's voice asked, "Ready for towing, Stardancer?"
L'Tan glanced at T'Mar as he checked the systems monitor. He nodded.
"Ready," said L'Tan.
"Okay. Two, three, and four get a lock on the flitter, slave your systems to mine, and signal when ready."
Seconds later, the flitter lifted into position just off T'Ren's right wingtip, then the whole group moved toward the bay's open doors.
L'Tan's fingers were drumming on her rifle.
T'Mar made a show of leaning his seat back and relaxing, then grinningly asked, "You nervous, ma'am?"
L'Tan fixed him with a flat glare and said, "I prefer to do my own flying."
Her mood didn't improve during the trip to Eirania. The flitter had no fixed canopy, relying on its fields for shielding from the elements. It was as if the two of them were sitting in open space for several minutes, and then the squadron hit the atmosphere.
The forward shield expanded to encompass the entire flitter, as per its programming, but the bubble of bright light caused by the heat from entering the atmosphere at high speed was almost unnerving.
The light seemed to emanate from directly in front of the nose of their flitter and quickly became too bright to look at, even with the field opaqued to maximum.
"Damn," said T'Mar, shielding his eyes with an arm. "Was it like this when the nuke went off?"
"No. I was in the Alliance's shadow. I watched on the screen."
"A good thing they caught on and followed you. If the fields're glowing like this now, I doubt they'd have been able to take a nuke."
"I knew damned well they couldn't. Without the Alliance between me and the blast, I'd have been toasted to a fine ash."
T'Mar grinned. "Glad they missed you, ma'am. You've been good company."
T'Ren's voice said, "Fifteen seconds, people."
"Copy that," said T'Mar, pressing the 'engage' button.
The drone lifted from the deck of the flitter and hung suspended only a few feet above them. As the flight group passed between mountains, T'Ren spoke again.
"Switch to civilian in five... Four... Three... Two... One... Now."
L'Tan toggled the transponder switch and two things happened at once. The flitter immediately acquired the flight characteristics of a damp sponge and the drone flashed away from above them.
The onboard computer took a split-second to assess matters and make a course change, then dropped them to within a hundred yards of the surface for what would appear to be evasive maneuvering.
As they rounded the base of the mountain between them and their goal, two fighters from the overhead formation pretended to spot them and peeled away to chase them.
The flitter computer and fighter computers synched so that some very near misses were possible during the brief chase; misses near enough that their static charges made the flitter's fields glow at their edges.
As the port facility neared quickly, the computers lined up flitter and fighter for the coup shot, and one of the beams lanced through the flitter's hull, setting the exposed insulation afire.
A long plume of roiling black smoke billowed behind the flitter as the fighters appeared to consider it done for and screamed past it to attack the port.
T'Mar tilted the flitter as if the left stabilizers were failing and aimed it at one of the military transports, allowing himself to be seen struggling with the controls as he made the flitter touch the concrete and begin a long, scraping slide that ended mere yards from the transport's landing pad.
"Let's make this look good," said L'Tan. "I've got the rifle bundle. Pull me away from the flitter and help me get up, then head us toward the transport."
"I'm setting the timer for twenty. That ought to give us time to get out of here one way or other."
"It's supposed to be ten."
"I don't think ten's enough. Sorry. Code's locked. Let's go."
Two, then three nearby guards were running toward them. T'Mar made a production of pulling L'Tan from the crash. She wailed and screamed and clutched something tightly in her arms as he made it appear that he was trying to make her leave it behind.
As they neared the transport and the guards neared them, L'Tan let the wrap fall off the bundle and shoved one of the rifles at T'Mar. The surprised guards were cut down and T'Mar aimed his rifle at the transport's hatchway, firing quickly at the shadowy figures within. Two fell, one did not.
T'Mar activated one of the grenades and heaved it into the airlock, then ducked with L'Tan to one side of the doorway. There was a brief shriek and a bang. The hatch remained open.
Rushing past the man on the airlock deck, they raced into the corridor beyond the airlock and headed for the control room, firing at the few soldiers who'd been stuck with guard duty on such an unfortunate morning.
Someone more alert than the others pinned them briefly at a bend in the corridor. They traded a few errant shots during the encounter and ducked for cover, but then neither side dared show themselves.
T'Mar activated a grenade, counted to three, and threw it to hit the far wall of the intersecting corridor. It bounced off the wall and disappeared around the corner, accompanied by someone's scream. A second later, it went off and the corridor was silent.
"I think you got him," said L'Tan.
"Don't know what's around that corner. Got your makeup kit with you?"
"No. I really didn't think I'd need it today."
"In that case, give me one of your grenades and I'll toss it farther down the corridor before we risk it."
She handed him one and he moved up to the corner. He activated the grenade and counted to five, then threw it around the corner and ducked back. As soon as the grenade went off he was up and running toward the control room door.
L'Tan was up and running, too. She saw the sentry lying on the floor some yards beyond the open control room door, his rifle lying some distance from him, then saw a second rifle and realized that the first grenade might not have been enough.
Stopping behind T'Mar, she said, "One guard, but two rifles."
T'Mar pointed at the doorway. "Look inside the control room."
Her cautious peek revealed another guard sprawled across a console.
"If anyone's still alive in there, the next grenade should take care of him."
T'Mar shook his head and took the grenade, then tossed it into the room without activating it. There was a scream and a flumping thud. T'Mar rushed into the room and aimed his rifle at a man on the floor who was frantically trying to wish himself somewhere else.
The man looked up into the muzzle of T'Mar's E-rifle and froze. His eyes found the unexploded grenade on the floor nearby as L'Tan picked it up and put it back in her pocket.
"We don't need prisoners," said L'Tan.
"We won't have one, ma'am. He's going out the emergency exit."
"Why not just shoot him and be done with it?"
"If you feel that way, you shoot him. I'm throwing him off the ship."
T'Mar pointed at the exit hatch and then at the man on the floor, who gabbled at him in Eiranian.
L'Tan said, "He says it's too far to jump."
"It's only fifteen feet or so. Tell him he jumps or I shoot him. No other choices."
L'Tan relayed the message and the man hesitantly moved to the exit.
"Open it!" yelled T'Mar. "Out! Now!"
The man scrabbled at the controls and tried to slide through the opening so that he hung from the edge. T'Mar used the toe of his boot to nudge the man's fingers, but he apparently still thought it was too far to drop.
T'Mar aimed his rifle at the man's head. When the guard looked up, he let go. He hit the pavement hard, but he managed to get to his feet and run.
"Good enough," said T'Mar, pulling the hatch shut and resetting the controls. "Get this thing moving while I make sure we're alone and close the airlock."
As he started for the corridor, L'Tan said, "Oh, yes, sir, sir! I do so love a man who takes charge!"
When he glanced back at her with a look of incredulity, she burst out laughing.
"Batten the hatches and all that nautical stuff, then get back up here."
"Well, yes, sir, ma'am. You sure you can manage without me?"
"Oh, for a little while, anyway. How long do we have until the flitter blows?"
"About ten minutes. Time enough, if you can get this thing moving."
L'Tan laughed again and tapped the console. The transport lurched into the sky and headed toward the town.
T'Mar ran from cabin to cabin, then from hold to bay looking for more people and weapons. He found two more rifles in a locker and took their energy packs, then tossed the rifles into the transport's side airlock.
Shoving the bodies and their weapons into the airlock took only a few minutes, and cycling the lock so he could heave them off the transport in the general direction of Eirania ate a few more minutes.
Finding two lifesuits and hauling a month's worth of rations to the control room in trash bags took another five or so. As T'Mar dumped the last armload of rations in a corner, L'Tan broached a question that had been on her mind for some time.
"Our rescuees are going to see us coming in this Eiranian troop transport and think they're being raided."
"Can't help that," said T'Mar, dropping himself into the first officer's chair. A thought struck him and he turned to L'Tan with an intent expression.
"Wait a minute. Maybe we can. Flash the fields to opaque them twice quickly, then do it again every few seconds. Maybe '97B' will figure it out."
The flitter exploded behind them with the force of a small nuclear weapon and the intensely bright explosion wiped nearly a mile of ground zero clean and cratered the blast site. By the time the shock wave reached the transport, six miles distant, it was greatly weakened, but it was still capable of rocking the transport.
"Well, forget that question," said L'Tan. "That should get their attention, anyway. They'll have to realize that something's going on."
"I just hope it didn't blind them. My screen went white."
"Something we didn't think of earlier just occurred to me," said L'Tan. "This thing may be too big for the street."
T'Mar tapped up the ship's specifications as they neared the building.
"It'll fit, just barely. Be glad the doors don't open outward."
L'Tan nodded and guided the ship into place above the street, then began lowering it between the buildings.
"Um..." said T'Mar.
L'Tan glanced up from her console. "Um, what?"
"Where's the hatch in relation to the building's doorway?"
L'Tan grinned and said, "Ha! At this very moment, the doorway is exactly..." she glanced at the screen, then continued, "Eighteen feet below the hatch. I already thought of that, T'Mar."
"Well, damn," he said, a note of wonder in his voice. "They stuck me with a smart one this time. Are we there yet, driver?"
"We'll be there when I tell you we're there. Try to contain yourself."
"Oh, I'll try. Don't open the hatch until we know what we've found, okay?"
She gave him a saccharinely sweet smile. "I already thought of that, too."
T'Mar smiled back. "Figured you would have, miLady."
They heard someone beating on the hatch before the transport actually touched the ground. T'Mar tapped up the hatch's external view on his vid screen.
A man apparently in his sixties looked both ways and up at the sky, then banged on the hatch again.
T'Mar said, "Identify yourself."
"Nine-seven-b. Open up and let's get the hell out of here."
"How many are with you?"
"Thirty-seven. Come on, let us in and..."
"You and your people aren't to come anywhere near the control room door. You understand that?"
"Fine! Just open the damned door! We have to get out of here now!"
"Are you armed? Do you have any weapons at all?"
"No, damn it! No weapons! Nothing!"
T'Mar looked at L'Tan. "This is our last chance to back out."
"Use your rifle to weld the door to the control room shut. If they're infected, they'll die, sooner or later. If they die, we'll open the airlock in space, then wait until someone can get us out of here."
"All right," said T'Mar to the man outside. He tapped the console to open the cargo bay airlock and said, "Load up and let us know when everyone's aboard."
T'Mar set his rifle to medium spread to avoid blowing a hole in the door and placed the muzzle near the door's locking mechanism. The initial blast made him back up a pace and rethink his methods.
He stood to one side of the door and extended the rifle as far as possible, then eased the muzzle against the doorframe and fired again. This time the excess blast blew across the room instead of back at him. In that manner he spot-welded the door so that it couldn't possibly open.
"T'Mar, he says that's all of them. We're lifting now. How's that door coming?"
"Done. Six welds. Check and see if we're still airtight."
"Pressure's good. I'll add a pound in here on general principles. If there's a leak, let it be in their direction."
"Good thinking. How fast can you get us into high orbit?"
"Twelve minutes. Where's our cover?"
T'Mar sat at the comm board and tapped up the Confederated band.
"Rescue to Alliance."
Tac's voice said, "Go, Rescue."
"We're on our way up with the passengers. Where's our cover?"
"Green flight, Rescue. We've been upstairs, just watching for bad guys and twiddling our thumbs, waiting for you to finally get underway."
L'Tan said, "We're ever so sorry to have kept you waiting, Green. You know how it is with us civilian types."
"Gold flight. Something's up, people. Stay alert."
"Roger that, Gold. Rescue, you copy that?"
T'Mar said, "We heard him, Green. We're hurrying as fast as we can."
"Alliance here. Six missile launches west of your positions."
"Gold here. They're on our screens. Can you knock them down, Alliance?"
"No problem unless they get serious, Gold."
There were several flashes near the western horizon, but none of them were nuclear.
"Gold, Alliance. Six hits. None got through. Now we'll see how badly they want you. Hold one... Six more launches. They're persistent."
Gold said, "We did a lot of damage to the southern bases, Tac. They may be a little pissed off at us."
Six more flashes, one of them nuclear, lit up the western horizon.
"Green here. You hit one of the missiles on the nose, I think. Fighters coming up. Two hundred miles south."
"Thanks, Green. We see 'em, too. Blue, break's over. Back to work."
"Blue copies break over."
On L'Tan's screen, Blue flight had already turned to intercept the incoming fighters. She looked at her boards and then at T'Mar's.
T'Mar said, "Blue, Rescue. Hold back a minute. I want to try something."
"What's on your mind, Rescue?"
"This transport has a five-inch main gun. They never let me play with anything that big in the military. Let me take a shot at those incoming fighters."
"Five-inch or one-inch, you can only hit one at a time, Rescue."
"On low power, cycle time is less than a second, Blue. They're two minutes out and I only need thirty seconds. I've already got them in the computer."
"Go for it, Rescue. We'll stand by above one minute."
T'Mar let the computer negotiate and fire. The booming sound that rang their hull each time the gun fired wasn't caused by the gun firing; it was caused by the air ahead of the muzzle being rent apart at the atomic level, then more air rushing in to fill the vacuums left by the energy blasts.
On the screen, the enemy fighters simply ceased to exist.
Twenty times the gun fired before L'Tan yelled, "We can't keep this up! Power's down almost thirty percent already!"
T'Mar yelled back, "How much do we need to get home?"
The gun fired twice more, then fell silent. L'Tan shook her head slightly to clear it and studied her boards.
"Not less than fifty percent. It isn't just a matter of getting up there. We've got two weeks of isolation to figure in."
"We can recharge from the Alliance. How much do we really need?"
"Okay. Make it thirty percent. But no less, T'Mar. I'm cutting you off before we get down that far."
"Cut me off at thirty-five. The fighters can handle the rest."
"Thirty-five. Count on it."
"You hear that, Blue? She's going to cut me off soon. How's it look out there?"
L'Nil let out a short bark of laughter.
"Women are like that, sometimes," she said. "They've launched a second flight, but those guys have been paying attention. They're in the air, but they aren't in a hurry to get here."
"If they don't make an effort, they can't go back home, either, so figure they'll make a decision fairly soon."
"Sounds about right. Can't that barge lift any faster?"
L'Tan said, "Sorry. We stole the newest antique they had."
Tac's voice said, "Alliance here. Gunny-six wants to try for those birds while they're getting organized. Battery two will fire at one-third power. He thinks he can hit as many as six at once. Everybody stand clear, please. There's likely to be a little beam-spread."
L'Tan looked at T'Mar, her eyes wide.
"Battery two is for planetary fortifications and ship-to-ship..."
A broad actinic beam speared down from above, directly into the center of the formation of fighters. When T'Mar's screen cleared, only four of the two dozen fighters remained and there was a new crater in the landscape.
With an element of wonder in her voice, L'Nil asked, "That was one-third power? Why the hell are we up here at all, Gold?"
"Uhm, well, I'll be damned if I have the slightest idea at the moment."
Tac said, "I'll tell you later if you can't figure it out on your own, people. Don't worry, you aren't out of a job yet."
One of the enemy fighters on the screen seemed to be having problems, then another of them. The first one's engine died and it plummeted to the ground. There was no sign of an ejection before it exploded. The second one managed to set down rather than slam down.
"What's happening to their fighters?" asked Blue.
"Shock, I think," said Gold. "One cut his engine and the other barely made it down in one piece."
Blue asked, "Cut his engine? It didn't just die?"
Tac said, "They were too close to the blast and they weren't in attack mode yet, so their shields weren't up. They're probably deaf and half-blind. It's hard to fly in that condition. The one may have just flailed around and hit the engine toggle."
T'Mar looked at his screen and said, "The last two are managing well enough. Here they come."
"They're crazy," said Blue in a flat tone. "Two against forty?"
Tac said, "That's their religion. Do and die. It doesn't matter which to them. They believe they're automatically going to some heaven."
T'Mar triggered the big gun. It fired twice and then, targetless, shut itself down.
He said, "Then let them meet their bloodthirsty damned god."
Nobody said anything for some moments, then Gold said, "I don't see any more fighters. No missile launches. What's wrong with this picture?"
Green said, "Maybe they've had an attack of common sense."
"Doubtful. They're up to something."
Tac said, "Just stay ready for anything. You're only twenty minutes from home once you're out of the atmosphere."
L'Tan and T'Mar became aware of a pounding on the control room door. T'Mar went to the vid screen and flicked it on. The old man was yelling something.
"...To get the hell away from this planet! Right now! Do you hear me?!"
T'Mar held a hand up to still the old man and said, "We're lifting as fast as we can, and we have plenty of protection up here. Just sit somewhere and relax."
The old man realized that he was being answered and stopped beating on the door to catch his breath before speaking again.
"You don't understand! They have a new weapon! Why is this door locked?"
L'Tan swiveled her chair around and said, "If they have a new weapon, why aren't they using it? Who are you?"
T'Mar asked, "Any more fighters coming at us?"
"None. The boards are clean. I don't know why, but they seem to have given up the chase."
"I know why," said the old man.
L'Tan said, "I asked you who you are."
"T'Lek-Sar," he said. "Sound familiar?"
"Not to me," said L'Tan.
"I know the name," said Tac. "Physics. Research. Missing for over a decade."
"That's me," said the old man. "The Eiranians offered me big money to come work for them. When I declined, they threatened to kill my wife and kids if I didn't go along and they killed my assistant to prove they were serious. I went along."
Tac asked, "Were you operating the signal laser?"
"Yes."
"What was the significance of '97B'?"
"I was in the military once upon a time. I figured someone up there would know what it meant. Obviously, I was right."
"Obviously so," said Tac. "You said you know why they stopped chasing us."
