She went up to the bridge, where both Diamond and Velvet were waiting for her.
“It's fine, there was no problem.”
“We're...clear?”
“Yes, but let's not talk about it right now, OK?”
She went to sit in the captain's chair. Instead, she almost collapsed into it. “I just need a minute to get restabilized.”
After a few deep breaths, she decided that even if she wasn't ready to get up, she needed to know how things were going. “What's happening with our passengers?”
Velvet checked the cameras and reported back, “Most of the staff have already debarked, and they're unloading cargo.”
She called Mr. Torrell to let him know she would come see him as soon as the cargo unloading was complete, then she stood up – carefully – and made her way down to the cargo bay. She was still working off the adrenaline, and the walk helped a little.
All the big cargo and vehicles were staying aboard tonight. Since the staff was only moving some smaller cargo down the ramp, she didn't feel the need to supervise. She went looking for Mr. Torrell, who was in his office aboard the Torrell airship. He welcomed her in and closed the door. “I was a mite concerned when you didn't arrive to the base as early as you usually do, but I'm glad you were able to make it up on the way.”
“Sorry about that. I thought I had a really solid lead on my parts. It...didn't work out.”
“I'm very sorry to hear that.”
“So, can you tell me what's up with all the security? They didn't do any of this for our last trip out here. Is something new happening at the project?”
“It's actually for our safari. Our guests are the senior officers of a new Navy fleet being formed here on Doran. Clearly, Project Anchor is very important to the Empire. Anyway, with us carrying their admiral, captains, and senior officers, the Navy is providing all the security. We'll have Naval escorts for the entire time our guests are with us. Sorry, but I had to keep it a secret.”
“I understand.”
“Oh, before I forget – don't speak to anyone outside the safari about who our guests are. I know we provide that discretion to all our guests, but their head of security asked me to remind everyone.”
“Of course. Anything else I should know about?”
“There are a few things. Admiral Pasquale and most of the senior officers will room here, on my ship. You'll be housing the rest of them. Our temporary charter will house the lower ranking staff, as well as my people. The security will make this trip a little different, but you'll see in the itinerary that they've chosen the usual locations and activities. Some of our guests won't arrive until late tonight, so our first formal meal will be breakfast tomorrow.”
“A formal breakfast?”
Mr. Torrell nodded. “There's going to be some departures from usual etiquette. Apparently, this is as much a senior leader's conference as it is a polite society affair. Oh, and don't worry, breakfast won't be early. I don't expect to set out for our first destination until the afternoon.
“Just so you know, the Admiral asked for a sandharn hunt. I'm not sure we'll get a real storm this late in the season, but if we do, we'll rearrange the schedule and get over there.”
Once they were done discussing the trip, Anailu returned to her ship. As she walked, she looked over the plans which Torrell had sent to both the Queen and her comm. Torrell's staff were already done unloading, since most of the aircars and supplies weren't going to be offloaded until their next stop.
Diamond and Velvet were both waiting on the bridge. When Anailu arrived, Diamond said, “I've got good news and bad news.”
“What is it?”
“When we were waiting around at the Torrells', I configured the ship's sensors to ping the trackers from time to time, just in case we flew past them. Well, when we were approaching the Falls, we got a response. From the coordinates, it looks like your crates are in a warehouse inside the Project compound, near the starport. We don't have the signal right now. We lost it when we dropped below the level of the plateau, but that's no surprise.”
Anailu looked at the display showing where the beacons had pinged. “Yeah, you were right about good news and bad news. I guess it's good to know where they are, but it's about as bad a place as they could be. I wonder whether the count knows he has them, or if they're just there because that ICS lieutenant grabbed them.”
Velvet asked, “But there's no way anyone can use them, right? Didn't you say the parts are all specific to a Dove?”
Anailu considered. “Yes, those parts wouldn't do them much good without a Dove. If the count doesn't find them, they might get disposed of as surplus eventually.”
There was a pause. Diamond spoke up. “I just checked that. It could be a year from when seized property is declared surplus to when it is auctioned off. Sorry.”
Anailu sat down. “And if the count has his paws on them, they won't get to that point. It looks like the big trip is Plan A again.”
Chapter 40: Cross Purposes
In the morning, Mr. Torrell let her know that she had one of the captains staying aboard after all. They had gotten an additional senior guest, and the Admiral had chosen to bump a late-arriving (and less important) corvette captain over to the Queen.
The formal “breakfast” did not start until almost lunchtime. As Anailu walked from the Queen to the Torrells' airship for the meal, she was annoyed to rediscover how the sunlight brought out the sparkly details of her uniform. The formal dinners she had attended before never started before sundown, so it hadn't been an issue. Once inside the “safety” of the airship, she kept an eye out for sunbeams to avoid.
Everyone attending the breakfast was a naval officer except for Anailu and the Torrells. As expected, they were all wearing the light gray Imperial Naval Officer's Dress Uniform. A few of the Torrells' guests on previous safaris had worn it as retired officers, so she'd seen it before; but it was odd to see so many in the room at once. With so many there, she noticed little differences in color, cut, and even fabric. Anailu discovered a correlation between the officer's rank and how personalized the uniform was. She observed a few outliers: for example, the Colonel-Baron's uniform was as stylish as the Admiral's.
