“Both.” Pajandcan smiled grimly. It was time to confront them. “Look, Chief, I know all about your background, and I also have a pretty good idea of why Josiah sent you out here.”
“I asked to come.”
“Right. But not as a chief warrant officer. What I don’t understand,” she said, looking at Mica with a sudden wrinkling of her brow, “is why you’re here.”
“As the Chief’s aide,” Mica said, “and to assist the Cryptography staff.”
“What else?”
“That’s all.”
“Lie to someone else, Captain, but tell me the truth. Right now,” Pajandcan said with an even darker look. “If you are playing watchbird for father, you’d better tell me. I have no intention of –“
“Tell her,” Henley said quickly, sensing trouble. “Your father said she could be trusted.”
Mica looked from one of them to the other with mixed emotions. As much as she had come to like and respect Henley on their trip together, she wasn’t sure his snap decision was the correct one. On the other hand, her father had said –
“Well, Captain?”
The simmering anger was so evident on Admiral Pajandcan’s face that Mica knew that Henley was right. “Call it whatever you like, Admiral,” she said, meeting Pajandcan’s stare. “Father asked me to send him unofficial reports on anything I saw that I thought would interest him. He’s especially concerned about the morale of the fleet.”
Henley watched the two of them closely and could tell that this confrontation was not going to be pleasant. He wanted to help Mica, but would have to wait for the right chance to do so.
Pajandcan’s anger held steady. “All right,” she said slowly, “I have no objections to that. It wouldn’t be the first time your father has put an observer in someone’s command.”
“What do you mean?” Mica asked.
“I mean what I said. Years ago I did some dirty work for him myself,” Pajandcan said with a tight, humorless smile. And learned to hate him as much as I loved him, she thought. “But I want to see copies of anything you send him.”
Mica frowned. “I don’t think I can do –“
“That’s right, Captain. You don’t think. You just give me copies of anything you send to your father.” Pajandcan’s anger was growing again. “I don’t care if I get them before or after you send them. I’m not trying to censor you. But I damned well better get to see them. Is that understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Mica said with a sarcastic salute. She had no intention of actually following that order.
“Chief, wait outside!” Pajandcan snapped.
“As you wish, Admiral,” he said. It looked like he wouldn’t get the opportunity to help Mica after all. As quickly as he could, he left her office and planted himself in the companionway to wait for Mica. He knew she could handle herself, but that didn’t stop him from worrying about her.
Pajandcan waited for the door to slide closed before she spoke again. “You’re a spacer’s brat, Mica Gilbert, and there’s nothing that can be done about that. But there’s something you might as well know right here and now.”
Mica thought Pajandcan’s anger was out of proportion to the situation, but she decided it would be better to hear her out and tell her father about it as soon as possible.
“You know I served with your father – served with him for a long time at close quarters, if you know what I mean.” Pajandcan waited until she saw the look of understanding on Mica’s face. “That’s right…close quarters. If he and I both hadn’t been so ambitious,” she said, hesitating for a long purposeful second, “I could have been your mother.” She leaned back with a smile of satisfaction.
“I don’t know what to say, Admiral.” What could anyone have said to something so bizarre? Pajandcan was telling Mica the most improbable thing she had ever heard. Or was it? Could her father and Pajandcan really have –
“There’s more, brat.” Pajandcan leaned forward with a quivering intensity. “Ever since that time your father has managed to keep eyes on me. After a while, in every command I served in there would always be someone who tried to hard to be my friend, or poked too deeply into my kit, and slowly I –“
“Surely you don’t think –“
“Hush, brat, and let me finish.” It felt good to tell this to someone after all these years, especially to someone as symbolic as Mica. Pajandcan wasn’t about to be interrupted. “Slowly I began to pile it up, to realize that all those people were reporting to your father. And you know what? Even after he married your mother it kept happening, and I was flattered – flattered that he still cared that much about me and what I was doing.”
