What angered Frye the most was that she had every legal right to act as she had. The militia ships were what remained from her father’s old pirating days and were technically only on loan to Bridgeforce. Furthermore, there was no way to force her to remain a member of Bridgeforce.
Frye wouldn’t miss Judoff or Kuskuvyet in the least. But he had counted on those ships. They were supposed to be guarding the base of Shakav Fleet’s cone of attack. Now Commander Ely would have to use some of his own precious ships to guard the base of his formation.
Adding Judoff’s desertion to Commander Fugisho’s attack on the Oina system made Frye very uneasy about what could happen behind them as they attacked the Matthews system.
With a quick shake of his head he dropped that worry. Admiral Tuuneo was quite capable of contending with Judoff and Fugisho. His priorities lay ahead of him, and –
“Shuttle approaching, sir,” a brusque voice said, interrupting his thought.
“Identification and mission?” Frye asked.
“Replacement Corps with additional officers and technicians as expected, sir. Also the civilian you were looking for, one Marsha L. C. Yednoshpfa.”
Frye’s heart jumped. Lisa Cay! She made it! “What’s the E.T.A. on that shuttle?” he asked, his voice barely under control.
“Estimated time of arrival one-four-four minutes, sir.”
“Very good. Notify me when they dock. And have Yednoshpfa sent directly to my cabin.”
“As you will, sir.”
Suddenly Frye felt better. He leaned back, clasped his hands behind his head, and allowed himself a smile. Lisa Cay was going to be with him, and regardless of how irrational his thoughts about her were, he knew everything would be easier with her at his side. Hadn’t she come through Decie only knew what to get to him? A daughter with that much determination would make the best AOCO he could possibly have.
A slight flicker of regret came with the thought of AOCOs. He wondered how Melliman was doing under Ely – and wondered if he had truly done the right thing. The regret was shaded by a wisp of anger. It isn’t fair to feel this way about her, he thought, but no one promised me life would be fair.
“Now I’d better check the rest of the reports before Lisa Cay gets here,” he said aloud.
Three hours later as he cleared his last response through the microspooler, someone knocked outside. He crossed the cabin in three quick strides and slid the door back. For the briefest moment he saw Vinita in Lisa Cay’s face. Then he opened his arms, and she stepped into them with a fierceness that surprised him.
“It’s been a long time,” she said quietly as she tightened her arms around him and pressed her head against his shoulder.
“Too long.”
“How is Mother?” She felt him stiffen and pulled her head back to look at him. “Father? Is she…?” The look on his face gave her the answer. Guilt and sorrow washed through her and spilled in quick tears down her face. “When? How?” she stammered as he pulled her into the cabin and shut the door.
“She was sick for a long time,” Frye said quietly as he led her to a chair. “The end was quick and painless.” The look on Lisa Cay’s face tightened a hard knot inside him. He pulled a chair up to hers, sat facing her, and took her hands in his. A cold, closed fist gripped his chest. That angered him. He had hoped, had expected, had believed Lisa Cay would open the warmth inside him again.
“Tell me about it,” she said softly.
“She was sick. The doctors said it was incurable. She died in my arms. There’s nothing else to tell.”
Marsha Lisa Cay heard something she couldn’t identify in her father’s voice, an echo from the time and distance which had separated them. “Father…if I had been there,” she said as she freed one of her hands and wiped the tears from her eyes, “if I had known that she was sick, I –“
“There was no way you could know,” he said releasing her other hand and unconsciously folding his own hands together. “You were…Decie only knows where, and there was no way –“
“There was the message drop.”
He felt himself clenching his fingers and looked at her with an anger that opposed his deepest wishes. Frye forced his hands to relax and leaned back in his chair. “I tried that, Lisa Cay. You never answered.”
“I go by Marsha, now. And I checked the message drop regularly,” she said, fending off the tone of accusation she heard in his voice. “There was never a message from you.” Now she heard the accusation in her own voice.
“It doesn’t matter,” Frye said firmly. “It’s over now, part of the past. I’m just glad you are here.”
“Somehow I have a hard time believing that.”
“Please, Lisa Cay –“
“Marsha.”
“All right, then, Marsha. Your mother always liked that name, too…Marsha, try to believe that I am very, very pleased to have you here with me.”
As steadily as she could, she looked him straight in the eye while her mind seethed with images of the day that she had left home. No matter what he said, she doubted his words. Even when he had made her promise on that day of departure that she would return if they needed her, she never believed he really wanted her to stay. Her disbelief had driven her away in the first place, yet she had hoped that it would change, that she would be able to believe what he said. Now she knew it hadn’t. “Why?”
Frye looked at her and realized that he was actually facing a woman he barely knew. “Why what?”
“Why are you pleased to have me here?”
“Because I need your help. I want you to be my Aide-of-Commander.” He had not meant to spring that idea on her so quickly, but –
“Your AOCO? ME? Why?” Regardless of the other emotions whirling around inside her, she was flattered that he wanted her for that.
“I just think we would make a good team – the best team I can imagine,” Frye said, pushing aside a brief image of Melliman.
Marsha hesitated. There was something else there, some other emotion lurking just behind his words. “Just like you and Mother in the old days?” she asked suddenly.