Since the group was so large, the dining room was set with two tables. Mrs. Torrell had abandoned seating men and women alternately, since there were many more men than women. Anailu was seated halfway down the first table, next to Senior Colonel Nertari, a woman who was captain of a cruiser. Colonel Nertari's ship was actually not part of the new fleet. She was the additional guest. She was only present because her ship had stopped for resupply at Doran while returning from a pirate hunting mission outside the Empire. Apparently, naval etiquette demanded that she be invited on the trip. Anailu had met plenty of women who were commercial captains, and had even served under two of them. She had never had a chance to meet a woman who was a military captain, though. She was fascinated. She didn't want to come off as some sort of rube, though, especially as the only commercial captain in the room. So, she focused on playing it cool. Anailu stuck to asking questions about Colonel Nertari's education, or where she'd served, or systems they'd both visited, instead of the questions she wanted to ask, like “What's it like being a woman and a senior captain in the Navy?”
During 'breakfast,' the safari staff had reloaded everything that needed to go back aboard the Queen. Afterward, most of the guests stayed aboard the Torrell airship for the trip. Since the weather wasn't cooperating in the desert that day, they were going to the Blue Swamp instead. Just before they departed, Anailu had to wait on a last-minute change of accommodations: Colonel Nertari was swapping with the corvette captain. He seemed far too pleased with himself as he left for the main airship.
Once he was gone, Anailu went down to the cargo bay to check on some final equipment loading. When she returned to the bridge, she saw that her new guest was aboard and had just reached her assigned cabin, so Anailu left the bridge to greet her.
Whe
n she arrived at the cabin, she found the Colonel looking around inside while the staff stowed her luggage.
“Welcome aboard, Colonel Nertari.”
“Thank you, Captain Xindar.”
After they shook hands, Anailu continued, “You're the only guest aboard the Silver Queen for this little jaunt. You're welcome to join me on the bridge, if you wish.”
“Excellent. I'd be happy to see your bridge. I came over here specifically hoping you might have time to continue our conversation.”
Anailu nodded at the butler and footman who had brought the luggage. They came back out of Colonel Nertari's cabin and reported to the guest. “Your luggage is stowed, Colonel Nertari. Is there anything else I may help you with?”
“No, thank you, gentlemen.”
The butler acknowledged Anailu with a little bow and, “Captain Xindar.” He gave both women another bow and left with the footman in tow.
Anailu gestured toward the lift. Colonel Nertari nodded and stepped into the lift with her. The aft doors closed on the upper deck passageway. Seemingly a moment later, the forward doors opened on the bridge. “Welcome to my bridge.”
They both entered, and Anailu sat at the pilot's position while suggesting that Colonel Nertari sit beside her, at the co-pilot's position. Of course, Anailu had checked to make sure that the controls were locked out except at her own station. She already knew incognito mode was locked in, so there was no risk of her guest seeing any of the secrets the Queen had guarded for so long.
During their departure, Anailu had to make contact with Anchor Control and then their escort. Politely, Colonel Nertari kept silent until they had launched and were clear of controlled space. Then she asked, “How many crew do you have aboard the Silver Queen?”
“Right now, it's just me as captain, owner, and wrench turner. The stewards, cooks, and such who are aboard all work for the Torrells. For this trip, we just have the one steward, along with the people who are aboard to start setting up the camp when we arrive.
“You know, I was a little surprised that no other guests chose to come along on the Queen. My ship is much faster, so there's usually someone who wants an extra hour of excursion time, or just a shorter flight. So why are you my only guest, Colonel Nertari?”
“Please, call me Annalise. Hearing a lot of rank being tossed about was just one reason I got out of the other ship.”
“All right. Call me Anailu.”
“Oh, dear, we're both Annas?”
They both laughed.
Annalise continued. “I accepted Pasquale's invitation to this trip so I could make contacts and meet any new up-and-comers out here, but I could see that with everyone in one ship, it was becoming just one big suck-up-fest over there.
“When you have a fleet conference like this, you're supposed to divide up so you can't behead the whole organization in a single crash. I shouldn't have been surprised that a man like Pasquale would use his 'Admiral's prerogative' to ignore that, because I already knew he put social status ahead of military necessity. It's more telling that none of the officers – not captains, first officers, or staff – chose to stay out of that mess over there. It says something about the quality of leadership in this new Doran fleet.” She sounded dismissive.
“On the other hand, I also know that if Pasquale decides I'm avoiding him, he'd be insulted. So instead, I swapped as a 'favor' for one of his captains. Now it's OK because I'm just 'taking one for the team.'
“But the funniest part was the side effect. When I swapped berths with that little corvette captain, I let him know how big a favor I was doing him. Turns out he comes from a good family, with some industrial connections. He was so grateful that gave me a tasty stock tip about one of his family's companies. I expect it will give my portfolio a nice boost.”
Annalise seemed pretty proud of that, so Anailu smiled companionably.
