Quarus (Fourth Fleet Irregulars Book 6)

by S J MacDonald

  ‘There’s a Monkey Room,’ he said, as if continuing a conversation they’d been having for some time. ‘He brought monkeys.’

  Alex was still laughing so hard as he went aboard that he was barely capable of speech, still giggling in the shower as he changed into shipboard rig and still with a huge grin aching on his face as he returned to the command deck.

  Nine

  It was the following day that Silvie went up to the Entrepus. She had asked for Shion to go and keep her company after the first few hours, and it was Shion who piloted her up to the liner

  They were aboard for quite a long time and Alex was just starting to get worried before he saw the shuttle break away. And he knew it was all right before they even docked, because he could hear Silvie hooting merrily over the comm.

  Whether she had, as Davie predicted, slapped Andrei Delaney into marmalade was a moot point. She had certainly told him very definitely no when he’d tried to persuade her to have Davie as ambassador rather than Alex, and she’d told him, too, that he was much too bossy and she could see now why he drove Davie nuts. Asked if she would mind him coming along on the trip, she told him bluntly that that was a terrible idea, he’d just be a nuisance and get on people’s nerves. She mentioned, too, that he really ought to get out more and meet normal people.

  Andrei, however, took all that in good part, chuckling affectionately and taking no offence at all. And he had one consolation, at least; Silvie liked his ship.

  ‘You’re not serious?’ Alex was chatting to her in his cabin, feeling that Davie and Andrei Delaney were entitled not to have private family matters discussed on the command deck.

  ‘Why not?’ Silvie was mystified. ‘It’s really interesting,’ she told him. ‘Full of all kinds of stuff. And I like the bright colours and sparkle, it’s pretty. And Uncle Andrei’s really kind; big and kind and interesting, like his ship. I like him. He brought me some fish, you know, and really pretty ones. And other animals for me to meet. Monkeys, too.’ She gazed at him as a surge of glee rose in Alex. ‘Why is that funny?’

  ‘Never mind,’ said Alex, reaching for the exodiplomacy rescue. Attempting to explain why he brought monkeys was hilarious to him would take some time and it wouldn’t be funny by then anyway. ‘It isn’t important.’

  Silvie accepted that. ‘You don’t say that to me nearly so much these days,’ she observed, with some satisfaction. ‘But it is a really pretty, interesting ship and I don’t understand at all why people laugh and say that it’s awful. Anyway, he isn’t coming with us – I can quite see that he would get on your nerves and drive Davie nuts telling him what to do all the time. But I have invited him over to the ship…’ she paused again, surprised at the force of Alex’s emotional reaction to that. ‘You don’t want him to come?’ she queried. ‘Only he really wants to see it and he won’t ask in case you say no, so I invited him – I didn’t think you’d mind.’

  ‘I don’t, really,’ Alex said, and then as she looked quizzically at him, ‘Well, yes, I do,’ he admitted. ‘I loathe the idea of that storm of people blitzing through my ship making it fit for His Majesty to visit, and I just know that he will be patronising to the nth degree. But I don’t mind in the sense that you are, of course, entitled to invite anyone you want, and I’m happy to do it for you. So I will,’ he grinned, ‘have my people liaise with his people to arrange for a visit.’

  ‘Thanks, skipper,’ Silvie smiled. ‘And Shion says I need to do some vetting, too – new people?’

  ‘Well, you already know Tina,’ Alex observed. ‘But there are two cadets and three new people in the lab, yes. No rush, though,’ he assured her, seeing that she might go off to find them there and then. ‘Tell me how you’re finding things on Serenity.’

  Silvie’s face lit up. ‘Oh, it’s great,’ she enthused. ‘The dome is really nice, love the car, and the swimming is just gorgeous. Love the jellies. I wanted so much to swim with them last time but every time I got close to a swarm those damn subs would go thundering in and splat, bits of dead jelly everywhere, like roadkill, nasty. They’ve barely got a brain cell between them, of course, but they are beautiful and they’re bright enough to pulse to a rhythm if you really want them to. I put Mailar’s Fifth on and had twenty thousand of them pulsing away to it, so much fun. And why are you, like, singing the Gloriatzi in your head? No, okay, don’t tell me then. Secrets, secrets.’

