Starhunt: A Star Wolf Novel (14 page)

To be a starship captain
at war
is what Jon Korie has trained for.

His hands are clenched on the arms of this chair. His knuckles are white. (So near. So near and yet so goddamned far!)

The drill is 24 percent off optimum.

MEMO

FROM: Vice Admiral Harshlie

TO:
      
Base Admiral Farrel

Stephen,

I thought we were going to decommission the
Burlingame
.

Joe

MEMO

FROM: Base Admiral Farrel

TO:
      
Vice Admiral Harshlie

Joe,

Sorry, but we still need her. Besides, there’s no pressing need to decommission her now. That ship is no longer the wreck she used to be.

Stephen

MEMO

FROM: Vice Admiral Harshlie

TO:
      
Base Admiral Farrel

Stephen,

If the
Burlingame
is in usable condition, it’s Korie’s doing. Remember our discussion about what would happen when you put a captain like Brandt on the same ship with a first officer like Korie? Well, I was right—Brandt isn’t running that ship, Korie is.

Joe

MEMO

FROM: Base Admiral Farrel

TO:
      
Vice Admiral Harshlie

Joe,

He’s doing a damn fine job of it too. The
Burlingame
’s efficiency has topped 70 per cent for the first time in years. I think we ought to give this kid a ship of his own.

Stephen

MEMO

FROM: Vice Admiral Harshlie

TO:
      
Base Admiral Farrel

Stephen,

Sorry, but we can’t pull him out without his captain’s recommendation. Or, we could—but if we did it without Brandt’s approval, it would look funny.

Joe

MEMO

FROM: Base Admiral Farrel

TO:
      
Vice Admiral Harshlie

Joe,

Captain Brandt won’t approve Korie’s promotion? Why?

Stephen

MEMO

FROM: Vice Admiral Harshlie

TO:
      
Base Admiral Farrel

Stephen,

Brandt wants a promotion to a desk job—fat chance—and until he gets it, he’s not going to recommend anybody.

Of course, it’s Korie who’s running the ship and keeping her efficiency up; but Brandt doesn’t mind taking the credit for it. Korie is
keeping that ship aloft. Brandt knows it, and until he gets his own promotion, he’s keeping Korie on that ship with him.

Brandt wants to be the first man off that tub.

Joe

MEMO

FROM: Base Admiral Farrel

TO:
      
Vice Admiral Harshlie

Joe,

You’re right, of course.

If there were a way to kick Brandt upstairs, I’d say do it and let Korie have the
Burlingame
—but I’d rather give Korie a ship he can fight with rather than an old wreck like this.

No, we have to keep Brandt on the
Burlingame
. (You might say they were made for each other.) And as long as Brandt’s stuck on that ship, he’ll keep Korie there with him to run it.

Kind of tough on Korie, but we’ll make it up to him later.

By the way, take another look at Korie’s file. Yes, he’d be good in battle—but I think he needs someone to keep him from going overboard; a moderate first officer perhaps. Have we got an experienced man to hold him back?

Stephen

MEMO

FROM: Vice Admiral Harshlie

TO:
      
Base Admiral Farrel

Stephen,

Sometimes, I think we don’t have an experienced man in our whole navy.

Joe

MEMO

FROM: Base Admiral Farrel

TO:
      
Vice Admiral Harshlie

Joe,

After reading the report of the
Mitchell
disaster, I think you may be right.

Actually, what I was getting at was that Korie may lack discretion. He’s an impatient young man. While that may be good in battle, I think his first command should be on an outrunner attached to a major fleet or convoy. Having a larger plan to fit into would keep him from making rash errors in judgment. As most of our younger men are prone to do.

How soon can you get him off the
Burlingame
?

Stephen

MEMO

FROM: Vice Admiral Harshlie

TO:
      
Base Admiral Farrel

Stephen,

I can’t get Korie off the
Burlingame
. Period.

Every time I broach the subject, good old Georj brings up his own request for transfer instead.

He knows we want Korie, but he’s not going to let us have him unless we take him too.

