Part 78 (2/2)
Chapter Seventeen.
FSP heavy cruiser Zaid-Dayan ”I do not like this.” Arly tapped her fingers on the edge of the command console. One of its screens displayed the local news channel. ”How could anyone think Sa.s.sinak would murder an admiral?”
The senior officers, including Major Currald, were ranged around her while the bridge crew pretended to pay strict attention to their monitors.
”Civilians.” Bures looked almost as disgusted as she felt. ”You know, if they're so scared of Fleet that they won't let us use our own shuttles up and down, then they probably think we're all born with blood in our mouths and fangs down to here.” He gestured at his chin. ”Long pointed ones. We go around covered with weapons, just looking for a chance to kill someone.”
”News said the guy might not have been Coromell after all,” said Mayerd who had come up to the bridge to watch the news with them. ”Not that that helps. Good thing we don't have trouble in the neighborhood. It'd be worse if we had action coming.”
Arly frowned at her. Doctors were the next thing to civilian, as far as she was concerned. ”You know what she said. She thought there might be trouble ...”
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”Like what? An invasion of mysterious green-tentacled slime monsters? We're at the center of as big a volume of peaceful s.p.a.ce as anyone's ever known. Barring a few planet pirates, and I'm not minimizing that. But the last big stuff was decades back. Even the Seti haven't dared Fleet reprisals since the Tonagai Reef encounters. They may be gamblers, but they aren't stupid. I suppose, if the Paraden got all their pirate buddies to come blowing into FedCentral at once, they might cause us trouble, but they're not stupid either. They need a fat, peaceful culture to prey on. A shark has no advantages in a school of sharks.”
Arly and Bures had crossed glances above Mayerd. Arly had to admit she had never considered a whole pirate fleet. They just didn't operate that way. Two or three raiders at once, more only in defense of an illegal installation. But now, with Sa.s.sinak lost somewhere below, the whole weight of the s.h.i.+p rested on her shoulders. She wished Ford would show up from wherever he'd been. She wished Sa.s.sinak would come back. Blast that admiral, she thought. Coromell, or whoever it had been, luring her away. And why? The trial? To have the Zaid-Dayan helpless?
The Fleet comline blinked at her, and she put the b.u.t.ton in her ear. ”Lieutenant Commander Arly, acting captain of Zaid-Dayan.”
”Arly, it's Lunzie. Do you recognize my voice?”
Of course she did. She'd enjoyed meeting Sa.s.sinak's astonis.h.i.+ng young ancestor. But why was Lunzie calling on the Fleet line? ”Yes. Why?”
”You need to know I'm who I say I am. I'm on FedCentral. I can't tell you where.”
Arly's heart skipped a beat. Could she be with the captain? Were they in hiding?
”Sa.s.s-Commander Sa.s.sinak?” She heard the rough edge to her own voice, and hoped it would not carry.
”We don't know. Arly, the real Admiral Coromell wants to speak to you. I know he's the real Coromell because I knew him years ago. Before my last session of coldsleep. Do you trust me?”
Something in the voice sounded different; something .
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had changed since Arly had said goodbye as Lunzie left the s.h.i.+p back at Sector HQ. Arly considered. Lunzie sounded more mature, more confident. Did that matter? Did it mean anything at all? And even if she didn't trust Lunzie, she still wanted to hear what this mysterious Coromell had to say. She gestured to Bures, who bent close, and tapped out a message on her console: get Flag Officer Directory. Bures nodded. Arly spoke, hoping her voice sounded calm.
”I believe you're Lunzie if that's what you mean.”
”It's not, but it'll do. Here he is.”
A silence, then a deep voice that certainly had the expectation of command.
”This is Admiral Coromell. You're Lieutenant Commander Arly?”
”Yes, sir.”
Bures handed her the Directory, and she flipped through it. Coromell: tall, silver-haired, bright blue eyes. A handsome man, even approaching old age. He had probably been very handsome when Lunzie knew him before. She wondered whether they'd had anything going, and forced herself to listen to him.
”As you no doubt realize, the situation is critical. Your captain has disappeared and the local law enforcement agencies were, until a few hours ago, convinced that she had killed me. I've been unable to find out what's going on, and some of my own staff have vanished as well.”
”Sir, I thought the admiral was hunting over on Six. That's what Commander Sa.s.sinak was told.”
”I was. I had an urgent message to return, and my return was complicated by Lunzie's ...”
A flas.h.i.+ng light on the console yanked Arly's attention away from Coromell; the Ssli biolink alarm. Could she interrupt an admiral?
”Excuse me, sir,” she said, as firmly as she could. ”Our Ssli has a critical message.”
He didn't quite snort, but the sound he made conveyed irritation barely withheld. ”Check it, then.”
Arly touched the controls and the Ssli's message began scrolling across the console's upper screen.
”Enemy approaching. Seti fleet entering system, down- 270.
McCajfrey and Moon warping from FTL, expecting a.s.sistance in evading detection and system defenses.”
Her hands trembled as she acknowledged that much. The message continued with details of the incoming menace. Number of s.h.i.+ps, ma.s.s, weapons as known, probable crew and troop levels.
Bures, craning his neck to read this sideways, let out a long, low whistle. Mayerd, then Currald, joined him, their faces paling as they watched the long lists grow.
”Commander Arly?” That was the admiral, impatient of the long silence.
Ar!y answered, surprised that her voice was steadier than her hands.
”Sir, our Ssli reports an incoming Seti fleet, definitely hostile.” She heard a gasp, but did not stop. ”Apparently they've got Insystem help that's supposed to disable some of the system defenses. They're timed to arrive here during the Grand Council session. There's some kind of coup planned.” The display had stopped. She tapped in a question to the Ssli, asking for the source of all this.
”But how do they know?” Coromell asked. The answer came up on the screen even as he asked.
”Sir, our Ssli says there's a Ssli larva, captive, on the Seti flags.h.i.+p, and a Fleet officer . . . Dupaynil.” Her own surprise carried to him.
”Who s that?”
”A Fleet Security officer a.s.signed to us a few months ago. Then he was transferred, I think to go look up something in Seti s.p.a.ce.”
”Which he quite evidently found. Well, Commander, you have my permission to leave orbit and make life difficult for those Seti s.h.i.+ps.”
She opened her mouth to ask what about Sa.s.sinak and realized the futility. Even if the captain had been at the shuttle port, they couldn't have waited for her. Not knowing where she was, they certainly couldn't delay.
”Yes, sir,” she said. Then, ”Request permission to drop a shuttle and pilot in case Commander Sa.s.sinak shows up. She may need it.”
”Granted,” he said.
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