“And now I'm here. As much as I wanted out of that circus, I also wanted a chance to speak with you more freely than we could at breakfast. The minute I saw you wearing that stylish uniform this morning, I knew you were a person worth getting to know. Not that it was obvious – I doubt even Pasquale recognized what you were wearing.”
Anailu wasn't sure what Annalise was getting at, but she smiled anyway. “Thanks for the compliment.”
“And this ship! I'd really like a tour, and not just the version you give the tourists.”
“I'd be happy to, as soon as we're landed at the campsite.”
“It's a shame you don't have a pilot, or we could go look around right now.”
“Well, so long as I am just flying her as a glorified airship, I don't really need more crew. The Queen is sophisticated enough to manage a lot of functions herself.”
“Yes, this is an unusual craft for your type of work, but I can see it creates interesting possibilities.”
Something was weird about this conversation, but Anailu couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. She wasn't sure they were even having the same conversation, but she wasn't going to embarrass herself or Annalise by asking that. The conversation stayed more normal for the rest of the flight, though, as they talked about Doran and other inconsequential topics.
The swamp campsite was actually an artificial platform built by the Torrells, since there wasn't a natural place solid enough for a ship to land for miles around. Even though they had used it just a couple months before, a crew took an airtruck out through the lift and flew down to remove vegetation and the bluish slime that had coated it since they'd last visited. If they burned it or used chemicals, it would have fouled the air. Instead, they used pressurized hot water to clear the platform. Once that was done, the Queen was able to set down, and Anailu shut down the main drives.
Anailu decided to start the tour in the cargo bays, as she usually did with guests. As they passed through the entry chamber, Diamond and Velvet waved as they went outside and headed down the ramp. As they headed into the cargo bay, they stayed clear of the safari staff, who were busy flying out the excursion vehicles.
Since Annalise was a spacer, Anailu went into more technical details. Annalise seemed to know about Untsala's sensor, because she asked how it was mounted. When Anailu apologized and said she wasn't permitted to talk about it, Annalise apologized for asking.
As they left the cargo bay heading aft, Annalise asked, “I haven't seen any other bots serving the safari. Are those two yours?”
“Yes, I acquired them recently. I'm planning to use them as crew once I get them commercially certified.”
“I understand how they could be useful in your line of work, but aren't shabti a little expensive for 'an independent captain just starting out?'”
“Well, I got a very good deal on them.”
Annalise gave a short laugh. “Fair enough. Keeping it simple does make it easier to keep it straight.”
Anailu showed her the laundry and brought up the menu to show its capabilities.
Then they stopped by the kitchen; They didn't actually go in, since one of Chef Cabirla's assistants was at work, but he gave them excellent sugar cookies, just as a sample.
Finally, they reached Engineering. Normally, she just took tours only as far as the workshop areas, but she wasn't surprised when Annalise asked to go back into the access spaces to see one of the main drives.
When they'd squeezed through, the colonel was impressed. “What a big drive for such a little ship. I can't believe what a tight fit it is, though. How do you do any work on it?”
“I can reach most of it, though even for me, it's a tight squeeze. Some of the peripheral subsystems that are typically mounted directly on the main drive are on the side walls of the drive chamber, or even along the accessway. The biggest difference between this and a typical engine room is that you have to open the hull plates above and below and work from outside for any major maintenance.”
“What? That's not so bad here on Doran, but what about in vacuum? What do you do in a hostile environment? Why, what about just rain
?”
Anailu laughed. “The Dove was designed for people who always have a hangar available.
“It's not as bad as it could be, though. The accessway is also a personnel lock, so you can get here directly from Engineering even if you have the drive bay open to vacuum. Also, Telani ships tend to have a lot of self-repair capability, and for some spaces, they expect you to use bots specially built to fit.
“Even though the Telani won't build a ship if it's not beautiful, the unusual layout is not just for looks. It actually increases maximum power, the same way it would on a fighter. It also improves atmospheric performance, keeps down hull and structural mass, and leaves more space in the central hull.”
Now Annalise laughed. “I give up! Even if she's a maintenance nightmare, if her captain loves her that much, she can't be too bad.”
They made their way to to the upper deck, where Anailu showed her the lounge and then returned to the bridge. At her request, Anailu showed her the system hardware in the crawlspace below the main bridge. When they got to the comm system racks, Annalise commented, “That's a StellaSystem 100, isn't it? You know there's a military version of that?”
“Um, really? That's interesting.” Don't look guilty!
“Yes, it's sophisticated enough that we use it for controlling fighter wings or even destroyer groups. Now that I think of it, a cargo bay that size would make a handy little hangar bay. Hmm. You'd probably want a larger access to the hangar, though. The dimensions of that cargo lift versus the bays would limit the kinds of small craft you could take aboard. But yes, with a nice little hangar bay for maintenance and some external docking fixtures, I could see a ship like this as a tight little carrier for, say, a short fighter wing.”
Anailu was trying to think bland thoughts. “That's an interesting idea. Of course, that wouldn't be likely to happen in today's Navy. It would require a big shift in Imperial naval doctrine.”
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