The Sea Without a Shore - eARC

by David Drake

  Adele realized that though the Kiesche’s thrusters were cold, her pumps were running. Their vibration made the water around the ship’s outriggers and hull tremble into tiny pointed waves.

  They’ve waited liftoff for me, Adele realized. She should have sent a message, but she had been so involved with the process of disinterring the books that it hadn’t crossed her mind. At the back of her mind, she had assumed that if Daniel needed her, he would call her. Instead, he and the rest of the crew had waited quietly rather than disturbing whatever she was doing.

  “I’ve been discourteous,” Adele said without an explicit context. “My mother would be upset to learn that. She felt that courtesy was the most basic rule which set human beings above the beasts.”

  “I doubt that your mother and I would have gotten along well,” Daniel said. “More to the point, I suspect your mother would have been useless to the RCN, whereas you are valuable beyond anything I could compare you with. Now, shall we bring the library back with us? And Master Lipschitz won’t be a problem either, so long as he doesn’t expect the Kiesche to have luxurious staterooms.”

  “No,” said Adele. “I think the Gulkander Library is part of Corcyra’s cultural heritage, though it may be some while—generations, centuries even—before the planet understands that. Our friends here—”

  She nodded to the Transformationists; they smiled briefly in response. They had remained expressionless while Daniel and Adele discussed the situation.

  “—will keep the collection together while the process goes on. While Corcyra becomes civilized.”

  She decided to smile as though the final comment had been a joke. It wasn’t.

  “Master Lipschitz won’t leave the books,” Cleveland said. “He was sneaking into the palace basement at night to make sure that they weren’t being injured, even though he knew that if Mursiello’s thugs caught him they were likely to shoot him right there. I got to talking with him a bit while we were we were moving rubble.”

  He gestured to the dusty work shirt and coveralls he was wearing. The right side-pocket of Graves’ similar outfit was ripped half open where something heavy had snagged the fabric and continued on in whatever direction it had been going in the first place.

  “I suggested that we do it by hand,” Graves said with a rueful glance down at his own garments. “I was afraid that if we used heavy equipment, we might finish what the missiles had started. That was the right decision, but by the time we were done I was wishing that our other fifty soldiers had come back from Hablinger with the first company.”

  “Master Lipschitz is really very welcome,” Cleveland said. “The Community has a number of members who will be as pleased to see the books as you were yourself.”

  He grinned engagingly and added, “Well, almost as pleased.”

  Daniel shrugged and said, “Who knows? Perhaps Lipschitz will wind up becoming a Transformationist himself.”

  “I very much doubt that,” Adele said, hoping her voice didn’t display the horror that she felt at the suggestion. “I believe that Master Lipschitz regards spirituality much the way as I do—as something other people talk about.”

  “You might find peace with us yourself, Lady Mundy,” Graves said quietly. He smiled, but she could see that the expression was an attempt to lighten the sadness of his tone.

  “No doubt I’ll find peace one day, Brother Graves,” she said, nodding crisply. “Thank you for the offer.”

  I’ll find peace, I’m sure. From an impeller slug or perhaps when a missile blasts the ship I’m in to vapor. But Graves meant well, they all meant well, and she kept those thoughts to herself.

  “Well, if you gentlemen are satisfied,” Daniel said, nodding to Cleveland and Graves, “and you’ve finished your business, Adele…?”

  “I have,” Adele said, nodding.

  “Then we’ll take our leave,” Daniel said, straightening. He offered his hand, first to Graves. “I hope things continue to go well for your community. If you happen to be on Cinnabar when I am, I’d be glad to show you Bantry. I find it as peaceful as you say Pearl Valley is. I’m sure I didn’t see Pearl Valley under the best circumstances, of course.”

  Adele straightened also. She wasn’t precisely looking forward to Cinnabar, but she would be as glad as not to be off Corcyra. The only people on the planet who cared about the things that were important to her were some of the Transformationists, but she had more in common with farmers and hard-rock miners than she did with a band of cultists.

  “Ah, if you please, Captain?” Cleveland said, reaching into his right cargo pocket. “There’s one more thing I’d like you to take care of.”

  He brought out the blue bag and started to open it. Before Cleveland could bring out the huge diamond, Daniel squeezed the mouth of the bag closed.

  “I’ll take it on faith that the contents of the bag are what they were when we found it,” Daniel said. “I’d just as soon not tell everybody on the harborfront what we’ve got here.”

  Tovera giggled. Hogg grunted and gave his version of the same thought: “Let somebody try.”

  “I prefer a quiet life,” Daniel said, grinning at Cleveland and Graves. “I realize that not everyone shares my preferences.”

  “With respect, Captain Leary,” Graves said, “I’d be surprised to learn that you won the Cinnabar Star by living a quiet life. It’s the highest decoration that the navy awards, is it not?”

