Flagship (3 page)

"Val would feel right at home here," remarked Cole, and Pampas, a large man himself but a good six inches shorter than Val, nodded his agreement.

The establishment seemed a little more upscale than the first one, but Cole couldn't really be sure what Teronis considered upscale.

"Excuse me," he said, approaching what seemed to be a headwaiter, "but I am looking for Jacovic. Is he here?"

The Teroni nodded his lean, angular head. "In there," he said, pointing to a door along the back wall.

Cole and Pampas approached it. It sensed their presence and vanished until they had passed through, then took solid shape behind them.

Jacovic was standing near one wall, and half a dozen other Teronis were spread evenly throughout the room in a semicircle around him.

"Why didn't you respond when we summoned you?" said Cole by way of greeting.

"Ask
them"
said Jacovic, nodding his head in the direction of the other Teronis.

One of the Teronis produced Jacovic's communicator. "It is in safe hands," he said.

"Sir?" said Pampas, tensing.

"Stay calm," said Cole, glad that he'd taken Pampas rather than Val, who would already be among the aliens, cracking skulls and shattering bones. He turned to the alien who was holding the communicator. "You have taken something that doesn't belong to you."

"It was the surest way to get you to come here," answered the Teroni. "We knew you wouldn't leave Singapore Station without your First Officer."

"All right, I'm here," said Cole. "Now what?"

"Now we talk."

"I'm listening," said Cole.

"My T-Pack may have said that wrong," was the reply.
"Now you
talk."

"About what?"

"Do not be obtuse, Captain Cole. Your First Officer has been trying to enlist us in what seems an ill-considered battle against your Republic."

"It's not
my
Republic, not any longer," replied Cole. "If it was, I'd be fighting
for
it, not
against
it."

"Why do you not put your forces at the disposal of the Teroni Federation?"

"Because I don't think any more highly of the Teroni Federation than I do of the Republic," answered Cole.

"And yet a Teroni is your First Officer."

"Honor and integrity are not confined to one race," said Cole. "When we faced each other as enemies, he gave me his word and kept it when it would have been very easy to break it, when there would have been no survivors to point a finger at him. That's more than most of my superiors would have done."

"You realize that the odds are millions to one against you?"

"We plan to lower them, one day at a time."

"If you actually succeeded in bringing about the end of the Republic, what would you replace it with?"

"I'm not a politician," answered Cole. "That would be for others to decide."

"Would you recommend a cease-fire against the Teroni Federation?"

"No, I would not." The Teronis tensed. "A cease-fire is temporary. I'd recommend a complete cessation of all hostilities. We've been at war for so damned long I doubt that anyone truly knows why the hell it started in the first place."

The six Teronis gathered in a tight circle. Cole could see them whispering, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. He caught Jacovic's eye, patted his empty holster, nodded toward the Teronis, and held his palms up to indicate a question.

Jacovic shook his head:
No, they are not armed.

Well, that's a relief
, thought Cole.
If
things get hairy, I'll let Bull take the four biggest, Jacovic can take the one closest to him, and I'll handle the little one who's done all the talking.

The circle widened, and the six Teronis turned to face Cole.

"We will join your cause," said the one who seemed to be the spokesman.

"I'm very grateful to hear that," replied Cole. "Why the inquisition?"

"We left the Federation's military for the same reason that Commander Jacovic did: we no longer believe that the Federation has the high moral ground, or that it is worth dying for. Jacovic assured us that you shared our values, but we have been trained all our lives to hate and distrust your race, so we felt we had to hear it from your own mouth."

"But if you have been trained to distrust everything I say, why believe me now?" asked Cole, who realized that it was a stupid and potentially dangerous question to ask, but his curiosity got the better of him.

"Oh, we knew you would tell us what Jacovic had said. But it was one answer that convinced us."

"What was that?"

"That you have no interest in being part of whatever succeeds the Republic. There are probably hundreds of reasons for a Man to turn against his government and wish to overthrow it, just as there are hundreds of reasons for a Teroni to do the same—but ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the unspoken but true reason is egomania, and a desire for power."

"Also, we know that your Navy has been hunting you for four years," added another. He flashed the Teroni equivalent of a smile. "That helped too."

"It's a comfort to know you don't want to turn me in for the reward," said Cole.