"You bet I do."
"Well?"
"When I'm back on Saxet with enough money to hold me for the rest of my life, I'll tell you."
L'Tan abruptly stood up and approached the control room door. Her demeanor was one of impatience bordering on rage.
"Look, you conceited old jerk, we've just saved your ass."
"You walk like a wet dream, woman. Are you any good in the sack?"
L'Tan glared at T'Lek's face in the vid screen and calmly said, "That's something you'll never know. Be grateful that you aren't alone in there. Right now, I'd be happy to open the airlock for you."
"Oh, my, she's got some spine! You know, I didn't get out much while I was a prisoner, honey. You can't imagine what seeing you has done for me."
L'Tan looked at T'Mar and said, "I don't think he knows about..."
Tac said, "L'Tan, T'Mar, come here, please. Captain T'Var wants a private word with you. Does that ship have privacy fields?"
L'Tan tapped up the opaque privacy fields and said, "Yes. Fields are on."
T'Var said, "Don't say anything about the virus. Tac and I think he really knows something about the Eiranians that we don't. His readings went through the roof a moment ago. If he asks about Saxet or any of the other worlds, just say you've been aboard ship for quite a while."
L'Tan said, "I'll just tell the old fart to piss off, how's that?"
"Why?" asked a grinning T'Mar. "Because he said you walk like a dream?"
"A wet dream, he said. And he asked if I'm any good in the sack. And he called me honey. I hereby reserve the right to shoot the old bastard if he doesn't die from the virus."
"We'll see," said T'Var. "In the meantime, see if you can find out what he's not telling us. I think that he thinks that the Eiranians have a superweapon. There isn't much else he could offer as a trade for that much money, and I don't want to be surprised by someone punching a hole in my ship."
L'Tan said, "The Eiranians have shown no signs of having anything capable of reaching the Alliance, T'Var."
"All we've seen are their antique missiles and fighters. And their virus. Who knows what else they've cooked up?"
"What if the weapon is just a figment of his imagination? What if all this is just a ruse to get aboard the Alliance and he and the others are infected? Would they even know they were infected? They might have been allowed to escape."
T'Var sighed and said, "I need to know what he isn't telling, L'Tan."
L'Tan sighed back at him and said, "Well, what the hell do you want me to do, T'Var? Do a striptease to try to jiggle the information out of him? I'd rather take a chance on the virus by opening that door and dragging his ancient, lecherous ass in here for a bit of persuasion."
She drove her right fist into her left hand with a smack for emphasis.
At T'Mar's chuckle, L'Tan turned to face him.
"I could warm up by questioning you first, you know."
T'Mar chuckled again. "You need me, remember? You said so. Look, here's a thought. He's been cooped up for quite a while. He'll want to talk. We'll turn off the vid for a while and see if he loosens up, then try angling him a bit."
L'Tan muttered, "We can withhold toilet facilities and see if he explodes after a few days, too. Then we could find out if he's full of it."
It was T'Var's turn to laugh. "Just see what you can come up with, without doing either of those things," he said. "Drop the field and let me have a word with T'Lek."
L'Tan snapped the field off and took a seat. T'Mar went to stand near the door's vid plate. T'Var's face appeared next to T'Lek's in a split-screen view.
T'Var said, "T'Lek, I can't promise you wealth or even a quick ride to Saxet, but if you have a minute, I'd like to ask you something."
T'Lek grinningly said, "Oh, I think I can spare the time, Captain."
"Good. Would your deep, dark secret have to do with a virus attack?"
T'Lek's face froze, then his grin disappeared in a mask of confusion.
"You know about that? How..?"
"You're a little late in getting that information to us, T'Lek. Our people already know all about it. What else can you trade for all that money?"
For a long moment, T'Lek seemed to be overcoming his startlement and gathering his thoughts, then he paled and said, "You wouldn't have known about the virus, Captain. Maybe the top people in the Confederation would know, but not a ship's captain. They've already used it, haven't they?"
T'Var nodded gravely. "They've used it."
T'Lek paled further and seemed to stagger slightly. Another face appeared in the vid screen; one of the women.
"I'm L'Fen. I was one of the teachers at the consulate. You're saying that the Eiranians attacked the Confederation with a virus?"
T'Var nodded again and said, "Yes. About the same time they attacked the consulate, we think."
"How bad... I mean..."
T'Var cleared his throat and said, "It appears that they were very successful, I'm afraid. I can't give you more information than that at the moment."
"What? Why?"
"Because I don't know more than that, ma'am. I don't have information to give you."
"That's why we're locked in here, isn't it? You think we could be infected."
"That's right. We couldn't leave you down there, but we're being careful."
After a moment, L'Fen nodded.
"I understand and the others will, too, even if they don't at the moment. Thank you for coming for us. How long will we be quarantined?"
"Two weeks at least. We think that's the life span of the virus."
A woman off-screen asked, "What's being done about the Eiranians?"
T'Var said, "I can't tell you anything over an open comm link. Is T'Lek available?"
"I'm here," said T'Lek in a tired voice from somewhere off-screen.
He gently displaced L'Fen and asked, "What about Saxet?"
T'Var wiped his face with a hand and sighed.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss... As I said, this is an open comm link."
"To hell with that, Captain. What possible difference could it make if you tell me about Saxet?"
"Whether it would make a difference or not, I can't discuss the matter. I do, however, need to know if you have any other information that would benefit the Confederation at a time like this, T'Lek."
"No," said T'Lek. "Nothing."
"You're sure? You gave us the impression earlier..."
T'Lek's hand slammed against the wall below the vid panel.
"I said no. Nothing. I'm through talking for now, Captain."
"I see. All right, then. Let us know if you think of anything. Out."
T'Var severed his link to the door's vid screen, but not the one to L'Tan's console.
"L'Tan. T'Mar. He knows something. I'll pass a copy of our conversation to T'Bar's people and ask if they know anything we can use to pry the info out of him. See if you can fish up some idea of what he's hiding from us. T'Var out."
"Great," said L'Tan. "Got any ideas, T'Mar?"
"Nothing civilized. Nothing that wouldn't involve opening that door."
L'Tan shook her head. "Then things are as they are for now."
The fighters stationed around the transport peeled away as they neared the Alliance. L'Tan synched the transport's orbit of Eirania with Alliance's at a distance of one hundred yards and then cut the engines.
From the control room door came a light, metallic tapping.
L'Tan said, "You want to get that?"
"I thought it was your turn to get the door."
L'Tan stretched out, leaned her seat back, and smilingly said, "But I'm terribly busy at the moment."
The tapping came again. T'Mar shook his head and pushed the vid button. L'Fen's face appeared.
He asked, "Yes?"
"Uh, well, we were looking through the other cabins and found... Things. We don't know what to do with them. And we need a few things, ourselves."
"You mean you found personal effects from the previous crew?"
"Yes."
"Pile everything up somewhere out of the way. Use a utility closet. We'll let someone else worry about the stuff later. Make yourselves at home."
"Uh, okay. But we need things for the children and ourselves that don't seem to be aboard, or that there aren't enough of to go around."
"Toothbrushes, bedding, stuff like that? They'll get some over to us from the Alliance. Make a list and call it in. I'll leave the intership vid system on for you."
L'Fen's face brightened a bit and she almost smiled.
"Oh. Okay, then. Thank you. Uh, should I say 'out' now?"
"Out, goodbye, or whatever you like."
"Uh, well, goodbye for now, then."
T'Mar smiled at her and said, "Bye, L'Fen. Things'll be fine," then he closed the comm link. L'Tan was grinning at him.
"What?" he asked.
"She's kind of cute for a refugee, don't you think? I mean, in a lost, helpless-victim sort of way?"
"Oh, definitely. Someone will think she was made for him."
"But not you?"
"Nope. She's not my favorite flavor."
L'Tan laughed. "Flavor? And me? Am I the right flavor?"
"You've certainly seemed to be so far. Too bad there's no shower in here, or I'd confirm that for you."
"What?" L'Tan looked around the control room and spotted only the toilet cabinet. "Oh, damn. You're right. How are we going..? T'Mar, we're going to have to do something. I am not going two weeks without a bath."
"...And I thank you for that wholeheartedly, ma'am. We'll work out something, L'Tan. Maybe what we need is a small ship of our own. Want to go back and steal another one?"
"It might be easier to explain the situation and see if T'Var has something else we could use. This thing won't need a pilot if we slave the controls to the Alliance."
"Well, damn. Where's your sense of adventure, all of a sudden?"
L'Tan grinningly suggested where he could put his sense of adventure and signaled the Alliance. Tac answered the call, and after hearing the problem, he said they'd have a look in the inventory and see what might be available for duty as an orbital bathtub.
L'Fen opened a vid link while they were waiting and L'Tan relayed the refugees' list of necessities to the Alliance.
When Tac called back a few minutes later, he offered them a ten-man shuttle that had been destined for decommissioning before the incident on Eirania.
"I can have it at your doorstep in another hour or so. There's a catch, though."
"A catch?" asked L'Tan.
"Just a small one. You get to put your lifesuits on and transfer supplies for the others before you jump ship. We're loading them now."
T'Mar said, "No problem. Just park it by the middle airlock. I don't want to do an actual docking."
"That's understandable."
"By the way, Tac, there are probably other lifesuits in the back of this bus, and at least one of our passengers could probably figure out your hatch locking codes."
"Good thinking, T'Mar, but all of our hatches have had extra security since before you parked out there, and one of the big guns is pointed right at you."
"How comforting," said L'Tan.
"Sorry, L'Tan. We can't afford..."
"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I'd have done the same thing."
When Tac signed off, L'Tan called L'Fen and told her to have people ready to move supplies out of the airlock. As she turned around, L'Tan saw T'Mar put their E-rifles by the hatch and load their pistols and remaining grenades into a mesh bag.
"Are you planning to attack someone?" she asked.
"I want this stuff with us," he said. "I also think Tac would feel better if we disable the gun on this transport, but I don't know how."
L'Tan tapped the console and asked, "Tac, how can we spike the cannon on this thing?"
"Let me look it up. Hold one... Got it. This is a code that will eject the focusing array for service. Take it out and hang onto it for a while."
L'Tan entered the code. A crystal tube gently levered away from the firing console. T'Mar put it in the mesh bag with the weapons.
"That's it?" he asked.
"That's it. The gun can't fire without it. Look out your front window."
The smaller vessel launched from bay one seemed to be heading directly at the nose of their transport until it stopped a few yards away. The computer that was remotely flying the craft brought it alongside the transport made it rotate until the loading hatch was lined up with the transport's left-side airlock, then signaled completion of the task.
L'Tan accepted control of the new craft and ordered it to open its airlock, then she and T'Mar suited up and slithered out the escape hatch, using the suits' directionals to approach and enter the smaller vessel's cargo airlock.
Seemingly above the two ships, the Alliance hung motionless in space, obscuring the sun. Below them, Eirania was a multicolored ball of whites, blues, and browns, her details clear in the middle and hazy toward the horizons.
As the airlock was closing, L'Tan said, "Damn. Whoever owned this suit last never had it cleaned and never bathed. Let's get this job done."
When pressure had equalized and the inner door opened, they found two stacks of supply containers in the cargo bay, one large and one small. On top of the smaller stack was a note taped to a container. It read: 'Heard about your trip. Open this box someplace private. Best wishes, L'Sil.'
L'Tan laughed and asked, "Someplace private? This tub doesn't qualify?"
"She didn't address it to you or me, so it must be for us, right?"
"I guess we'll find out when we open it."
T'Mar tapped the vid screen on and called the transport. When T'Lek answered, he said, "I'm going to use a tether to string the containers together and attach it to your hull ring, just outside the lock. All you have to do is haul in the tether, take the containers off, and leave the line hanging outside when you close the lock."
T'Lek said that L'Fen and two other women were already in lifesuits and ready to go to work. T'Mar didn't ask why T'Lek wouldn't be hauling containers with the others, but T'Lek answered the unasked question, anyway, with a sigh.
"None of the suits would fit me. They're all mediums. All four of them. I've always wanted to suit up and hang in space, just for the hell of it. Now, here I am, but the damned suits don't fit."
T'Mar laughed and said, "I'll look up front. If I find a large, I'll send it over."
"He can have this one," said L'Tan, quickly stripping out of her suit. "It's a large, and I won't be needing it. I'll be in the control room."
T'Mar laughed again. "She says the previous owner never cleaned it, T'Lek. Hope you can enjoy using it."
"If I have to, I'll wash it out later. Thanks."
T'Mar threaded a tether through as many containers as possible, then linked another tether to the first so he could hook the load on the transport's ring. L'Tan stuffed her suit into the first box, then went into the control room.
"L'Tan, let's do this in one-quarter gravity. That's a lot of containers to pull."
"One-quarter, it is. I'll advise the others... No, I won't. They can't get into the control room and Alliance is running their ship. Alliance, come in."
Tac said, "Alliance, here."
"Tac, we're going to one-quarter grav. Would you warn the others and put the transport at one-quarter while we shove boxes around?"
"Will do. Give me a minute, then proceed."
T'Mar cycled the airlock and leaped at the transport. Once there, he gathered up the tether's slack in a few loops, pulled the load out of the smaller vessel's bay and into space, then shoved off the transport's hull to return to the smaller ship.
"L'Tek," he said, "You have a delivery. About three more to go, I think."
"Thank you. L'Fen would like you to keep an eye on them. None of them has ever been outside a ship."
L'Fen said, "I'm in my suit. I can hear you. Can you hear me?"
"We hear you," said T'Mar. "None of you needs to go outside the airlock, and make sure you're all tethered inside the lock. Just grab the line and pull the stuff aboard."
"Okay."
He heard L'Fen ask the others if they could hear her and heard their replies, then the transport's airlock door opened and he heard the collective gaspings and a small, soft shriek as the ladies got their first view of open space.
T'Mar could see that none of the three women was moving so much as a hair; they were stunned by the view and frozen, clutching each other and their tethers.
"Ladies, you aren't standing on a ledge. You can't fall. You can drift, but that's why you're tethered. Can any of you answer me?"
L'Fen made an effort. In a high-pitched, gasping voice, she said, "Ah... Ah... I... I hear you."
"Good, good. Take a long look, then turn around and give your tethers a hard yank, okay? Everybody check everybody's hookups."
"...A what..? A hard yank?"
"Yup. A hard yank. Make sure they're secured. Do it now. Everybody do it."
He watched as they stiffly, haltingly milled around, yanking at their tethers. After a few moments, they again stood staring across at him.
"Okay," said L'Fen. "We've checked our tethers. Now what?"
"Well, I guess you could kind of ease yourselves over to the door and pull that stuff in. Yeah. That would be real good, I think. What do you think?"
A moment passed before she said, "I think you can be a real smartass, T'Mar."
L'Tan laughed. "That's the way to tell him, L'Fen."
As she moved to the door, L'Fen asked, "Does he talk to you like that, L'Tan?"
"Never. I'd fire him and replace him with the next pretty face on the list."
"You keep a list?" asked T'Mar. "I should have known."
"Damned right I keep a list. You know how flighty men are."
People have to learn some things the hard way in quarter-G. L'Fen pulled the tether too hard and wound up floating between the cargo and the door. She screamed and thrashed gaspingly for a moment, then found her tether and began pulling herself back to the airlock.
T'Mar asked, "Uhm, do you have everything under control, now, L'Fen?"
In a tense voice, she answered, "Let's just say that I'm new to this. Do you suppose you could watch without commenting?"
"Oh. Well. Yes, ma'am. Damned sorry I let myself be concerned, y'know?"
L'Fen giggled and said, "Oh, shut up, please. I have enough to think about."
"L'Tan, why are women always telling me to shut up?"
L'Tan laughed and said, "I'm sure I have no idea, T'Mar."
When the other women had helped L'Fen back into the lock, they managed to organize themselves into a team of sorts and pulled together to haul in the load. As the lock door slid shut, T'Mar activated his own airlock's cycle.
During the next transfer of supplies there were four lifesuits in the transport's airlock. One was a head taller than the others, and that one went to stand in the lock's door for some time, maintaining a two-handed grip on his tether while staring at his surroundings.
L'Tan finally said, "Hey, tourist. Give the ladies a hand pulling that load in."
"Oh. Yes. I completely forgot why I was out here. Sorry. Isn't it marvelous?"
"Sure it is, T'Lek. I just prefer to marvel from inside a ship. Ever hear of micrometeorites?"
"What? Yes, certainly. But they're rather rare, aren't they?"
"Not rare enough to suit me. I've seen what they can do to unshielded hulls. There's less of that crap in a high orbit, but you still might want to get a move on."
"Oh. Yes. Of course."
He slip-stepped over to help the others, got a grip on the tether, and promptly pulled himself out of the airlock, just as L'Fen had, with a small yell of startlement and much thrashing about until he hit the end of the tether.
The giggling laughter didn't completely die down until he was back aboard. He irritatedly pushed the ladies aside, then hauled on the tether by himself to get the load moving toward the door.
T'Mar asked, "T'Lek, weren't you watching when L'Fen did that?"
T'Lek answered tersely, "Yes. I was listening when L'Fen asked you to watch without commenting, too."
"Oh, hey, I'm just trying to be fair, you know. I teased L'Fen, so I had to tease you, too. Especially since you watched her do it before you did it yourself. Heh."
Someone snickered. T'Lek looked around, but couldn't spot the offender. He stayed turned too long, and the load of containers bulled past him into the lock, shoving him to one side. There were more snickers and one outright laugh as the cluster of containers entered the gravity field and slid to a halt on the deck.
