Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) (15 page)

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Authors: Mike Resnick

BOOK: Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3)
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“It’s
my
ship!” snapped Val.
“True,” admitted Perez. “But it was my ship when he said it.”
“And to respond to your comment,” said Cole, “there’s a difference between being a civilized man and a civilized fool.”
“What will you be doing while I’m taking Khan?” asked Val.
“Once you’ve disabled or destroyed his ship, I’ll offer amnesty to any ship and crew that will join us—and the
Teddy R
will pick off any ship that tries to escape. They’re going to have two options—join us or fight us. Running away is not a third option.” He paused. “Perez?”
Perez’s holograph appeared beside Val’s. “Yes?”
“You know the ships, their captains, and their personnel. How many are likely to stand and fight?”
“Against the
South Star
. . . excuse me: the
Red Sphinx
? Most of them. Against the
Theodore Roosevelt
—maybe half. Some won’t want to try matching firepower with a Republic warship, even an ancient one like yours, and some will simply want to serve with Wilson Cole after having taken orders from Genghis Khan.”
“Anything you can say to them once we dispose of Khan will be appreciated,” said Cole.
“I’ll be honest,” said Perez. “Most of us are in this for the money, and I’m sure they’ll come to the same conclusion I came to: that we’ll do much better serving under Wilson Cole that we would either under Khan or on our own. You have quite a reputation.”
“Yeah,” said Cole sardonically. “There are rewards for me on every world in the Republic.”
“The very things that make you a fugitive in the Republic accrue to your benefit out here on the Frontier,” replied Perez. He stared at Cole’s face curiously for a moment. “There’s just one thing I don’t understand.”
“What is it?”
“You haven’t asked anything about Khan. Don’t you want to know what he’s like?”
“Not especially,” said Cole. “No matter what you can tell me, he’s not going to live long enough for me to use it.”
“You know,” said Perez, “you’re polite and well mannered and reasonably soft-spoken, but you’re one cold son of a bitch.”
Val smiled. “Why do you think I agreed to serve with him?”
“The subject at hand is Khan’s ships, not my personality,” said Cole. “Shall we get back to it?”
“I think we’ve taken care of it,” said Val. “Go back to your Security Chief. If there’s anything else I need to know, I’ll contact you.”
She broke the connection, and Cole turned back to Sharon. “What do you think?” he asked.
“Of Perez? I didn’t see and hear enough to tell. Of the mission? Khan will never know what hit him.”
“
Am
I a cold son of a bitch?”
“Not between the covers,” she said with a smile. “As for the rest of the time, it goes with being the Captain. And when was the last time you weren’t facing an enemy who wanted to kill you—including certain select officers of the Republic’s Navy?”
“It’s been a while,” he admitted.
“Half a lifetime?”
“More.” He got to his feet. “I suppose I’d better go speak to Pilot and tell him where we’re going.”
“Then what?”
“Then we relax until we get there, and hope everyone involved is as smart as Perez and that we don’t have to fire a shot.”
15
 
Usually battle plans that are months in the making and cover every conceivable detail tend to go wrong, so it was only just and fitting that Cole’s plan, conceived in less than five minutes, ran like clockwork.
The
Red Sphinx
used the protocols it had been given by Khan’s security officers, approached to within thirty thousand miles of his ship, and opened fire. Khan’s ship was reduced to rubble in seconds.
Cole, who had spent four days training his new crew members (and dumping three of them who simply would not or could not follow orders onto an oxygen world), transmitted his message of amnesty to the
Red Sphinx
and had Val broadcast it to the eight remaining ships. Two tried to flee and the
Teddy R
shot them down, as it had threatened to do. Two more chose to fight, and the
Red Sphinx
and the
Teddy R
each accounted for one. The other four agreed to Cole’s terms. He had each captain transferred to the
Teddy R
, where he explained what was expected (or, more accurately, demanded) of each, and then returned them to their ships.
Two days later Cole and his six ships docked at Singapore Station, where he hunted up the Platinum Duke, ready for bigger and more lucrative assignments.
“Remarkable!” commented the Platinum Duke. “Just remarkable! In truth, you should be paying the Apollo Cartel, not charging them. You went out a ship, and you came back a fleet!”
“Yeah,” said Cole, somewhat less impressed. “Three hundred million more ships, and we can meet the Republic on even terms.”
16
 