  ‘I will tell you,’ Alex said, ‘when I can. But have you been to the base, yet?’

  He knew that she hadn’t. There would have been calls. Last time she’d been here, there would have been yelling and crying.

  ‘I haven’t liked to,’ Silvie admitted. ‘I had such a horrible time there before, and I don’t want people to be all upset with me like that again.’

  ‘I think – I hope – you’ll find that things are better there, too,’ Alex said. ‘But what about if we go together, just for a walk around?’

  ‘Okay,’ Silvie conceded, seeing that it was important to him. ‘But I’ll go and do the vetting first.’

  She was curious, he could see, wanting to meet the new people who’d be part of their community for the months ahead. Alex wasn’t concerned that she might reject any of them. Everyone applying for a place on this mission, be they Fleet or civilian, had had to agree to a battery of tests and to being vetted by Silvie herself, all placements subject to her ultimate veto. Anyone who had things they really did not want to be brought out in public had dropped out of that process very early on. Alex felt very sure, too, that she would take to Kate Naos the moment they met.

  He was right about that. Silvie gave a cry of pleasure at Kate’s clear, beautifully harmonious mind and the two of them were friends from that moment on.

  Things were not quite so straightforward with Nyge Tomaas, though. When introduced to him, Silvie responded with almost tearful compassion, enfolding him into a comforting hug with ‘Oh, you poor thing!’

  Nyge clung to her for a few seconds, before remembering that he was a senior cadet and really not supposed to do that sort of thing, at least not in public.

  ‘Why?’ Tina was standing by, watching as her charges met her friend. ‘What’s the matter, Nyge?’ She was quite horrified to realise that the cadet had been concealing any unhappiness from her. She would have sworn on oath that he was fine, a little nervous perhaps but focussed and excited about the mission.

  ‘You tell her,’ Silvie prodded Nyge with an admonitory finger as he swallowed, rather bright-eyed, and tried to go back to pretending he was fine. ‘You’re wrong, you know. She doesn’t think that. Nobody does.’ She gestured around them. ‘Only you.’

  Nyge caught his breath. He could hardly pinpoint, himself, when what should have been the most thrilling adventure of his life had taken such a dark turn.

  Or rather, he could, if he was being absolutely honest. He had been a very strong candidate for Top Cadet, neck and neck on points all the way through the Class of 64. In the end, the result had been so close that an adjudicating panel had had to decide between him and the other top candidate.

  Nyge had lost out by the narrowest of margins. It had been a crushing blow – he had still been guaranteed a place on the tagged and flagged programme, subject only to satisfactory completion of his shipboard placement, but coming second meant that he would not get first choice for that placement. Since Tina Lucas herself had won her case that the Fourth offered the highest opportunity placement, and they were known to be available this year, they would obviously be the top choice.

  Not obviously, though, to the actual winner of the Top Cadet contest, who had asked for a placement on the Fleet’s flagship carrier, Thor, instead.

  Nyge had not been able to believe that anyone would choose not to go to the Fourth. And he had not been able to believe his luck when he was told that, as second graduate, they were offering the Heron placement to him. It came with warnings – it would mean that he would have to graduate aboard ship, missing the ceremony on Chartsey, and might dela
y the start of his career, too, as there would be no opportunities for the ship-hopping assignments usual for a Sub on tagged and flagged. Nyge had assured them that he didn’t mind that at all, that the opportunity to serve with the Fourth and to go to Quarus was everything that he could possibly want, thank you, thank you, thank you.

  He’d remained in a state of delirious joy until another cadet had commented that he’d thought the Fourth’s placement was only available to the Top Cadet, that they wouldn’t accept anyone less. It was sour grapes, of course, but it had niggled unease into his mind.

  And then had come the news that he would be coming out with Lt Lucas and Cadet Naos.

  He knew Kate, of course. Though she was in the regular Academy and the Class of 64 occupied separate buildings on campus, there was some contact and they all knew who Kate was. Kate Naos was the genius who’d invented the navigation system they were now learning about in advanced astrogation. She was a second year, socially beneath the notice of the graduating 64, but still, someone they regarded with awe, envy or resentment.