  “It’s not nearly as pretty as the sash and medal that make me a Companion of Novy Sverdlovsk, though,” Daniel said. “But if you prefer, let me correct myself by saying that I’m never more content than when I’m standing at the masthead of a ship in the Matrix, except perhaps when I’m fishing on Bantry.”

  Everything Daniel said was the truth, Adele realized, but it was also a way to blur the real truth into the background. Daniel was brave without thinking about it; he was skilled in his profession beyond most other naval officers; and he was a gentleman who would no more brag about such things—or let others brag for him—than he would cheat at cards.

  You might have gotten along better with my mother than you think, Daniel. Daniel was charming to women; though women had to be younger and prettier and far less intelligent than Evadne Rolfe Mundy before the charm would have any practical object.

  Miranda Dorst was a welcome exception to Daniel’s string of stupid bimbos; but then, Miranda was an exceptional person in many respects. Which mother was not, unfortunately. Perhaps if she had been, her head and father’s might not have decorated Speaker’s Rock after Corder Leary broke their poorly managed conspiracy.

  “I assumed you would dispose of this,” Daniel said, hefting the bag in the palm of his left hand. “I’d be happy—and I’m sure your mother would be happy, Cleveland—to accept my share of the proceeds after you’ve arranged for the sale.”

  “You’re in a better place to deal with an item like this, Captain,” Graves said. “There are members of the community who have expertise in jewelry, but this is a unique item. While we trust our off-planet agents, it seemed that a principal should oversee the sale. Rather than one of us—”

  Cleveland grinned and interjected, “Or even two of us.”

  “Yes,” said Graves, grinning also. “Rather than members having to leave the community for the purpose, we thought you could handle the matter and remit our share to a community account on Pleasaunce or Xenos. You made the discovery and took the risk, after all.”

  “Umm…,” said Daniel. “I dare say my sister could deal with this. Heaven help anybody who tried to cheat her. But if you don’t mind, I think I’d rather put the matter in the hands of Mistress Sand. If you have a starship to command, I’m your man. Business, though, I’d rather not be responsible for, even if I have confidence in my agent.”

  Cleveland chuckled. “I trust mother, certainly,” he said. His expression became wistful. He added, “It would almost be worthwhile going back with you after all, just to put that—”

  He gestu
red.

  “—in mother’s hand and watch her face as she opened it. I’ve disappointed her many times, but she never gave up on me.”

  Adele was uncomfortable thinking of Mistress Sand as a person, a mother, instead of being the efficient spymaster for whom Officer Mundy worked. “If I may ask?” she said, changing the subject. Her tone had no question in it. “Do you still intend to buy arms with the proceeds?”

  “Thanks to your initial cargo…,” said Graves. He seemed a little surprised by the question, though he didn’t hesitate to answer. “We’re really quite well armed already. We did consider a battery of anti-ship missiles and perhaps even armored vehicles, though. After clarification by the experts in our community, we decided that all such equipment would do would be to make us targets for any future group which wanted to launch a coup.”

  “We’d have made ourselves worth robbing,” Cleveland said. “A surprise attack on us would be the first act of the plotters.”

  Daniel was nodding agreement. Adele saw the logic, but it hadn’t been intuitively obvious to her.

  Someone could attack me to get the pistol I carry, she thought. Then, Or to get my belt purse or my jacket or my data unit. They’re welcome to try.

  “We’ll build more dormitories,” Graves said. “There will be more people arriving on Corcyra with the change in circumstances. Most of them will be coming to get rich—”

  He smiled.

  “—the way I did, for example. But some will visit Pearl Valley, and some of those will stay. As I also did.”

  “And the rest of the proceeds can go into the community’s bank deposits off-planet,” Cleveland said. “Which could be used to purchase missile batteries, if necessary, though of course we hope that will not be the case.”

  “Lady Mundy?” Graves said, looking at her. “If I may ask a question in turn…?”

  She nodded.

  “How will you be compensated? You’re not a partner in the enterprise, but your personal involvement was crucial at several points over the past months.”

  Daniel looked at her. Adele shook her head minusculely; she didn’t need help handling the question.

  “I’m not very interested in money,” she said, “but in point of fact I’ve got quite a lot of it. Probably more in terms of ready cash than my father could have put his hands on at the height of his political power.”

  That was an understatement. Lucius Mundy had mortgaged everything he had or could claim a future interest in. In a manner of speaking, the biggest losers from the collapse of the Three Circles Conspiracy were the moneylenders—although relatively few of them had their heads displayed on Speaker’s Rock.

  “I’m wealthy,” Adele continued, “because I have been a warrant officer on RCN ships which won large sums in prize money, and because my shares have been administered with great skill.”

