Part 66 (1/2)
Lunzie felt cold all over, then a white-hot rage. ”It's . . . it's murder. Intentional murder!”
”Not under the laws of FSP at the time. Or even now. We couldn't prove it. I say 'we,' but you know I mean those in Diplo's government at the time. Anyway, when the s.h.i.+ps came again, they found the survivors; the women, the children, and a few young men who had been children in the Long Winter. The first s.h.i.+p down affected not to know that anything had happened. To be surprised! But one of the Company reps on the second s.h.i.+p got drunk and let some of this out.”
She could think of nothing adequate to say. Luckily he didn't seem to expect anything. After a few moments, he went back to family matters, telling her of his hopes for them. Gradually her mind quieted. By the time they parted, she carried away another memory as sweet as her first. It had no longer seemed perverse to have an old man's hands touching her, an old man's love still urgent after all those years.
Chapter Ten.
FSP Escort Claw Dupaynil led the way back toward the bridge, walking steadily and slowly. The young officer would still be wondering, might still wish he had Dupaynil under guard. Except that there was no guard. He would feel safer with Dupaynil in front of him, calm and unhurried. At the landing outside the bridge, Dupaynil said over his shoulder, ”If you don't mind, I'd like to finish disabling the pod locks on pod three.”
”Who's in there?”
”Your weapons tech. So far as I know, all the crew were in this with Ollery. They're all dangerous, but this one particularly so.”
Pauls frowned. ”Suppose we run into something we need to fight?”
”We'd better not. We can't trust him. I don't think he can get out by himself. At least not without your help. But he and Sins had the best chance of figuring out what I did and undoing it, even with the minima] toolkits standard in pods.”
”You may be right, but, look, I want to log at least some of this first. And I want you with me.”
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Dupaynil shrugged and moved onto the bridge. He thought it would be hours before the weapons tech could possibly get out. At the moment, gaining Panis's confidence took precedence. They settled in uneasy silence, Panis in the command seat and Dupaynil in the one in which he'd first seen the master mate.
He said nothing while Panis made a formal entry in die s.h.i.+p's computer, stating the date and time that he a.s.sumed command, and the code under which he would file a complete report. The computer's response to change of command, Dupaynil noticed, was to recheck Panis's retinal scans, palmprint, and voiceprint against its memory of him. Dupaynil would have had a hard time taking over if something had happened to Panis. He asked about that.
”Not as s.h.i.+p commander, no sir. You might have convinced it that you were a disaster survivor. You were logged in as a legitimate pa.s.senger. But you wouldn't have been given access to secure files or allowed to make any course changes. It would've given you lifesupport access: water, food, kept the main compartments aired up. That's all. And the s.h.i.+p would have launched an automatic distress signal when it dropped out of FTL.”
”I see. There are files in the computer, Captain, which will provide evidence needed to confirm Ollery's treachery.”
Dupaynil noticed that Panis reacted to the use of his new t.i.tle with a minute straightening; a good sign. He did not mention that he had penetrated some of the computer's secure files already. Maintenance wasn't what he would call secure. Panis glanced over.
”I suppose you'd like me to access them. Although I'd think that would be a matter for Fleet Security.” Dupaynil said nothing and waited. Panis suddenly grimaced. ”Of course. You are Fleet Security, at least part of it. Or so you say.” Wariness became him. He seemed to mature almost visibly as Dupaynil watched.
”Yes, I am. On the other hand, since I am the officer involved, the one who killed Ollery, you have a natural 158.
reluctance to let me meddle in the files, just in case. Right?”
”Right.” Panis shook his head. ”And I thought I was lucky to be yanked off a battle platform where I was one of a hundred Jigs, to be executive officer on an escort! Maybe something will happen, I said.”
”Something did.” Dupaynil grinned at him, the easy smile that had won over more than one who had had suspicions of him. ”And you survived, acquitted yourself well. I a.s.sure you, if you can bring in the evidence that shows just where the agents of piracy are in Fleet, you'll have made your mark.”
”Piracy!” Panis started to say more, then held up his hand. ”No, not this moment. Let me log the first of it, and we'll get into that later.”
This was a s.h.i.+p's captain speaking, however inexperienced. Dupaynil nodded and waited. The Jig's verbal report was surprisingly orderly and concise for someone who had narrowly escaped death and still had ripening bruises on his face. Dupaynil's opinion of him went up another two notches, and then a third when Panis waved him over to the command input station.
”I'd like your report, too, sir. Lieutenant Commander Dupaynil, taken aboard Clow on resupply station 64, Fleet Standard dating . . . Computer?” The computer checked the date and time, and flashed it on Pani's screen. ”Right! 23.05.34.0247. Transfer from the cruiser Zaid-Dayan, Commander Sa.s.sinak commanding, with orders from Inspector-General Parchandri to proceed to Seti s.p.a.ce on a secret mission. Is that right, sir?”
”Right,” said Dupaynil. Was this the time to mention that he thought those orders were iaked? Probably not. At least, not without thinking about it a bit more. He didn't think Sa.s.sinak had intended to tangle him with planet pirates or their allies. If he said his orders were faked, that would drag her into it.
”Then if you'll give your report, Commander,” and Panis handed him the microphone.
Carefully, trying to think ahead to the implications of his report, Dupaynil told how his suspicions had been
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aroused by the length of time the crew had been together and the captain's att.i.tude.
”Escort and patrol crews are never left unshuffled for more than one 24 month tour,” he said. ”Precisely because these s.h.i.+ps are hard to track and very dangerous, and small enough for one or two mutineers to take over. Five years without a shuffle is simply impossible. Someone in Personnel had to be in the plot, to cover the records.” He went on to tell about setting some surveillance taps and hearing the senior mate and captain discuss his murder. ”They said enough about their contacts in both Fleet and certain politically powerful families to convince me that information we've been seeking for years could well be on this s.h.i.+p. Agents aren't supposed to write things down, but they all do it. Names, dates, places to meet, codes: no one can remember all of it. Either in hardcopy or in die computer. And they knew it, because they were afraid I'd get access to those files.” He finished with a brief account of his sabotage of the escape pods, and his actions during and after the drill.
”Do you have any evidence now to support these allegations?” asked Panis.
”I have the recording from that audio tap. There may be data in the other taps. I haven't had time to look at diem.”
”I'd like to hear what you have,” Panis said.
”It's in my cabin.” At Panis's expression, Dupaynil shrugged. ”Either I would make it through alive to retrieve it or I'd be dead and it might, just might, survive me. Not on my body, which they'd search. May I get it for you?”
He could see uncertainty and sympathized. Panis had had a lot to adjust to in less than an hour. And to him, Dupaynil was still a stranger, hardly to be trusted. But he made the decision and nodded permission. Dupaynil left die bridge quickly, noting that all die part.i.tions were retracted. He went direcdy to his cabin, retrieved die data cube, and returned. Panis was waiting, facing die bridge hatch. Without saying anything, Dupaynil slipped die cube into a player and turned it on. As it 160.
played, Panis's expression changed through suspicion to surprise to, at the end, anger.
”b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!” he said, when the sound ceased and Dupaynil picked up the cube again. ”I knew they didn't like you, but I never thought . . . And then to be in league with planet pirates! Who's that Lady Luisa they were talking about?”
”Luisa Paraden. Aunt, by the way, of the Randolph Paraden who was expelled from the Academy because Commander Sa.s.sinak proved he was involved in theft, s.e.xual harra.s.sment, and racial discrimination against Wefts. They were cadets at the same time.”
”I never heard that.”