"If you had answered wrong, we might have."

"May I have my communicator, please?" asked Jacovic, extending his hand. It was immediately returned to him.

"All right," said Cole. "I assume you all came on one ship?"

"Yes," said a Teroni.

"You're going to have to leave Singapore Station today. I'll have Lieutenant Briggs send over what you need to rig your computer so the Navy can't intercept or read your transmissions."

"Today?" said the Teroni. "We just arrived four hours ago."

"You don't want to be here tomorrow," said Cole. "There's a fleet of eight hundred Navy ships due to show up, and they don't know you've opted out of the Teroni Federation." He paused. "Whoever delivers the codes you need will also brief you on how to contact us, what we plan to do in the first phase of this campaign, what areas we'd prefer you to operate in, everything you'll need. Just tell Commander Jacovic where you're docked and we'll take care of everything else."

A few minutes later Cole, Jacovic, and Pampas were heading back out along the docking arm to the
Theodore Roosevelt.

"So we picked up six recruits in half an hour," remarked Pampas. "Not bad."

Cole sighed deeply. Jacovic merely stared silently at the
Teddy R
growing larger and larger in the viewscreen. "Tell him," said Cole at last.

Jacovic turned to Pampas. "We recruited six men in thirty minutes. How many men you do suppose the Republic recruited on its sixty thousand worlds during that same period of time?"

"I hadn't thought of that," admitted Pampas.

"I have a feeling that we'll be a happier ship in the days to come if we ban all mathematicians from the crew," commented Cole with a rueful smile.

"Got one, sir!"

Cole opened his eyes and tried to concentrate.

"Sir?" continued the feminine voice.

"Is that you, Rachel?" asked Cole, swinging his feet to the floor.

"Yes, sir," said Rachel Marcos. "We've got one!"

"One
what?"

"Take a second, sir," she said, her image hovering a few feet from the bed. "Gather your senses. Then I'll explain."

Cole blinked his eyes very rapidly. "Where the hell are we?"

"Sixteen hours out from Singapore Station, sir."

He got to his feet, walked to a sink in the corner, muttered "Cold!," waited for the water to pour out, and sloshed some on his face. Then he turned to Rachel Marcos's image. "Okay, I'm awake. What's going on?"

"We've disabled a Navy ship, sir!" she said excitedly. "And we did it before they could transmit a signal about what was happening!"

"Let me guess," said Cole. "Our redheaded friend nailed the antenna before it could send."

"Yes, sir."

Cole pursed his lips. "When she's on her game, there's none better. I'll give her that much." He paused. "What type of ship?"

"A Class K warship."

Alarm bells went off in the back of Cole's head. "And we're sixteen hours from Singapore Station? It's got to be part of the punishment party."

"Yes, sir," replied Rachel. "It was having trouble with its retarded tachyon drive, and seems to have fallen hours behind its companions. Mr. Briggs spotted it, but Val wouldn't trust anyone else to disable the transmitter and antenna, so she went down to Gunnery and did it herself, then took out its main engines."

"How did Mr. Briggs spot the ship?"

"From its SOS signal."

"Did any of the geniuses up there on the bridge figure out that if
we
could read their SOS, so could the other seven hundred and ninety-nine Navy ships?" demanded Cole.

Suddenly Val's face replaced Rachel's. "You want insignia, don't you?" demanded Val. "And their computer with all its codes? We can grab them and be back on the
Teddy R
in maybe forty minutes, and the closest Navy ship is at least three hours away."

"Leave the insignia," said Cole. "Eight hundred ships are going to know any ship displaying it is an enemy. Grab the computer and all the record cubes, and get back as fast you can. And Val?"

"Yeah?"

"No bloodshed."

"Are they the bad guys or not?" she demanded.

"Leave them be," he said, wondering how she could be so beautiful and so bloodthirsty at the same time. "We're after worse."

"You let 'em be, and they'll come back and bite us in the ass," she predicted.

"They're just following orders, the way we used to."

"The way
you
used to," she corrected him. "I was a pirate, remember?"

"Some days it's harder to forget that than others," he said dryly. "No shooting."

"There's forty-two Men on that ship, all carrying regulation side-arms," she said. "What makes you think they'll let us just walk in?"