T'Lek picked himself up and wordlessly unhooked the outside tether from the load, then tossed it out the door. He then punched the lock's cycle button and stood stiffly in the doorway as the lock closed.
Two more transfers finished the job. T'Mar floated across and disconnected the exterior tether from the transport, then jumped back and cycled the lock. L'Tan was standing outside the inner door to help him skin out of his lifesuit.
"Fields are up," she said. "Tac turned them on for us as soon as you were back inside. I've moved us a hundred yards away from the transport, too, on general principles. I've adjusted the grav field to one-third because my back's starting to hurt. Is there anything else we need to do in here?"
"Nope. Finished," he said. "Now we can see about that shower, if you want."
"After dinner," she said, heading back to the control room. "All that work made me hungry."
T'Mar followed her, draping his lifesuit over the back of the copilot's chair.
"All what work? You sat on your butt in the control room while I slaved in open space to get supplies to desperate, starving refugees."
"Oh! My hero! Desperate? Maybe. Starving? Nobody ever said they were starving. According to the manifest, they had enough rations for a month."
"Well, it sounded better than 'happy, nonstarving refugees' didn't it?"
She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Whatever kind of refugees they are, they're just neighbors, now, and we have this boat all to ourselves."
"One more thing, L'Tan. The new passcode for the airlock and ship's systems."
"Why do we need a new one?"
"So I'll feel all safe and snug in your bed, of course. We don't really know who all those people are and they can't be vetted right away. If Alliance thinks extra security is reasonable, why shouldn't we?"
"Good enough. You know the Alliance can override any locks you can put on this thing, don't you?"
"Yup, but they aren't the people I'm thinking about."
She nodded and tapped up the control codes menu on the pilot's console.
"Do you know the current code?" she asked.
"Yes," he said, tapping in 'V00-L5J-1C1A'.
The menu changed to another menu that offered blocks for changes and additional codes. T'Mar tapped in 'D7A46N3L91'.
"Mind telling me how you happen to know a ship's general purpose code?"
"Observation. They unlocked the flitter and another vehicle with it."
"You memorized a ten-digit code while you watched someone type it? Why don't I believe that?"
"Because you don't want to?"
"That's one reason. What did you just enter in the additional code box?"
T'mar grinned at her and said, "My nickname. Check the code against the alphanumeric keypad and tell me what you get."
L'Tan did so, then said, "Dragonfly One?"
"You got it."
The comm beeped and Tac asked, "What are you doing and how did you know the ship's code?"
T'Mar said, "Just adding a level of security for the same reasons you did. I picked up the ship's code in the launch bay. Did you pick up my new code, too?"
"Yes. Alliance out."
L'Tan said, "He didn't seem too happy about your knowing that code."
T'Mar shrugged at her statement and put his lifesuit in a locker, then stood next to the copilot's chair.
"About that dinner," he said. "And that box from L'Sil. Let's see what she sent us and dig out some food. You must be about done for the day."
"You're right," said L'Tan. "I can't remember ever being this tired in my life, not even in training." She patted her pocket and added, "I took another pill before we came over here, so I'm not quite in agony, but..."
He nodded as he fished a couple of ration packs out of one of the containers.
"Yeah. But. Why don't we just feed you and put you to bed? Stay there while I do the cooking."
He tore a pack tab off and set it down, then tore the tab off the other one. The self-heating packs were soon steaming. T'Mar carefully opened the packs from end to end and removed the eating utensils, handing a set to L'Tan, then placed both ration packs on the console.
"These ratpacks beat the ones we had when I was in service."
L'Tan laughed. "Ours, too. Flight packs had green, brown, yellow, and white muck in squeeze tubes."
"Ours weren't that bad. Sometimes we'd even find solid food in them, although we didn't really know why the stuff had turned solid, and it remained kind of brick-like unless you could soften it up by boiling it."
He went to get the container from L'Sil and brought it into the control room. Inside it they found four bottles of wine and some soft drink mix in packets.
"Will this stuff go with rations?"
"Sure," said T'Mar. "With rations, it doesn't matter what you drink."
When they finished eating, T'Mar readied a couple of bunks in the cabin behind the control room. L'Tan stretched out on hers, said, "Goodnight," and fell asleep almost instantly.
T'Mar went back to the control room and sat for some time in the command chair, wondering what was nagging at him as he sipped another glass of wine.
He keyed the comm pad for ship-to-ship tight beam and said, "T'Lek, come in."
T'Lek's face appeared on the screen. "Yes, T'Mar?"
"Thought you might be up, still. How are things over there?"
"Fine, as far as I can tell. The ladies have organized everything, of course. Right now a number of the smaller children are undergoing routine maintenance in the back bathroom and sleeping arrangements are being assigned."
"Such fun," said T'Mar. "Tell me something, T'Lek; what kind of weapon were you working on for the Eiranians?"
T'Lek stiffened. "I didn't work on a weapon."
"You said..."
"I said they had one. I didn't say that I worked on it."
"Okay, you didn't work on the weapon. So, how do you know anything about it?"
"I just do. Let's leave it at that."
T'Mar smiled as if T'Lek had cracked a joke.
"Oh, yeah. I could leave it at that, but I don't think Admiral T'Bar will. He isn't noted for having much patience, and these aren't normal times. If you pull your ransom act on him, you'll wind up under arrest, talking to an interrogator."
T'Lek drew himself up and stated, "I'm a Confederation citizen, not a prisoner of war. Nothing better happen to me that can't be explained to the public."
That made T'Mar laugh out loud.
"You don't seem to understand yet, T'Lek. There's considerably less 'public' out there since the Eiranian virus attack, and you shouldn't count on much sympathy from the survivors. Most of them were aboard ships when the virus was released on their homeworlds, which makes them mostly military people whose families are gone. If I were you, I'd be very candid about anything you happen to know."
T'Lek simply looked back at him in silence for some moments. When something in his eyes changed, T'Mar spoke quickly.
"Don't turn off the screen yet, T'Lek. I may not be telling you what you want to hear, but I'm telling you how it is. The usual rules have been suspended, if not necessarily officially. Talk now, freely, or talk later to people who won't stop until someone pulls them off you. You know it's true."
T'Lek's gaze hardened and he made a show of aiming a finger at the 'off' button as he said, "I'll take your advice into consideration."
"One more thing, T'Lek. I was a medic. During the wars, I kept pirates awake - and sometimes had to keep them alive - during 'informal interviews'. Before you decide not to cooperate, maybe you'd like to hear a little about them."
"No. I would not like to hear about them. Out."
T'Lek's finger hit the 'off' button. T'Mar flicked off the comm and stretched out on his bunk.
'Physics. Research. Saxet,' he thought.
T'Mar had almost dozed off when it hit him and snapped him awake. Saxet was mostly a desert world, but it hadn't always been that way. He was sure of it.
About the time that he'd gone into service and been sent to war, something had happened on Saxet, but at the time, he'd been too busy keeping his skin intact to worry about much else.
A quick check showed that the ship's computer didn't have much more about Saxet than a mark on a star chart and a brief note about available facilities.
"Tac, come in."
"I'm here, T'Mar."
"Would it be reasonable to assume that you're monitoring all communications and that you overheard my conversation with T'Lek?"
"As you said, these aren't normal times. Yes, I heard."
"Any comments?"
"Not at this time."
'Interesting,' thought T'Mar. 'He didn't ask, "about what?", as most people probably would have.'
"Do you have any info about Saxet that isn't in this ship's computer?"
"What do you want to know, T'Mar?"
T'Mar added up the time since his early military days and said, "I want to know what happened to Saxet around twenty-one years ago. It was something big enough that we heard about it out in the middle of the pirate wars."
"I can tell you that. Saxet's smallest moon exploded and fried half the planet."
"What makes a moon explode, Tac?"
"They said it had an unstable core or something, I think. There were rumors about government experiments, but... Well, they were proven to be rumors."
T'Mar grinned and said, "That often happens to rumors about government stuff, doesn't it? Especially when things don't go as well as they should. T'Lek said Eirania had a new weapon, Tac. Add it up; T'Lek plus research plus physics plus Saxet plus one exploding moon. He told me that he didn't actually work on a weapon, but if that were true, how would he know about one at all?"
"Because maybe he worked on the power source, instead, and now he's just splitting hairs because he'd rather not let himself believe that he had any part of it? That's pretty classic denial behavior, isn't it?"
"I thought it might be worth some digging, Tac."
"My digging started before you called. T'Lek did seem anxious to get away from the planet, didn't he? But, then, so would anyone who was trying to escape, I suppose. Can't really hold that against him."
"Yeah, but maybe he wasn't worried about getting caught. Maybe he was more worried about being within range of something. He settled down when we were a little more than halfway up here."
"Still, that could simply be because he'd escaped."
"Yeah, maybe. Would you let me know what you find out about Saxet?"
"Will do, if it's within your security clearance. Anything else?"
"Nope. L'Tan's asleep and I guess I'll turn in for the evening, too. Hey, Tac, if it isn't within my clearance, see if it's within L'Tan's. Failing that, see if T'Var will authorize it anyway. I think we're on to something."
"Okay. Check your inbox in the morning. Out."
Without more to go on, there was no point in speculating further, so T'Mar went back to bed. Fifteen sleepless minutes later, he realized that the odd feel of one-third gravity was keeping him awake. He rose and turned it up to one-half, then went back to bed.
T'Mar woke thinking that he'd only dozed off until he saw the ship's clock on the way back from the bathroom; it read 1017 hours.
'Can't tell day from night aboard a damned ship,' he thought, looking out the forward screens at the starfield beyond the Alliance's hull and realizing that he'd had the same thought many times before aboard other ships.
He checked L'Tan's bunk and found it empty, then looked in the control room. L'Tan was sitting in the pilot's seat with her feet on the console.
"You have a message from Tac," she said. "Sleep well?"
"Guess so. How are you? Any back pain?"
"Not really. I checked the comm logs for messages and found a record of your call to T'Lek last night."
T'Mar sat in the copilot's chair and tapped up Tac's message. Referenced sections were missing, replaced by the words 'authorization required'.
"Is your clearance any higher than mine, L'Tan? I'm class Q because some of my previous work involved tracking down some antique nuclear fuels."
"Sorry. Same here, and only because the Eiranians have a nuke arsenal."
"Guess we'll have to talk to T'Var about it. There's too much missing from this message to pull a reasonable extrapolation."
"It'll be there after breakfast," said L'Tan. "My turn to cook."
She found a couple of appropriate ration packs and popped their tabs, then opened a couple of drink boxes and arranged everything neatly on the console.
"There are only five types of ration packs," she said. "What happens when the meals get monotonous?"
"Well, I guess we'll just have to turn on each other like starving animals."
"Uhm-hmm," she mumbled around her drinking straw. Finishing her sip, she smiled and said, "Yeah. At that point there's just nothing else to do, is there?"
"At least I already know how you taste," said T'Mar. "Pretty good, really."
"So complimentary, first thing in the morning. I like that."
As L'Tan looked his direction with a smile, something outside the windows caught her attention. When T'Mar looked, he saw what appeared to be a moving star and he looked a bit harder. Not one moving star. Several.
"The fleet's here," said L'Tan. "Some of it, anyway."
The reflection of the sun from the hull of the Alliance suddenly ceased. Craning to see beyond the curve of the forward window, they could see that a ship more than twice the size of Alliance was moving to a position beside her.
The console comm screen lit up to a basic menu and Tac's voice said, "Shuttlecraft, we have company."
T'Mar tapped the video on and Tac's face appeared. He glanced from T'Mar to L'Tan and said, "I see you slept in this morning. Must be nice to have time off. Someday I'll put in for some, I think."
"Yeah," said L'Tan. "You should try it some time. Tell T'Bar that I may be infected. That should keep him away from me even when our quarantine ends."
Tac laughed and said, "You haven't forgiven him, I see."
"No. I haven't."
"What did he do to you?" asked T'Mar.
"He promoted me off the Alliance and into a damned desk job that I didn't want. Six months later, the job vanished with a political decision. He was in a bad mood the day I asked to be returned to the Alliance. I wound up being reassigned to a Council panel for two years, then the Consulate job came up."
T'Mar gave her a quizzical look.
"Sorry for asking, of course, but aren't you a little old to be a fighter pilot?"
L'Tan glared at him and Tac laughed sharply.
"T'Var's got her old job, T'Mar. He tried to step down for her, but T'Bar couldn't allow it after making a scene and shipping L'Tan to a Council post. That would have been admitting an error, and T'Bar won't do that unless you can make him do it."
"Oh, wow," said T'Mar. "Captain Stardancer. I'm impressed, ma'am."
L'Tan gave him a droll look and said, "Well, good for you. Now eat your breakfast and give it a rest, or I'll bust you down to deck scrubber."
T'Mar grinned and asked, "Is 'mutiny' spelled with one 'n' or two?" then turned to the screen and asked, "Any new news, Tac?"
"No, not yet. After everyone arrives, there'll be a meeting on T'Bar's ship. I don't expect to hear anything about anything until then. By the way, I passed your request for higher clearance in the Saxet moon matter to T'Var."
T'Mar said, "Thanks, Tac. Tell L'Sil thanks for us, too, will you?"
"Will do. Will she know why?"
L'Tan laughed and said, "She'll know."
Two hours later, T'Mar was reading on the vid screen when some small motion outside the forward windows made him look up. For long moments he watched, seeing nothing but space and the hull of the Alliance, then the shadow of the transport on the Alliance's hull seemed to sprout a stubby appendage.
"L'Tan," he said, as he called up the exterior view on the screen that would show the transport. "Have a look. The transport's shadow."
She opened her eyes and looked where he was pointing as she rolled out of her bunk and onto her feet.
"What about it? Oh. I see. Someone's outside the transport?"
"Have a look at the screen. Two lifesuits outside the transport's lock."
T'Mar tapped the comm to contact Alliance and said, "Tac, come in. Two people are outside the transport. Did they get out or do they want in?"
"They've been sampling the transport for signs of virus and some of T'Bar's people wanted a private chat with T'Lek. They're meeting him in the airlock."
There was something odd about the transmission. T'Mar scanned the board to try to discover what was causing the oddness.
He said, "That sounds ominous enough. No witnesses. Well, we warned him this could happen. If T'Lek has a secret, he won't have it much longer."
Tac smiled. "The lack of witnesses occurred to me, too. By the way, your little vacation is almost over. We'll be taking you back aboard soon."
'Got it,' thought T'Mar. 'He's not using a tight beam. He wants the Eiranians to overhear this.'
L'Tan hurried over from the window and said, "But the quarantine..."
A heavyset older man in a Fleet uniform leaned over Tac's shoulder and said, "Hello, L'Tan. Glad to see you two are still fairly alert over there. I don't believe you're at risk and neither does the doctor."
L'Tan's eyes narrowed and she asked, "Is that any reason to bring us back aboard, Admiral T'Bar? The comm system seems to be functioning perfectly. Why risk it?"
"I have the logs from your trip dirtside and bioscans of the transport's control room there turned up nothing but the usual residue people leave wherever they go. No virus. Same for the rest of the transport and the people; no virus. Anyway, what I have to say may change your opinion of me."
"With all due respect, Admiral, that is rather unlikely."
T'Bar smiled. He shouldn't have; it made him look even less likeable.
"L'Tan, you and your 'aide' report to the bridge immediately upon arrival."
Having said that, T'Bar straightened and walked off-screen. Tac didn't say anything for a moment as his eyes followed T'Bar's progress around the bridge, then he spoke quietly.
"I just got word that we'll be bringing you aboard in a few minutes. See you when you get here. Out."
More of the fleet arrived as they waited. By the time their shuttle began to move, the sky had become dotted with ships of various sizes and types as they established a gridwork that almost wrapped around Eirania.
Once their shuttle was landed and anchored in bay two, a pair of ship's security people - an Ensign and an enlisted man - entered the shuttle to escort L'Tan and T'Mar directly to the bridge.
L'Tan locked eyes with the officer and said, "I know how to get to the bridge."
"My orders are to make sure you get there immediately, ma'am."
T'Mar put the wine bottles in a transport container, then picked it up and broke L'Tan's staring match with the Ensign by tapping L'Tan on the arm.
"Ready," he said.
The Ensign said, "Please put that down and leave it aboard the shuttle, sir."
The enlisted man had already stepped out of the shuttle to gallantly offer his hand to L'Tan as she stepped to the deck. The Ensign stood behind T'Mar, as if to make sure he also got out of the shuttle.
"No, thanks," said T'Mar. "We're taking it to her quarters."
"I can't let you do that," said the Ensign.
L'Tan said, "Nobody asked you. You're only here to walk us to the bridge, and that's where we'll go after we drop the box off."
As T'Mar stepped down, the Ensign said, "I was told to bring you and him. They didn't say anything about baggage..."
L'Tan glanced at T'Mar and said, "Lock the door," half a second before she shoved the Ensign back inside the shuttle.
T'Mar quickly tapped the lock button and entered four numbers, then confirmed the code with another tap on the lock button.
"Good enough?" he asked.
"Good enough," said L'Tan, cupping an ear to better hear the yelling from within the shuttle.
"Uh, sir?" asked the enlisted man, "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"It's how they learn," said T'Mar. "They say or do something stupid and something embarrassing happens to them because of it. Makes 'em better officers later, you know. I'll give you the code when we get to the bridge."
He and L'Tan set off at a brisk pace, leaving the enlisted man to make a quick decision whether to stay and try to free the Ensign or accompany them. He trotted after them and wordlessly fell in step alongside T'Mar.
The little group arrived at the bridge a few minutes later, having detoured to drop the wine off in L'Tan's quarters. Tac looked up as they entered and grinned.
