Flagship (11 page)

They emerged from the Baxter Wormhole three light-years from the outermost planet of the Malagori system.

Within an hour Moyer and the others had rendezvoused with them.

Cole, who seemed to find himself on the bridge more and more often, much as he disliked it, turned to Jacovic. "There's no way we can see what they've got defending Malagori V from here, and if we get c lose enough to see them, we're close enough for them to see us. I don't know who's better equipped to program a probe, Christine or Mr. Odom, but have one of them do it. We want it to get close enough to see what's there and transmit the information back to us, and then I want it to plunge into Malagori."

"Malagori?" repeated the Teroni. "You mean the star, not the planet?"

"Right. Probably they'll blow it apart first, but if not, let's not give them a chance to capture it and see what it's learned and where it's sent that information."

"I think that Mr. Odom would be best," said Jacovic.

"Okay, but just to be on the safe side have him work in concert with Christine so the signal can't be read by anyone but us," said Cole. "Damn! I wish Mr. Briggs was with us. I have a feeling I'm going to work Christine around the clock, and I need her to be sharp."

"I might be able to help in that regard," said Sharon's voice. "Oh?" said Cole.

"Meloctin—the Lodinite who just joined the crew—is a computer and communications expert. He's passed muster on every psyche test I could give him, always remembering that he
is
a Lodinite and their psychologies are different from ours. I think Christine could show him the codes and everything else he'd need to know in maybe an hour, and then he could spell her when she gets too tired to stay alert."

"If you vouch for him, that's good enough for me," said Cole.

"I vouch for him
conditionally."

"That'll do. Once Christine's through with the probe, have her show him whatever it is he has to learn."

It took a little longer than Cole had anticipated to program the probe, but after forty minutes it was launched. It hit light speed in another minute, and after a few more minutes it began sending back images.

"Damn!" muttered Cole, looking at the holographic image. "That's a Class M ship."

"Nothing else, though," noted Vladimir Sokolov, who had joined Cole on the bridge until he had to return to his own ship. "Just the one."

"That one has more firepower than the
Teddy R
and thirty of our Class H and Class J ships combined," said Cole. "We can't square off against it. And that's one of the newer ones. I don't know if we have anything that can pierce its defenses."

The image vanished.

"What happened?" asked Cole. "Did they shoot it down?"

"No, sir," said Mustapha Odom's voice. "It made its transmission and is now plunging into the star at many multiples of light speed."

"All right," said Cole. "Thank you, Mr. Odom."

"Sir?" said Domak.

"Yes."

"I've pinpointed some neutrino activity on the surface of Malagori V," said the Polonoi. "I think it has to be the complex where they're keeping the Octopus and the others."

"Unless they've built some settlements that we don't know anything about," said Sokolov.

"I don't think so," said Cole. "If there's a new settlement, then Domak should be picking up two sets of neutrino activity." He turned to the Polonoi. "Keep checking, but if you don't find any more, we're going to have to assume you've found the prisoners."

"Any instructions, sir?" asked Jacovic.

Cole shook his head. "Let's give Domak half an hour to make absolutely sure there's no other activity on the surface."

"Won't the Navy ship be aware that we're nearby, sir?" asked Sokolov. "I mean, they couldn't have missed the probe."

"They know it," said Cole.

Sokolov frowned. "Then—"

"Relax, Vladimir," Cole interrupted him. "They're not coming after us."

"Why not, sir?" asked Domak.

"Because all they saw is the probe. They don't know how many ships we've got. They're just one—a huge, powerful one, to be sure, but just one—and they're not going to leave the planet to go hunting for us when they don't know where or how many we are."

Christine Mboya appeared on the bridge.

"Nice job on the probe," said Cole by way of greeting.

"It was mostly Mr. Odom's doing, sir," she replied. "I knew the codes, but he knew how to program the probe."

"Okay, I take it back," said Cole. She seemed flustered. "I was kidding, Lieutenant."

"Oh, sir," she said without smiling.

"Ask Meloctin—that's the new Lodinite—to come up to the bridge, and when he gets here I want you and Domak to show him everything he needs to know to work your station once you're relieved."

"Yes, sir," she replied.

"Sir?" said Sokolov.

"Yes?"

"To get back to what you were discussing with Lieutenant Domak, if they won't leave orbit, how the devil are we going to get past them to rescue the prisoners?"

"We
aren't," said Cole. "Val is."

"First bright thing you've said all month," said Val as her image appeared over Christine's workstation.

"Thanks for that vote of confidence," replied Cole dryly.

"So how are we going to do this?" continued Val.

"I'm working on it."

"Well, you'd better work fast," she replied. "No sense getting there after the prisoners are gone."

"I thought you didn't care about the Octopus."

"I don't. But I care about killing the guys who are holding him."

"You missed your calling in life," said Cole.

"Yeah?"

"You should have been a pacifist."

"Well, that's a change," said Val. "Briggs and Sokolov keep telling me I should have been a figure model, and the Duke is always trying to hire me as his pit boss."

"Just go get your beauty sleep," said Cole. "I'll let you know when we need you."

"I'm not sleepy."

"If we don't go into action for another eight or ten hours, I want
someone
to be awake and alert, damn it!"

"Keep your shirt on," said Val, her image beginning to fade. "I'll be ready."

The image vanished completely, and Cole turned to Sokolov. "She will, you know."

"I know, sir." Sokolov paused awkwardly. "Perhaps, sir, you're now ready to tell me how we're going to rescue the Octopus and his men?"

"Well, we're not going to meet the Navy ship head-on, that's for sure," said Cole.

"Then how—?"

"I'm working on it."