“You know,” said Sharon as the waiter brought her a sizzling steak from the mutated cattle of Borimor III, “I could get into owning a casino.”
“It’s more trouble than it looks like from here,” answered the Platinum Duke, sitting at his table with Cole, Sharon, David Copperfield, and Perez. “There are approximately seven hundred men and aliens in the building right this minute, and I guarantee that at least two hundred of them are trying to cheat the house.”
“It’s only fair,” commented Perez. “The house has a ten percent edge.”
“My dear man, the house has overhead,” explained the Duke. “The players don’t.”
“I don’t care about gambling,” said Sharon. “All I know is the house has one hell of a chef.”
“He doesn’t belong to the house,” said the Duke. “He’s mine. And he only cooks for my friends.”
“I didn’t know I
was
your friend,” said Sharon.
“You’re sitting at my table. It would be rude to eat while you sat and watched.” The Duke looked around. “Where is the remarkable Valkyrie? I have a couple of players who have been beating the house far too often this week. I’d like her to check them out.”
“She’s running our ships through their training exercises,” said Cole. “Except for the
Teddy R
, which is restocking at one of the cargo docks right now. Also, we put out the word that we’re looking for medics, and Sharon will check out the credentials of the four who showed up. Only two are human; I hope to hell one of them passes muster.” He paused. “When the ship’s ready to go in another day or two, Four Eyes will take over the training and Val can grab some shore leave while Perez here takes over the
Red Sphinx
for a while.”
“That was
your
ship?” the Duke asked Perez.
“Yes.”
“Don’t you resent her commandeering it?”
“Fortunes of war,” answered Perez. “I didn’t have much choice in the matter—and Captain Cole has promised to find me a ship of my own.” He turned to Cole. “Although I understand that with Val on her own ship there’s an opening for a Third Officer aboard the
Theodore Roosevelt
.”
“You’ll be more use to us running your own ship,” answered Cole.
“Let me guess,” said the Duke. “You used to be in the Navy.”
“A long time ago,” said Perez.
“What happened?”
“I got out of the Navy.”
“What a shame,” said the Duke. “I was hoping that you were going to vilify Susan Garcia, and then you and I would split a bottle of my finest Cygnian cognac.”
“Are you talking about Fleet Admiral Garcia?” asked Perez.
The Duke nodded. “Of course, I knew her when she was just a minor tyrant. I believe Mr. Cole has met her on a number of occasions as well.”
“A few,” said Cole.
“And?”
“I can’t say we hit it off,” replied Cole, “but she gave me some medals.”
“‘Some’ medals,” said the Platinum Duke in amused tones. “She gave you the Medal of Courage on three different occasions.”
“Begrudgingly.”
“Of course,” said the Duke. “You made the Navy look bad.”
“I served that Navy all of my adult life,” said Cole. “I won’t say anything against it.”
“
I
will,” offered Sharon. “They were more concerned with not looking incompetent than with winning the goddamned war.
That’s
why they court-martialed him.”
“And this surprised you?” asked the Duke with a smile.
“He saved five million Men,” continued Sharon bitterly, “and got thrown in the brig for it. The captain he deposed, the one who was about to kill our own citizens, is still an active officer in the Navy.”
“Why do you think I left the Republic?” said the Duke with a smile.
“One word from Susan Garcia and we could be back fighting the
real
enemy,” continued Sharon.
“Poor deluded child,” said the Duke. “The Republic
is
the real enemy. Hell, the Teroni Federation has never done me any harm; I can’t say the same for the Republic.”
“Neither can I, come to think of it,” put in Perez.
“Complaining isn’t going to help,” said Cole. “The Republic’s got a war to fight. They can’t waste their time worrying about us. We’re never going back, so you might as well change the subject.”
There was a momentary silence, which was broken by David Copperfield.
“That steak smells exquisite,” he commented.
“Would you like one?” asked the Duke.
“Alas, I am on a diet,” said Copperfield.
“Can’t metabolize it, eh?”
“I have never denied my limitations,” said Copperfield with all the dignity he could muster, “but it is extremely ungracious of you to refer to them.”
“If you can’t eat it, you can’t eat it,” said the Duke. “It’s no big deal. Just tell me what you’d like and I’ll have my chef prepare it.”
“I’d
like
a steak,” said Copperfield unhappily. “I will settle for an Alphard brandy.”
“I could have sworn I saw you eating a steak aboard the
Teddy R
,” remarked Sharon.
“Soya products, made to look like a steak,” said Cole.
“You knew all along?” said Copperfield, surprised.
“It’s my job to know everything about my crew.”
“But I’m not your crew,” replied Copperfield. “I’m your old school chum and your business manager.”
“You’re all of that,” agreed Cole. “But when you’re on my ship, you’re also my crew.”
“All right,” said Copperfield. “I can accept that.”
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am.”
“Now, now, Steerforth,” said Copperfield. “Sarcasm is unbecoming in a well-bred Englishman.”
“The mind boggles with replies,” said Cole. “In the interest of peace, I’ll keep them all to myself.”
Suddenly Cole’s communicator came to life.
“He’s gone again, sir,” said Idena Mueller, who was sitting at the bridge’s computer console.
“Four Eyes?”
“Yes, sir.”
“To the Molarian whorehouse?”
“I believe so, sir.”
“Well, what the hell,” said Cole, “it could be years before he finds another receptive Molarian. Let’s cut him a little slack.”
“But he’s in charge of red shift, and it starts in another forty minutes.”
“He’ll be back in time,” said Cole.
“What if he’s not?”
“I’ve known him for twenty years, Lieutenant,” said Cole. “He’ll be back.”
He broke the communication.
“Your Molarian contingent is making me rich,” remarked the Platinum Duke.
“They’ve got nothing else to spend it on,” said Cole. “You own the whorehouse, I presume?”
“Not exactly,” replied the Duke. “I told you: I run Singapore Station. In practical terms, it means I get a little percentage of almost every business in lieu of rent.”
Suddenly David Copperfield stood up. “If you will excuse me, I believe I see an old friend across the room. I really must go over and say hello to him.”
“He owes you that much?” asked Cole with a smile.
“I do not recall the immortal Charles endowing you with a sense of humor,” replied David with dignity. “Therefore, I will assume that remark is not funny, but merely in poor taste.” He bowed to Sharon, and then began walking through the Men and aliens that were crowded around the gaming tables.
“What’s with him?” asked Perez. “He’s an alien, he dresses like a Victorian dandy from three thousand years ago, he thinks he’s a Dickens character and that you’re another . . .”
“He was the biggest fence on the Inner Frontier,” explained Cole. “He fell in love with the works of Charles Dickens, to the point where he dresses like he does, calls himself David Copperfield, and was living in a Victorian mansion when I first met him. In fact, the easiest way to gain entrance to his house was to introduce myself as Steerforth, David Copperfield’s friend at school. He risked his life and his business to help us. He kept his life, but he lost the business.”

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