"He's still inside the shuttle and you're to go to briefing room two," he said.
T'Mar turned to the enlisted man and said, "Seventeen-oh-one. Make it look as if you figured it out on your own. He'll be impressed and he may even figure he owes you one."
The man saluted them with a smile and said, "Yes, sir," then left.
They headed for the briefing room just as T'Var came out of another room that bordered the bridge and also headed that direction. He didn't seem happy, but he took a moment to greet L'Tan and T'Mar.
"Glad you're back," he said. To L'Tan in particular, he asked, "How do you feel? And I'm not referring to the virus."
"Glad to be back," said L'Tan. "That shuttle would have seemed pretty small after a while. I'm feeling fine, T'Var, but what has you so tense?"
"Something doesn't feel right. I'm hearing one thing and sensing that something else is about to happen. Let's get together after the briefing."
"You think T'Bar is going to pull something? Do something not in his orders?"
T'Var gazed hard at her for a moment, then switched his gaze to T'Mar. He said nothing for another moment, then looked back at L'Tan and said, "Later. After the meeting. I could be worried about nothing."
Having said that, he resumed walking toward the briefing room. L'Tan and T'Mar glanced at each other, then followed him.
Briefing room two was much larger than room one and was filled to capacity with the most senior officers from the other ships of the fleet. L'Tan and T'Mar were guided to their seats at the big table by one of the junior officers, who seated L'Tan, poured them each a glass of water from the pitcher on the table, and then went to stand at the wall.
Both L'Tan and T'Mar noticed that - deferential and polite as he was - he was also armed with a pistol, as were the other three junior officers in the room.
Another officer activated the vid screen on the wall by the door and said, "Sir, they're all here and all ships stand ready to receive your message."
"Thank you," said T'Bar, without engaging the video.
Moments later, T'Bar marched into the room with two envelopes and looked around the table. His eyes came to rest on L'Tan and T'Mar.
Without preamble, he said, "You two each have a decision to make," and handed the envelopes to one of the junior officers standing by the door.
The young officer delivered the envelopes to L'Tan and T'Mar and returned to stand by the door.
"Those are your orders and appropriate insignia," said T'Bar. "I'm not about to hand one of my starships over to a pair of civilians."
A series of chuckles and a few laughs circulated around the table.
T'Mar opened his envelope and a pair of Fleet Lieutenant's insignia mounted on a card slid out. L'Tan's envelope contained Captain's insignia.
T'Mar said, "I was enlisted, Admiral. My brother was the officer in the family."
"We're aware of that. I'm also aware of your post-military employment. You're a Fleet Lieutenant as of now, assigned to Captain L'Tan, if you accept the commission. Any objections will cause her to need a new adjutant immediately."
Sliding the insignia back into the envelope and closing it as he looked at L'Tan, T'Mar said, "In that case, no objections, Admiral."
"Captain L'Tan, do you have any objections to having your own ship again?"
"None, Admiral."
"In that case, you'll be delivered to your new command after the meeting. Congratulations, Captain L'Tan. Having taken care of this matter, there will now be thirty seconds of polite applause, then we'll get down to business."
There was laughter as the men and women in the room applauded, then T'Bar sat down at the head of the table. He took a sip from his glass and studied the others in the room for a few moments, then tapped his glass with a stylus.
When the room was quiet, he spoke.
"To all crews of all ships of the Confederation Fleet: At this table are the most senior officers of the Fleet. We are most of what's left of the Confederation Fleet, people. We are here to exact retribution. We are to make sure that those who perpetrated so evil an act on the Confederation are never able to do so again. To that end, our orders are to give one day's warning, and then to completely annihilate all traces of contemporary technology on Eirania. We are then to leave six ships as pickets, to prevent any other ships from entering - or leaving - this Eiranian region of space."
T'Bar paused for another sip of water and continued, "But that doesn't quite seem enough to me, in view of what they've done. We could miss an underground installation or two. Someone could get past the pickets, as evidenced by Captain T'Var's encounter with a missile that his sensors couldn't detect. The Eiranian people have thoroughly proven themselves to be a most devious and effective enemy, and I don't believe in halfway measures. Eirania will be destroyed."
He paused to look around the table, then continued, "Nine infected Eiranians were aboard a passenger transport that crashed on Leimar's moon. The ship's computer placed everyone in stasis, which also preserved the virus, and we have managed to replicate the virus in considerable quantities using blood supplies donated by the survivors of the Eiranian attack."
T'Bar tapped a button on his console and said, "Now."
All the viewscreens in the room - and, presumably, on all the other ships - displayed the surface of Eirania. Bright little green dots were fanning out from a central point. Bright little red dots were struggling to intercept them, but many of those red dots disappeared almost as soon as they appeared.
"The disappearing red dots are Eiranian fighters being targeted by T'Var's gun crews as they emerge from hiding. The green dots are drones. One hundred and fifty of them are falling into the atmosphere of Eirania. Each of them is equipped with stasis canisters containing the Eiranian virus. They will release the virus upon those who created it and released it upon the worlds of the Confederation. In about two weeks, this planet will be ready for renaming and resettlement."
Most of T'Bar's audience was staring at him in shock, but some were obviously quite pleased with his announcement. The vid screens suddenly flashed red and a klaxon sounded, then Tac's face filled the screens in the briefing room.
Tac's calm voice said, "Red alert. We're being targeted, Admiral. I almost have a source lock... I have a lock. Firing now."
The vid screens suddenly went stark white as the slaved weapons systems of twenty starships focused their collective firepower on a plot of Eiranian soil about one mile square and fired simultaneously. The scream of monstrous amounts of energy being released echoed through the hull of the Alliance as all batteries facing the planet fired at once.
"Target eliminated," said Tac, sounding as if he was talking to himself. "Eight degrees north, another underground source showing. Firing now."
After the guns fired again he said, "They had a redundant targeting system. Damn. I'm getting a lock on another new power source. Firing... Now."
The guns screamed a third time, then were silent.
"Three targets destroyed. No other sources showing."
T'Bar said, "Good shooting, Tac. Cancel red alert. T'Var's lucky to have you."
"Thank you, sir. I tell him that every day."
T'Bar chuckled and faced his audience.
"We just knocked out their brand-new superweapon, ladies and gentlemen. The drones were a ruse to make them deploy it. In the next few days, we'll..."
He was interrupted as the computer reactivated the alert.
Tac's voice wasn't so calm as he said, "Hold it, sir. New source. Target locked, firing... Now."
The guns screamed one more time, but this time, Tac's followup was dour.
"Sir, we hit the source, but it was too deep. They got off a shot before our beams could bore through and hit it. The 'V'Nur' is gone."
"Gone? What the hell do you mean it's 'gone', Tac!?"
"Sir, the 'V'Nur' is no longer on my screen or responding to the weapons link. Sensors can't locate her. She's not there, sir."
"Ships don't just disappear, Tac."
"Sir, I'll look for her in a minute. I'm still reading a power surge of some sort from the source we just hit. The damned thing is almost three miles deep. Firing... Now. Still reading a source down there. Firing again."
T'Mar and L'Tan watched the vid screen in front of them turn white yet again and seconds later heard Tac's voice say, "Same target, still active. Firing again."
T'Var, T'Bar, L'Tan, and T'Mar were on their feet and on their way to Tac's station to see for themselves what he was seeing. Tac was calmly calling another shot at the power source as they approached.
On the screen was a white dot that seemed to refuse to be extinguished.
"Another ship missing, and the power signature down there is off the scale," said Tac. "The 'L'Nar' is gone, too, sirs. Recommend we get the hell out of here."
"Do it," said T'Bar. "All ships retreat to one hundred thousand."
"Another ship gone, sir. I'm pulling us back."
Seconds later, Tac said, "All ships at one hundred thousand. Sir, 'L'Vis' reports heavy damage. She says something just punched a hole completely through her."
"Two hundred thousand, Tac. Move 'em back fast."
"Yes, sir. 'L'Vis' reports another hole. Her engines are out."
"Tell them to abandon ship and get clear. We'll come back for her later."
"Yes, sir. Message sent. Looks as if someone already had that idea. Her pods are all over the place."
"Have T'Lek brought to the bridge, Tac."
"Yes, sir." He tapped his console and said, "The Admiral wants T'Lek on the bridge."
Several seconds ticked by until Tac said, "Two hundred thousand, sir. I can't tell if they've stopped firing, sir, but nobody's reporting any more holes at the moment and nobody else has disappeared."
T'Mar asked, "Could you tell when they were firing at us? We didn't see anything on the screens."
"No, sir, I couldn't. Whatever they're using doesn't show up on our screens."
"That weapon ought to be able to hit us if they can see us. Why aren't they hitting us now?"
"Unknown. Maybe their targeting system failed."
L'Tan turned to T'Bar and said in a flat, firm tone, "I don't think two hundred thousand is far enough, Admiral."
T'Bar looked at her and said, "Neither do I. Another hundred thousand, Tac."
"Yes, sir, and thank you, sir. I wasn't happy here, either."
Tac suddenly stiffened and stared at his screens for a moment. For the first time, his voice betrayed his rising anxiety.
"Admiral! Something's happening!"
Everyone's attention was on Tac's screen as a sizeable portion of the planet Eirania turned bright white. The whiteness began to spread.
Tac swiftly punched a series of buttons as he nearly screamed, "All ships back! Get away from Eirania now!"
Loose objects and some people were thrown flat as the Alliance surged away from the planet. Others encountered furniture or found something to hang onto. When the throttle bars read full reverse, the computer automatically activated the stasis fields.
T'Mar had been in stasis before, but he hated the sensation. He couldn't move, even to breathe more than shallowly, for the long seconds until the computer decided that inertia was no longer a danger. Although he knew that all was being done that could possibly be done, he felt helpless in the grip of the field.
The white, featureless ball that had been Eirania began to swell. The bigger it became, the faster it grew even larger. As the ball engulfed Eirania's moon, T'Mar realized that it appeared to be expanding faster than they were retreating.
L'Tan had realized the same thing and said, "Stardrive, Tac."
"Can't. We're still in-system. The evac pods won't be able to keep up."
"Do it," said T'Bar. "Override all ship protocols and do it."
Tac looked up and said, "Sir, there are another eighteen planets, their moons, and lots of other crap out here."
"Do it or I will, Tac."
Tac didn't answer as he turned back to the control board. He was too late. L'Tan had already keyed a duration of one second at level one and stabbed a finger at the stardrive's 'engage' button.
The stars seemed to stretch briefly. The expanding white ball on the screens appeared to instantly shrink to one-quarter of its previous size, even as it engulfed the inert L'Vis.
"All stop," said T'Bar. "But stay ready. Did we lose any more ships, Tac?"
"Just the escape pods from L'Vis, sir. The..."
Two guards escorting T'Lek onto the bridge interrupted Tac's words.
T'Bar said, "No choice, Tac. Who's still with us and what happened back there?"
"I can tell you what happened," said a grinning T'Lek. "The stupid bastards never caught on that I rigged the numbers. They fired their 'superweapon' and it exploded. More precisely, it imploded, then it went critical and consumed first itself, and then the whole maggot-infested planet. Eirania is now a small sun that should last just about a week before it..."
T'Bar drew himself up from the console and his fist connected with T'Lek's face with a crack that could be heard across the bridge. T'Lek fell backward over a bridge rail and into a crumpled heap on the deck. After a moment, he began to straighten himself out and looked up.
T'Bar rubbed his knuckles and said, "Get up, T'Lek."
T'Lek was still trying to clear his head, but he could hear T'Bar's tone and knew that getting up at that moment would be a serious mistake. He shook his head slightly.
In a rumbling tone, T'Bar said, "You lied to me, T'Lek. You assured me that it wouldn't actually be ready to fire. You assured me that the moment they tried to fire the thing, it would destroy itself, and that we'd be out of range. Come over here, T'Lek. No, don't shake your head again. You'll get up or I'll come get you, and you don't want that. Tac, put the last few minutes on the screen for him."
T'Lek warily rose to his feet, then edged around T'Bar to look at the screen. He paled as he watched the mysterious destruction of ships unfold, then viewed the escape of the remaining ships. He paled further as he realized that they'd had to engage the stardrive within a planetary system to avoid the reach of the baby sun.
T'Bar said, "Tac, give T'Lek, here, the casualty figures from the moment the drones were launched. Put them on all screens, so that everybody will know what this cretin has accomplished today. Number of ships lost and number of people lost on those ships. Show us all what his grand little scheme has cost."
Tac moved to comply and the names and classes of the missing ships, as well as the numbers of their crews, were displayed on all bridge screens at once.
T'Lek's jaw fell and he paled again.
"B-but it wasn't supposed to work! I... I checked and rechecked my calculations a dozen times! It was only supposed to... It couldn't have fired!"
L'Tan asked, "It was only supposed to do what, T'Lek?"
T'Lek only stared at her. T'Bar raised a fist and stepped forward a pace. T'Lek backed away and put the console between them.
"It... It was supposed to do what it did," he said. "But it shouldn't have expanded beyond their moon. I... I just wanted revenge for what they did to me."
L'Tan glared as she opened a drawer and withdrew a sensor probe, then forcefully twisted the shielding lens off the forward end. When she flicked the switch, a bright beam as long as a finger snapped into being. L'Tek paled again and retreated a pace.
"I don't see any scars on you," said L'Tan. Her voice was dangerously calm. "I don't see you in a wheelchair or a hospital bed. What did they do to you that was worth all those lives? Exactly how did they torture you, T'Lek?"
"They... I was a captive for almost a decade. I was forced to work on the power source. I haven't seen my family in years..."
T'Bar said, "Your family? Try some other excuse, T'Lek. Security records indicate that you were divorced and living on another world for three years before the Eiranians contacted you."
L'Tan glanced at T'Bar, then at T'Mar, then refocused her gaze on T'Lek. She was trembling and there were tears in her eyes as she spoke.
"We had friends on those ships, T'Lek. People we've known for twenty years. People I've been to hell and back with at one time or other. People who meant a hell of a lot more to me than an arrogant, egocentric bastard like you."
T'Lek found himself cornered as L'Tan stepped around the console. She held the probe near his throat as he backed up against the rail, then let her hand gripping the probe rest on his upper chest. The heat of the beam evaporated the sweat on his skin and made the skin near it blister.
T'Lek was afraid to move. He looked pleadingly past her at an impassive T'Bar and T'Mar. Neither of them moved to stop her. Tac adjusted something on his console, not even acknowledging T'Lek's presence.
T'Mar said, "If you kill him, you'd probably have to stand trial for it, L'Tan. It won't bring anybody back. You'll probably lose the rank and the new ship, too, because they frown on Captains who lose control. Let the courts have him."
For long moments, he wondered if she'd heard him, then L'Tan's hand moved. She flicked the beam off and turned as if to hand the probe to T'Mar, then, still holding the probe, she swung a hard right at T'Lek's head.
T'Lek was barely conscious, lying on the deck again, as she asked, "How many of our people just died because of him, Tac?"
"Fourty-four hundred and seventy-three."
"Thank you. T'Lek? Did you hear that?"
In a faint voice, T'Lek said, "Y... Yes."
"Good. While you wait for your trial, you're going to be placed in a very small room where you will hear the computer tirelessly recite the names and ages of each and every one of them to you."
L'Tan then reached to grasp the front of T'Lek's shirt and hit him again, bouncing his head on the floor. T'Lek passed out. She turned to T'Bar and held out the probe to him.
"I'd like to make sure that he hears that list a few times, Admiral."
T'Bar reached to take the probe from her hand.
"No problem, Captain L'Tan, and thank you for restraining our prisoner when he became unruly."
Two security people arrived, woke T'Lek, and escorted him off the bridge, then T'Bar asked Tac for an update.
"Admiral," said Tac, "The explosion stopped expanding near our last position and is now contracting almost as fast as it expanded."
T'Bar, L'Tan, and T'Mar joined Tac at the console as he interpreted the readings.
"T'Lek's right about one thing. This miniature sun won't last more than a week. The core temperature is already dropping."
"Details later. Does it pose any sort of danger to us?"
"No, sir, not at this distance."
"Good. All officers here for the meeting may now rejoin their ships. Have the Comm officer link all ships for another announcement. T'Var, you have the conn. I'll be back in a few minutes."
T'Bar gave no indication of where he was going or why. The others watched him leave the bridge in silence, followed by those who would be leaving the Alliance, then the Ensign at the Comm console cleared his throat.
"The intership link is ready and standing by, Tac."
"Thank you, Ensign."
T'Var walked to his command chair and sat down rather tiredly, gazing silently at the tiny sun on his vid screen. After some moments, he sighingly muttered a one-word summation of his feelings.
"Damn."
Admiral T'Bar returned to the bridge half an hour or so later. T'Var got up to offer him the command chair.
Once he was seated, T'Bar opened the intership link and said, "To all ships and personnel, this is Admiral T'Bar. By now you should all know that the Eiranians tried to use a new energy weapon against us and that the weapon malfunctioned. Eirania is now a small star and will never again be a danger to anyone."
He paused to let those words sink in, then continued, "A small observation team will remain here. When the rest of us return, there will be another intership comm link and services will be held for those no longer with us. Lists of affected worlds and those ships and crews lost will be made available to all ships at that time. That is all."
After the words, 'That is all,' T'Bar stood up and extended a hand to Captain T'Var, then to L'Tan, T'Mar, and Tac.
"I'll be returning to my ship now," he said. "L'Tan, you and T'Mar meet me in bay two in half an hour. I'll give you a ride to your new ship. You've inherited the L'Syn. She was barely finished when the virus hit them."
