Part 60 (1/2)
”Not enough to worry about,” Kosta a.s.sured her, swiveling his chair around to another station. ”All that's back there is long-term supplies and crew living quarters. We can afford to lose those.”
”I was thinking more about general station integrity,” Chandris said. ”There are only so many blast doors and supporting bulkheads in a place like this, you know.”
”We'll be fine,” Kosta insisted. ”Hear that?”
”Hear what?”
”The gamma sparking,” he said. ”It's quieter.”
Chandris paused, listening. He was right: the noise intensity had definitely gone down. ”So we're definitely pulling away?”
”Looks like it,” Kosta said, leaning close to one of the displays. ”Not all that fast, really, but the difference in speed vectors is definitely on our side now. And of course, the upward b.u.mp in speed means we're also moving into a slightly higher solar orbit.”
”That's going to make it a bit tricky to 'pult Angelma.s.s out of here, isn't it?” Chandris pointed out. ”If it's in a lower orbit than we are?”
”I think we can count on it to figure things out and change course after us,” Kosta said grimly. ”The point is that we've now bought ourselves some extra breathing s.p.a.ce to get the reprogramming done. So that, hopefully, when it does come after us we'll be ready.”
”Right,” Chandris said, swiveling around toward a data display. ”Let's hold onto that thought, shall we?”
Because there was still one tiny little problem that Kosta didn't seem to have thought about yet. Still, with any luck, she would have that one covered by the time it occurred to him.
Pulling up another of the station's operations manuals, she got to work.
”Ten minutes to catapult, Commodore,” Campbell's voice came over the speaker. ”We're ready to move into position.”
”Very good,” Telthorst called before Lles.h.i.+ could answer, pus.h.i.+ng back his chair and standing up. ”Commodore Lles.h.i.+, perhaps you'd like to invite our guests to join us on the command deck.”
Lles.h.i.+ looked down the table at Forsythe. ”Unauthorized civilians-”
”Yes, yes, I know the drill,” Telthorst cut him off impatiently. ”But High Senator Forsythe is hardly in the same cla.s.s as someone's girlfriend who wants to be shown around the s.h.i.+p, now, is he?”
He gave Forsythe a hard look. ”Besides, a tour might help convince him that these scare tactics of his are both pointless and ridiculous.”
”They're not scare tactics,” Forsythe insisted. ”I've offered to turn over all the data we have on Angelma.s.s-”
”I never liked ghost stories as a child, High Senator,” Telthorst cut him off contemptuously. ”I like them even less now that I'm an adult. We're going to Angelma.s.s; and you're going with us to watch how we deal with traitors to the Pax. You might find it instructive.”
He gestured to the guards at the doorway. ”Escort High Senator Forsythe and his aide to the command deck. On your feet, High Senator.”
”A favor if I may, Commodore,” Forsythe said, his eyes on Lles.h.i.+ as he slowly stood up. ”My aide Ronyon had a bad panic reaction to Angelma.s.s the last time we were in the area. Somehow, I think, he was able to sense what was out there. There's no reason to put him through that again. I'd like to request that he and my pilot be allowed to leave.”
”Absolutely not,” Telthorst said firmly as the two guards moved into escort position behind Forsythe. ”No one leaves this s.h.i.+p until we have your signature on the surrender papers.”
Forsythe's eyes hadn't left Lles.h.i.+'s face. ”Commodore?”
Deliberately, Lles.h.i.+ stood up, looking at each of the two guards in turn. In his own mind, Telthorst clearly already considered himself the commander of the Komitadji.
It was high time he was disabused of that notion.
”Escort High Senator Forsythe and his aide to his shuttle,” he ordered the guards. ”They'll be leaving the Komitadji before we catapult.”Telthorst spun to face him, his mouth dropping open. ”What in-?””I trust you'll make yourself available to continue this conversation when we return, High Senator?”
Lles.h.i.+ added.
Forsythe lowered his head briefly in a slight bow. ”Of course, Commodore. Thank you.”
Lles.h.i.+ nodded back. ”Lieutenant, you have your orders.”
”Yes, sir,” the senior of the two guards said, snapping a salute. ”This way, High Senator.”
The group circled the table and walked out the door, Forsythe looking grave, Ronyon merely looking
troubled and a little confused. ”That was foolish, Commodore,” Telthorst said as the door slid shut on them, his voice rigid as an icicle. ”Criminally foolish. You do not let a senior enemy official simply walk away when you have him in your hands.”
Lles.h.i.+ looked up at the hidden speaker. ”Time check, Mr. Campbell?”
”Seven minutes to catapult, sir,” Campbell's voice came.
”I presume you've run an a.n.a.lysis on Angelma.s.s's...o...b..t?”
”Yes, sir, but it's inconclusive,” the other said. ”We don't have enough of a data baseline to either
confirm or refute Forsythe's claim that it's changing speed and orbit. If it is, though, it certainly can't be doing it very fast.”
”So it should be safe for us out there?”
”Yes, sir,” Campbell a.s.sured him. ”We'll be well within radiation distance tolerances.”
”Good,” Lles.h.i.+ said. ”Then move the Komitadji into catapult position. I'll be right there.”He turned to Telthorst. ”And as for holding onto enemy officials, Mr. Telthorst,” he added quietly, ”this s.h.i.+p is manned by soldiers, not terrorists. We do not take hostages.”
”You'll live to regret this, Commodore,” Telthorst hissed.
”Yes,” Lles.h.i.+ murmured, turning his back on the little man and striding toward the door. ”I'm sure I will.”
”Ha!” Chandris called, slapping her hand on the edge of the control panel in triumph. ”Okay. I got
it.”
”Got what?” Kosta called from beside her.
”How we're going to 'pult Angelma.s.s without getting fried in the process,” she said, her throat aching with all the shouting she'd been doing. The gamma sparks had subsided now from painful to merely annoying, but she still had to speak loudly to be heard over them. ”There's a remote-control setting here we can use to trigger the catapult. That way we can be out in the Gazelle, as far away as we have to be-”
”Don't bother.”
”What?” She turned to look at him.