The words poured into Mica’s brain like a shock wave. Her father? Pajandcan? Did he still –
“But burn it in space, brat! I’ll not be spied upon by the woman who could have been my daughter – not without knowing everything she says about me!”
Mica rejected every rebuttal that popped into her mind. None of it seemed to make any sense. She stared at her hands feeling isolated and confused, holding back a flood of emotions she couldn’t even recognize.
“Look at me, Mica,” Pajandcan said softly.
Mica did as she was told.
“I don’t mean to hurt you by telling you this. In fact, if Josiah hadn’t put you in this position, you probably would never have known. But you have to understand my position. What he asked you to do doesn’t have anything to do with the Service. Think about that. Then we’ll talk some more. All right?”
With a numb nod Mica Stood. “I think I need some rest.”
“Certainly. We’ll talk again later.” Pajandcan watched her leave with mixed feelings of sadness and triumph. She had gotten rid of an old burden, but she might have done so unfairly. With a slow sigh she turned back to the endless paperwork that awaited her attention, but her mind kept drifting to the past.
Somehow Mica had remembered to salute before she left. As soon as the door closed behind her Henley took her arm.
“What did she say? What’s wrong?” he asked. It was obvious that she was very upset about something. Maybe he should have resisted Pajandcan’s order.
“Take me to my cabin, please,” she said softly, the flood surging back and forth inside her.
It took an effort from both of them to find their way back to her cabin, and all the while Mica felt a need she didn’t understand rising about her internal confusion. As he opened the door to her cabin, she looked up at Henley and knew what it was. Admiral Pajandcan had stripped some of the dignity from Mica’s life by casting a large shadow over her image of her father. What she needed most was the support and comfort of someone she could trust. “Please come in for a minute.”
Her words were barely audible. “Of course,” he said. Henley followed her in and closed the door. When he turned around she was standing in front of him with tears rolling slowly down her face.
“Hold me,” she whispered. “Just hold me.”
He took her into his arms with fatherly affection and was startled by the fierceness with which she clung to him. Not knowing what else to do, he stroked her hair and whispered, “Shhh, shhh, it’s all right.”
Mica cried without understanding why she was crying or whom she was crying for. Slowly, ever so slowly, the gentle spasms subsided. Henley’s arm was strong and sure around her. His hand was gentle in her hair. His voice was full of tender comfort. When she looked up at him finally, she saw the concern for her on his face, and on impulse she kissed him.
Henley accepted her kiss with passive disbelief. Before he could recover, Mica pressed herself against him and her mouth covered his with a second more demanding kiss. Instinctively he responded with a swell of passion that startled him. Suddenly he wasn’t so sure everything was going to be all right after all.
◊ ◊ ◊
“You and Morning Song did very well, Captain Teeman,” Delightful Childe said with a pleasant, rolling snort and a baring of his blunt teeth.
Luck
y could only see Delightful Childe’s head above the oddly patterned screen, and assumed that it was impolite for him to see any more than that. Obviously Delightful Childe was still linked to his mate – or together they were linked to their child. He wasn’t quite sure exactly how it worked. “Thank you, partner,” he said calmly, “but I really would like to see that message now.”
“What? The checkdroids failed to give it to you? My apologies, Captain. My sincerest apologies. You should have received it as soon as you landed. Here,” he said, ducking his head, “this should bring them.” How frustrating it was to be incapacitated like this. As physically pleasurable as mating and rearing were, Delightful Childe would have enjoyed them more if they took less time.
Lucky heard a rapid series of beeps before Delightful Childe’s head reappeared. Moments later a side door slid open and an orange checkdroid, its naked, wrinkled body a miniature version of Delightful Childe’s, ambled into the room carrying a flat plastic box.
“Messages for Captain Teeman,” the droid said, as though the messages had just arrived.
“Messages?” Lucky asked. “I thought there was only one.”