  She coughed. “And it’s my understanding,” she said, “that Captain Leary intends to divide his share of the treasure, the jewel—”

  She gestured with her right index finger.

  “—among the crew as though it were a prize. A very lucrative prize.”

  “Lady Mundy is correct,” Daniel said. His voice was mild and cheery, apparently unaffected by what could have been read as Graves’ suggestion that he would have cheated his crew. “But as she also implied, no one signed aboard the Kiesche because of the money they expected from the voyage.”

  A ship lighted its thrusters two by two near the top—south—end of Brotherhood Harbor. The noise wasn’t too loud to talk over, but it didn’t encourage an extension of the present conversation.

  I might be interested if I were listening to it through a surveillance microphone. Adele smiled at her own thought.

  “One thing before we all go off to our duties, Captain,” Graves said. “You know that there’s a new harbor at Hablinger to replace the previous one. You helped design it, in fact.”

  “Given that Hablinger Pool was now thirty feet in the air and baking in the sun,” Daniel said, “there wasn’t much choice about creating a new harbor. And I didn’t do much about the design except convince the Independence Council to commit more resources than they might otherwise have done. If Commissioner Arnaud can move his whole force in a single lift, there’ll be fewer problems en route and on Pantellaria.”

  He shrugged and turned his hands palms-up. “It was just common sense that benefitted everyone.”

  “Indeed,” said Graves. His tone was barely neutral, certainly not one of agreement. “Be that as it may, they—the Council, we—have named the new installation Leary Harbor.”

  Hogg turned his head and spat toward the water. The gobbet didn’t quite clear the edge of the quay.

  “Wonderful!” he said. “Daniel Leary of Bantry is honored for his services to bloody farmers.”

  “Actually, I am honored,” Daniel said, raising his voice enough to be heard over the thrusters—all six together now. “And Hogg, you might recall that many of the Bantry tenants are farmers. You and your ancestors among them.”

  “Well, we were bloody bad farmers,” Hogg said. “Which is why we had to get so good at poaching.”

  He grinned broadly. “And I guess there’s poachers in the Delta here too,” he added, “so I take back anything I said about Leary Harbor.”

  Daniel waved to the Transformationists rather than shaking hands again, then turned on his heel and started down the walkway. Woetjans and a team waited to roll it up as soon as Hogg and Tovera were clear.

  Daniel stretched as he and Adele walked up the ramp together. “I’m looking forward to some real fishing,” he said. “Instead of groping about in a waste pond, however pretty the toy that I found there.”

  “I’ve never understood the attraction of fishing,” Adele said. “I’m glad that you do, though. It seems to relax you.”

  They stepped over the coaming and into the main hold. Daniel looked at Adele and said, “I hope your other employer will be pleased with the way things worked out here.”

  Adele stopped and looked at him. There were several spacers close by, but that didn’t matter.

  He thinks my other employer is Mistress Sand rather than Corder Leary.

  “She will be very pleased,” Adele said. “The outcome which you engineered, a neutral government on Pantellaria, improves relations between the Republic and the Alliance instead of sparking a full-scale war between us.”

  That was almost a lie, but it wasn’t a lie; and it will make my friend happier than he would be if I explained the whole truth.

  As she resumed walking she thought, Even my mother would approve.

  Cory started the hatch rising as Woetjans trotted up it behind the riggers who carried the walkway. The thrusters remained cold. Pasternak was waiting for everyone to board.

  Daniel ducked under the bridge hatch, a reflex action from naval vessels whose internal piercings were tighter than those of civilian vessels where hull strength wasn’t as much of a requirement. He would take a jumpseat, allowing Cory to lift the Kiesche to orbit from the command console.

  Adele made her way to the back of the console, left open for her. That was merely a courtesy, since she had no present need of the better display. She appreciated courtesy, here and in all circumstances.

  She wondered how Deirdre would react when she learned Adele’s price for saving the family name: transfer of the Bantry estate to Daniel Leary for his life and the life of the heirs of his blood. Expensive lawyers had assured Adele that not even Corder Leary could break the estate’s entail, but this extended life estate would have the same effect so long as any descendent of Daniel lived.

  Adele seated herself at the console. Discussions on the command channel were preparing the Kiesche for liftoff. On whim she brought up an image of Bantry, looking from the seafront toward the hamlet and, to the left, the sprawling Manor.

  Miranda already liked Bantry. It would be a good place for a wedding, and an even better one to raise the sort of children that Squire Danie
l Leary would want. Adele was sure that the Manor would always have a guest room for Lady Mundy, if she chose to visit.

  The Kiesche’s thrusters thumped to life. Using a two-way link—Daniel wasn’t really involved in the ship’s business at the moment, after all—Adele said, “Daniel? Do you think you could teach me to fish? With practice, I might come to appreciate it.”