Joe

P.S. The union rep on that ship is one of my men. He confirms that Korie is really the one running it. And he’s running it tightly too—unfortunately, because he’s not the captain in name as well as in fact, there’s a morale problem. The men don’t think they have any real leadership.

P.P.S. We’ve had two or three battle scares in that area within the last two months. I’d like to get a couple more scouts into the sector. Do you think the enemy could be opening up another new front?

MEMO

FROM: Base Admiral Farrel

TO:
      
Vice Admiral Harshlie

Joe,

A new front? In DV sector? I’d just as soon start believing in fairies again.

By the way, how did you work it so that one of your own men is a union rep? And for God’s sake—if you could plant a man in the union, what is he doing on the
Burlingame
?

Stephen

MEMO

FROM: Vice Admiral Harshlie

TO:
      
Base Admiral Farrel

Stephen,

He’s on the
Burlingame
because the union knows he’s one of my men. They requested it to get him out of the way.

Actually, he’s a decoy. If I let them think they’ve outwitted me there, I will find it easier to plant other men elsewhere.

By the way, one of the reasons for the
Burlingame
’s improved condition is that she was able to refit some of her equipment locally. It was Korie’s doing, of course. He’s adaptable, that boy is, but I still think we ought to reconsider our decision about a DV supply depot.

Joe

MEMO

FROM: Base Admiral Farrel

TO:
      
Vice Admiral Harshlie

Joe,

There is no point in putting up a supply depot unless you have supplies to put into it.

Stephen

MEMO

FROM: Vice Admiral Harshlie

TO:
      
Base Admiral Farrel

Stephen,

There was another battle scare in DV sector last week. I don’t want to alarm you, but I really think we should move in some kind of support for the
Burlingame
. They’ve been there for more than twenty months now.

The
Burlingame
is not really equipped for battle—either physically or emotionally. You know as well as I what would happen to that ship if they ran into a serious crisis. Brandt would be incapable of handling it and Korie would have to take command.

That would hurt both men. Brandt would no longer be able to command his own ship after such an event. He’d have to be—removed. And
he’d resent Korie’s presumptuousness and ability; he might take it out on him by putting a black mark on his record.

Of course, all this is assuming that the
Burlingame
survives any contact with the enemy.

Joe

MEMO

FROM: Base Admiral Farrel

TO:
      
Vice Admiral Harshlie

Joe,

Sure, I’d like to support the
Burlingame
. But what with?

The best I can offer you—or them—are some new armaments. I’ll defer a couple of HE projectors and a half-dozen new missiles into the DV pipeline for the
Burlingame
. If a minimum amount of their other equipment is working that should bring them up to workable battle strength.

The answer is still no on that supply depot. If Korie can jury-rig his repairs with local products, let him. We can’t afford the cost of maintaining a new supply base while we’ve still got that trouble in sectors GX and GW.

About their psychological problems—they’ll have to learn to live with them. Theirs is nothing compared to what I’ve got going on the
Sanders
, the
Appa
, and the
Goodman
.

Besides, if such a crisis should occur and Korie does prove himself in battle, it will be a good way to get him out from under Brandt’s thumb. We need some heroes about now, anyway, for the home front. We could use Korie for PR and then get him a ship of his own. We could then give Brandt a lesser man; that is, if he’s still on his ship.

All this is speculation, of course, but keep it in mind.

Oh yes—and increase the
Burlingame
’s tour of duty by another six months. At least. Sorry, but you know how strapped we are.

Stephen

There are countless velocities. Moons travel about planets. Planets circle suns. Suns move in relation to other suns and all of them spin within the galaxy. The galaxy itself is moving in relation to other galaxies and who it to say that the Universe itself is not moving in some vast unknown direction?

—JARLES “FREE FALL” FERRIS,

Philosophy and Relativity: A Survey of Ideas

Korie finds Rogers in the shower room. Like all shower rooms, this one smells of stale sweat and steam. Casually, the first officer drops his kit and fresh uniform onto the dry end of the plastic bench. He pauses to watch as Rogers struggles vainly with his tunic. It is caught on the bulky plastifoam brace across his shoulders.

“Want some help?”