Without further comment, Admiral T'Bar again left the bridge of the Alliance. L'Tan, T'Mar, and T'Var looked at each other for a moment, then repeated the handshakes as a default gesture of leaving.
"Half an hour," said L'Tan. "He must know that we don't have much luggage."
T'Var couldn't help a snorting laugh. "Just the two uniforms you're wearing and a few bottles of wine, if I'm not mistaken."
L'Tan gave him a questioning look. "How did you know about the wine?"
"I picked it out. L'Sil's idea, but my expertise. She doesn't drink. Good luck in your new command, Captain L'Tan." He grinned as he asked, "Are you going to keep this guy as an aide or find him a real job?"
With a grin of her own, L'Tan said, "Either way, he'll earn his keep."
T'Mar grinned along with them as they shook hands again and he and L'Tan left the bridge, heading toward their room. They walked in silence until they reached the door to 3410. T'Mar thought that L'Tan seemed tense about something.
As he reached to tap in their door code, L'Tan spoke.
"T'Mar, you seem a little tense about something."
He laughed softly and said, "I was just thinking the same thing about you. L'Tan, I don't know spit about being a Fleet Lieutenant. Now that the crisis is over, I'm going to decline the commission."
They entered the room and the door shut behind them. When T'Mar turned around, L'Tan was looking at him questioningly.
"Are you sure you want to do that? Your previous employers may not have jobs, themselves, after today."
"Sure they will. Only the numbers of people have changed; not the nature of people. My job may change a bit, but I don't think I'll be unemployed."
L'Tan's gaze narrowed.
"Your job has had you posted in four places in one year. Are you saying that you'll want to leave me when we return? Has this just been a quick fling to you?"
T'Mar smiled and raised his hands in mock protest.
"Don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to escape. At the moment, we're military, but the need for a military has pretty much vanished, other than as a means of enforcing law and order. What do you think they'll have you doing with that fancy new ship, ma'am? We've never found any potential enemy worse than ourselves, and now there are so few people left... I expect that people like us will become the peacekeepers and intermediaries while everybody else begins rebuilding. And don't pretend you don't know what I mean by 'people like us'."
L'Tan relaxed somewhat.
"No, I won't pretend we aren't different. That occurred to me, too," she said. "There will probably be martial law until they can pull whatever's left of things back together. You might want to see what T'Bar thinks before you resign that commission, though."
"If we turn into police, they'll likely want civilians involved at all levels. If I can continue doing what I've been doing, a military commission is unnecessary. Chances are that the territory will be much smaller, and that the need for covert operations will be just about zero for a long time. Since they'll probably put your ship to work as a portable police station, there won't be any reason that I can't stay aboard."
A few steps later, he added, "Besides, if I were working for you and sleeping with you, there'd be too much room for outside criticism. What we've become to each other has evolved in our short time together and feels right to us, but it might not seem right to anyone else if I were your Lieutenant and your lover."
L'Tan said nothing as she opened the transport case containing the wine and tossed her few belongings in. T'Mar put his in, as well, then closed the case and picked it up. On the way out, he rezeroed the door lock code.
"Lieutenant or not," said L'Tan in a brusque tone, "You'll need quarters of your own on a ship that I'm commanding. We'll see to that as soon as we're aboard the L'Syn."
As they started walking to bay two, T'Mar asked, "Are you upset with me?"
"No. With all that's gone on, I just hadn't realized... Never mind. You're right, T'Mar. Things will have to look right to the crew and everyone else."
"You forgot to add, 'damn it'."
"So I did," she said in a flat tone. "Damn it."
Bay two was only a few yards away when she asked, "What if the almighty 'they' decide that you'd be better employed elsewhere, T'Mar?"
He shrugged. "Then I guess I'd have to see about a new job somewhere else on the Confederation payroll. Can't let all my service time go to waste and blow my retirement. Know any ship's Captains who might be looking for an aide?"
L'Tan stopped walking and turned to face him with a small smile.
"One, maybe," she said. "Prior experience in the job would weigh the odds in your favor, of course. Would you really do that, T'Mar?"
"You'll just have to take my word for it unless it happens, L'Tan."
A couple of crewmen were passing them. L'Tan waited until they'd entered bay two and the doors had closed, then she glanced around before leaning to kiss him quickly.
"Well," she said, "If it happens, you'll already have the job."
When they entered bay two, Admiral T'Bar was standing next to one of the shuttles. He looked up and nodded as they approached, then resumed his conversation with one of the fighter pilots.
"No," said T'Bar. "I don't know precisely what will happen, but there may be a severe 'Reduction in Force' among Fleet personnel very soon, so you'll want to be prepared to take up a civilian profession."
The pilot looked uncomfortable as he said, "It might help if I had a civilian profession. I came straight into the service from school."
T'Bar sighed, clapped a hand on the man's shoulder, and said, "Well, then, keep an eye open for training opportunities. A hell of a lot of career fields have suddenly become hungry for new people, and essential services will be on a recruiting binge. The others are here, so we have to leave now. Don't worry, son. You'll find another place in things if they RIF you."
The young man nodded and stepped back a pace, seeming uncertain about something. He then saluted the Admiral, said, "Thank you, sir," and walked away.
T'Bar turned to L'Tan and T'Mar and said, "He dated my daughter. When I told him that she's still alive, I thought he was going to faint on me."
L'Tan said, "If he feels that way about her, you may be seeing more of him."
"Could be," said T'Bar. He stepped into the shuttle and said, "Let's go," then disappeared into the cockpit to talk to the pilots.
The Admiral's aide, a female Commander named L'Mir, was already seated in the shuttle. She put down her pad and stood as they entered, greeting L'Tan and T'Mar by their ranks and names with a smile for each.
As he and L'Tan chose seats for the journey, T'Mar looked at the gorgeous young woman and wondered if her arrangement with the Admiral was anything like his with L'Tan.
"Would anyone like a drink?" she asked. "We'll be between ships for a little while."
L'Tan looked puzzled as she asked, "Reason?"
L'Mir nodded. "The Admiral wants to talk to you both."
When L'Tan glanced at T'Mar, he shrugged and said, "A beer, thanks."
L'Tan's gaze narrowed slightly, then she turned back to L'Mir and said, "Nothing for me, thanks."
"Let me know if you change your mind," said L'Mir.
T'Mar watched the tall young woman walk to the back of the shuttle and open a cooling compartment. Blonde hair and a fine, firm figure. A bright smile that seemed natural, as opposed to part of the job. Tool or toy? Perhaps both?
When she brought his beer, he thanked her and she returned to her seat, just behind the cockpit door.
L'Tan whispered, "You like that one, do you?"
He whispered back, "She looks damned good, really. You jealous yet?"
"No, and you'd better hope I don't get that way, Lieutenant."
T'Bar emerged from the cockpit and took a seat across from them. L'Mir handed him the pad she'd been using, then rose to make another trip to the back of the shuttle. She returned with another beer and handed it to T'Bar, then sat down.
"Thank you, L'Mir. You're too good to me. Are these reports the latest?"
"They are," she said, then rattled off a comprehensive summary of matters so concisely and quickly that both L'Tan and T'Mar were left staring at her.
"Thank you," said T'Bar again, grinning. "She's the real brain around here, you know. The Confederation Council has suggested for immediate decision the idea of disbanding a sizeable chunk of our military. Your analysis, L'Mir?"
"I think we should try to delay the release of all personnel, regardless of the Council's possible decisions. Our people have been through a lot, as survivors of both the disease and the demise of Eirania. They need time to come to terms with events in a familiar environment and time to prepare for what may lie ahead, but more than that, there are other considerations."
L'Mir reached for the pad, tapped it a few times, and handed it back.
"Have a look, Admiral. The pirates and others living on the fringes of our Confederation weren't targeted with the virus. The Eiranians probably planned to clean them out later in a more brutal fashion. There's looting in many regions of many worlds. A few people have tried to 'unofficially' resettle a few worlds already and seem to be trying to set up small kingdoms instead of adhering to Confederation governmental standards. I think the Council is acting prematurely in disbanding over half the Fleet. They need time to see the magnitude of what's happening, and they're used to presiding over civilized worlds with resources enough to handle their own emergencies. I don't think they're at all prepared for having to deal with anarchy."
T'Mar asked, "Are you suggesting bypassing the Council and handling things ourselves?"
L'Mir looked for a moment as if she might be trying to find an acceptable way to phrase her thoughts, then said, "I'm only suggesting that we remain intact until we - and the Council - have a better idea of what's going to be required. If half a Fleet or less will truly be enough, then, by all means, let's release people, but I believe this matter should not be decided too hastily."
Admiral T'Bar handed his pad to L'Tan and said, "Look at these reports. Some of these 'resettlers' must have been circling like carrion birds. The moment the virus had run its course, some of them descended on the nearest worlds and started pillaging the remains. Others - as L'Mir said - seem to be trying to set themselves up as dictatorships. In one incident, appropriated military hardware was used to drive away people who were trying to return to their homeworlds."
T'Mar said, "If they're capable of using our hardware, we can either absorb them and put them under the control and guidance of local governments or we can hunt them down and destroy them. We don't need to offer them any other options."
L'Tan said, "They're criminals. Why offer them any options at all?"
"Look at it this way; there's lots of room now. Lots of resources will go to waste, no matter how many people return to their worlds and reclaim their corporate or family holdings. Put these squatters to work and get them involved and a lot of them will become citizens by default when they no longer have to scrabble for a living in the outworlds. Give them homes and property and see if they don't very quickly come to regard piracy about the same way we do."
"When colony worlds opened for settlement, where were these people?"
"I'm not saying that they aren't lazy, larcenous, or otherwise socially impaired. I'm saying that if they suddenly become owners of things that can't be moved, they'll have to defend their ownerships and learn to interact as citizens. If they fail and revert to criminal behavior, feel free to hunt them down, ma'am."
L'Mir grinned and T'Bar chuckled.
"That's kind of what we had in mind," he said, "But the Council had trouble with the concept of decriminalizing pirates when we first mentioned the idea."
L'Mir's expression turned somber as she said, "Yes. They're still thinking and acting as if ninety percent of the population hadn't just died. Just before we left, one of the Council members apparently realized for the very first time that he might not be paid this month."
T'Mar said, "That must have driven the situation home for him."
"Yes," said L'Mir. "Yes, it did. His wife immediately signed them up for dining hall passes, just in case."
L'Tan snickered. "If he finds out that he isn't getting paid, he'll probably try to make it look as if it's his idea and say he's refusing his salary for the duration."
T'Bar grinned. "Probably so. They're all politicians, so if one does that, maybe all of them will. Can't hurt. They can get free room and board anyway."
Admiral T'Bar stood and paced the cabin.
"As I see it," he said, "The Council is premature in releasing more than half the military. While they're in uniform, we can use our troops in everything from harvesting crops to keeping the lights on in the cities. If we let them go, I believe we'd soon have anarchy on our hands. When what's on the shelves runs out, we'd have wholesale starvation and civil wars on half the Confederated worlds. I don't like the idea of militarizing resources, but I see no other way to guarantee continuity until there are enough capable civilians to take over."
L'Tan said, "The Council won't go for that, sir. What you're suggesting is essentially the suspension of the Constitution and a military government."
"I'll talk to them, but I won't let them act in a highly principled, but impractical, manner. What we need right now is a survival plan, people. I want to present the Council with something that doesn't make it look as if an Admiral is promoting himself to 'absolute ruler'."
"That could be tough," said T'Mar. "Especially since that seems to be what you're doing."
T'Bar's tone was ominous. "Was that sarcasm, Lieutenant T'Mar?"
"That was an observation, Admiral. I happen to think you're right about keeping people in service until things are more or less straightened out, but a lot of people are going to see things in a bad light if you place yourself in charge."
T'Bar gazed at T'Mar as if judging the truth of his words, then said, "I don't plan to place myself in charge, Lieutenant. I'm suggesting that we keep the Council as an advisory group and add to it from the ranks of those who know how farms and factories really function. We have a limited time in which to find or train competent replacements at all levels of production and distribution. I don't want anyone to go hungry or starve because commodity prices are too high. I don't want anyone trying to survive a winter in cold and darkness because a city grid is down. That means that - for instance - a fighter pilot may have to learn how to operate a power station. A ship's doctor may wind up running a teaching hospital. We have the basic infrastructure available in uniform, and I intend to use it."
L'Tan said, "Expect lots of resistance. No matter how you present any plan that involves the military, some people will see it as nothing but a military takeover."
T'Mar sipped his beer and studied the bottle for a moment.
"They'll be right," he said. "It will be a military takeover, however well-intended it may be. Roughly ten percent of the population survived the virus attack. Figure that children, the aged, and other non-workers amounted to about half of the pre-virus population. They're gone now, and those who survived are mostly military people in their early middle years. Most have had some education and experience of some kind. Three food-producing worlds survived, as well. If we handle this right, nobody will have to do without too much during the reorganization period."
L'Tan said, "Some will want to go home. They won't want to relocate."
"That," said L'Mir, "May not be an option for everyone for a while. We'll have to put the most useful people where they'll be most useful to all, and they'll have to realize the necessity of their positions."
T'Mar looked at her and said, "Nationalize all abandoned and unclaimed properties under salvage laws, then reissue a lot of it to the survivors who seem best able to make use of it and store the rest under guard. No personal taxes and uniform wages for the duration of the reorganization effort. The government can be the distribution system and can pull what it needs for maintenance from what passes through. When productivity exceeds demand, we'll know our jobs are finished and we can demilitarize the government and the economy."
L'Tan abruptly rose and walked to the back of the shuttle.
"You sound as if you're already on the bandwagon," she said.
"I guess I am," said T'Mar. "I can't see the current civilian system functioning quickly or efficiently enough to keep things together, and politicians do tend to play favorites. We'll need leadership that functions equally well for all involved."
L'Tan took a beer from the cold storage locker and asked if anyone else wanted one before closing the locker door and walking thoughtfully back to her seat.
She didn't sit down right away; instead, she opened her beer and sipped it, then said, "T'Bar, I can't believe that you brought T'Mar - whom you don't even know, really - and me out here to have a few beers and help you plan the immediate future of the Confederation."
T'Bar grinned and asked, "Why not? You'll have to live and work in whatever we cook up, just like everyone else, and you were both civilians until very recently. I want to put together something that fits everybody's needs."
"But, still..."
"No buts. The Council and the remnants of the government have been quick to string together lots of words and appoint committees, but slow to act. Before I left, I converted six ships to act as mobile hospitals and distribution points for necessities. Three hundred thousand people who were in transit or working on various off-world projects that weren't self-sustaining are presently bunking on those ships, L'Tan. I detailed six more ships to deliver emergency supplies to other project locations and take aboard those requiring relocation. When I updated the Council members before coming out here, several of them were actually pissed that I hadn't consulted with them before authorizing assistances."
He sipped his beer and continued, "They'd wanted to set up emergency relief using their own people, of course. Money would be made, political debts canceled, and all that. We don't have time for that kind of crap. People need help now, not two weeks or a month from now. Our cities are full of the dead. We, the military, will have to do the cleanup. It's just too big a task for conventional methods. We need workable answers immediately, L'Tan. The Council seems unable to handle the situation. When we arrive, the Council members will be politely sequestered until they've agreed to cooperate. In the meantime, we'll begin the essential tasks of cleanup and apportionment of goods and services."
"They'll be 'politely sequestered', huh? Since you've already drafted this plan, why are we out here at all, T'Bar?"
T'Bar looked at L'Mir, who nodded and smiled up at L'Tan.
L'Mir said, "We want you to be the interim military governor, Captain L'Tan. Governor of the entire Confederation, or what's left of it."
After a moment of shock, L'Tan turned to T'Bar with, "No, you aren't joking, are you? No matter how you dress it up, this is going to look like a military coup."
"Only because it is. I take it you don't want the job?"
"You're damned right I don't. Sir."
T'Bar smiled and said, "All the more reason to put you in charge. You'll be impatient to get the job done right and get out of the office. Look at it this way, Captain L'Tan; there's a job to be done that only the military can accomplish, but we need a director who won't turn into a dictator. We need someone who will want to put things back into civilian hands as soon as possible."
"Why not you, Admiral? Or Commander L'Mir, here? They'll think I'm just your puppet, anyway."
"It can't be me, L'Tan. It can't be any of those close to me. It has to be someone both competent and believable. You'll do fine."
L'Mir said, "We're going to install someone. You have what it takes to run things well and you'll be more than ready to step down when the time comes."
L'Tan eyed her sharply, then faced T'Bar.
"If I don't accept, what then?"
"Then you Captain an assistance ship and we find someone else. T'Mul and L'Fal are on our list of possibles."
"Near the bottom of the list, I hope," said L'Tan. "T'Mul..? Oh, wait just one damned minute, I see what you're doing, here. Let me see that list, T'Bar."
T'Bar nodded to L'Mir and she handed her pad to L'Tan.
"There are only three names on this list," said L'Tan.
"And you're at the top," said T'Bar. "Time is a factor. We want this packaged and ready to present when we get back, L'Tan, and we don't have time to shop around. We need your answer."
L'Tan handed the pad back to L'Mir and asked, "Why do you keep saying 'we', Admiral? There's no 'we'. This is your plan."
"Well, excuse me, Captain," said L'Mir, "But I'm here, too, and I support the plan I helped devise, so that's two, as in 'more than one'. 'We'."
T'Mar rose and went to the cooler for another beer. As he opened the beer, he said, "L'Tan, I had to work with T'Mul once. I don't know L'Fal at all. If those are the only three names available, I'd rather that you take the job."