Her comment startled him. Was that what he wanted? “I, uh, I don’t know.” He looked down at his hands and tried to sort his thoughts, but the pressure of her presence after all these years slowed his mind. “Look, Lisa, uh, Marsha, I don’t know if that’s it at all. I hadn’t even thought about that.” As he looked up at her and read the sadness in her eyes, he wished this meeting had gone differently – much differently. “But I do know that I want you here – for whatever reasons.”
For a long moment Marsha stared at him and waited, hoping he would say why, holding her response as she had held it years before in anticipation of the words he could never say to her, the words she needed to hear. Finally she couldn’t stand the silence or his gaze any longer and looked away. “Mother was the only one, wasn’t she?” she asked softly.
Frye shook his head slightly. Her question didn’t make sense. “What do you mean?”
“She was the only person you ever loved – I mean, really loved in your whole life.”
“Now listen, Marsha. You have –“
“No, Father, you listen.” Something snapped quietly inside her, and she knew she had to have the answer. “I’ll work for you,” she said firmly, “and I’ll be your AOCO if that’s what you want. But we have to clear this away. Did you ever love anyone except Mother?...Like me?...Did you love me?”
The intensity of her question lowered a dark curtain in his heart, but against that colorless backdrop, it was easy to be honest with her. “No,” he said softly. “You’re right. She was the only one – ever. I tried to love you, but that’s just not the same thing…is it?”
His words relieved her even as they disappointed her. “No, Father, it isn’t the same. But I’m glad you tried.” Tears spilled slowly from the corners of her eyes – not for the love she had never had from her father, but for the love she had given up to get to him. Somewhere out in the galax
y was Lucky Teeman, a man who loved her without question.
“Did you mean what you said, about being my AOCO?”
“Yes,” she said as she wiped away her tears. “I’m here. I’ll serve you and the U.C.S. as best I can until this war is over, or until you don’t need me anymore.”
“Good,” he said with a smile that felt awkward on his face. “I’m glad. I really am.”
◊ ◊ ◊
Admiral Pajandcan acknowledged Gilbert’s message and notified him that she was moving her fleet into its initial defense position. Then she called Dawson to wish him luck before giving the final movement order.
“Worried, Admiral?” Dawson’s fuzzy image asked from her screen.
“Not me. You’re the one who’d better be worried. Even if we find the Ukes, you’re probably going to take a beating.”
“Maybe so. We found another of those Uke missiles. Same results as before. It self-destructed well before we could get to it. That makes four altogether.”
“I just hope you have enough time to find the rest of them.”
“I have enough methane for my fighters. But can you and Admiral Gilbert give us the time? What are you going to do on short fuel rations?”
“The best I can, Dawson – just like everyone else, the best I can, Dawson – just like everyone else, the best I can. That’s all any of us can do. If we’re careful, the fuel we have will get us through.”
“Well…break an arm, Admiral.”
“What?”
“I said, break an arm. That means I hope it works out all right for you.”
“That’s an odd way of wishing someone good luck.”
“Odd or not, it’s my best for –“
A burst of static from the short-range transceiver cut him off. “If you can hear me, Dawson, you break an arm, too,” Pajandcan said. She shut down her transceiver and rejected the idea of sending the same message to Gilbert. I’d give a broken arm to win this one, she thought…an arm and a leg, too.
She ordered her fleet to move, then with a sudden smile she loaded her transceiver with three words and sent them in a burst toward Gilbert’s nonrevertors. Let them figure it out, she thought. It will give them something to do to break the monotony of waiting.
◊ ◊ ◊
Mica read the first message with a faintly puzzled look in her eyes and a bare echo of understanding. “Of course,” she said as a small grin crept across her lips. “It means good luck. It has to.” For a moment she marveled at the perversity of the human spirit expressing positive wishes in negative form. But she knew her father of all people would understand that, so she printed out a hard copy of the message and sent it up to him. Maybe he would grin too.
The second message was from Rochmon, and Mica caught herself unexpectedly wishing she could talk directly to him. Why, she could not be sure, but she knew Rochmon fulfilled a need for her, a need for confidence no one else quite seemed to satisfy.
The message looked routine, another report that the Ukes had definitely divided into two fleets, both heading in the general direction of the Matthews system. On second reading she decided it wasn’t routine at all. Hidden between the words was something else, an implication that Mica might have missed had she not read it again.
“Smaller of the two fleets commanded by Ely, one of their lesser known commanders,” the message stated.
If Commander Ely controlled one fleet and Commander Charltos controlled the main fleet, what had happened to Marshall Judoff and Commander Kuskuvyet? Cryptography had been sure that one of those two would be in command of at least part of the Uke attack force. Could there be a third fleet they knew nothing about? Mica decided that her father needed this information as quickly as possible and carried it herself.
“And you think it’s important,” he said minutes later, after hearing her out.
“I do.”
“Then why didn’t Rochmon say what he meant?”
“Afraid of interception? I don’t know, sir. But I am sure that he meant for me to catch it. Ely is not a lesser known commander. We can assume – if our intelligence is right – that he is politically less powerful than Judoff. But he rose through the ranks during the last war, and militarily he certainly knows what he’s doing.”