“Huh?” Rogers turns and notices Korie for the first time. “Oh, Mr. Korie, sir.” He straightens—

“Relax. There are no regulations in the shower room.” Indicating the brace again, “Do you need help?”

“Uh, thank you, sir, but I think I can manage.” He resumes struggling.

Korie watches amused as the younger man tries to work his tunic over his head; he looks as if he is dislocating both of his arms in the process.

“Are you
sure
you don’t need any help?”

“Uh, pretty sure. I—”

“Bullshit.” Korie steps over to the other. “Turn around.” He unzips the tunic on both sides and pulls it over the other’s head, like an adult with a small
child. “There’s such a thing as pride and there’s such a thing as foolishness.” He hands Rogers his shirt and returns to his own place.

Rogers watches him as he quickly strips off his clothes; his shirt is wet with perspiration and he has to literally peel it off. “Uh, thank you, sir.”

Korie grunts in reply, rummages in his kit for his shampoo, and disappears into the shower, a doorless alcove behind two curved plastic baffles.

Rogers listens to the sound of water splattering against the floor. He lays his tunic down on the bench, begins to skin off his own shorts. He pauses then, decides to wait until the first officer is through with his shower. Sharing a shower is one thing—but sharing it with an officer is something else. Korie’s voice, a surprising bass, comes caroling loudly out of the water.
“When I was a lad in Venusport, I took up the local indoor sport. . . .”

Rogers is startled. He hadn’t known that Mr. Korie was human—the fact that Korie is singing this, the bawdiest of space ballads, is a surprise.

Abruptly, Korie pauses. “What’s the matter, Rogers? Scared of an officer?”

“Uh, no sir, I—”

“There are four shower heads in here, Rogers. I can’t possibly use them all. If you want to take a shower, you don’t have to wait until I’m through.”

“Uh, yes, sir.” Glumly, Rogers strips off his tights. Naked, except for the brace across his shoulders, he steps to the shower, almost bumping into Korie, who is just exiting.

“However, it’s all right,” says Korie, continuing his earlier sentence, “because I’m through now, anyway.”

“Uh, yes, sir.” Rogers steps nervously past him and into the shower, still splattering hotly on the floor.

“I left it running for you,” Korie calls.

“Uh, thank you.” He adjusts the temperature more to his liking, a pleasant tepidness. Perhaps Mr. Korie isn’t so bad after all.

Rogers starts to lather himself. Self-conscious of his body, he tried to ignore the inherent luxuriousness of the sensation. He doesn’t look down at himself at all, instead stares at the shower heads on the wall.

“Say—should you be showering?” calls Korie suddenly.

“Huh?” Rogers stops. “Oh, you mean the brace?”

“Yes,” comes the reply. “I’d think that—”

“The doc says it’s okay,” Rogers answers a little too quickly. He raises his voice to be hard above the water. “It’s only a broken collarbone. He says there’s no reason at all why I can’t fulfill my duties.” And then, a little more tentatively, “You know, I’m off the gravity control board—”

Korie doesn’t respond. Rogers starts lathering himself again. He adds, “The doc arranged it. He said if I’d trained as a radec tech, I should be a radec tech. Starting next watch, I go on the regular boards—” Abruptly, he realizes that he is being watched. Korie is standing in the door of the shower room, toweling his hair and eyeing him speculatively.

“Don’t mind me,” says the first officer. “I’m just watching.”

“Uh—” Rogers half-nods, turns back to the shower, lathering himself madly, now acutely aware of his own bony awkwardness.

“I want to make sure,” says Korie, “that you don’t fall into any more bulkheads.”

“No, sir. I won’t,” says Rogers as he drops the soap. It bounces and slides across the floor to stop at Korie’s feet.

The officer picks up the slippery bar and hands it to the shivering Rogers. “Good,” he says. “I wouldn’t want you to get hurt anymore.”

Rogers takes the soap from Korie’s outstretched hand. “Thank you, sir, but that isn’t necessary.”

“Just the same.”

“It isn’t necessary,” Rogers insists shrilly.

“You’re awfully certain of that, aren’t you. But your past record hasn’t been too good on that score.”