“Two messages for Captain Teeman,” the droid said, handing him the box. Without another word it left the room.
Lucky looked at the box for a long moment before opening it. Suppose it didn’t contain what he hoped it did? What would he do then? Unable to stand the suspense, he flipped open the lid and took out two thin sheets of plastic.
A quick examination told him why Delightful Childe hadn’t sent them in the clear. They were both from Marsha, and they were both in the ideos markings of his trader’s code. Slowly he sat down on an overstuffed basee.
“Good news, Captain Teeman?” Delightful Childe asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to decode them,” Lucky said slowly. But even as he spoke he was reading the code as easily as though it were written in pure gentongue.
The first message was brief. She wanted to escape from the U.C.S. and meet him somewhere, anywhere that they could be together. His heart swelled with anticipated happiness.
The second message was longer. It said she would soon be going to Yakusan, and that she would contact him as soon as she arrived. Her father was sending her there, but she didn’t say why. The happiness subsided. “where’s Yakusan system?” he asked suddenly.
“I have no idea,” Delightful Childe said. “Is it important?”
“Of course it’s important! Lucky looked up and immediately regretted his tone. “I’m sorry, Delightful Childe. I shouldn’t have shouted at you. It’s just that this message says that Marsha’s father is sending her to Yakusan system, and I want to know where it is.”
Delightful Childe stroked his proboscis. “Yes, of course. I understand that you are concerned. I will have the checkdroids locate it for you. In the –“
Lucky heard another voice behind the screen speaking rapid Vardequerqueglot.
“Perhaps you should come back tomorrow,” Delightful Childe said finally. “My mate Nindoah reminds me that it is time to pulse our offspring.”
“Sure. Anything you say.” Lucky rose to leave as a checkdroid came through the door.
“Message for Delightful Childe from his cousin Xindella,” the droid announced in gentongue.
“Stay a minute, Captain,” Delightful Childe said, putting an arm over the screen and accepting the box. “This message could concern both of us.”
Lucky sat down without thinking about what Delightful Childe had said. His mind was on Marsha.
“Captain? Captain Teeman?”
“What?” Lucky was startled out of his thoughts.
“Now I have a mystery place for you. Does the name Texnor mean anything to you?”
It didn’t take Lucky long to remember Texnor. “Yeah. It’s a Uke prison planet over in the Steagn Cluster. Nasty Place.”
“My cousin Xindella has business for us there.”
“Not interested.” The last thing Lucky wanted to do was run off on some errand when he had a chance at finding Marsha again.
Delightful Childe looked at the message again and did a quick mental calculation. “For fifteen thousand credits would you be interested?”
“Nope. Not for fifty thousand. The Ukes on Texnor had to be the unfriendliest people I ever met. By the time I finished unloading, I almost didn’t care if I got paid or not. All I wanted to do was get away from that place.”
“A pity, Captain,” Delightful Childe said. Nindoah was whispering to him again and he knew he would have to resume his parental duties. “However, for the sake of our partnership I would ask you to at least give the idea some consideration? After all, we will not profit from our methane venture for some time yet, and such a commission –“
“What’s so damned important on Texnor?”
Delightful Childe had to hurry. Nindoah was starting the pulsing without him and that made his gonads extremely uncomfortable. “He wants to smuggle someone into Texnor and then bring two people out. It sounds simple –“ Delightful Childe groaned. “Come again tomorrow.”
Lucky almost smiled. “Whatever you say, partner.” As he left the room he let the crazy idea of smuggling people in and out of Texnor slip from his mind. All he could think about was Marsha and what it would be like to be with her again.
16
GENERAL MARI WAS PLEASED by how quickly his body had recovered from the effects of his imprisonment. He still had his aches and pains, and he still suffered from a shortness of breath that he attributed to a thinner atmosphere than he was accustomed to. But some of his aches and pains were new ones. Colonel Archer rarely slackened the pace he set for his troops just to accommodate Mari.