L'Tan laughed and said, "Well, I'm so flattered that I'm the lesser of your percieved evils today, T'Mar."
He smiled back at her and said, "That's exactly what you are, ma'am. The candidate least likely to truly screw things up and let the job go to your head. Unless you absolutely refuse, you're elected."
L'Tan sat quietly for some time, then asked, "How can I know that you'll really allow demilitarization when the time comes, T'Bar? How can I believe that you won't just have me replaced or completely take over, yourself?"
"Ask T'Mar. An E-rifle is a line-of-sight weapon. I could never appear in public again after such a takeover, could I, T'Mar?"
L'Tan looked at T'Mar questioningly. "What the hell is he talking about, T'Mar?"
"Someone else from my group would do it if I couldn't, L'Tan. The Admiral knows that there will be no dictatorships in the near future."
T'Bar reached to touch her arm gently and said, "T'Mar and his people are your safeguard against treachery, L'Tan. Remember when the pirate K'San took hostages on Danar to make us release one of his ships and crew?"
L'Tan thought back. "One of K'San's people shot him and freed the hostages because he believed the Confederation would hunt them down."
T'Bar grinned and said, "That was the official story. T'Mar was posing as a drug dealer at the time. He went in to set up a deal with K'San, then put a burst through his head and flew the hostages to safety in K'San's ship. T'Mar was on Eirania to stay out of sight until he was called as a witness in a drug trial and to cool off until he was issued another assignment."
L'Tan turned a flat gaze on T'Mar.
"That wasn't exactly on your resume. Is there anything else I should know about you?"
T'Mar shrugged and said, "Well, my favorite color is emerald green. My favorite ship's Captain is L'Tan. My favorite..."
"Shut up now, please."
"Sure, Captain."
T'Mar grinned at her and sat back to sip his beer. L'Tan continued to gaze at him as if wondering about something for another few moments, then she turned to T'Bar to study him for a moment, as well.
"Okay, damn it," she said. "I'll take the job."
L'Mir stood up and removed a recording disk from her pad, then put it in a console unit and said, "Everything said during this discussion has been recorded. I now need each of you to witness the document. Each of you will have a copy and the original will remain on file. Step right up, ladies and gentlemen."
"I want to review what we're signing," said T'Mar. "Please play it back for us once, L'Mir."
With an odd glance at him, she did so. Toward the end of the playback, T'Mar nodded and said, "I have something to add to the recording."
L'Mir asked, "What might that be?"
"I expect to be a bit more than a gofer in all this. The rank of Lieutenant is fine aboard ship, but to get things done without much backtalk, I want to be made a Commander, I want to be able to act on L'Tan's behalf if she's incapacitated or unreachable, and I want one ship at our disposal at all times. Make it L'Tan's ship, the L'Syn. Also, L'Tan and I and our designates will be armed at all times."
T'Bar said, "If all present agree, I don't see a problem."
L'Mir said, "The guards in the Council halls are traditionally the only ones armed. Why do you feel that you'll need personal weapons?"
T'Mar said, "If I can get past the guards, so can someone else."
"You really think that you could slip into Council chambers past..."
T'Bar interrupted her with, "L'Mir, his teams have done it quite often as part of training exercises between Council sessions. It keeps the guards sharp."
L'Mir's expression was one of true surprise that morphed into a wry look.
"Oh," she said wryly. "I see. Well, then, are you sure the rank of Commander will be enough, or would you rather be made a Fleet Captain, as well?"
"Commander will do, I guess. I haven't been checked out in a starship. I might bump into something. We can let L'Tan continue as Captain of the L'Syn. It'll give her something to do on her days off."
T'Bar chuckled. "That's magnanimous of you, T'Mar. I really don't see a problem, L'Mir. He wants personal protection and a means of escape for both of them. These are difficult times and they'll have difficult positions."
L'Mir nodded. "If there's nothing else, everybody may now sign and I'll make the copies."
Each signed the electronic document in turn and L'Mir logged the proceedings, then handed each of them a disk as the copyings were completed.
"Now it's my turn to have a beer and relax a little," she said. "You all realize that this documentation of our meeting could later be construed as proof of treason, don't you?"
"It could also be construed as proof of good intentions," said T'Bar. "We alone currently have the means and the motivation to help people quickly, and the people certainly shouldn't object to that."
"Some will object to a military takeover," said L'Tan. "I do, for instance. Nothing had better go wrong, T'Bar, or T'Mar won't have to shoot you."
"Relax, L'Tan. I'm too old to give a damn about ruling the universe. It would be entirely too much trouble."
"I have a suggestion," said T'Mar. "We don't really have to completely take over all operations of the government. Emergency relief, supply management, and police work are really all that counts at the moment. Why not just declare ourselves the agency in charge of such necessities and let the Council continue to run the rest of the show? We can tell them where what is necessary and how we can accomplish our goals and let them officially tell us to handle things."
L'Mir asked, "You really think they'll willingly go along with anything that cuts them out of the decision-making process?"
"Yes, once they understand the alternative. Seems to me that people bright enough to become elected to the Council ought to be able to see that people like us aren't going to wait for them to vote on every little item or appoint committees to study each situation in depth. They can back us and be public heroes or be swept aside and remembered for less important functions during the crisis."
T'Mar glanced around and found everyone regarding him oddly.
"Well?" he asked. "We've already decided to do it. We have to extrapolate the ramifications before they happen. There will be resistance. Organized resistance, once people get over the shock and realize that the military has taken control. A lot of them will refuse to see what we're doing or believe that it's temporary. We need the Council members to speak for us, not against us. I propose that we assign one to each capital ship as an observer."
L'Tan said, "That will just make it seem that we're keeping them apart and holding them hostage."
"And if we keep them together? The same people will think we're holding them hostage as a group. At least if they're on the ships they can actually see what we're doing and make reports."
T'Bar asked, "What do you suggest we do with the people who stand against us? Jail them?"
"Work them. Draft them into service and put them to work in the relief efforts. Let them communicate freely with people back home, but put them where they can do some good while they bitch."
"What about the ones who can't be drafted for whatever reason?"
"If they can find the energy and wherewithal to give us a hard time, put them in a position to handle some of the communications. Keep them too busy to bitch in jobs that serve the relief efforts and allow them to be kept informed. Some will organize against military rule. Help them organize in a structured manner so that we can turn the whole mess back over to them sooner."
"I'm afraid I don't understand," said L'Mir. "Why you think they'd accept our help in organizing against us? That doesn't make much sense, T'Mar."
"They don't have to know that they're being helped. Some of our people will take leadership roles in local governing and refill the vacant offices from among those qualified or the nearly qualified and trainable."
The rest of the shuttle flight was spent in consideration of various details concerning the takeover and organization of resources, as well as how best to present L'Tan to the Confederation in her new role. It was decided that there would be a simple ceremonial appointment by the Council in order to inform and involve the public.
As the shuttle docked with L'Tan's ship, she had a few final words for T'Bar.
"I don't like what we're doing, T'Bar. Not one bit. I just can't see a better way to handle things at the moment. I want your personal guarantee that this won't go on one second longer than absolutely necessary. I need to be able to believe that."
"You have it, L'Tan. That's all I can say. You won't really believe it until this is over and you're just a ship's Captain again, anyway."
L'Tan wasn't completely satisfied with his answer, but she stepped into her new ship's lock with T'Mar and turned to gaze back at T'Bar.
"In that case, goodbye for now, Admiral."
"Goodbye, Captain L'Tan."
She saluted him as required by military regs, then pressed the lock's 'close' button. The lock cycled and opened on the opposite side, where they saw four officers standing at attention.
"Captain on deck," said a Commander, who saluted for the entire group.
L'Tan returned the salute and stepped out of the lock. The Commander offered his hand and said, "Welcome aboard, Captain. I'm Commander T'Sal."
He then introduced the others and offered to show her to the bridge immediately.
"Thank you," said L'Tan. "This is my aide, Commander T'Mar. I don't want to sound ungracious, but I'd like to postpone further introductions and the usual tour until later. Right now, I'd like to get something to eat and then spend some time in my quarters."
The group of officers looked at her rather disconcertedly for a moment, then T'Sal said, "Uh, yes, ma'am. Is there anything you need right away?"
"Yes, there is. Computer access. I have some research to do before we get back, so let's get T'Mar and me logged in. You still have the conn, Commander."
"Yes, ma'am. Will there be anything else?"
"No, I don't think so. Not at the moment, anyway."
T'Sal glanced around briefly and asked if more luggage would be arriving.
"No, this is all of it," said T'Mar.
When he offered no more explanation, T'Sal shrugged and dismissed the other officers, then showed L'Tan and T'Mar to their quarters, which were only a few doors apart from each other. After introducing them to the ship's computer, he suggested putting a crewman at her disposal.
L'Tan shook her head and said, "These ships are all alike. We'll find what we need or ask for it. Thank you, anyway, T'Sal. We'll see you in the dining hall in a few minutes."
Once T'Sal had left the room, L'Tan searched the room's desk, then waved a notepad at T'Mar, indicating that he should join her. As he crossed the room, she began writing.
Her note read, 'Assume someone's listening to us at all times.'
T'Mar grinned and nodded as he took the notepad and wrote, 'Not a doubt. Too big a deal not to expect it.'
'You're the spy. What to do?'
'Nothing. Total silence would seem odd, anyway. They'd expect us to talk about things. The only reason you don't have a security team now is the way T'Bar wants to present things to the Council.'
'You're saying we shouldn't worry?'
'No point. Things are as they are. Just decide how much you want anyone else to know before talking.'
L'Tan had been leaning on the desk as she'd read his note. She straightened and nodded slightly, then went to the bed to sit down.
"T'Mar, I could use a nap. I'm still feeling the injuries or the surgery; I don't know which and I'm not really in the mood to talk right now."
"You're probably still feeling both. Let's get you fed and put to bed. Want me to bring you some dinner, or would you rather see the mess hall?"
L'Tan tossed her notebook on the table and said, "Let's go."
T'Mar gathered up the few small pages of notepaper and ripped them up before he stepped into the bathroom. After he'd flushed the paper bits, they headed for the dining hall.
As they entered the dining hall, someone proclaimed, "Captain on deck!" and everyone stood generally at attention.
L'Tan waved at the room as a whole and said, "As you were," then turned to the man who'd spoken and asked, "I met you when I came aboard. You're T'Bes, aren't you? How's the food?"
Being remembered by name made the man grin as he said, "Good, ma'am. Best in the fleet, I'd say."
L'Tan nodded and said, "Well, I guess we won't have to space the cooks, then. Carry on, T'Bes. I'm only here for a quiet dinner."
"Yes, ma'am."
T'Bes joined some people at a table while L'Tan and T'Mar headed for the food line and grabbed trays.
"Damn," muttered L'Tan. "Forgot what it was like to be the newbie on board. I can practically feel their eyes on me."
"Some are staring at the new good-looking woman, and not necessarily the new Captain, ma'am. I know that for a fact. Been there. Done it."
"Uh, huh. Whichever. I'm still being stared at."
"Well, you won't be the new Captain long, but you'll still be the good-looking woman and you'll still get plenty of notice. May as well learn to live with it."
L'Tan chuckled. "I'll manage, I guess. Question, sir; any regrets about teaming up with me?"
With a slight grin, T'Mar said, "None yet, ma'am. So far you're the best CO I've ever had."
"You're sure? Things could get pretty complicated soon."
"Yes, I'm sure, and yes, they will. I'll even guarantee it."
Some moments of silence went by before she said, "I'm not sure I'm up to the job, T'Mar. A starship is one thing..."
"And a different herd of people with different immediate needs is no big deal. Just be everything for everyone at all times and you'll be fine."
L'Tan's involuntary bark of laughter startled those at the nearest tables.
"Everything for everyone at all times? Should be a snap, right?"
"Well, maybe not quite that easy. Just do your best. Delegate as much as possible, but know the people you use as delegates and don't be afraid to spy on them. We don't need petty tyrants."
"Okay, smart guy; how would you handle delegating this kind of authority?"
T'Mar grinned. "No problem. You're going to be dealing with inexperienced and largely untrained people at most levels. Create teams of three with one in charge of each team at every level. Any of the three per team can authorize necessities within his or her scope. If one dies, the other two can hold things together until a replacement is found. Regular and stringent inspections and reasonably public records. Just pick the best people you can find for the key positions and let them all learn as they go."
L'Tan sighed. "You're still making this sound easy. We're talking about one hell of a lot of key people in the chains."
T'Mar sighed back at her and said, "So what's new about that? The number of workers changes, so the number of chiefs changes to match. Choose carefully at the top, as usual. You've done it before and done it well or you wouldn't have commanded a damned thing before now."
The tone of his remark took L'Tan aback for a moment.
"I don't think I liked your tone, T'Mar."
"I didn't think you would; that's why I used it. Stiffen up, lady. If I didn't think you were the best choice for the job, I'd have said something on the shuttle. Besides, you have me to prod you if you need it."
L'Tan's eyes opened slightly wider even as her brows furrowed.
"Prod me...? Was that some kind of innuendo?"
"I don't bother with innuendo, and you know it. I'm talking about times like these, ma'am. Times when the job seems too goddamned big or the people too uncooperative. Times when you need to be reminded that you're bigger than the job at hand."
"I see," she said with a glare. "If you think I'm going to need prodding, why didn't you toss your own damned hat in the ring, T'Mar? You seem to think you can manage me, so why not just do the job yourself?"
T'Mar had finished his meal. He shoved his tray away and turned to face her.
"It wasn't offered to me, and I'd be one of those 'shut up and do it' types in no time, L'Tan. I don't want anyone like me running this show. I want you."
"I can be a 'shut up and do it' type, too. You've seen me that way."
"We were under fire and evacuating people at the time. You command when it's necessary. I'd slip into a command mode and remain there. You won't."
"You're so sure of that? I wasn't too popular around the Consulate."
T'Mar grinned and said, "Keeping your head on straight will be the other half of my job. Tell you what, L'Tan... This is just you and me, here, so I'm going to say something and then I'm closing this discussion unless you order me to continue. Your old crew aboard the Alliance would cheerfully have you back as their Captain instantly, including her present Captain. He might look for another ship, but only after making sure you were comfortable and well established, and with no animosity toward you. That kind of loyalty doesn't come easily. It takes time and trust. Run what's left of the Confederation the same way you ran your ship and things will take care of themselves."
With that, he picked up his tray and took it to the deposit bin, dropped it in, and returned to the table. L'Tan said nothing as he sat down, but her gaze was sharp. Some moments passed before she smiled slightly and resumed eating.
The number of confidential, coded communications between L'Tan and T'Bar over the next two days created a stir of curiosity among the bridge crew. The complete and abrupt cessation of those communications on the morning of the third day, only a few hours prior to arrival, created even more curiosity.
As soon as she closed the last secure comm link with T'Bar, L'Tan called a morning conference of her bridge personnel and went to meet with them in the ready room. Her opening remarks were brief.
"I've called you here," she said, "To tell you that the Council wants to disband most of the fleet and other military branches."
She paused to let that sink in, then said, "But Admiral T'Bar and others feel that the Council is acting prematurely. We are therefore acting against the Council in this matter, but this will not be a military coup."
She went on to explain the gist of the plan and the purposes and reasoning involved and then suggested that everyone take a few minutes to consider whether they'd be able to cooperate with the effort.
"If you can't go along with us, now is the time to say so. Nothing will happen to anyone who wants out. You won't be put out of the military, but you will be reassigned to one of the essential support services. I'll be in my quarters until we dock. You have until then to make your own decision to stay or go."
After giving them another moment to absorb matters, L'Tan said, "The rest of the ship's company will be offered the same decision tomorrow. I don't want anyone on my ship who can't accept this situation. Dismissed."
In the course of the day, only two officers showed up to ask to be excluded. Both seemed highly nervous as they stood by L'Tan's door after signing out.
"I told you nothing would happen to you," said L'Tan. "I don't even need your reasons. Relax. All I want is a completely supportive crew. Have your things ready to go when we dock. You'll be reassigned in a day or two. In the meantime, you'll be quartered at the station. Dismissed."
The young officer blurted, "Ma'am, we just..."
L'Tan raised a hand and smilingly shook her head.
"Just have your gear ready when we dock and do your best wherever you're reassigned. A lot of people will be depending on you."
When the two men had left the apartment, L'Tan said, "I do take it personally, of course. Just a little. I can't help it."
T'Mar said, "I'm surprised more of them didn't bail out."
She turned to stare at him.
"Oh, really?"
"Oh, really. This isn't your old crew, L'Tan. Even if it were, there'd still likely be a few who'd want to be somewhere else. Want a back rub before we dock?"
L'Tan shook her head slightly and asked, "A what? Now? You're serious?"
"Why not? We have some time, and it might help you relax."
"Someone else might show up."
"Then you can get dressed before I answer the door."
She shook her head again and grinned.
"You just want to get your hands on me. We'll wait until tonight."
L'Tan's inauguration ceremony -- a simple presentation of the "coup", as some predictably called it -- lasted no longer than a standard shipboard meal break. Accompanied by L'Mir, T'Mar, T'bar, and half a dozen cadre personnel, she made an appearance before the Council and was officially installed in her new position. The event was publicly broadcast to the farthest reaches of the old Confederacy, just to make sure that everyone, including the pirates, were made aware.
There was considerable initial resistance to the emergency measures, including an explosion only a few months later which destroyed the entire building which housed L'Tan's offices. What truly startled everyone was the fact that the flitter-bomb had not been an assassination attempt.