“And what do you think that means, Mica?”
“I think it means we’re up against a tougher opponent than we thought we would be. If Ely is in command of the second fleet and leads an attack on the polar systems as we suspect, then I think it means we’re in trouble.”
Josiah Gilbert wrinkled his brow in concentration and absently rubbed a thumb along his chin. “There’s no way Polar Fleet can stop a concentrated attack. We’re not even sure we can stop one here. But suppose this is only the feint – suppose Charltos is leading the attack on the polar systems and – no.”
He paused and looked slowly around at his officers and men. “No,” he said again. “Tell Rochmon to alert POLFLEET Command and wish them luck. We’re sticking with our plan. If Charltos is out there, he wants this system,, and we have to keep him from getting it – at all costs.”
18
“HE’S WHERE?”
“On Patros – at least that’s what Sci-Sec believes. They followed him there, but they cannot be sure he remains on that planet.”
“Pardon my asking, sir,” Sjean said quietly, “but if Scientific Security knows where Ayne is, why should we care?”
Caugust leaned forward and braced his elbows on his desk. “Because he is a security risk – one we can ill afford – and Sci-Sec wants to know how much of a risk he is so that they can –“
“But, sir –“
“Let me finish, Sjean. Sci-Sec would like to follow him rather than try to capture him if – and that’s a big if – if he is not too much of a threat. I told them you’d have to answer that question, which is why I want you to talk to Inspector Janette as soon as she arrives.”
Sjean was frustrated by this whole conversation. “And just how am I supposed to determine the risk factors, sir? What am I supposed to tell this Inspector Janette? That Ayne Wallen discovered the equations for reciprocal action at a distance? We don’t even understand how valuable they are yet, and there’s no guarantee this first series of tests will tell us. How can we determine how much his knowledge of them threatens us?”
“I don’t know, Sjean. But if you cannot determine the risk factors, no one can.”
He leaned back with a smile that surprised her, but before she could say anything his intercom buzzer went off.
“Inspector Janette from Scientific Security to see you, Dr. Drautz.”
“Send her in.”
They both rose as the door opened and were surprised to find themselves facing a tiny, beautiful woman with long blond hair. She wore a shimmering black suit that clung to her diminutive figure and made her look even smaller than she really was.
“Inspector Janette? I’m Caugust Drautz.” His voice betrayed his surprise at her appearance. “This is one of my chief scientists, Dr. Sjean Birkie.”
“Pleased to meet you both,” Janette said in a quietly lilting voice as she crossed the room gracefully and gave them each a slight bow.
“As we are to meet you.” Sjean couldn’t identify the subtle accents in Janette’s voice, but she was immediately intrigued by them and the woman herself.
“Please, be seated,” Caugust said with a gentle wave toward the chairs opposite his desk, “and tell us how you think we can be of assistance to Scientific Security.”
“If you do not mind,” Janette said, “I would rather sit facing the door – an old habit of mine, no longer necessary, but one difficult to break.”
“Then by all means, take my chair.” Caugust moved away from his desk, and Janette slipped past him and sat easily in his large, overstuffed chair.
For the briefest moment Sjean thought the tiny inspector looked silly in a chair meant for someone much larger. But as she settled herself opposite Janette, her opinion changed. The w
oman’s size meant nothing. She dominated the chair and the desk with a sense of sureness that Sjean could only admire and envy.
“I thank you both for agreeing to this meeting,” Janette said as Caugust sat beside Sjean, “and I want you to know that your information – however slight it may seem to you – will be of much help to us.”
“Perhaps if you could tell us exactly what you want to know, we could better assist you,” Caugust said as he readjusted his bulky frame in his chair.
“That is difficult,” Janette said, turning her gaze and slight smile Caugust to Sjean, “but the most difficult part is yours. You must tell me enough so that Sci-Sec understands what Wallen knows without telling us so much that any of our agents could pose a security risk themselves.”
“He discovered these equations?”
“Yes,” Sjean said, annoyed by Janette’s interruption.
“So much the worse. Please continue, Doctor.”
“For us,” she said, “they have only opened a highly promising channel toward practical applications. If they are correct, of course – and so far we have no reason to believe they are not – then they could guide us directly to the most devastating weapon the galaxy –“
“No!” Janette said sharply. “Do not tell me about your Ultimate Weapon. I already know more about that than I want to.”
“But how then –“
“What do you –“
A wave of Janette’s hand cut them off. “I am sorry. I do not mean to be rude to either of you. However, for the moment all I need to know is if Wallen’s knowledge could assist the Ukes or anyone else in making a weapon such as ours. If we need more detailed information later, we know –“
“But we do not have a weapon,” Caugust said, “nor are we sure we will have one. We are barely ready to begin our first basic tests.”
Silence held the room for an endless moment as they waited for Inspector Janette to respond. Finally she leaned back into the folds of the chair with a grim smile that Sjean thought looked foreign on her pretty face.
“You will. You will. That is your job. My job is to ensure that the Ukes do not have one also.”
Double Spiral War Trilogy Page 19