Cole walked over to Wxakgini, who sat high above the floor in his permanent station, half hammock and half cocoon, his eyes closed, his brain tied in to the navigational computer's brain, using its eyes instead of his own.

"Pilot, I need to talk to you."

"I am right here," was Wxakgini's response.

"Are there any wormholes within the Malagori system," asked Cole, "and more specifically, between the fifth and sixth planets?"

"One."

"Where does it lead?"

"It will let you out by the Benadotti system about twenty-nine light-years from here."

"That should do it," said Cole. He turned to Domak. "How many moons around Malagori VIII and IX?"

"Malagori VIII has eleven moons, and Malagori IX has six," answered the Polonoi.

"Okay. Jacovic, what have we got in the way of small craft?"

"There are the four shuttles, sir," said the Teroni, "plus Mr. Sokolov's ship."

"And in space?"

"Mr. Moyer, Mr. Perez, Mr. Flores—and Mr. Briggs in the Lodinite ship. He seems to have made the jump, too.

"Which would you say is the least hospitable of the seventeen moons on Malagori VIII and IX?" asked Cole.

"I would say the fourth moon of Malagori VIII, sir," replied Jacovic. "Methane atmosphere, uneven surface covered by jagged crystal, almost ninety-five degrees below zero Centigrade, frequent massive windstorms of hurricane strength ..."

"That'll do, Jacovic," said Cole. "I accept your analysis." He began walking across the bridge toward the airlift. "I'll be in the mess hall."

He descended to the proper level, entered the mess hall, and walked to his usual table. He was not surprised to find Sharon there waiting for him.

"May I take your order?" asked the table.

"Coffee and cheesecake."

"Thank you."

"Cheesecake?" said Sharon. "I thought you were on a diet."

"If we die in the next fifteen or twenty hours, no one will care," answered Cole. "And if not, I'm celebrating our victory a little early."

"I take it you have a plan."

"I do."

"I hope it doesn't involve confronting that Navy ship."

"I hope so too," he said with a smile.

She relaxed noticeably.
"That's
a relief."

"I knew you'd appreciate it," said Cole. "How's the young man?"

"Alberto Torres?" she asked. "I checked on him an hour ago. He's sleeping soundly, and doesn't seem too much the worse for wear."

"Good," said Cole. "We'll know in a few hours if it was worth it."

"Of course it was worth it," replied Sharon. "We couldn't even
attempt
to rescue them if we didn't know where they were."

"True enough."

"So what's your plan?"

"Stick around, and you'll hear it when everyone else does. I need to talk to Pilot one more time."

"Then why aren't you doing it?"

"Because talking to him usually annoys the shit out of me, and I thought it'd be nice to digest my cheesecake
before
I talked to him."

"Farseeing and resourceful," she said with a smile. "No wonder you're the Captain."

The coffee and cheesecake arrived and he began eating.

"What do you think of it?" she asked curiously.

"The coffee's okay. The cheesecake tastes a little like paste, but not as good." He sighed. "I really miss eating on Singapore Station."

"Live with it," she said. "We're not going back for a long, long time."

"I know," he said, getting to his feet. "Well, the sooner we get rid of the bad guys and overthrow the strongest government that has ever existed, the sooner I can have veal parmesan at Duke's Place."

"You're not going to eat the rest of your cheesecake?" she asked as he headed to the doorway.

"It's all yours."

She took a small piece on a fork and brought it to her mouth. "You were wrong," she said.

"About what?"

"It doesn't taste like paste."

"It does to me."

She shook her head. "Paste has much better flavor, to say nothing of smoother texture."

"You're right," he said with a smile, and left.

He was back on the bridge a moment later, and speaking to Wxakgini again.

"Is there a wormhole in or near the system that'll get a ship way the hell out of here?"

"I told you."

"I mean another one."

"I shall have to check," said Wxakgini.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Then why do you need a wormhole?"

"A figure of speech," said Cole. "It means I'll wait while you check."

"Terran," muttered Wxakgini irritably. A moment later he looked down at Cole. "There is the MacGruder Wormhole, currently one hundred and thirty degrees around the sun in approximately the same orbit as Malagori IX, that will deposit you some four hundred light-years away, near the fourth planet of the Delamere system."

"That should do it," said Cole. "Thanks."

But Wxakgini had merged with the navigational computer once more, and paid him no further attention.

Christine Mboya and Domak were schooling Meloctin when Cole approached her.

"I hate to intrude," he said, "but I'm going to need you for a few minutes, Christine." He turned to the Lodinite. "I'm sorry, but this is vital."

"I quite understand, Captain Cole," said Meloctin.

"What it is, sir?" asked Christine.

"I want you to talk to Pilot and get the exact coordinates of the wormhole he just told me about—it's out past Malagori IX—as well as the coordinates of the Delamere system at the other end of it, and I want you to program them into Mr. Moyer's ship, Mr. Sokolov's, Mr. Perez's, Mr. Flores's, the Lodinite ship Mr. Briggs is on, and our four shuttles. Finally, I want you to program the exact location of the neutrino activity on Malagori V into each. Can you get that done in fifteen minutes?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Do it."

Cole next contacted the Valkyrie.

"Val, are you awake?"

"Of course I'm awake."

"We're sending four shuttles to carry the passengers. It'll be a little crowded, but you'll have to manage until we can transfer them to the
Teddy R.
I want you to pick a twelve-member combat team and spread them over the four shuttles. Have them ready to go in twenty minutes—and don't take off until I address all of you. Got it?"

"About time," was her only answer.

Twelve minutes later Christine looked up from her computer. "All done, sir," she announced.

"Good," said Cole. "Let me know when Val and her crews are down in the shuttle bay."

He became aware of an increased tension on the bridge, as it became clear he'd settled on his strategy and the rescue attempt was about to begin.