In the preceding seven weeks Mari had accompanied Archer and three of his units on four separate raids against distant Uke outposts. All those raids were really training missions for the assault they were now preparing to mount. In those seven weeks he had learned a great deal about guerilla warfare and what a determined force could do against a less determined enemy.
Now Mari felt he was ready to return to Jasper and put his knowledge to use. Instead he was putting on his combat gear to accompany Archer and the troops on this new assault. In a way, this would be the proof of Archer’s thinking that the Ukes were far more vulnerable than anyone would have believed. More than that, it made Mari feel good to be back in the field again.
“Ready, General?” Denise called through the door.
Mari put the twelve millimeter pistol in his holster and snapped the safety strap. “Be out in a minute,” he said. There was just one more thing he had to do. He held the small kit he was leaving behind up to the dim light and dug through it until he found what he wanted. Then he left the small room and joined the others in the kitchen.
“Better eat some of this,” Archer said, looking up from a bowl of steaming stew. “It’ll be battle rations for the next day or two if we’re lucky, and nothing if we’re not.”
“First things, first,” Mari said. He looked around the room with a smile for the men and women who had done so much to earn his respect during his stay with them. “Since this may be your last hot meal for a while, maybe you ought to eat it as a brigadier.” With a slight flourish he held out his hand to Archer. In it lay two spaceblack, metal stars.
Archer smiled. “Do I throw them at the Ukes, or wear them, General?” he asked as he stood up and accepted the stars.
Everyone laughed.
“Wear them,” Mari said, “in good health and good luck. Those are my original brigadier’s stars. I’ve been carrying them with me for the better part of fifteen years. Now it’s time to pass them on to someone totally worthy of wearing them.”
“Don’t really know what to say about this –“
“Say thanks, fool,” Denise said as she took one of the stars from his hand and started pinning it on his collar.
“Thanks it is, then, General. But I suspect that there’s something behind this promotion.”
&
nbsp; Mari’s smile widened. “That there is, Brigadier Archer. First of all, you should understand that your troops are at least partially responsible for this. Second, when I sent my messages to General Porras this morning, I told him that as of today you are his Deputy Planetary Commander, responsible for all of Elias and the Outward Islands.”
Archer frowned.
A tall, bucktoothed woman in the corner whistled softly. “Old Bagbones won’t like that,” she said.
“I’ll deal with Colonel Bagabond, if I have to,” Mari said, “But I suspect that he’ll fall into line.”
“Don’t worry about him,” Archer said firmly. “I didn’t ask for this, but since you gave it to me, I’ll make sure that we do the best we can for you. And that includes Bagabond.”
Denise finished pinning the second star on Archer’s other collar and much to everyone’s surprise said, “Attention!”
Everyone but Mari was slow to react. He thumped his heels together and saluted. The others quickly followed suit.
Archer snapped a return salute and suddenly they were all around him, slapping him on the back and congratulating him. He quickly put an end to it by saying, “The food’s getting cold.”
Mari laughed. “Then give me some now, I’d hate to follow a brigadier who was grumpy because his breakfast had gotten cold.”
Several hours before dawn as they hiked through the dense forest up the mountain to where their battle skimmers were hidden, Archer fell into step with Mari. “What are you going to do next, General?”
“Well, first thing I’m going to do,” he said between breaths, is ask you for five or six of your people to go back to Jasper with me and help train Porras’s troops.”
“I’d hate to give any of them up, but I know you’ll make good use of them. What then?”
Mari concentrated on following the pale light clipped to the back of the woman in front of him. “Then I’m going to try to sneak off Sutton on one of those freighters, and see if I can’t stir up the Joint Chiefs into a counterattack.”
Archer grunted. “Don’t count your bullets, General. Porras and I both begged for a counterattack the first few weeks after the Ukes hit. The Joint Chiefs and everyone else pretty well ignored us.”
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