Death Ship Quest

by William Zellmann

  He paced. He called up holovids and bookvids on the terminal, trying without success to lose himself in them. He paced some more. He tried to nap, with little success. A few hours in a luxurious cabin, and he already felt as though he had been imprisoned for months!

  He forced himself calm, called up another bookvid, and with iron discipline, forced himself to concentrate on its contents. Luckily, it was a gunnery manual -- Projectile Versus Beam in Space Combat, a classic and one of his favorites.

  He wished he could call Gran Telker aboard Starhopper and play him a few games of Jasc. However, Gran was serving under another captain now. Oh, he was sure that Ler-Traken would not object. Nevertheless, he would feel as though he were keeping Gran from his duties. Perhaps later that evening, during Gran’s off time . . .

  Time might pass with agonizing slowness, but pass it did. He finally slipped off to sleep late that “night.” He was up before reveille, pacing again. The steward was just removing the tray with Kas’ noon meal when he was summoned to Pankin’s cabin.

  Pankin’s expression was grim. “Well, Commodore,” he began without preamble, “I’ve made us a deal. It’s not ideal, but at least you won’t be executed or spend the rest of your life on Hellbore. I hope.

  “The Senator’s tame medical board will lift the quarantine in a week or so -- they want to give themselves time to look as though they’ve given the matter serious study.

  “The committee will continue its hearings, and, to save their faces, the charges against you in the Lu-Jenks matter will be reinstated and additional charges of disobedience of a direct order and placing Fleet personnel at unnecessary risk will be leveled.”

  He smiled at Kas’ stricken expression. “Trust me, Kas. You have made a powerful enemy, but like many senators, Ta-Lank has little understanding of Fleet matters. He seems to be under the impression that by insisting on a court-martial, he has somehow taken the matter out of my hands.”

  Pankin shrugged. “To a certain extent, of course, he has. I can have little effect on the verdict of a court or on the punishment it imposes. On the other hand, I do have the authority to assign the officers who will make up the court. And of course, I’m free to talk with them before assigning them. This will not be a political lynching.

  “You will be relieved of your command, of course.” Kas was unsurprised. He had not really expected to keep command of the battle cruiser now that the mission was over.

  “You’ll also be moved down a hundred names on the promotion lists,” Pankin continued. Kas suppressed a shrug of indifference. He knew that Pankin had reached far “below the line” to promote him to Commodore. His chances of ever making Rear Admiral had already been nonexistent.

  “And finally,” Pankin finished, “You’ll be placed on Unassigned Duty.” Kas winced. That was serious. In theory, placement on Unassigned Duty merely meant that an officer was in transition, between duty assignments. But in practice, Unassigned Duty was the Fleet’s method of dealing with senior officers who were too incompetent to command Fleet personnel, but whose families were too wealthy or powerful to permit them to be simply kicked out of the Fleet. It meant that Kas would have no duty assignment at all. He would have no job, no function. He would spend the rest of his career sitting in the Flag Officers’ Quarters on Prime Base. Fleet people referred to it derisively as the “ROAD Program”—“Retired on Active Duty.”

  Pankin sat back with a satisfied grin. “Your reaction tells me that should be sufficient to convince Ta-Lank that you’re being thoroughly punished. Oh, relax, Kas. Of course, under normal circumstances it would be a severe punishment. But you will not be working under normal circumstances.

  “No,” he continued. “In your case, Unassigned Status means you’ll be on call to work for me. I told you tough times are coming. I need a troubleshooter; someone who can help me whip the Fleet into shape. And you’re it. You will be plenty busy hopping from one crisis to another while we weed out the dead wood. So don’t let your status fool you as I hope it will fool Ta-Lank.”

  Kas did not know what to say. Working for Pankin promised to not be dull, but it wasn’t command, either . . .

  “Oh, yes,” Pankin’s words interrupted Kas’ train of thought. “Speaking of unassigned resources,” he continued, “I seem to have another one. Starhopper. Fleet Intelligence tells me she is of no use to them -- they say she has been ‘blown’. By that, I gather that they mean she’s too widely known by now to be able to act in a covert role.”

  Kas frowned. Starhopper was much too good a ship to be scrapped, but that seemed to be what Pankin was leading up to.

  “Since Intelligence doesn’t want her,” Pankin resumed, “and she certainly has no place in the Fleet order of battle, I’m leaving her crewed but unassigned at Prime Base. That way she will be available for your use. We’ll have to remove the lasers, of course. Everyone in known space knows about them now. But the only mention of the quickfirers was in your report of the asteroid impact in that unnamed system. Somehow, it seems to have been deleted. So, you will have at least some weaponry available. And since she’s already on the rolls as a diplomatic vessel you should be able to move around with relative ease.”

  Kas was stunned. He was being given Starhopper as virtually a private yacht!

  Pankin shrugged. “You’ll have to command her yourself, of course. I can’t spare an officer of the quality of Ler-Traken. But I don’t think that’ll be a problem, do you?”

  Kas struggled to contain his excitement. “Of course not, sir. I . . . I don’t know what to say. I . . .”

  The Grand Admiral waved a hand in dismissal. “Don’t say anything, Commodore.” A smile struggled to break through. “I told you to keep your head down, but it appears impossible for you to do that. So, I guess the next best thing is to keep you close, where I can sit on you if necessary!”

  After a few more pleasantries and another firm warning to make sure the committee hearings went as planned, Kas was dismissed.

  Kas paid no attention to his marine guards as he hurried back to his stateroom. Wait until he told Lady Jane!

  THE END

  Watch for more exciting space adventure from William Zellmann coming soon!