The bomber had used a delayed self-destruct code in an overly-used military flitter that had been scheduled for refueling, resulting in a relatively tiny antimatter explosion. Radiation had been minimal and severely localized, which was in keeping with the warning the bomber had transmitted the day before.
His warning had said, in part, that the blast would prove that he was serious and that the danger to the new "dictator" was real, but that he intended that no innocents should be harmed by his actions.
T'Bar and others wanted to see L'Tan safely esconced aboard her ship immediately, supposedly out of reach of further attempts on her life. L'Tan's response was to have T'Mar and L'Mir arrange a public broadcast, in which she rather briefly refused to leave the office or leave the city until all essential public services had been restored in all population centers.
"When no one goes hungry for lack of supply deliveries," she said, "When no one has to burn their furniture to keep warm. When no one has to boil the water before drinking it. I'll step down the very day when not even one of our citizens has to do without basic necessities. That's when I'll leave office, so if you want me to step down, you'll have to work together to make it possible."
The remainder of the broadcast was turned over to L'Mir's team, who added commentary on the state of the Confederacy and made suggestions about how to facilitate the ongoing effort to restore order.
As L'Tan and T'Mar left the podium, someone from T'Bar's staff chuckled and asked L'Tan if anyone was really having to burn furniture to keep warm. L'Tan's answer was not at all humorous. She fixed the questioner with a flat gaze and let him sweat for a few moments before replying.
"Without a doubt," she said. "Someone still not in the loop or at the far end of the supply lines is undoubtedly having a very difficult time of things. We're still discovering small groups of people who were unaffected by the plague. What saved them was their isolation, but it could be what ends up killing them, too."
"Uh, yes, ma'am," said the taken-aback staffer. "It just seemed to be such an extreme example. I wondered if anyone would believe it."
L'Tan said, "At the moment, they'll rightly believe that any conceivable hardship is possible. Is there anything else?"
The staffer had become severely uncomfortable, but he managed, "Uh, yes, ma'am, actually, there is. Would it help in any way to publicize it when we find people in outlying regions? I mean, do you think it might reassure people that we're doing all we can to help?"
L'Tan glanced at T'Mar, then back at the staffer.
"You mean we aren't already heavily publicizing such things? Isn't there some kind of daily bulletin going out?"
"Well, yes, ma'am, there is, but it mainly concerns..."
L'Tan interrupted him. "I want a separate bulletin that has only to do with people. Who has been found alive, where they were found, when found, and current status. Complete listings that family and friends can use immediately. The first edition goes out tonight, so put some people on it. Don't list the dead. List only those who survived. Be sure to call it a preliminary list, not an official posting."
"Uhm, may I ask why we shouldn't list the dead, ma'am?"
L'Tan rolled her eyes and looked heavenward as if for assistance.
"Because," she said with a tired sigh, "For one thing, the lists will be vastly shorter and you may even stand a chance of getting them done before broadcast time. For another, there are always errors on lists of any kind. Misinformation is worse than no information. Get with L'Mir about it."
As they again headed toward the elevators, T'Bar joined them.
"I don't have time to discuss it at the moment," he said, "But I'd still rather see you aboard ship."
"And I'd still rather stay here," said L'Tan. "Besides, T'Bar, someone knew how to override codes in a military vehicle. A starship is full of military vehicles. It's also worth more to reconstruction efforts than an old office building. Someone got past security that's supposed to be as tight as it gets. If he can do it here, we have to assume that he can do it on a ship."
T'Bar looked hard at her for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I think you'd be harder to reach on a ship."
"Harder to reach in many respects," said L'Tan. "We'd be adding another level of bureaucracy at a time when we really need less."
T'Bar glanced at T'Mar as if to see where he stood on the matter.
"I'm with L'Tan on this, Admiral. To kill her down here, they'll have to sacrifice people. They've demonstrated an unwillingness to do that."
"That could change, T'Mar."
"Revolutionaries need popular support, Admiral. L'Tan has done nothing but organize and deliver assistance and she hasn't been a tyrant. Times are hard for everybody and those suffering the most were the first to receive assistance. Many have joined our efforts in only these last few weeks. While some people may object to the manner of her ascent to power, I doubt that more than a very few of them would be willing to be sacrificed in an effort to get rid of her. If that bomb had killed an office building full of people, you'd probably be seeing angry mobs looking for revolutionaries."
"I'm not convinced, T'Mar."
"Nor are you willing to be convinced, Admiral. That's good, really. It means that someone competent will be watching our backs in case we're wrong, doesn't it?"
Admiral T'Bar's hard gaze didn't soften noticeably as he said, "That it does."
L'Tan reached to touch T'Bar's arm and said, "You could be right, T'Bar. Someone could decide that the greater good would be served by another bombing, even if a few hundred innocent people died with me. But without knowing who tampered with the flitter or how he managed to get past security, we have to assume that he could get aboard a ship, too."
T'Bar said nothing for some moments, then, "We'll discuss this later."
As he walked away, L'Tan said, "I think he's more than a little unhappy that we aren't taking his advice."
"Could be we will take his advice later," said T'Mar. "But I want to know more about the bombing before we do."
L'Tan fixed him with an odd look and said, "Explain that remark. I've known T'Bar since he was a ship's captain, T'Mar."
T'Mar looked around at the busy office and said, "Later and elsewhere, L'Tan. Privately."
"No. Now," said L'Tan. "In my quarters. I think I really want to hear this."
"Okay, now, but not in this building, L'Tan. Not in any building. Let's take a ride in a flitter. We'll find a spot for a quiet talk. Want to go for a swim?"
For a moment, L'Tan simply met his gaze, then she said, "Fine. A swim."
As their flitter lifted a few minutes later, it was accompanied by three other flitters that carried L'Tan's personal guard team. T'Mar set a southerly course and put the flitter on autopilot, then turned to L'Tan.
"Before you ask, we're going to a lake I saw on one of the recreational vids."
She nodded toward one of the flitters that had taken a position on their left and said, "We won't exactly be alone, T'Mar."
"Not a problem. We'll be in the water and there's a small rock ledge and a waterfall by the fountain. Want a drink? I do."
While he was below the edge of the flitter's canopy as he reached into the cooler, he turned up the collar of his shirt and showed her a tiny dot that didn't quite match the surrounding color.
"That depends," said L'Tan. "Let me see what's available."
As she leaned forward for a closer look, he put a finger to his lips as he moved the drink containers in the cooler. She made no comment as she examined the dot, then straightened in her seat.
As if deferring to his choice from the cooler, she said, "I guess I'll have one of those, too."
"I thought you might," said T'Mar, opening a drink and handing it to her.
"They're going to wonder what we're up to, T'Mar."
"Let them. It won't be hard to figure out. You've been slaving away for almost a month, L'Tan. I've barely had any time alone with you off duty. They can spare us for an afternoon, I think."
L'Tan smiled and said, "Oh, you poor little thing. Feeling lonely?"
"Very lonely, miLady. Enough so to whisk you away for an afternoon."
She chuckled as she leaned back and said, "Good. I needed a little time off."
T'Mar took the controls to land them on the boulder-strewn beach of the lake. The remains of a prefabricated cabin stood slightly up the slope from the beach and the nearest trees were nearly a hundred paces away in all directions.
The guard leader directed that two of their flitters should orbit the area continuously and sent the two men who had arrived in his own flitter to check out the cabin. He approached L'Tan and T'Mar and saluted.
Without preamble, he said, "I don't like this place, ma'am. There are too many places to hide around here. I also don't like sneaking off to the woods without time enough to send people to check things out. That's for the record, ma'am."
"Your concern is noted," said L'Tan. "For the record, as it were. And thank you for having nerve enough to say something about it."
The guard captain looked at her impassively for a moment, then said, "Ma'am, Admiral T'Bar told me to tell you if I thought you or Commander T'Mar, here, were screwing up. That makes it my job to tell you that I think you're screwing up by being out here. I've got nine men to cover a place that should rate at least thirty."
T'Mar asked, "You were mobile infantry, weren't you, Captain?"
"That's right, sir. Still am, as far as I'm concerned."
Looking around, T'Mar said, "So was I. I know what you mean about this place, but we didn't exactly announce our plans, and there was a good reason for coming here today."
"Sure hope so, sir. If anything happens..."
"Then do your best," said T'Mar. "But the only way anyone would know where we are would involve surveillance. The flitters are traceable, but you have two in the air, so nobody is going to just fly in here like we did without a challenge. I checked out this place and several others like it two weeks ago, Captain. Ownership of this area was in dispute for quite some time prior to the plague, so nobody was allowed to live here. That's why the cabin is a run-down wreck. The only hostile locals might be the wildlife around the lake."
The man still seemed skeptical. T'Mar picked up a flat, hand-sized stone and handed it to him.
Patting his holstered pistol and thumbing toward the water's edge, T'Mar said, "Throw it."
The guardsman looked hard at T'Mar for only a split second. Without warning of any sort, he spun and heaved the stone at the water. The stone skipped once, twice, and then disappeared in a flash of plasma as T'Mar's shot hit it.
L'Tan's surprise was very evident on her face as T'Mar reholstered his pistol. The guardsman's comm badge asked, "Captain! What was that? We read a..."
"You read a pistol discharge," said the Captain. "Commander T'Mar wanted to impress me with his marksmanship. Things are fine down here."
Turning to T'Mar, he said, "Maybe you aren't just another desk pilot, sir, but I'm still not happy about being out here in the open with the number one target on the planet. That's all I have to say. Now I'll get on with my job."
Without further comment, he saluted and turned to return to his flitter as he contacted the two men he'd sent to investigate the cabin.
"Captain," said L'Tan.
He turned to face her. "Yes, ma'am?"
"Thank you. Don't ever think that I don't want to hear what you have to say about something. I may not follow your advice every time, but I respect it and I do want to hear it."
The Captain's face was impassive as he said, "Count on it, ma'am," then he saluted and turned to continue his journey.
L'Tan faced T'Mar and studied him for a moment as he started undressing, then she, too, began making a pile of her outer clothing. When both were down to their swimwear, T'Mar briefly examined her suit for surveillance dots.
Finding none, he said, "All set, miLady."
She looked at him questioningly and he shook his head, then they headed for the water. As they swam in neck-deep water between the noisy, cascading fountain and the waterfall, T'Mar said, "Now we can talk, I think. There could be a dot in your hair, I suppose. Or mine. They're so damned small, after all."
"Do you think the noise here will scramble things enough?"
"With today's technology, I'm not really sure, but we need to talk. This was the best I could come up with on short notice."
"Who do you think tagged us?"
"First guess: T'Bar's people, with or without T'Bar's knowledge. Second guess: anybody else."
L'Tan grinned and said, "That doesn't narrow it down much, T'Mar."
"Sorry."
"All they're going to get is daily business as usual. Are the dots the only reason for bringing me out here?"
T'Mar shook his head. "No. I don't think the flitter bomb was the act of a revolutionary, L'Tan. I think it was done to help legitimize an effort to make the present system more permanent."
She didn't act too surprised at his words. "Explain."
"We have no enemies left, L'Tan. None other than the pirates, and they're proving to be a fairly minimal problem. Within the forseeable future, things will be back to normal as much as that may be possible, given the circumstances. That will end the emergency and leave a huge supply and service engine out of a job. I don't think everyone involved truly wants to see that happen."
L'Tan draped a hand over a rock outcropping and dangled herself in the water as she faced T'Mar. She seemed to be studying his face as he reached upward to cling to a similar point of rock.
"Well?" she asked. "Are you going to tell me why you think that?"
He shook his head. "I can't give you much more than a gut feeling right now. Things just don't feel right about the bombing. Two men were called away from their posts at about the right time. No replacements during their absence. Flitter codes are changed every month, but for some reason, several were overlooked this month. I find that odd, L'Tan. I was military. You were military. Don't you find that kind of oversight just a little odd?"
L'Tan's voice held conviction. "Very odd. In my outfits or aboard my ship, it wouldn't have happened. Maybe they were in use and the recoding had to wait?"
"Two were in use, but none were unavailable for recoding. A sergeant named L'Mel has been charged with negligence, but I took a look at her record. I don't buy it, L'Tan. She isn't the kind who would screw up a routine job."
"In your opinion, that is?"
"In my opinion. She's the detail-conscious type they use for running inspections. Everything in its place, spotless, functioning perfectly..."
"I get your meaning. What are they saying? How was she supposedly negligent concerning the flitters?"
"They haven't said. They've only charged her because she was left in charge of the vehicle pool's security that day. Could be that they expect an investigation to turn up some kind of proof. Could even be that the proof will be manufactured to fit the charges."
L'Tan dangled for a moment, lifting her legs in the water until her toes barely broke the surface. Some small fish swam by, apparently unconcerned about the two huge entities in their realm.
"T'Mar, is that really all you've got to go on?"
"At present, yes."
"You brought me out here because you don't know who to trust, obviously. Who can we put on this to sniff out the facts?"
"My old outfit works with and for your people these days, L'Tan. It would have to be someone outside the system, and I've had a thought about that. A man named T'Gel. He trained me and he's retired now. I could make it look like a reunion and a cook's tour of the facilities. If we put him on staff..."
"As what? An advisory-assistant spook? What else can he do?"
"His last job was that of a cruise director. He was the entertainment coordinator aboard a ship when the plague hit. I've been thinking that we might be able to use him as a volunteer courier and general assistant around the offices."
"What's he doing now? Since the plague, I mean?"
"He organized a few hundred people to fill empty service positions and keep the machinery of civilization running in his town, then he found someone to fill his own slot."
L'Tan looked surprised. "Why did he step down? Poor health?"
"He did it because after I went there to talk to him about things, I asked him to be ready for a new job, L'Tan."
Her gaze narrowed slightly. "Without consulting me?"
T'Mar nodded. "Without consulting you. Sorry."
She grinned slightly. "Sure you are. I want to meet him first, T'Mar."
He grinned at her. "No problem. Sometime in the next few days, I'll spot his name on some list and call him for a reunion. One other thing, L'Tan... T'Gel isn't one of our strongest supporters. He let me know that he had some very mixed feelings about the military taking over essential services."
"But you still want to bring him aboard?"
"Sure do. He won't trust anyone involved. That makes him right for the job."
After spending some time swimming and sunning on the rock shelf that formed the waterfall, they headed back to the beach. The dour captain of the guards almost seemed happy as he called an end to the excursion, even though he never actually said as much aloud as he organized their departure.
As planned, T'Mar spotted T'Gel's name on a roster some days later and made a show of bringing his old instructor to the capitol for a visit. His arrival was scheduled for the end of the work week so that another outing at the lake could be arranged, this time allowing the guard captain some advance notice. The guard captain, while still openly unenthusiastic about the lake area, set up the visit.
When L'Tan, T'Mar, and T'Gel arrived at the lakeshore, they saw that it had been rearranged somewhat to suit the guard captain's beliefs about defensibility. Some of the large boulders were gone and others had been moved. Surveying the new arrangement, T'Mar looked for concealed guards in the woodline and was able to spot only a few before the guard captain approached.
"You should be able to see three of them," said the captain.
"Three it is," said T'Mar. "Bait?"
"Just obvious guards; visible, but well-protected. They'd have to be dealt with, and that would give the others -- the ones you can't see -- time to act."
T'Mar nodded and said, "Good. Tell me, Captain; do you have any opinions about politics?" T'Mar thumbed toward L'Tan. "About L'Tan in particular?"
The captain glanced at L'Tan, who was already down to her swimsuit. His eyes lingered on her briefly before he said, "Not about politics. Definitely about her, though. Fine looking woman, if I may say so, sir. She seems to know how to get things done, too. Things could be a helluva lot worse."
T'Mar grinned. "Agreed on all points. The man who is with us today may become a fixture, Captain. I want him aboard, but L'Tan wants to talk to him first. If he comes aboard, he'll be looking into a few things for us. Do you think you can help him gather some information?"
"I guess that would depend on what kind of information, sir."
"We want to know who really set that bomb, Captain. We want to know why."
The captain grunted and looked at T'Mar for a long few moments before answering, "One of my people has been blamed for letting it happen. Are you sure I'm the one to ask for help, sir?"
T'Mar asked, "The woman they're holding? I read her file, Captain. She's so tight her butt squeaks when she walks. It feels like a setup to me. If they don't come up with some solid evidence in the very near future, I'm going to tell them to let her go. L'Tan will back me on it."
With a nod, the captain said, "Thank you, but I'd like something more conclusive and I'm sure she would, too. Two people were called away by emergencies and she was left alone to cover six security boards. It almost had to be deliberate, sir. Nothing like that's ever happened in the nine years I've been here. If your friend will look into that for me..."
"Count on it, Captain. Guess I'd better get ready to swim, now."
The captain nodded and walked away as T'Mar turned to approach L'Tan and T'Gel. A few moments later, the three of them were hanging under the fountain.
"What do you think?" asked L'Tan. "Can we trust him?"
"Doesn't matter whether we can or not," said T'Mar. "We can't afford to trust anyone until we know what's happening, why, and who's behind things, but he can get T'Gel where he needs to go or show him how to get there."
Turning to T'Gel with a grin, he asked, "Well? Have you been out of the business so long that I'll actually have to tell you to be careful?"
T'Gel grinned back and asked, "Were you under the impression that I got this old by accident?"
Two weeks passed uneventfully and no further information about the bombing had surfaced. T'Mar sat next to L'Tan's desk one morning as she riffled through a small stack of documents requiring her signature.
"They let Sgt. L'Mel out yesterday," said T'Mar. "All that they've managed to prove is that she was left alone to cover a 3-man job and that the flitter code reset had to have been done by someone who's either military or ex-military. They've dissected her personal and professional lives and come up with nothing but shining examples."