  Nyge was in the first of these groups. Truth to tell, he had had a poster of The Maths Kid on his bedroom wall as a kid, himself, and had to keep stopping himself from asking for her autograph. So at first, when he was told that she was going out to the Fourth as well, he’d been pleased – it would be really good, he’d felt, to share the adventure with her. And then, bonus upon bonus, he’d been told that Lt Lucas would be escorting them. Tina Lucas, top cadet of just two years previously, now Lt Lucas, had guest-lectured to the Class of 64 and had a standing ovation. Nyge would have rather liked her autograph, too.

  Then they’d set out. And almost at once, Nyge had started to feel uncomfortable. It was inevitable, really. The two women had been sharing a cabin while he’d had a bunk on another deck. The two of them had both been on missions with the Fourth before and naturally wanted to talk about things and people Nyge knew nothing about. They were polite about it – broke off any conversation they were having about things like that the moment he joined them and switched into topics which he could join in. All the same, he knew that he was the outsider, and he’d started to feel quite odd… lonely, almost. And all the time, that nagging doubt… what if they would only take the top cadet? What if they rejected him… he was only second best, after all.

  Arriving on the Heron had seemed to confirm all his worst fears. People here were naturally pleased to see Tina and Kate again, and there’d been the warmest of welcomes for them – a warm welcome for him, too, but always as an afterthought. He was And Nyge Tomaas. Tina, Kate… and Nyge, a long way third.

  It had been embarrassing, too, to see how much trouble their unannounced arrival caused. He’d known that the wardroom was bigger than usual on the Heron because they had a lot of supernumerary officers, but he hadn’t realised that every cabin was already in use. Extra bunks had had to be brought and fitted in, two Subs agreeing good naturedly to having a cadet sharing their already tiny cabins. Nyge would be sharing with Tom Porter, who’d cleared out some locker space for him and even cleared a shelf so he’d have somewhere to put his knick-knacks. Even so, Nyge had felt like an intruder. He hadn’t been invited here, they hadn’t even known he was coming.

  He had been doing his best to stay upbeat and positive, telling himself over and over again that it would be fine, that it was just ship-joining nerves, give it a week and he’d be wondering what he’d ever been worried about. But then Silvie had turned up and seen straight through that cheerful façade to the lonely, wretched feeling of being unwanted and unworthy.

  ‘Oh – I’m fine, honest…ow!’ he jumped as Silvie’s finger stabbed quite painfully into his ribs. ‘That hurt!’

  ‘Well, you’re hurting me,’ Silvie pointed out. ‘Not because you’re upset but because you’re lying about it and that’s like an out of tune violin being played with a blunt saw so just stop doing that and don’t say ‘honestly’ either because I know linguistic codes now and it means you’re not being honest at all.’ She got all that out on one breath, and grinned at him as he was gazing at her with pangs of guilt, now, at having made her uncomfortable. ‘Come on,’ she coaxed. ‘Honesty.’

  ‘Oh – I see … all right.’ He drew a deep breath, braced himself and looked at Tina. ‘I’m… a little anxious,’ he confessed, ‘that I’m not…’ he saw Silvie’s finger hovering again and blurted it out, ‘not really wanted here, and they’d rather have had Asa Burlow.’

  ‘Huh?’ Tina was astounded. Considerably shorter than Nyge, she gazed up at him and put her hands onto her stocky hips. ‘You really weren’t paying attention at all, were you?’ she observed. ‘Though to be fair, it does take some tuning into – you’ll learn, Mr Tomaas, to keep half an eye on comm screens as you’re going round the ship, to pick up what’s going on and get a feel for the buzz. You obviously missed the buzz which went through the ship when we came aboard, and again when the skipper confirmed that we could stay. Did you not even hear the cry of ‘yay, lads, we’ve got a snotty!’ or the cheer that went up?’

  Nyge shook his head dumbly. He had been aware of pleased reactions, but had imagined they were all for Tina and Kate.

  ‘Trust me on this,’ said Tina, ‘they love having a cadet on placement, here – as I warned you on the way out, be prepared for every wind up in the book and then some, but you will find everyone to be extremely supportive. And as for preferring Asa Burlow…’ she looked at him appraisingly. ‘That second-graduate thing getting to you, huh?’