"I'll contact them and explain that no harm will come to them if they offer no resistance. We don't even want to take them prisoner."

"How are you going to contact them?" asked Val. "I blew their antenna."

"Shit!" growled Cole. "All right, I'm leading the boarding party."

"The hell you are," said a new voice. It belonged to Sharon Blacksmith.

"Stop eavesdropping," said Cole irritably.

"I'm the Chief of Security," she replied. "Everything that transpires on this ship is my business, and you're not going anywhere. We've been through all this before: the Captain doesn't leave his ship in enemy territory."

"Enemy territory is the goddamned Republic," Cole shot back. "This is the Inner Frontier."

"Anywhere there's a Republic ship is enemy territory," Sharon insisted.

"The damned ship's disabled."

"So you enter it and get shot two seconds later. What is the rest of your fleet supposed to do? You haven't exactly given them a complete and detailed battle plan."

"If Val walks in first, she'll kill the first man who twitches, and that'll precipitate an all-out battle. I want to avoid that."

"Then send someone besides Val," said Sharon.

"Hey, wait a minute!" said Val. "I'm the one who blew away its transmitter and antenna; I'm the one who's going to claim the spoils of victory."

"It's just a goddamned computer, Val," said Cole.

"You're willing to risk your ass for it," she said. "That makes it valuable."

Cole glared at Sharon's image. "Thanks for making life so easy for me," he said bitterly.

"Just doing my job," she said. "You're the Captain and you're not leaving the ship in enemy territory."

"If I'm the Captain, then I give the orders," he said firmly. "Val, I'll meet you down in the shuttle bay. Put together a team of four, and make sure one of them knows how to open a locked hatch without blowing it apart. I want them to be able to secure it again after we leave."

"Damn it, Wilson!" said Sharon.

He waited until Val had broken the connection. "We both know that if I let her lead the boarding party, she'll kill all forty-two of them."

"They're the enemy."

"No," said Cole. "They're the enemy's weapons."

"Weapons are made to do damage, Wilson."

"Weapons can be neutralized," he replied. "Just not by someone like Val."

"So send Jacovic."

"Come on," he said. "They'll take one look at him and start shooting. The Republic's at war with the Teroni Federation, remember?"

"You have fifty-three people on this ship, and you're going to find reasons why fifty-two of them can't possibly lead the boarding party, am I right?"

"You're complicating the issue unnecessarily," complained Cole.

"And you're showboating," she said. "If you heard of any other Captain doing this, you'd call it egomania."

"If you take on the Republic with a fleet of eight hundred ships, you have to be a bit of an egomaniac," said Cole. "Now perhaps you'll let me finish waking up and concentrate on the business at hand."

"You're awake," said Sharon furiously. "If you were sleepy, you couldn't make such a dumb decision."

She broke the connection, and a couple of minutes later Cole was on his way to the shuttle bay. Along the way he passed a small, mildly humanoid alien, dressed exactly like a nineteenth-century British dandy, scurrying down a corridor.

"Good morning, David," he said. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"Are you really leading the boarding party like everyone says, Steerforth?" asked David Copperfield.

"Do
they all say it?" asked Cole, arching an eyebrow.

"Word travels fast aboard a ship."

"Not
that
fast. Someone was listening. Maybe someone from a Dickens novel?"

"But you
are
going?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Then I'm heading for my bulkhead," answered the alien. "I've laid in a supply of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, and a bottle of port."

"None of which you can eat or drink."

"You cut me to the quick, Steerforth," said David. "I have never denied my limitations. Why do you take such delight in referring to them?"

"Stop calling me Steerforth and I'll stop pointing out who you are and aren't."

"But you
are
Steerforth!" cried the alien. "How can you pretend we aren't old school chums?"

"It's difficult, but I manage," said Cole. "Your bulkhead is calling to you. I'll let you know when we've returned safe and sound."

"You make me sound like an arrant coward," complained David.

"I don't think I ever considered the word 'arrant.'"

"It happens to be very comfortable in that bulkhead. I close my eyes and pretend I'm back in Salem House boarding school with you, preparing to go out on a date with Becky Thatcher."

"Wrong book, wrong author."

"Well, all the women in
my
book were only interested in
you"
replied David. "Little Emily, Miss Dartle . . ."