L'Tan nodded. "Good. Hand me that folder on the corner of the desk, T'Mar."
T'Mar passed her the folder and said, "You know, L'Tan, that if you'd use a real office of your own instead of just having a desk out here in the open, we could probably get away with things that we can't even think about doing out here."
"Poor deprived T'Mar," said L'Tan, studying a folder that would need later attention. "You're half the reason I don't want to use an office. I can actually get some work done out here."
T'Mar said, "But all the other supreme galactic leaders I've ever met have their own offices. It just isn't natural, ma'am. What will people think?"
"Maybe they'll think I'm more than just a pretty face," said L'Tan. "Look at this pile. First thing in the morning, every damned morning. I think there must be an office somewhere that does nothing but generate paperwork for me."
T'Mar didn't give up.
"Didn't you know? We set it up about two days after we dropped the crown on your head. L'Tan, I'm clear until three. I'm desperate. Let's take an early lunch."
She laughed softly at his display of mock desperation and said, "T'Mar, I can't. You know I can't. Why do you even ask?"
"Maybe because you might say yes?" He leaned confidentially and said, "And maybe because I still harbor this all-consuming lust for you. Give in, lady. Let's go back to the room and tell everybody we're working on something top secret."
L'Tan laughed again and slapped the stack of documents in front of her.
"Sure. Like they'd believe that for a whole minute. Forget it, T'Mar. Look at this stuff. I'll be lucky to get out of here for lunch at all."
T'Mar had been idly fiddling with a sheet of paper. As L'Tan watched, the paper slowly became a tightly-folded flower that opened at the bottom. He reached to place the flower atop her desk's vid screen and noticed a mote of dust wafting gently toward the screen.
As he gathered a breath to blow the dust mote away from the monitor, he was saved the trouble by some unseen force that caused the dust mote to veer sharply downward in front of the monitor and plummet to the desk.
Odd, he thought, These screens are usually dust magnets. If you don't clean them once a week, they become opaque from all the damned dust.
L'Tan snickered and said, "T'Mar, that won't work, either. You can hold your breath as long as you want, but I'm too busy to leave."
T'Mar realized that he'd been so struck by the odd behavior of the dust mote that he'd forgotten to release his unnecessarily contained breath. He chose to use it to blast some dust from the desk upward toward the screen. All of the visible dust motes scattered around the monitor as if they were afraid to touch it.
L'Tan watched his performance with casual interest and a smile of amusement, but when he went so far as to try to redirect the flittering specs of dust toward the screen, she shook her head and went back to her documents.
She said, "Be sure to give my screen a wipe when you're through playing."
The 'incoming message' block on the screen began flashing as it always did for thirty seconds every time a new message arrived. L'Tan reached to touch the block and activate the display, but T'Mar grabbed her arm and pulled her hand toward his face, where he kissed her fingers to give the abrupt motion an obvious purpose.
He quietly said, "Get away from the desk, L'Tan. Make it look casual."
L'Tan tried to pull her hand free of his and said, "Enough is enough, T'Mar. I said no. Go make yourself busy and I'll see you at lunch."
T'Mar shook his head. "This isn't about that. Something's wrong with your vid screen. Now get up and get away from this desk as if nothing's wrong. Go to the restroom or something. Get out of this room."
She looked at him in surprise for a moment, saw that he apparently wasn't kidding in the least, and put down the documents she'd been looking through.
"Okay," she said.
When he released her hand, L'Tan got up and walked toward the restroom. T'Mar sat casually beside the desk until she'd gone through the doorway, looking around to see if anyone displayed more than a passing interest in events at L'Tan's desk.
Seeing nobody showing any particular interest, he drummed his fingers on the desk as if impatient, then stood up and walked over to the reception desk by the front doors. There was a large envelope in the inbox.
He picked up the envelope and waved it over his head as he loudly said, "It's here, people! Big news. Gather 'round."
"What's here?" asked the receptionist. "That's the..."
"Quiet," said T'Mar. "Go with me on this. I have an announcement to make."
When the nine people who made up L'Tan's office staff had gathered around the receptionist's desk, he told the receptionist to go get L'Tan.
"Can't have the boss miss this, can we? She's in the rest room. Hurry back."
The receptionist gave him an odd look, but she went in search of L'Tan. A few moments later, she and L'Tan emerged from the rest room and approached T'Mar with looks of vast skepticism.
As soon as all were gathered near him, T'Mar made as if to open the envelope, then pretended to have second thoughts.
"Wait a minute," he said, "There'd be no reason to celebrate if not for hard work by the people from the logistics office. They should be in on this. Come on, everybody, let's share the moment with them and avoid making anyone feel left out."
Taking L'Tan's arm in a grip so forceful that it startled her, he began walking to the hallway beyond the doors. With various mutterings and a lot of 'what the hell is going on?' expressions, the rest of the group followed.
L'Tan whispered, "T'Mar? What's..?"
"Quiet. Keep walking. I think there's a bomb on your desk."
L'Tan wasn't the type to ask 'Are you sure?' or say 'You can't be serious!'. She simply nodded slightly and continued walking, and the small herd of people that was her office staff followed her.
T'Mar had deliberately named the logistics office to share his 'news'. It was the office farthest from L'Tan's and had two exit doors, one of which was for shipping and receiving of goods.
When they arrived at the logistics office, T'Mar parked the group by the larger of the doors and said, "Wait here. You, too, L'Tan. I'll get everybody together."
He went to the manager's office and told the man to get all of his people together by the loading door -- no questions asked -- and to wait with them, then T'Mar called Security using the logistics manager's vid screen. A woman named L'Ban answered.
T'Mar smiled at her and said, "Hi, L'Ban. Send someone of command grade to logistics immediately. Nobody else. Just one field grade officer is to come alone. I don't want to discuss it, I just want it done. Right now. Thank you."
To avoid having to make excuses or explanations to those waiting by the door, he remained in the office. Less than five minutes passed before a unit commander named T'Dar entered the logistics office at a quick march. He looked around, spotted T'Mar in the inner office, and continued his march in T'Mar's direction.
After outlining his suspicions to a somewhat skeptical T'Dar, T'Mar added, "I could be wrong, Commander, and if I am, I'll buy you a drink later to make up for it. Better safe than sorry, right?"
T'Dar agreed, then called his offices to arrange a quiet evacuation of the building and a bomb disposal team's visit to L'Tan's office. Everybody in the logistics office was led outside and L'Tan and T'Mar were called to join the observation team when a robotic investigator was sent into L'Tan's office.
The robot first scanned L'Tan's desk thoroughly for radio, heat, and radiant emissions. Nothing unusual came of that. Using insulated grappling arms, the robot reached to touch the monitor on L'Tan's desk. Nothing happened.
The robot was then instructed to disconnect the monitor and place it within the containment module on its accompanying trailer.
When the robot disconnected the monitor's power fitting, L'Tan's office ceased to exist as anything but a blast of plasma that cleanly obliterated the top three floors of the building in a brilliant globe of glowing gases.
After a few moments of watching the gas ball expand until it dissipated, Commander T'Dar turned to T'Mar and said, "The first round is on me, I guess."
L'Tan said, "No. On me. Thanks for taking him seriously, T'Dar."
T'Dar grinned and said, "I hate to admit it now, but I didn't. I just went along with him because he works for you, ma'am, and because you were in the logistics office. I thought it might have been some kind of a test."
L'Tan shook her head and said, "I'm just glad that we store data in the basement computers. We'll be weeks behind, now. Maybe months."
Raising her voice slightly, she called the logistics manager over to the observation group, then told him, "Expect urgent requests without proper or complete paperwork for a while. I'll give you some extra people. Verify what you can and we'll validate the rest upstairs... Uh, well, we'll validate the rest from wherever we happen to be, since 'upstairs' is no longer there. Just keep things moving as best you can and speak up if you run into problems."
The man was visibly shaken, but he nodded and said, "Yes, ma'am," then almost dashed back to his group.
A few days were required to check what remained of the building for other explosives. After some cleanup and retrieval of records, three more days were necessary to establish various offices elsewhere and make them functional again.
As they wandered through the new offices,T'Mar suggested that L'Tan no longer maintain her own office in a building with others, mostly because that would lessen the number of people with access to her. L'Tan agreed, but primarily because it would lessen the risk to others.
"I've become someone's target," she said. "The others can find ways to function without me if the next attempt is successful."
News of the assassination attempt was received by the public in many ways. Some -- apparently very few -- felt that it was too bad that the attempt hadn't succeeded, but most people seemed to think that L'Tan was undeserving of an attempt on her life and they galvanized in her support.
Letters and padmails poured in and a media campaign denouncing the so-called 'revolutionaries' began that ran unchecked for months. L'Tan's supporters pointed to services restored and the general quality of life and many specifically credited L'Tan's rulership with having saved the Confederacy from consuming itself by fighting over the remnants.
Of course, they also questioned how much longer her rulership should last. An unofficial general consensus seemed to think that she'd very soon have accomplished all that she had stated as her goals in the beginning.
The worlds of the Confederation were again stable enough to run themselves with occasional or specific assistance from the governing agencies. It was generally accepted that those who had survived the virus attack had been located and that those who had not survived had been listed.
It was L'Tan, in fact, who suggested -- almost six months after the bombing of her office -- that things had progressed far enough that she could relinquish the reins of power.
She said, "People are no longer struggling to survive and searching for family members. Lately they've been clogging the courts with claims concerning pre-virus properties and civil rights lawsuits. I think the time has come for me to give up this damned throne and get back into space, T'Mar."
"Suits me," he said with a grin. "You'll have more time for me when all you're running is a starship. They pretty much run themselves, anyway."
She gave him a look of exasperation. "You're usually the first to tell me that the time isn't right yet."
He dampened a finger and held it up, then said, "Nope. The wind's changed. No argument this time, milady."
That evening they conferred with T'Bar and L'Mir in T'Bar's quarters. Both of them had reservations about L'Tan's decision, as expected, but after listening to L'Tan's opinions on the matter, L'Mir sided with L'Tan.
"She's right, T'Bar," said L'Mir. "The data we've been receiving for the last three months bears her out. The crisis is over. It's time for the people to manage themselves again."
"It's over when I say it is," said T'Bar. His words were direct, but his tone was gentle. "I hate to pull rank, but I am the power behind this throne."
He stood and paced as far as the refrigerator, where he withdrew four beers and opened them before returning to the table.
"I won't pontificate tonight," he said. "No speeches about how I've given my life to the Confederation. No blustering rhetoric. This isn't about me. It's about whether or not the people have truly recovered enough to fend for themselves." He gestured at the datapad in L'Mir's hand and added, "Statistics can lie."
L'Mir put the pad on the table and reached for her beer.
"Not these statistics," she said. "They're weighted toward the lowest common denominator of necessities. Bad news, in other words, and there hasn't been much of that for some time now, T'Bar."
T'Mar said, "At this point we'd be artificially extending the state of emergency, T'Bar. Things aren't perfect yet, but they never will be and they never were. Don't make her wear the crown until she becomes the target of real revolutionaries."
The eyes of everyone at the table locked on T'Mar for some moments.
L'Tan said, "Explain that last remark, T'Mar."
Her tone was that of an order, not a request.
"Yes," said T'Bar. "Explain that. If you're accusing me of trying to kill L'Tan..."
T'Mar held up a hand and said, "No. You didn't try to kill her. I know that. T'Gel knows that, too, and you can thank whatever you pray to for that, Admiral. He caught a man in the act of sabotage. There was a struggle. The man died. We traced him through four identities before we learned who he was."
T'Bar simply stared at T'Mar for several moments, then sat down wearily and set his beer on the table before he said, "A man named T'Vel has been missing for three months."
T'Mar nodded. "T'Vel. Guard Commander, Special Services."
L'Tan's gaze switched twice from T'Bar to T'Mar, then settled on T'Mar. L'Mir's eyes misted and tears formed quickly. She fluttered as if she might excuse herself, then simply remained in her seat with her face in her hands. T'Bar wordlessly handed her his handkerchief.
L'Tan said to T'Mar, "You didn't tell me. Why?"
"There might have been others, and at the time we didn't know that he wasn't really trying to kill anyone."
"But the bomb in my office..?"
T'Mar shook his head. "It wasn't intended to kill anyone. If you'd touched the screen, a warning message would have appeared. There'd have been plenty of time to evacuate the building."
T'Bar asked, "How did T'Vel die, T'Mar?"
"As I said, there was a struggle. I've seen the security-vid recording of that hallway, T'Bar. He pulled a knife and rushed T'Gel. T'Gel countered the move and T'Vel lost his footing at the top of the stairs. In hindsight -- or should I say, after watching the vid -- it seems likely that T'Vel was only trying to intimidate T'Gel enough to get by him and make an escape. The fall down the stairs broke his neck and drove a rib into his heart."
L'Mir succumbed to her grief. She rose quickly and ran from the room. T'Bar simply folded his arms and rested his head on them. L'Tan sat in a state of amazement at their reactions to the news.
T'Mar tapped her hand to get her attention and said, "He was L'Mir's friend and the son of one of T'Bar's oldest friends. The idea was to turn public opinion in your favor and head off the further development of a real revolutionary organization by making them look like crazies and worse."
T'Bar sat up, took a deep breath, and asked, "Now what? Where is he?"
T'Mar said, "T'Gel had him in stasis aboard a flitter almost immediately and flew to the nearest hospital, but it wasn't enough to save T'Vel. He's been in stasis ever since. At first we intended to present him and the results of our investigation as evidence. Since discovering his true identity and role, we've intended to stage a short firefight and a flitter crash, then list Commander T'Vel as a fallen hero, but I thought I should ask you about that first, Admiral."
"I... Yes, thank you. I'd like to see him, T'Mar. I think L'Mir would like to see him, too. I'll ask her."
T'Mar sipped his beer and gave T'Bar some time to recover before he said, "I need to know something first, Admiral."
T'Bar's head came up quickly and his gaze was sharp.
"Excuse me?" he asked.
"I said, I need to know something first, Admiral. I need to know that there aren't any more like T'Vel out there. We can bury him as a hero, but if any others turn up, the truth will be made public knowledge. I'm sorry that there isn't a more delicate way to put this."
Rage smoldered in T'Bar's eyes as he said in a dangerous tone, "You're threatening me?"
T'Mar shook his head. "No. It will be cause and effect, Admiral. Eight people know what really happened, not counting L'Tan, L'Mir, and you. There are three copies of the security vid and all records of our investigation. Short of staging a total military coup, you can't halt the wholesale distribution of that information. All I'm saying is that we don't want any more bombings. The artificial revolutionaries must cease their activities immediately."
L'Tan's eyes widened a bit as she looked at first T'Bar, then T'Mar.
"You mean that the bombings wouldn't have stopped when I left office?"
T'Mar shook his head slightly and said, "No, they wouldn't have. You were never the target, L'Tan. The purpose was to extend the state of emergency with popular support. It was a way to guarantee that the militaries wouldn't be pared to the bone when the government shifted back to the Council."
As L'Tan's eyes fell on him, T'Bar said, "I'm sorry, L'Tan, but your friend is essentially correct. We simply cannot allow the militaries to be legislated out of existence."
"Fat chance of that," said T'Mar. "We've by no means finished with the pirate worlds. They were untouched by the plague and we still haven't recovered a lot of our own military hardware that they grabbed while they could. Estimates are still what..? Thirty percent of standing armament of twenty worlds? They have that military technology now, Admiral. We will be hearing from them and we'd better be ready when they come calling. I don't think the Council will be so stupid as to let the militaries relax any time soon."
He shrugged and added, "And if they are, you can work around them again. So, do we have a deal? L'Tan is to be allowed to take off the crown and will be issued her starship. The revolutionaries will cease to exist and the civilian government will be restored. That's all we want in exchange for our silence."
T'Bar sat glaring at T'Mar for some time before he said, "And if I don't, the revolutionaries will probably get me in the near future, won't they?"
"I can almost guarantee it, Admiral. All of the investigators involved are from my old outfit, led by T'Gel. You know the type, sir. Hard-core and hard to stop. The kind who can work alone under the worst conditions imaginable. If they could be bought off or frightened off, someone would have managed it before now. You'd have to be exceedingly lucky to survive very long."
T'Bar pursed his lips and nodded slightly, then said, "Nobody has ever been that lucky. I suppose we have a deal, T'Mar."
Two weeks later, L'Tan's decommissioning speech was broadcast to all the worlds of the Confederation. Her closing remark was, "Behave yourselves and help each other. As I promised I would back when everything was in shambles, I now return the governing of the Confederation to the Council."
She folded her notes in the deafening silence of the Council Great Hall and prepared to leave the podium when the first cheer went up. More cheers followed, but they weren't cheers of gladness that L'Tan was finally out of office. They were cheers for her, and they weren't what she'd expected.
Tears came to her eyes and blurred her vision. T'Mar stepped from the sidelines and handed L'Tan one of the drink napkins so she could dry her eyes. The assembly sent up another cheer as he stepped up beside her.
"Check it out," said a grinning T'Mar as he waved to the crowd. "Do they think I'm a somebody, or were they just getting a second wind?"
L'Tan chuckled through her tears and said, "Please get me off this stage. My knees aren't working right."
As he led her off the stage, T'Mar glanced down and said, "Your knees look as fine as ever to me, lady. How about taking me home with you tonight?"
End Stardancer
Book Information
This book Copyright © 2001 by Ed Howdershelt. All rights reserved.
CAUTION: Some tasteful erotica late in the story.
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