Part 67 (1/2)

”Which I'm finding.” Dupaynil poured for both of them with a flourish. ”The mate kept a little book. Genuine pulp paper, if you can believe that. I'm not sure what all the entries mean . . . yet. . . but I doubt very much they're innocent. Ollery's personal kit had items far out of line for his Fleet salary, not to mention that nonissue set of duelling pistols. We're lucky he didn't blow a hole in you with one of those.”

”You sound like a mosquito in a bloodbank,” Panis grumbled. ”Fairly gloating over all the data you might Sid.”

”I am,” Dupaynil agreed. ”You're quite right; even without this,” and he raised his gla.s.s, ”I'd be drunk with delight at the possibilities. Do you have any idea how hard we normally work for each little smidgen of information? How many times we have to check and recheck it? The hours we burn out our eyes trying to find correlations even computers can't see?”

”My heart bleeds,” said Panis, his mouth twitching.

”And you're only a Jig. Mulvaney's Ghost, but you're going to make one formidable commodore.”

”If I survive. I suppose you'll want to tap into the computer tomorrow?”

”With your permission.” Dupaynil sketched a bow from his seat. ”We have to hope they were complacent enough to have only simple safeguards on the ticklish files. If Ollery thought to have them self-destruct if a new officer took command ...”

Panis paled. ”I hadn't thought of that.”

”1 had. But then I thought of Ollery. That kind of smugness never antic.i.p.ates its own fall. Besides, you had to log a command change. It was regulation.”

”Which you always follow.” Panis let that lie, a challenge of sorts.

Dupaynil wondered what he was driving at, precisely. They'd worked well together so for. The younger man had seemed to enjoy his banter. But he reminded himself that he did not really know Panis. He let his fece show the fatigue he felt, and sag into its age and his usually-hidden cynicism.

”If you mean Security doesn't always follow the letter of regulations, then you're right. I freely admit that planting taps on this s.h.i.+p was both against regulations and discourteous. Under the circ.u.mstances . . .” Dupaynil spread his hands in resignation to the inevitable.

Panis flushed but pursued the issue. ”Not that so much. You had reasons for suspicion that I didn't know. Anyway it saved our lives. But I'd heard about Commander Sa.s.sinak, that she didn't follow regulations as often as not. If this is some ploy of hers?”

Blast. The boy was too smart. He'd seen through the screen. Dupaynil let the worry he felt edge his voice.

”Who'd you hear that from?”

”Admiral Spirak. He captained the battle platform I v .”

”Spirak!” Relief and contempt mixed gave that more force than he'd intended. Dupaynil lowered his voice and kept it even. ”Panis, your admiral is the last person who should complain of someone else's lack of respect for regulations. I won't tell you why he's still spouting venom about Sa.s.sinak, even though she saved his ca- 166.

reer once. Gossip was Ollery's specialty. But if you ever wondered why he's got only two stars at his age and why he's commanding Fleet's only nonoperational battle platform, there's a d.a.m.n good reason. I've seen Commander Sa.s.sinak's files, and it's true she doesn't always fight an engagement by the book. But she's come out clean from encounters that cost other commanders s.h.i.+ps. The only regulations she bends are those that interfere with accomplis.h.i.+ng the mission. She's fer more a stickler for s.h.i.+p discipline than anyone on this s.h.i.+p was.”

Now Panis looked as if he'd been dipped in boiling water.

”Sorry, sir. But he'd said if I ever did end up serving with one of her officers, look out. That she had a following, but more loyal to her than to Fleet.”

”I don't suppose he told you about the promotion party he gave himself? And n.o.body came? It's useless to tell you, Panis. Youll have to decide for yourself. She's popular, but she's also smart and a good commander. As for regulations, I felt that my duties ent.i.tled me to bend a few on her s.h.i.+p and she straightened me out in short order.”

”What'd you do? Put a tap on her?*

Dupaynil gave that a hard look, and Panis suddenly realized what that could mean and turned even redder than before.

”I didn't mean . . . That's not what ...”

”Good.” Dupaynil gave no ground with that tone. ”I did attempt to monitor some communications traffic without giving her proper notice. We were looking for a saboteur, as I told you. I thought a little snooping along the corridors, in the crew's gym, and so on, wouldn't hurt. She felt differently.” That this was only distantly related to what had really happened bothered him not at all. She had been angry. He had put in surveillance devices without her permission. That much was true. ”I don't consider myself one of Commander Sa.s.sinak's officers,” Dupaynil went on. ”My a.s.signment to her s.h.i.+p was temporary duty only, a special mission to unearth this saboteur.”

167.

He could not tell if this satisfied Panis, and he didn't really care. He had liked the younger officer but suggestive questions about Sa.s.sinak rubbed him the wrong way. Why? He wasn't sure. He had not been tempted to involve himself with her. Her relations.h.i.+p with Ford was clear enough. So why did he feel such rage when someone criticized? It was worth thinking over later, when they'd found or not found the evidence he needed, and decided what to do with it.

Dupaynil's excursions into the s.h.i.+p's computers yielded all he could have wished for. He knew his satisfaction showed. He insisted on sharing his findings with Panis so the younger officer would know why.

”Besides,” he said, ”if someone scrags me successfully, you'll still have a chance to break up the conspiracy. ”

”How?” Panis looked up from the hardcopy of one of the more startling files, and tapped it with his finger. ”If all these people are really part of it, then Fleet itself is hopeless.”

”Not at all.” Dupaynil put his fingertips together. ”Do you know how many officers Fleet has? This is less than five percent. Your reaction is as dangerous as they are. If you a.s.sume that five percent rotten means the whole thing's rotten, then you've done their work for them.”

”I hadn't thought of it that way.”

”No. Most people don't. But let's be very glad we have to evade only five percent. And let's figure out how to get this information back to some of the 95% who aren't involved in it.”

Panis had an odd expression on his face. ”I'm not really ... 1 mean, my skills in navigation are only average. And the computer in this s.h.i.+p holds only a limited number of plots.”

”Plots?”

”Pre-programmed courses between charted points. I'm not sure I could drop us out of FTL, and then get us somewhere else that's not in the computer.”

Dupaynil had a.s.sumed that all s.h.i.+p's officers were 168.

competent in navigation. He opened his mouth to ask what was Panis's problem, and shut it again. He wasn't able to pilot the s.h.i.+p, or even maintain the environmental system without Panis's instructions, so why should he expect everything of a young Jig?

”Does this mean we're stuck with the course and destination Ollery put in?” A worse thought erupted into his mind with the force of an explosion. ”Do we even know where we're going?”

”Yes, we do. The computer's perfectly willing to tell me that. We're headed for Seti s.p.a.ce, just as your orders specified.” Panis frowned. ”Where did you think we might be going?”

”It suddenly occurred to me that Ollery might never have entered that course, or might have changed it, since he was planning to kill me. Seti s.p.a.ce! I don't know whether to laugh or cry,” Dupaynil said. ”a.s.suming my orders were faked, was that chosen as a random destination, or for some reason?”

Panis fiddled with his seat controls and glanced at something on the command screen next to him.