"David," said Cole, "you may be the best fence on the Inner Frontier, but you get stranger every day."

"I'll second that," said Sharon's disembodied voice.

"Well, the Platinum Duke appreciates me," said David. "He's letting me teach him a
civilized
game: whist."

"That's just what we need," said Sharon.
"Two
of them."

"I know when I'm not wanted," said David, stalking off.

"I thought I was the one who wasn't wanted," said Cole as he walked to the airlift that would take him to the shuttle bay.

"If you were wanted a little less, I'd be a little less annoyed when you act like an asshole," answered Sharon.

"With compliments like that, who needs insults?" said Cole as he entered the airlift.

"Just come back in one piece," said Sharon.

He emerged into the shuttle bay, where Val, Pampas, a Mollute, and a Polonoi were waiting for him.

"Which one?" asked Val, gesturing toward the four shuttlecraft.

"The
Kermit,"
answered Cole, walking over to it.

"You always choose that one."

"So?"

"It's the most expendable," answered Val.

"What makes it any more expendable than the others?" asked Cole.

"It's the oldest."

"So am I," he said, entering the shuttle. He went directly to the back, donned his body armor, and waited for the others—except for the warrior-caste Polonoi, who had almost-impregnable natural armor on the front of his body (and almost none on the back)—to do the same. "All right," he said when they were assembled at their stations. "Once we're inside the ship, no one shoots except on my command."

"Until they kill you," said Val as the shuttle left the
Teddy R
and began approaching the Navy ship, which hung in space about a quarter of a million miles away.

"Try not to be so optimistic," said Cole. "We don't want to hurt them, and there's no sense taking their insignia or any other ID. All we want is their computer, and there's every likelihood they'll destroy it when they see us approaching rather than turn it over to us. Nothing on that ship is worth anyone dying for."

Val muttered something under her breath, but knew enough not to argue with him in front of others now that the mission had begun. The rest were silent, all eyes turned to the viewscreen, where a hugely magnified image of the Navy ship appeared as a tiny dot.

Cole activated his communicator. "Jacovic?"

The Teroni's image appeared a few feet away. "Yes, sir?"

"It occurs to me that we're depending on the goodwill of a ship that we've helped disable," said Cole. "We're a sitting duck as we approach. Fire a couple of warning shots, not close enough that they'll think we were trying to hit them, but close enough to let them know that you're prepared to take them out if they fire on us."

"Yes, sir."

A moment later a beam of solid light from a laser cannon and a ball of energy from a thumper—a pulse cannon—shot out in the general director of the Navy ship, missing it by clear but close margins.

"That should do it," said Cole. "We'll approach with our shields up. If they fire even a single shot, we're turning tail and running back to the ship, and you'll aim your next couple of shots a little better— but I don't think it's going to happen. They know we can destroy them at will. The fact that we haven't ought to convince them that we have no intention of doing so."

"You hope," said Val.

"I hope," he replied.

They approached without being fired upon, bonded hatch-to-hatch, and the Mollute quickly opened the lock on the Naval ship's hatch. Cole was about to enter when Val pushed him to the back and walked in first, followed by Pampas and the Polonoi.

All forty-two crew members stood facing them, weapons drawn, but no one fired a shot. When Val was sure they weren't going to fire first, she stepped aside and let Cole walk to the front of the boarding party.

"We mean you no harm," he said. "We have disabled your transmitter and antenna, but once we have what we came for, we'll broadcast an SOS to the remainder of your fleet, and we won't leave the area until we know it has been received. We seek no prisoners. We want one item from your ship. It is not any of your weaponry. If you make no attempt to hinder us, no one on either side will be hurt, and we'll be off your ship and sending that SOS inside of ten minutes."

The two sides stared at each other silently for a long minute. Finally the captain of the ship holstered his weapon, and the rest of his crew followed suit. Then Cole turned to Pampas. "Okay, Bull, go pull it and take it back to the shuttle."

Pampas walked over to the main control panel, studied it, shook his head, and began looking around the deck. Finally he saw what he wanted and began making his way to it. An ensign, almost as powerfully built, moved to block his way.

"None of that," said the captain of the ship, and the ensign stepped aside.

Pampas pulled out some tools, signaled for the Polonoi to help him, and in four more minutes they had the computer disconnected and detached.