  Nyge nodded.

  ‘Would it help,’ Tina asked, ‘if you knew that the reason you didn’t get it was political? That it came down to a four-three vote after a blistering debate in which the chair had to call for order repeatedly and make people take a break to calm down?’

  Nyge’s eyes widened. ‘Ma’am?’ He had been told that it had been ‘close’, but had no idea it had been as hard fought as all that. It gave him a strange fluttery feeling to know that the adjudicating panel – flag officers all – had been arguing so heatedly about him.

  ‘Oh yes,’ Tina said, though she was not supposed to know the details of such panels. ‘The point at issue was whether, all other things being equal – which they were, not a hairsbreadth between the two of you, otherwise – they should choose the more traditionalist Asa Burlow, or you, as a progressive. And the decision was made on the basis that the choice of Top Cadet sets the tone and example for every other Academy in the Fleet and sends a message out to all serving officers, too, about what qualities are being valued. Several of our recent Top Cadets have been progressive to the point of radical, so it was felt to be important to redress the balance somewhat by demonstrating that straightforward by-the-book traditionalism is highly valued too. The three who voted for you argued vehemently that that is not the criteria by which Top Cadet should be chosen – and another member of the panel, by the way, commented at one point that there was so little in it that they might as well toss a coin.’

  ‘Oh.’ Nyge thought about that, and how something which felt so important for his future career, for his life, had been decided like that. ‘Oh,’ he said, and stood up straight, feeling suddenly a bit more grown up and a whole lot better about himself.

  ‘And I don’t believe,’ Tina added, ‘that Asa Burlow would have coped here for more than a fortnight. As I told you on the way out, Mr Tomaas, nothing that you’ve done so far matters now. Nobody cares what grade you got for an essay or how well you did in your leadership role play, all of that was just laying the foundation. This is where your training really starts, and this is what makes the difference between a good cadet and a good officer. And I bet you a dollar, too, that in five years, Asa Burlow will be calling you ‘sir’.’

  Nyge broke into a bashful smile and Silvie gave him a pat on the arm.

  ‘There you go,’ she said. ‘That’s better. Just don’t bottle that stuff up, Nyge, okay? Talk to Tina, she’s ever so nice.’

  The new members of the Second having pa
ssed muster too, Silvie went to find Alex and told him she was ready to go to the base.

  Ready, but not really all that happy about it. He could see that she was quiet as he brought the shuttle down to land at the spaceport, and glanced sideways at her, prepared to lift the shuttle right back up again if she really didn’t want to go out there.

  ‘No,’ she said resolutely. ‘I’m okay. Let’s do this.’

  Just as she had hoped, though, her attitude changed within a few minutes – almost as soon as they walked out through the spaceport, in fact.

  ‘Oh – it’s changed.’ She looked around her, comparing what she could see with what she remembered. ‘They’ve got rid of all the signs!’

  Alex chuckled. She had told him once how incomprehensible and irritating she had found all the signage at Serenity. There were signs everywhere, outside buildings telling you what they were, inside buildings telling you where everything was, signs telling you things you had to do and signs telling you thing you weren’t allowed to. There were even signs in the lavatory telling you how to wash your hands. Were humans that stupid, Silvie had asked, that they really needed all those signs everywhere all of the time?

  So now, the only signs were the absolutely essential safety ones. All the others had been taken away.

  ‘I do listen, you know,’ he observed.

  ‘It looks better,’ Silvie approved. ‘I like the fountain, too…’ she was looking at a landscaped water feature which was now the keynote piece outside the spaceport, the first thing people would see on arrival. ‘Much better than that horrible statue.’

  ‘It was a bit grim,’ Alex agreed. One of the more sensitive changes had involved removing the historical Excorps memorial to those who’d lost their lives on expeditions. This had been relocated to a garden elsewhere, as part of a deal which had also got Excorps a new sports hall.

  ‘Oh, and there are birds now!’ Silvie exclaimed happily, seeing that a flutter of tiny birds were picking insects out of a nearby bed of ferns. ‘They wouldn’t let them on the base, before, had bird-scarer things to keep them out. Oh but look…’